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Changsha City is the political, economic and cultural centre of Hunan Province. In recent years, because of large-scale urban construction and special geological structure, land subsidence has become one of the main geological disasters in Changsha City, which seriously threatens the health of buildings and infrastructure. To solve this problem, this paper monitored the land subsidence in Changsha City from 2015 to 2021 using the Point Target (PT) based Small Baseline Subset InSAR (SBAS-InSAR), revealed the spatial distribution characteristics of land subsidence in the study area, studied the causes of subsidence, and carried out geological disaster risk assessment. The results show that the overall stability of Changsha City is dominated by uneven subsidence. The subsidence areas are mainly distributed in the north of Kaifu District, Moon Island, Malan Mountain Chuangzhi Park and the periphery of the main urban area. The maximum settlement rate is about 87 mm/year, and the cumulative settlement reaches 250 mm. The settlement monitoring results are basically consistent with the actual situation at the same time, which is mainly caused by engineering construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a disaster that seriously constrains economic development and endangers human life. This paper explores the potential of Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) for drought monitoring, using Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) data to monitor drought in Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces, China, in 2022. This study applies the Random Undersampling Boosting (RUSBoost) algorithm to detect waterbodies and linear regression to retrieve soil moisture (SM). Result shows that drought in September was heaviest, with the area of Poyang Lake in Jiangxi and Dongting Lake in Hunan decreasing by 70.2% and 76.9%, respectively, compared to that in June. The variation in retrieved SM shows that the Poyang Lake Plain and Jitai Basin in Jiangxi and the Dongting Lake, Yuanjiang River, and Xiangjiang River basins in Hunan suffered from the most serious drought. The variation in retrievals shows high consistency with various reference datasets, including Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) SM data and vegetation condition index (VCI). The correlation coefficient between retrieved SM and VCI is 0.93 in Jiangxi and 0.94 in Hunan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of farm households' social capital characteristics and local government policies on the selection of farmland transfer contracts in China's rural industrial revitalization context. Utilizing field research data from 1,979 households in ethnic areas of Hunan Province, this paper constructs an econometric model to assess how farm households' social capital and local governments' involvement in rural industrial revitalization influence farmland transfer contract selections. The findings indicate that, lacking government program support, farmers' social capital significantly affects contract type and duration, but not the rent. Specifically, farmers possessing extensive social capital prefer verbal and short-term contracts (coefficients of 0.525 and 0.643, significant at the 5% level), whereas their influence on rent (coefficient of 2.418, significant at the 5% level) manifests under government program support. These results challenge the conventional theory of farmland transfer contracts and offer substantial empirical support for the development of local government policies in rural industrial revitalization, underlining the critical role of government guidance and social capital in enhancing farmland transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To control heavy metal pollution effectively, prevention of heavy metal accumulations in agricultural soils should be the priority rather than remediation of heavy metal contamination. In this research, papers which contained input and output fluxes of Cd, As, Cr, Hg, and Pb in topsoil (the plough layer) of agricultural lands in Hunan, Zhejiang, the Yangtze River Delta, Hainan, and China as a whole were explored. Fluxes of heavy metal species were recalculated, and future trends of pollution were predicted. Also, cases regarding the application of technologies to control the input and output of heavy metals were analyzed. Results indicated that atmospheric decomposition was the dominant input source of heavy metals in all study sites except Hainan. The relative contributions of fertilizers, irrigation water, and straw returning fluctuated greatly among different sites. Cd pollution in all sites was the most serious, followed by Cr and Pb. In Hunan, Cd has already exceeded the maximum limit value and needs to be controlled urgently. The input of heavy metals from irrigation water, fertilizers, and straw returning could be controlled by proposing more policies to manage their quality and application amounts. The amount of heavy metals absorbed by plants could be increased by cultivating crops with hyperaccumulators and high-biomass plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately determining the timing and mechanism of metallogenesis of ore deposits is essential for developing a robust genetic model for their exploration. In this paper, we analyze the formation conditions of cassiterite in five major deposits of southern Hunan Province, one of the most important tungsten-tin (W-Sn) provinces in South China, using a combination of cathodoluminescence imaging, in situ U-Pb geochronology, and trace-element concentration data. In situ cassiterite U-Pb geochronology constrains the main period of Sn mineralization to between 155.4 and 142.0 Ma, demonstrating a temporal and genetic relationship to silicic intrusive magmatism in the same area. Three stages of magmatic activity and metallogenic