Carbon emissions have constrained the urban sustainable development. As an important component of regional development dynamics, the concept and driving factors of regional path creation have received widespread attention, but its impact on the carbon emissions lacks in-depth analysis. Drawing on a theoretical framework that links the regional path creation to the carbon emissions and taking 280 prefecture-level and above cities in China as the research subjects, this article constructs an indicator of the share of new export products (from the China's customs export data) in cities to measure the regional path creation. On the basis of measuring total urban carbon emissions and carbon emission inequality, it investigates the mechanisms through which the regional path creation influences the total carbon emissions and carbon emission inequality. The findings reveal that: 1) Urban carbon emissions in China exhibit a growing total volume and increasing spatial agglomeration, while intracity carbon emission inequality shows an evolutionary pattern of convergence in eastern regions and divergence in central and western regions. 2) Regional path creation significantly reduces the total urban carbon emissions, and this effect is particularly pronounced in cities with initially high-level carbon emission, strong industrial foundations, and non-resource-based cities. 3) The carbon reduction is achieved through energy efficiency improvements, technological innovation, and industrial restructuring, with industrial restructuring serving as the primary mechanism. 4) However, the regional path creation exacerbates the intracity carbon emission inequality. Increased government focus and a higher level of marketisation mitigate this effect, whereas well-improved urban infrastructure intensifies the carbon emission inequality. This article deepens the dialogue between evolutionary economic geography and environmental economics theoretically, and provides practical insights for formulating industrial policies to balance carbon reduction and carbon equality goals.
Based on the low-altitude economic patent data of 337 cities in China from 2013 to 2024, and using the methods of LDA topic model, location quotient index, social network analysis method and geographic detector, this paper reveals the spatial evolution characteristics and influencing factors of China's low-altitude economic innovation network. It's found that: 1) China's low-altitude economic innovation has formed the cluster fusion structure of five major technologies, with low-altitude perception and flight control system, low-altitude intelligence and data processing system being dominant. 2) Technological innovation has evolved from a highly centralized network to a multi-center network. Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai have formed a "dual-core+balanced hub" pattern. Cities such as Xi'an, Nanjing and Hangzhou have formed comparative advantages in specific technological fields, showing a spatial division of labor pattern of "eastern region leading the R&D, central and western regions focusing on specialized in targeted fields". 3) The urban collaborative network has experienced the dual evolution process of scale expansion and efficiency improvement. Four types of urban collaborative evolution modes are identified: comprehensive hub type, scene-driven type, technology-specialized type and collaborative support type. The topological structure has evolved from single-point agglomeration to multi-polarization development trend. 4) The formation of the low-altitude economic innovation network is the result of the nonlinear synergy of innovation-driven, industrial ecology, market environment and institutional policies. The driving mechanism has evolved from the factor facility dependence to the system synergy drive, and the role of policy factors has gradually been embedded from external supply as the core hub of network synergy. On the basis of the above, it puts forward some policy suggestions, such as matching resource allocation, improving functional coordination, implementing classification policies and promoting system empowerment, in order to provide scientific support for the spatial optimization layout and network structure evolution of China 's low-altitude economy.
The spatial economic structures play significant roles in regional coordinated development, but the research on those mechanisms is weak. Based on the panel data of 249 cities from 2003 to 2019, this article measures the regional development gaps by pairing core and peripheral cities(CPCs) within the same province, and empirically analyzes the impact and mechanism of the dual-core structure(DCS) on the development gaps of CPCs in provincial regions using the dual fixed effects models and instrumental variable regressions. The results show that: 1) The DCS is more conducive to narrowing the "core-periphery" development gap in provincial regions than the single-core structure, this conclusion has got powerful supports by a series of robustness tests. 2) DCS has the advantages of stronger core cities’ economic radiations and shorter distances between CPCs, enabling the core cities to better drive peripheral cities to enhance development momentum, optimize economic structure, and slow down the attenuation of development level distance, thereby narrowing the development gaps of CPCs. 3) The gap reduction effect of the dual-core structure will receive greater assistance when there are provincial core cities with stronger functions, more coordinated dual-core relationship, a more developed transportation systems, and a more complete market systems. The conclusions could provide insights for optimizing regional development spatial structure in the new stage.
