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The evolution of territorial space is intrinsically linked to economic growth, societal welfare, and ecological preservation. In the context of escalating spatial conflicts and stringent resource limitations, resource efficiency has emerged as a fundamental pillar for the scientific optimization of territorial space layout. Drawing upon resource efficiency metrics from cities nationwide, this study constructs scenarios for territorial space development and conservation, assesses developmental capacity under varying preferences, and subsequently delineates strategic blueprints using an integrated "point-axis-area" approach. The findings reveal the following: (1) Resource efficiency in China has witnessed a consistent uptick, yet remains modest overall, with marked regional disparities. (2) Throughout the investigation period, developmental capacity has seen progressive enhancement, with a pronounced capacity in scenarios favoring development, radiating axially from urban conglomerates. (3) The layout of pivotal points and developmental axes has transitioned from a "tri-pillar" to a diamond configuration, with the coastal corridor, Harbin-Beijing-Guangzhou corridor, and the corridor along the Yangtze River standing out. (4) Strategic points progressively converge along key axes, whereas dominant regions exhibit clear differentiation on either side of the Hu Huanyong Line. By integrating elements of the territorial spatial structure, this paper proposes blueprints for "five horizontal and three vertical zones with eight cores and three areas," "four horizontal and three vertical zones with six cores and three areas," and "three horizontal and four vertical zones with five cores and three areas," corresponding to scenarios of prioritizing development, status quo maintenance, and prioritizing conservation, respectively. The outcomes of this research offer a technical foundation and theoretical guidance for the pursuit of high-quality territorial space development and a vision of picturesque landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-environmental sustainability is the basis for sustainable development in ecologically fragile areas. Land consolidation plays an important role in coordinating human-land relationships and achieving economic growth and eco-environment protection. Taking the Loess Plateau as the study area, this paper diagnoses the associated eco-environmental problems and their chain effect. The research results show that the overall eco-environment of the region is still relatively fragile. An eco-environment multi-subject co-management model, a scale-differentiated management model, and an elements comprehensive management model are proposed to improve the eco-environmental management efficiency after implementing land consolidation in the plateau. This paper takes the Gully Land Consolidation Project in Baota district of Yan'an city in Shaanxi province as an example to illustrate the relationship between land consolidation and eco-environmental sustainability in the Loess Plateau. Policy implications for eco-environmental protection in the Loess Plateau are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic land use changes that occur in rapidly urbanized areas are important inducement to changes in the eco-environmental quality. Investigating urban land use changes and their eco-environmental quality responses can provide theoretical support and a decision-making basis for sustainable and high-quality development in rapidly urbanizing areas. Taking Wuhan, China, as the study area, this paper extracts land use information using Landsat satellite remote sensing images and a support vector machine classification. Based on this, a remote sensing-based ecological index evaluation model including humidity, greenness, dryness and heat is constructed to explore the changes in land use and their eco-environmental quality responses from 2000 to 2018. The results show that (1) the structure, extent and spatial layout of land use in Wuhan from 2000 to 2018 have undergone tremendous changes under rapid urbanization, and the change of construction land is the greatest among all land use types; (2) the overall quality of eco-environment in Wuhan continues to improve as the scale of the improved eco-environment areas is greater than that of the deteriorated areas. The direction and magnitude of the impact of each indicator on the eco-environmental quality are different; (3) the improvement or deterioration of eco-environmental quality is closely related to the changes of different land use types within the study area. The eco-environmental quality shows significant spatial heterogeneity, especially between the main urban areas and the suburban areas. This paper argues that reasonably adjusting the land use structure can serve to maintain or even improve the quality of the regional eco-environment. Finally, this study puts forward suggestions for the coordinated development of land use and the eco-environment in rapidly urbanizing areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid globalization, industrial parks are playing an increasingly important role in the national and regional development. Since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was put forward, national-level overseas industrial parks of China have emerged with new development features and trends. It is of great importance to carry out a comparative study on domestic and overseas industrial parks of China. Based on the perspective of spatiotemporal evolution, this paper compares and analyzes national-level overseas industrial parks along the Belt and Road (B&R) and domestic industrial parks of China. In time, China's industrial parks have experienced four stages with distinctive state-led characteristic. There are different development paths and modes for overseas industrial parks along the B&R and domestic industrial parks. In space, the national-level overseas industrial parks are invested and constructed by Chinese enterprises (mostly from the coastal developed cities), and mainly distributed in the countries along the B&R. Through typical cases comparison of Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Zone and Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, the paper finds that