evolution are recognized: (1) Early Paleozoic and Triassic: the initial enrichment stage of tungsten and tin; (2) Jurassic: the metasomatic mineralization stage; and (3) Cretaceous: the magmatic-hydrothermal superposition stage. The cassiterite in these deposits takes four forms, i.e., quartz vein-type, greisen-skarn-type, greisen-type, and granite-type, representing a progression characterized by the increasing content and decreasing range of variation of high field strength elements (HFSEs), and reflecting a general increase in the degree of evolution of the associated granites. Rare earth element (REE) concentrations suggest that precipitation of cassiterite was insensitive to the redox state of the fluid and that precipitation of cassiterite in the southern Hunan Sn deposits did not require a high-fO2 environment. These findings provide new insights into tin mineralization processes and exploration strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To test the relationships of stochastic dominance, this paper firstly proposes two new consistent K-S-type statistics based on a quantile rule. Then, we consider their asymptotic properties. We introduce the bootstrap method to calculate the p-values of our proposed tests and use the Monte Carlo method to compare the power of our proposed test with the DD test and the BD test. The simulations showed that our test performed better than these two tests. Finally, we applied our proposed tests to compare the visibility of four provinces in China and compared the effects with the DD test and BD test. The empirical results showed that the conclusions of our proposed method are more-consistent with the dominance relationships of the four provinces. For a given significance level, the results of our proposed test demonstrate that the visibility of Jiangxi province is the best. The next one is the visibility of Hubei province, which outperforms the visibility of Anhui province. The visibility of Hunan province is the poorest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has an exceptional diversity in Begonia, holding the second largest number of described species in this genus at the national level. Many new taxa need to be explored and described. This paper reports two new species, Begonia ruchengensis (B. sect. Reichenheimia) and B. auritalata (B. sect. Platycentrum), from Hunan province and Guizhou province, respectively. Besides the detailed morphology description, color illustrations, and line drawings, the diagnoses of these two species distinguished from their allied taxa are provided. Their conservation statuses are evaluated according to The Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green and sustainable development of fisheries is a crucial way to safeguard the environment, guarantee food security, and promote social and economic development. In the rapidly evolving era of digitalization, how to fully leverage the advantages of digitalization to motivate fishery sustainable development has become a worthy research question. Based on combing the development stage and characteristics of Chinese fishery digitalization, this paper selects six fishery digitalization factors from the perspective of configuration based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) theoretical framework, and uses the panel fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to explore the configurational path of how digitalization empowered the sustainable development of fisheries in China from 2011 to 2021. This paper found that: (1) Fishery digitalization can significantly enhance the level of fishery sustainable development, but individual elements of fishery digitalization are not necessary conditions for realizing a high degree of fishery sustainable development. However, strengthening digitalization talent support plays a more universal role. (2) Four types of fishery digital ecology can generate a high level of fishery sustainable development, demonstrating the multiple paths and complex mechanisms of fishery digitalization empowering fishery sustainable development. (3) In underdeveloped areas such as Jilin, Hunan, and Qinghai, the empowering effect of digitalization on the sustainable development of fisheries is relatively limited. The research findings open the "black box" of how digitalization empowers the sustainable development of fisheries, providing theoretical reference for various types of provinces to utilize digitalization to drive the sustainable development of fisheries. [Display omitted] • Theoretical framework is based on the configuration perspective and TOE framework. • We use the panel fsQCA method to explore fishery digitalization empowerment pathways. • Four types of fishery digital ecology can generate high fishery sustainability. • Digital talent support plays a more general role in fishery sustainable development. • The empowering effect of digitalization is relatively limited in underdeveloped areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Hongqiling Sn-W polymetallic deposit is a product of granitic magmatism in Late Jurassic. • The elemental composition of primary cassiterite is controlled by the compositions of ore-forming fluid and the rate of crystallization. Hongqiling deposit is one of the most typical hydrothermal vein type Sn-W polymetallic deposits in the Dongpo ore field, southern Hunan. It is an ideal object to study the Sn-W mineralization in the Nanling metallogenic belt and even in the whole South China Block, and to reveal the regional metallogenetic regularity. Based on the detailed investigation of the deposit geology, this paper discusses the mineralization age and processes of the Hongqiling hydrothermal vein type Sn-W polymetallic deposit by LA-MC-ICP-MS in-situ U-Pb dating and trace element geochemistry of cassiterite from the quartz vein type Sn-W ore body. Cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging shows that cassiterite in Hongqiling deposit can be divided into two generations. primary cassiterite (Cst-I) and altered cassiterite (Cst-II). The LA-MC-ICP-MS in-situ U-Pb age of the two groups of Cst-I samples are 158.9 ± 0.7 Ma and 158.4 ± 0.8 Ma, respectively, which are well consistent with the mineralization ages of most Sn-W deposits in the Nanling metallogenic belt, and are also consistent with the ages of middle to late Jurassic magmatic activity represented by the Qianlishan intrusion. This indicates that the Hongqiling deposit, like many Sn-W deposits in the Nanling metallogenic belt, is genetically related to the regional Middle to Late Jurassic granitic magmatic activities. LA-ICP-MS trace element analysis shows that trace elements such as Na and Cs are mainly distributed in fluid inclusions in cassiterite, while the major elements such as Mg, Al, and Si are mainly distributed in the mineral inclusions, and other elements such as W, U, Zr, Hf and Ti are mainly distributed in the cassiterite by isomorphic substitution. The high Fe and W contents in both primary and altered cassiterite indicate that the ore-forming fluid of Hongqiling deposit is mainly derived from granitic magma. The fluctuating variation of Fe, V, Sc, Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb and Ta in the primary cassiterite with the crystalline bands indicates that there are two large-scale pulses of magmatic hydrothermal fluid during the mineralization process, while the altered cassiterite is relatively depleted of Ti, Sc, Zr and U elements, and enriched in Pb which may represent the compositional characteristics of the late-stage fluid. In summary, the Hongqiling hydrothermal vein type Sn-W polymetallic deposit was formed by the pulsating exsolution of magmatic hydrothermal fluid of late Jurassic granitic magmatism. The trace elemental compositions of primary cassiterite are generally controlled by the compositions of ore-forming fluid and the rate of crystallization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional machine learning algorithms face challenges in assessing flood susceptibility reliably due to their low robustness and the inherent 'black-box' nature. This paper utilizes five hyperparameter optimization algoirthms (HPO), namely grid search (GS), random search (RS), gauss process (GP), tree-structured parzen estimator (TPE) and simulated annealing (SA), to tune the traditional random forest's (RF) hyperparameters to improve the robustness of flood hazard mapping (FHM) models at Ningxiang City Hunan Province, China. Additionally, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method were used to interpret the decision-mechanisms of these flood hazard models. This study considers 19 pluvial flood influencing factors and 2064 flood locations to create a geospatial database. The performance of each hybrid model was evaluated by area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and several validation methods. The results demonstrate that the developed hybrid models demonstrated good performance, with RF-TPE achieving the highest AUC (0.9660), followed by RF-GP (0.9648), RF-SA (0.9624), RF-GS (0.9612), RF-RS (0.9600), and RF (0.9539). The RF-TPE model exhibits superior robustness than other models, and the FHM constructed using it is more reliable. HPO is an effective approach to improve the predictive accuracy and robustness of FHM models. When considering limited computational resources, Bayesian optimization (TPE) should be prioritized for optimizing FHM models, followed by metaheuristic algorithms and model-free algorithms. Moreover, the study revealed that distance from river, peak rainfall intensity, continuous rainfall, antecedent effective rainfall, and terrain relief, are the most significant for pluvial FHM modeling in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As sustainable development has become a trending consensus, urban ecological resilience is now a significant metric for assessing the extent of urban ecological advancement. In view of the critical roles for promoting coordinated regional development, this research evaluates the ecological resilience of 28 cities in city clusters in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River from 2009 to 2020 using the entropy weight method and analyzes the spatio-temporal evolution pattern of ecological resilience. This study uses the Moran index and the spatial Durbin model to explore the spatial correlation of ecological resilience as well as the influencing factors and presents the following conclusions. First, ecological resilience appears to be on an upward trend in time, spatially characterized by a transition from higher resilience in the east region to lower resilience in the west region. Second, spatial autocorrelation in ecological resilience exhibits a positive relationship. Most cities in Jiangxi Province are high-high agglomerative cities, while most cities in Hunan and Hubei Provinces are low-low homogeneous cities and high-low polarized cities, respectively. Third, given that population density, economic development, and financial development negatively affect ecological resilience, government green investment has a positive effect and positive spatial spillovers. Based on the findings, this paper offers targeted policy recommendations on how cities can improve urban ecological resilience. [Display omitted] • Enriching existing research by focusing on city clusters in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. • Constructing an ecological resilience evaluation system based on the theory of resistance-adaptation-recovery. • Detailed analysis of the spatial and temporal evolution patterns of ecological resilience in city clusters. • Spatial factors are introduced to analyze the spatial correlation and influencing factors of ecological resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]