Taking the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration as the research area, this study analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors of artificial intelligence (AI for short) development from 2011 to 2023 from the perspective of policy attention by the means of the Dagum Gini coefficient, the three-dimensional kernel density estimation, and the geographical detector. The findings indicate that: 1) Regarding spatial patterns, the level of AI exhibits a "core-periphery" structure with Wuhan, Changsha, and Nanchang as the cores and diffusing along major axes. The overall disparity has evolved through three stages: rapid increase, fluctuating adjustment, and relative stability. Inter-regional differences are the primary source of disparity, while the contribution rate of hyper-variable density continues to rise, indicating significant developmental overlap between regions and a trend toward dynamic convergence. 2) Regarding dynamic evolution, the distribution of AI level has transformed from unipolar agglomeration through discretization toward wide-peaked convergence. The distribution curve shows a rightward shift, with an extended right tail and a converging left tail. 3) Regarding influence mechanisms, spatial differentiation is the result of multi-factor non-linear synergistic drivers. All factor interactions exhibit dual-factor or non-linear enhancement effects. The driving mechanism evolved from multi-element synergistic germination, through breadth and depth expansion, to structural reshaping and deepening, eventually maturing into a systemic pattern. Accordingly, this paper proposes some suggestions: constructing a multi-level spatial governance framework, improving a multi-element integrated innovation ecosystem, and implementing dynamic policy strategies, which provides a scientific basis for optimizing the spatial layout of AI and empowering regional synergistic development.
Clarifying the spatial correlations and heterogeneous impacts of multidimensional factor flows on carbon emissions within a flow-space framework is an effective approach to supporting pollution and carbon reduction efforts. This article takes the multidimensional factor flows of population,capital,technology,data and innovation as an entry point to measure the carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2008 to 2023,and analyzes its spatial correlation and heterogeneous impacts by using the gravity model,exploratory data analysis,geographically and temporally weighted regression model. The results show that: 1) Carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Delta region fluctuate and increase from 214.6 million tons in 2008 to 3.234 million tons in 2023,with an increase of 50.716%. There is a significant positive spatial correlation,it shows the overall spatial pattern of "high-value agglomeration in central cities spreading to neighboring cities. 2) Multidimensional factor flows are becoming increasingly active,exhibiting the uneven development characteristics of "dense in the middle of research area and sparse in the north and south of research area". It builds the chain network of "preferential linkage among Shanghai, Ningbo and Hangzhou with a polycentric flow pattern" and forms the development pattern of "strong cities connecting with weak cities". 3) Multidimensional factor flows have spatial and temporal differences in carbon emission reduction effects, and the emission reduction effect of data flow is the most significant. The research findings contribute to deepening the understanding of the intrinsic relationship between multidimensional factor flows and carbon emission reduction,providing a theoretical basis for facilitating factor mobility and advancing the low-carbon transformation of urban agglomerations.
As a special type of administrative division, enclaves profoundly influence the protection, utilization, and governance of national territorial space. This paper analyzes the spatiotemporal patterns and formation mechanisms of China's cross-county administrative enclaves up to 2022, and proposes targeted spatial governance models. It's found that: 1) The enclaves demonstrates a distribution characteristics, which is more in the north of China and fewer in the south of China, denser in the east of China and sparser in the west of China. Notably, they are predominantly located in the region extending from Liaoning Province through Hebei Province to the northeast of Henan Province and southwest of Anhui Province. Using the Hu Huanyong Line as a demarcation, the area of enclaves in the east of Hu Huanyong Line is generally smaller than that in the west of Hu Huanyong Line. Temporally, enclave evolution experienced a phase of rapid increase followed by stabilization, with 2003 as a turning point. Spatially, the enclaves expanded from the central areas of north China and central China to the south, southwest and northwest of China. The growth rate of enclaves in the east of the Hu Huanyong Line notably surpasses that in the west. 2) Enclaves can be categorized into three distinct types. The "county-level administrative jurisdiction separation" type exhibits a distribution pattern that closely aligns with the overall distribution of enclaves. The "whole municipal district flying out" type is predominantly found in Chongqing Municipality, with significant concentrations in the neighboring regions of Henan-Anhui-Fujian and Liaoning Province. The "county without the seat of government" type is relatively rare, primarily located in Hebei, Liaoning, Henan, and the Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang. Influenced by mechanisms such as the "administrative region economy", the boundary effects of administrative borders, management systems, and growth pole effects, enclaves generate negative impacts like hindering unified regional management and development, and restricting the construction of regional central cities. However, certain enclave types of enclaves can also offer benefits, including fostering regional coordinated development and enhancing ethnic unity and social stability. 3) The genesis of enclaves can be attributed to several factors: economic construction and resource development, urbanization and the traction of central city construction, and the need to maintain ethnic unity and national security stability. 4) Based on an analysis of the costs and benefits of enclave spatial governance, three governance models are proposed: administrative division adjustment, regional coordinated development, and consolidation optimization. These models are proposed to enhance the future development of enclave administrative regions and enhance the national governance capabilities.
The Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is characterized by a high-density built environment and a subtropical hot-humid climate, analyzing its heat-energy-carbon linkage mechanism is of significant practical importance for regional low-carbon transition. Drawing on the multi-source data in 2000-2022, and using the methods of the panel regression model, mediation and threshold effects, this paper identifies the direct, indirect, and threshold effects of heat-energy-carbon nexus. The results show that: 1) The urban heat island area significantly intensifies carbon emissions, with a more pronounced impact in core cities and highly urbanized areas, exhibiting an accelerating nonlinear trend. 2) Energy consumption acts as the key mediator in the "heat-carbon" pathway, accounting for 40.7% of the incremental emissions. 3) Economic development level demonstrates a significant single threshold (CNY 589.95 billion), beyond which the marginal carbon effect of the heat island increases from 4.817 to 18.700, indicating a critical shift in carbon emission sensitivity across development stages.
Based on the panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2023, this paper comprehensively adopts the methods such as the exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and the spatial Durbin model (SDM) to systematically explore the spatial effect and heterogeneous characteristics of the urban digital inclusive finance on the entrepreneurial activity. The results show that: 1) Both the digital inclusive finance and the entrepreneurial activity present a spatial distribution pattern, which is higher in eastern region and lower in central, western and northeastern regions, with a significant positive spatial correlation between them. 2) The impact of the digital inclusive finance on the entrepreneurial activity exhibits a dual spatial effect, which is local promotion and neighboring inhibition. Among its sub-dimensions, the coverage breadth and digitization degree of the digital finance have significant enabling effects, while the effect of usage depth has not been fully exerted. 3) In terms of region, resource endowments, and urban scale, the spatial effect of the digital inclusive finance on the entrepreneurial activity shows significant heterogeneity, with the dual spatial effect being more prominent in eastern region, non-resource-based cities, and small-scale cities. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the spatial layout of the digital inclusive finance, promote cross-regional coordination to narrow gaps, focus on precise empowerment of the three sub-dimensions, and implement classified policies to achieve the balanced improvement of entrepreneurial vitality across the country.
This study systematically examines the spatial mechanism of the digital inclusive finance on the county-level economic development in Henan Province. Using the panel data for 102 counties in Henan Province from 2014 to 2022, this paper uses the spatial Durbin model to explore the spatial and industrial effects of the digital inclusive finance on the county-level economic development. The findings are as follows: 1) Both the county-level economic development and the digital inclusive finance in Henan Province exhibit significant spatial agglomeration patterns, characterized by high clustering in core development zones and relatively low clustering in coordinated development zones. 2) The digital inclusive finance significantly boosts the economic development in both local counties and neighboring counties, demonstrating significant direct effects and indirect spatial spillover effects, with stronger effects in coordinated development zones than that in core development zones. 3) The indirect effects of the digital inclusive finance on the county-level economic development display a clear gradient characteristic, which is overall region (significant), coordinated development zones (significant), core development zones (insignificant) in descending order, indicating that the core development zones exert significant spatial spillover effects on the coordinated development zones. 4) The impacts of digital inclusive finance on the three industrial sectors show a descending pattern, which is secondary industry, tertiary industry, and primary industry respectively.