national-level overseas industrial parks are basically market-driven and concentrated in traditional advantageous industries, while domestic industrial parks are mainly government-led high-tech industries. Localization of overseas industrial parks and remote coupling with domestic industrial parks become very important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a special outcome of urbanization, mega-towns not only play an important role in the process of socio-economic development, but also are important contributors to urbanization. Based on a spatial database of mega-towns in China, this paper explores the spatial distribution features and growth mechanisms of China's 238 mega-towns using the nearest neighbour distance method, kernel density estimation, regression analysis, global autocorrelation, local autocorrelation and other spatial analysis methods. Results of spatial distribution features show that: (1) on the national scale, the existing 238 mega-towns mainly gathered in the southeast coastal areas of China; they formed two spatial core agglomerations, several secondary ones and a southeast coastal agglomeration belt; (2) on the regional scale, each economic region's index was less than 1, indicating that mega-towns in each region tended to be spatially agglomerated due to the close relationship with regional development level and their number; (3) on the provincial scale, 68% of provincial-level units in China tended to be a spatial agglomeration of mega-towns; only one province had a random distribution; the number of mega-towns in those evenly-distributed provinces was generally small. The growth of mega-towns was determined by a combination of various natural and humanistic factors, including topography, location, economy, population, traffic, and national policy. This paper chose digital elevation model (DEM), location advantage, economic density, population density, and highway density distribution as corresponding indicators as quantitative factors. By combining their local autocorrelation analysis, these factors all showed certain influence on the spatial growth of mega-towns and together scheduled it. In the future, provinces and cities should make full use of the mega-town functions to promote their socioeconomic development, especially the central and western regions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper echoes a tradition in agricultural geography by focusing on a single crop: cherries. It illustrates how developments associated with globalisation and growing urban markets are re-shaping rural areas. The interplay between global and local is investigated in two different contexts. A Chinese example reflects transformations affecting the countryside following national economic reforms. Focusing on the hinterland of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, it examines farmers' responses to the changing socio-political context and the rising size and wealth of the local market. Individual initiatives backed by government support have spawned localised concentrations of cherry growing and increased horticultural production. Farm-based tourism is creating new relationships between farmers and consumers, with farms becoming more diversified and multifunctional. The second example is the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, where cherry growing is increasingly combined with direct sales to consumers and gastronomic tourism. The paper addresses contrasts and similarities between the two examples in the interplay between global and local, and a 'multifunctional transition' in farming. Concluding remarks include reference to new economic links forged between China and Australia through relaxations on cherry imports to China and new patterns of Chinese foreign direct investment into Australian cherry production. A research agenda for future research is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) instigated by China is catalyzing the evolution of a new global economic landscape. To cope with the great changes in the economic landscape, China needs to view the South China Sea Region (SCSR) as a strategic focus and study carefully the characteristics of regional development and explore the possibility for construction of a strategic multi-integrated economic zone which includes China and ASEAN countries. Based on key indicators, this paper outlines the overall development characteristics of the SCSR and analyzes the regional structural characteristics of industry and global trade based on the indexes of industrial structure similarity and trade commodity structure coincidence; the paper also depicts the spatial characteristics of the nine core growth areas (CGAs) in the region and discusses the construction prospects for a multi-integrated economic zone in the SCSR. The results show that, first, from 2000 to 2017, the main economic indicators of the SCSR grew quite well, and the development trend was much better than the global average for the same period. Second, driven by the global industrial transfer stages and spatial paths, the level of comprehensive development in the SCSR has evolved into four categories. Third, the index values for industrial structure similarity and trade commodity structure coincidence for the 11 countries in the SCSR have remained at a high level, and reveal an integration trend not only from the horizontal and vertical perspective, but also from an upg]rading and downgrading standpoint. Fourth, nine CGAs have been established in the SCSR and the advantaged industries and the export commodity types between different countries exhibited the characteristics of convergence and complementarity due to the polarization and diffusion effects of the CGAs. Finally, from a long-term perspective, the SCSR has already acquired the internal and external conditions such as the 5th global industrial transfer initiative, the reconstruction of the global value chain, regional production-consumption networks and spatial entities for building a multi-integrated economic zone in the SCSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A largely unexplored application of "Big Data" in urban contexts is using human mobility data to study temporal heterogeneity in intercity travel networks. Hence, this paper explores China's intercity travel patterns and their