The Green Factory Initiative (GFI for short) is an important institutional arrangement for promoting the green transformation of manufacturing and building a green manufacturing system in China. However, its macroeconomic effects still require in-depth evaluation. Based on a balanced panel dataset of 249 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2022, this study investigates the impact, mechanisms, and heterogeneous characteristics of the GFI on the high-quality development of urban economy. The findings show that: 1) The GFI significantly promotes the high-quality development of urban economy. It facilitates the high-quality development of urban economy through two pathways: enhancing the green technology innovation level and increasing the urban entrepreneurial vitality. The GFI effects are more pronounced in general administrative-level cities, cities without old industrial bases, cities with low innovation levels, regenerative resource-based cities, non-resource cities, cities belonging to the development-oriented urban agglomerations and cities not belonging to urban agglomerations. In contrast, the marginal effects are limited in cities with high administrative rank, mature urban agglomerations, high innovation levels, and old industrial bases. It proposes the following policy recommendations: implementing a spatially differentiated and precise layout of the GFI, strengthening the market-driven innovation to improve the transformation efficiency of green technologies, and leveraging the entrepreneurial vitality to build an integrated ecosystem of green manufacturing and producer services.
This paper incorporates environmental regulation, environmental decentralization and market segmentation into the measurement system of government environmental governance efficiency, and uses the global technology meta-frontier RAM-DEA model to calculate and evaluate the government environmental governance efficiency in 30 provincial-level regions of China from 2000 to 2020. The findings are as follows: 1) Considering institutional factors, the efficiency of government environmental governance is improved compared with that without considering institutional factors in most of provincial-level regions, but the efficiency of production stage has not been significantly improved. 2) The efficiency of government environmental governance shows the spatial difference between regions. The provincial-level regions with rapid improvement are mainly concentrated in the eastern coastal developed regions, and the efficiency of government environmental governance shows a downward trend in part of western regions. 3) Under the meta-frontier and group-frontier, the efficiency of production stage is significantly higher than that of government environmental governance. Under the meta-frontier, the efficiency of government environmental governance is the highest in the eastern region, followed by the western region and the central region. 4) The inter-provincial government environmental governance technology gap has spatial heterogeneity, the technology gap is the smallest in the western region, followed by the eastern region, and the largest gap in the central region, the technology gap shows an expanding trend in terms of temporal dimension.
Based on the data from Chinese cities and enterprises, this study employs the methods of Dagum Gini coefficient, Moran index, and Markov chain analysis to reveal the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors of the agglomeration development of digital-driven enterprise in China. The key findings are that: 1) Overall, China's digital-driven enterprises exhibit distinct distribution characteristics in 2007-2022. High-agglomeration areas are concentrated in four types of economic functional core zones: national core hubs, coastal gateways for opening up, heavy industry transformation cities, and inland regional centers. Medium-agglomeration areas are radially distributed around high-agglomeration cities. Low-agglomeration areas are mainly located in the four provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Gansu, as well as some cities of Hubei, exhibiting positive spatial autocorrelation. 2) From a regional perspective, it shows significant disparities in the agglomeration development level of digital-driven enterprise among China's 19 major urban agglomerations. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Northern Slope of Tianshan Mountains, the Central and Southern Liaoning, the Harbin-Changchun, and the Jinzhong urban agglomerations exhibit relatively higher agglomeration development levels. These urban agglomerations act as the main source of overall spatial differences. 3) In terms of dynamic evolution, the agglomeration development of digital-driven enterprise shows a "gradient solidification" feature in 2007-2022. The main peak of the kernel density curve shifts slightly left. The peak value first decreases and then increases. The curve narrows with a left tail, and its shape changes from a flat shape to a steep one. 4) The seven influencing factors of agglomeration development of digital-driven enterprise can be divided into three tiers by impact intensity. Economic development level and human capital level are in the strong tier. Digital innovation level, government intervention level, and financial development level are moderate. Digital infrastructure and economic openness level are weak.
Against the intertwined background of industrialization, informatization, and urbanization, scientifically measuring the spatiotemporal interaction relationship between the scale of China's consumer goods manufacturing industry and the logistics network from the perspective of "hierarchy-network" is of great significance for promoting the deep integration and innovative development of the two sectors. Based on the panel data of 336 prefecture-level and above administrative units in China from 2012 to 2022, this study analyzes the spatiotemporal patterns and coupling coordination characteristics of interaction relationship between the scale of China's consumer goods manufacturing industry and the logistics network, and further employs a spatial simultaneous equation model to examine their spatial interactive effects and spatial spillovers. The findings reveal that: 1) The scale of consumer goods manufacturing industry demonstrates marked temporal expansion with significant spatial gradient differences among the eastern, central and western regions, high-scale enterprises are mostly distributed in large cities. 2) The connection intensity of the urban logistics network shows an "inverted pyramid structure", evolving from weak to strong, while hierarchical differences gradually decline. The spatial pattern has evolved from a weak triangular structure in the early period to a stable diamond-shaped structure, with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing region as vertices, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as the central support.The spatial pattern evolves from a weak triangular structure in the early period to a stable diamond-shaped structure anchored by four regions (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Chengdu-Chongqing) with the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as the central support. 3) The coupling coordination between the two sectors improves from severe imbalance to coordinated development, but significant spatial differences remain. Logistics network development initially lags behind the expansion of enterprise scale. Subsequently, with the improvement of the coordination level, the expansion of enterprise scale lags behind the logistics network development. 4) A significant positive interaction exists between the manufacturing scale and the logistics network, the increase in logistics network connection intensity has a more pronounced driving effect on the expansion of enterprise scale. Furthermore, both sectors exhibit notable spatial dependence internally and spatial interactive inhibition externally.
With the deepening implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese overseas economic and trade cooperation zones have become an important vehicle for linking domestic and international dual circulations. Their sustainable transformation is of great significance for achieving high-quality development. Based on the actor network theory (ANT) and taking the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone as a case study, this article examines the roles of multiple actors and their dynamic interactions in the transformation stages of the zone, explores the processes and mechanisms behind the transformation of Chinese overseas cooperation zones combining qualitative interviews and quantitative data analysis. The results show that: 1) The transformation of overseas zones is a complex process involving a variety of actors with different interests and objectives, which is manifested as the dynamic reproduction of deep interaction among multiple actors in the material, institutional and cultural dimensions. 2) The transformation process of the Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone has gone through the exploration stage of policy dependence, the industrial agglomeration stage guided by the government, and the market-oriented transformation stage of City-Industry Integration. It shows that the zone has shifted from external driving to internal collaborative driving. 3) Based on the "actor network space view", the core mechanisms of the transformation of overseas industrial zones include the multi-party collaboration mechanism and the spatial transformation mechanism. Through a complex translation process, the government, market and social entities across different institutional and cultural backgrounds promote the transformation of the zone into a comprehensive space. This process effectively breaks the traditional "center-periphery" power structure, promotes the transformation of the global North-South cooperation model towards an equal, mutually beneficial and sustainable direction, demonstrates its practical significance as a multi-party collaboration platform, and provides important inspirations for the sustainable development of overseas industrial zones in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Regional emerging technology innovation is an important issue in economic geography. This study takes the robot technology as an example and uses China's patent database from 2000 to 2023 to examine how supply-demand knowledge base affect urban emerging technological innovation at the prefecture level from the perspectives of knowledge scale and knowledge structure. The results show that: 1) Eastern developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are the regions with the highest level of robotics innovation. Harbin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Hefei, Chengdu and Chongqing are also at the high level of robotics innovation. 2) Prefecture-level cities with a stronger supply-side knowledge base are relatively concentrated in their spatial distribution, while those with a stronger demand-side knowledge base are more dispersed. 3) The scale of supply-demand knowledge base generally has significant positive effects on prefecture-level robotic innovation in China, whereas the effects of their structural characteristics exhibit internal variation. 4) For the perspective of technological heterogeneity, the scale of demand-side knowledge base plays a greater facilitating role in robotic technology innovation, whereas the scale of the supply-side knowledge base does not show a significant effect. This study contributes to deepening the understanding of local knowledge base in economic geography, and provides theoretical implications for Chinese cities to develop emerging technologies in line with local conditions.
In order to clarify the impact mechanism of the coordinated development between the digitalization and the greenization on the economic resilience, this paper constructs indicators of the digitalization, the greenization and the economic resilience. Based on the methods of entropy method, coupling coordination degree model, fixed-effect panel regression model and spatial econometric model, it analyzes the impact of the coordinated development between the digitalization and the greenization on the economic resilience in China's 30 provincial-level regions from 2013 to 2023. The results show that: 1) The coordinated development between the digitalization and the greenization in China at the provincial level has significant spatial heterogeneity, and overall shows a decreasing pattern from the eastern region to the central and western regions. 2) The coordinated development between the digitalization and the greenization directly has a positive effect on the economic resilience. 3) The coordinated development between the digitalization and the greenization not only directly contributes to the enhancement of economic resilience, but also indirectly elevates its level through the industrial structure upgrading and the technological innovation. 4) The coordinated development between the digitalization and the greenization not only enhances the economic resilience of the region itself, but also promotes the economic resilience of neighboring areas through spatial spillover effects, with a spatial spillover coefficient reaching 0.3831.
Under the background of urban-rural integration and rural revitalization strategy, enhancing farming households' willingness to transfer land is an effective approach to achieve large-scale land management and agricultural modernization. Taking Hansi Town and Huangdian Town in the suburban periphery of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, as case studies, this article uses the transfer survey data from 248 farming households of 43 administrative villages of the research area to analyze the influencing factors and improvement pathways of farming households' land transfer willingness from both individual and village-level perspectives by the means of the multilevel linear model. The findings reveal that: 1) In the suburban townships of central mega-cities, the land transfer is characterized by a single type, small scale, short duration, weak farmer willingness, low organizational level, and low marketization. 2) Farming households' own family endowments play a decisive role in their land transfer decisions, while village-level factors account for over 7% of the influence on such willingness. 3) Compared with suburban townships in eastern cities, the suburban areas of central megacity exhibit lower openness, a lower level of farmers' detachment from agriculture, significant part-time farming characteristics, and an underdeveloped land transfer market. Therefore, comprehensive measures should be taken to start from improving the endowment of rural households and strengthening the leading role of village collectives, effectively stimulating the willingness of rural households to transfer land, thereby enhancing the utilization efficiency of land resources and promoting the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.
Based on a in-depth analysis of action mechanism of digital technology empowering the revitalization of rural industries, this paper constructs an evaluation index system of the development level of rural industry revitalization under the background of digital empowerment from four dimensions: informatization, intelligence, marketization, and greenization. Based on the panel data from 20 cities of Guangdong Province from 2011 to 2021, this paper uses entropy method, kernel density estimation, Moran's index, and geographic detector model to analyze the spatiotemporal pattern and driving factors of the development level of rural industry revitalization under the background of technology empowerment. It's found that: 1) The development level of rural industry revitalization under the background of technology empowerment showed an increasing trend in Guangdong Province. The regional distribution is as follows: Pearl River Delta> western Guangdong> eastern Guangdong> northern Guangdong, and the improvement speed is as follows: eastern Guangdong> Pearl River Delta> northern Guangdong > western Guangdong, with all dimensions showing improvement. 2) The absolute difference in the development level of rural industry revitalization has widened in Guangdong Province and its four major regions, and polarization features have appeared in the Pearl River Delta and northern Guangdong to varying degrees. 3) The spatial positive agglomeration trend of development level has continued to strengthen in Guangdong, but most cities have weak correlations and show an isolated development trend. 4) The driving factors of the spatiotemporal pattern evolution mainly include per capita GDP, urbanization rate, Internet penetration rate, urban innovation index, etc. The interaction among these factors is significantly greater than that of a single factor, especially the interaction between Internet penetration rate and urban innovation index.
From the perspective of the rural revitalization strategy, this article systematically analyzes the theoretical foundation and logical mechanisms of agricultural modernization in China, and constructs a measurement system of regional agricultural modernization level comprising six subsystems: ensuring food security, building ecological civilization, innovation-driven development of science and technology, industrial prosperity leadership, inheriting traditional culture, and benefiting people's livelihoods, which includes 37 indicators. Using the entropy weight method and the Durbin model, it measures the agricultural modernization level of 30 provincial-level regions from the holistic and subsystem perspectives in 2015-2023, and analyzes its spatial distribution characteristics and development trends, as well as the effectiveness of factors influencing the agricultural modernization level. The results show that: 1) Comprehensive index of the agricultural modernization level in China rose from 0.496 in 2015 to 0.614 in 2023, demonstrating a steady upward trend overall. 2) The overall level of agricultural modernization remains relatively low, with significant regional disparities. 3) Due to the tendency to overlook the theoretical and practical value of agricultural modernization, a coordinated mechanism for comprehensive prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution has been difficult to establish effectively. 4) Economic development level, international trade level, and informatization level exert significant direct positive effects on the regional agricultural modernization. Finally, it proposes targeted policy recommendations, and provides theoretical support for promoting high-quality agricultural modernization under the background of the rural revitalization strategy.
Agricultural new quality productive forces is pivotal in driving agricultural carbon emission reduction and achieving low-carbon, green transformation and high-quality development in agriculture. Utilizing the panel data from 31 provincial-level regions of China from 2011 to 2022, this study constructs an evaluation index system for agricultural new quality productive forces and employs a two-way fixed effects model, mediation model, and threshold model to empirically examine its impact on the agricultural carbon emission reduction, its underlying mechanisms, and analyze its regional heterogeneity. The findings reveal that: 1) Agricultural new quality productive forces significantly promotes the agricultural carbon emission reduction, which exhibits regional heterogeneity, with stronger effects observed in major grain-producing regions and regions with steep terrain. 2) The carbon emission reduction effect operates through three key mechanisms: accelerating agricultural technological innovation, mitigating resource misallocation, and facilitating agricultural industrial structure upgrading. 3) Further analysis reveals that agricultural new quality productive forces exerts a nonlinear impact on the agricultural carbon emission reduction. Specifically, the promotional effect on the agricultural carbon emission reduction is significantly stronger when the agricultural industrial agglomeration falls between the first and second threshold values. Based on the above, it proposes that China should prioritize the development of agricultural new quality productive forces by leveraging agricultural technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading. It should focus on improving resource allocation efficiency, implementing place-based and region-specific policies, and advancing the integrated development of digital-intelligent and green transition in agriculture to accelerate the realization of the dual-carbon goals.
Under the background of frequent extreme climate events caused by global warming, the agricultural system is simultaneously confronted with the emission reduction pressures and the climate vulnerability challenges. This study systematically measured the spatiotemporal patterns of extreme climate and carbon emissions in planting industry in China at the provincial level from 2000 to 2023, and utilized the XGBoost-SHAP model to reveal their overall impact, individual effects, and synergistic mechanisms. The results indicate that: 1) During the study period, risk index of China's extreme climate rose from 36.35 to 44.89, reflecting a trend of intensifying extreme heat and concurrent increases in both aridity and humidity. High-risk zones concentrated around the Bohai Rim region, with a decreasing pattern observed from the northeast of China to the southwest of China. 2) China's total carbon emissions in planting industry increased from 61.6191 million tons in 2000 to 77.9764 million tons in 2023, with the spatial pattern evolving from "high in the southeast of China, low in the northwest of China" to "high in the north of China, low in the south of China". 3) Extreme weather events contribute 11.19% to carbon emissions of planting industry. Extreme heat, extreme rainfall, and extreme drought show a positive correlation with carbon emissions of planting industry, while extreme cold exhibits a significant inhibitory effect. 4) The synergistic effects of multiple extreme events are significant. Among them, the combination of high temperature and drought, as well as alternating wet and dry conditions, produces an "1+1>2" effect that increases carbon emissions. Conversely, the combinations of low temperature and drought, and low temperature and rainfall, achieve synergistic carbon emission reductions by suppressing microbial activity and decreasing irrigation requirements. Therefore, in the context of escalating extreme climate threats, deciphering the resulting growth in carbon emissions has become an urgent task for promoting the transition of agriculture towards low-carbon and high-resilience.
As a new type of heritage, the cultural route requires continuous attention in the field of cultural heritage preservation for its overall preservation methods. This study selects provincial-level and above cultural relic preservation units (CRPUs for short) along the Silk Road in China as research objects. Based on the ArcGIS, it explores the spatial distribution pattern and influencing factors of cultural heritages along the Silk Road. The results indicate that: 1) The spatial distribution of CRPUs along the Silk Road exhibits a "corridor-shaped" pattern, "southeast-northwest" spatial distribution pattern is highly consistent with the main routes of the Silk Road. The spatial evolution shows a trend of "northwest expansion with axial stability" forming agglomeration areas characterized by "multi-center, multi-core" clustering. 2) Most heritage sites are located in areas with elevations below 2255 m and slopes under 13°. Early heritage types are predominantly ancient ruins, mid-period types are mainly cave temples and stone carvings, and late-period types are dominated by ancient buildings. 3) Spatial correlation analysis reveals that the CRPUs along the route has a strong coupling relationship with the Silk Road in terms of spatial distribution, mostly concentrated within 50 km along the Silk Road, with significant clustering characteristics. High-value agglomeration areas often coincide with ancient central towns, commercial hubs, settlement ruins, and transportation relics along the Silk Road, low-value agglomeration areas reflect the influence of physical geography features and other cultural corridors on the distribution pattern of cultural heritage along the Silk Road.
Exploring the path of high-quality development in the old revolutionary base areas of China is not only a profound response to the strategic development plan for revitalizing the old revolutionary base areas, but also a precise matching and proactive implementation of the nation's goal for high-quality development. This paper constructs an analytical framework for the high-quality development of the old revolutionary base areas of China, and employs spatial autocorrelation analysis, kernel density models, geographic detector, and spatio-temporal geographically weighted regression models to explore the spatio-temporal dynamics and driving factors of high-quality development in these areas from 2001 to 2021. It's found that: 1) The high-quality development of the old revolutionary base areas shows the notable characteristic of space dependence. The level of high-quality development and agglomeration effects are continuously enhancing, and have respectively formed the spatial patterns of "high values in coastal area of study area, low values in inland area of study area" and "high values in the southeast of study area, low values in the southwest of study area". 2) Initially, the main core zones were primarily located in the eastern part of the study area, while low-value zones were mainly found in the western part of the study area. By the end of the study period, the main core zones were restricted to the former Central Soviet Areas in Jiangxi-Fujian-Guangdong and Old Revolutionary Base Area of Southwestern Zhejiang, with other areas generally transforming into low-value zones and mini-core zones. 3) Per capita GDP and GDP per unit area have consistently been dominant factors influencing the level of high-quality development in the old revolutionary base areas. Moreover, the interaction between per capita GDP and GDP per unit area holds the strongest explanatory power for the high-quality development in the old revolutionary base areas of China. 4) Economic development factor exerts the strongest driving force on the high-quality development in the old revolutionary base areas, primarily through positive driving effects.
Based on the panel dataset of 108 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2011 to 2023, this paper constructs a theoretical framework for the adaptation relationship between the digital economy and the culture-tourism integration, along with an evaluation index system for both systems. It employs the integrated adaptation model and boosting regression tree model to characterize their spatiotemporal adaptation features and formation mechanisms. The results indicate that: 1) During the study period, the adaptation level between the digital economy and the culture-tourism integration in the YREB shows a slight increase, primarily driven by the rapid growth of adaptability, with particularly prominent performance in the middle reaches of the YREB. 2) The spatial distribution of adaptation degree shows a gradient decreasing pattern, which is high in the east of the YREB and low in the west of the YREB. Each provincial capital city enters a relatively adaptation stage characterized by high adaptability and high matching, serving as the core growth pole of regional adaptation growth. 3) Urbanization level, industrial structure optimization, innovation ability, talent reserve, government management, and market scale are the dominant factors influencing the adaptation relationship. In the adaptation process, it follows the law of phased evolution, and has gone through a dynamic path of government market drive, talent support, and ultimately towards multi-factor collaboration. This paper provides a new perspective for exploring the intrinsic connection between the digital economy and the culture-tourism integration.
Based on the attitude system of the appraisal theory of systemic functional linguistics, and drawing on the "cognitive-affective" model of tourism destination image, this paper constructs an analytical framework for the perception attitude system of tourism destination image, and takes tourism resources, infrastructure, reception services, and social environment as evaluation factors. It systematically collects online review data of six renowned scenic areas in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (Xiangxi for short) from Ctrip, Tongcheng Travel, Qunar, and TripAdvisor, and deeply explores the similarities and differences in tourists' image perception and the characteristics of attitudinal semantic representation by means of the AI large language model (LLM) and the UAM Corpus Tool. The results show that: 1) Tourists generally hold positive evaluations of tourism resources, while their evaluations of infrastructure and reception services tend to be negative, and evaluations of the social environment vary considerably. 2) In terms of attitudinal semantic representation, appreciation-type evaluations outnumber affect-type evaluations, which in turn outnumber judgment-type evaluations in quantity; in structure, it presents a sequential pattern of "appreciation first, judgment second and affect last". The strategies for attitude representation are predominantly explicit inscription, supplemented by implicit invocation. 3) The management of tourist destinations can optimize their image based on the distributional characteristics of attitude resources, systematically enhance the discursive transformation and value extension of core tourism resources. Finally, focusing on the four core elements of tourism resources, infrastructure, reception services, and social environment, this study advances a synergistic approach across three dimensions: consolidating appreciative advantages, alleviating affective conflicts, and guiding normative judgments, while adhering to comprehensive measures and emphasizing differentiated management, thereby enhancing the overall coordination and sustainable development capacity of tourism destination image.