dynamics, with a comparison between weekdays and holidays, to contribute to our understanding of these phenomena. Using passenger travel data inferred from Tencent Location Big Data during weekdays (April 11–15, 2016) and National Golden Week (October 1–7, 2016), we compare the spatial patterns of Chinese intercity travel on weekdays and during Golden Week. The results show that the average daily intercity travel during Golden Week is significantly higher than that during weekdays, but the travel distance and degree of network clustering are significantly lower. This indicates temporal heterogeneity in mapping the intercity travel network. On weekdays, the three major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou take prominent core positions, while cities that are tourism destinations or transportation hubs are more attractive during Golden Week. The reasons behind these findings can be explained by geographical proximity, administrative division (proximity of cultural and policy systems), travel distance, and travel purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological compensation is a hot subject in academic studies, and the determination of the spatial allocation of compensation payments is a key point in the research of ecological compensation. There are two kinds of thoughts in the determination of regional spatial allocation at present: 'evaluation of ecological construction cost' and 'evaluation of ecosystem services value'. This paper analyzes the relationships between social ecological compensation and regional socio-economic development, and establishes two econometric models with the data of 2007 from various provinces in China. Through these models, the impacts of geographical endowments on the regional socio-economic development in various provinces are analyzed from the social justice viewpoint and the concept of 'equivalent value of geographical endowments' (EGE for short) is proposed. This paper analyzes the application prospect of EGE in the policy making of regional ecological compensation. The results showed that: (1) the implementation of social ecological compensation is not only an effective guarantee for each region to obtain the equal rights of survival, development and decent environment, but also an essential assurance to the coordinated, balanced and sustainable development among various regions; (2) the regional difference in geographical endowments is an important factor affecting the regional spatial variation of socio-economic development. Therefore, geographical endowments are important bases for the determination of the spatial allocation of compensation payments in social ecological compensation; (3) based on the EGE, the government can determine the spatial allocation of social ecological compensation scientifically, and avoid the 'sweeping approach' phenomenon in the policy making process of ecological compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using energy consumption and land use data of each region of China in 2007, this paper established carbon emission and carbon footprint model based on energy consumption, and estimated the carbon emission amount of fossil energy and rural biomass energy of different regions of China in 2007. Through matching the energy consumption items with industrial spaces, this paper divided industrial spaces into five types: agricultural space, living & industrial-commercial space, transportation industrial space, fishery and water conservancy space, and other industrial space. Then the author analyzed the carbon emission intensity and carbon footprint of each industrial space. Finally, advices of decreasing industrial carbon footprint and optimizing industrial space pattern were put forward. The main conclusions are as following: (1) Total amount of carbon emission from energy consumption of China in 2007 was about 1.65 GtC, in which the proportion of carbon emission from fossil energy was 89%. (2) Carbon emission intensity of industrial space of China in 2007 was 1.98 t/hm, in which, carbon emission intensity of living & industrial-commercial space and of transportation industrial space was 55.16 t/hm and 49.65 t/hm respectively, they were high-carbon-emission industrial spaces among others. (3) Carbon footprint caused by industrial activities of China in 2007 was 522.34×106 hm, which brought about ecological deficit of 28.69×106 hm, which means that the productive lands were not sufficient to compensate for carbon footprint of industrial activities, and the compensating rate was 94.5%. As to the regional carbon footprint, several regions have ecological profit while others have not. In general, the present ecological deficit caused by industrial activities was small in 2007. (4) Per unit area carbon footprint of industrial space in China was about 0.63 hm/hm in 2007, in which that of living & industrial-commercial space was the highest (17.5 hm/hm). The per unit area carbon footprint of different industrial spaces all presented a declining trend from east to west of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studied the fertilizer rate (FR), fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) and fertilizer overuse rate (FOR) of rice, corn and wheat in China from 1998 to 2018 and briefly analysed the reasons why farmers were willing to apply more fertilizers. (1) The FR of grain in China reached 373.7 kg/ha in 2018, an increase of 26.8% compared to that in 1998. In 2018, the FR for corn was the highest, at 411.2 kg/ha, compared to the values of 338.3 kg/ha for rice and 371.7 kg/ha for wheat. (2) In recent years, the FUE of grain in China has obviously improved, with values of 32.9% in 1998, 36.7% in 2008, and 39.3% in 2018. In 2018, the FUE for rice was the highest (41.2%), followed by that for corn (39.9%), and the FUE for wheat was the lowest (36.0%). (3) By 2018, fertilizer was overused in all zones of rice, corn and wheat. In 2018, the average FOR for wheat reached 69.0%, which was 35.9% higher than that for corn and 42.8% higher than that for rice. (4) The lower price of chemical fertilizers was the main reason leading to overapplication. (5) Establishing market mechanisms and adjusting regional planting structures can be effective in reducing the application of chemical fertilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raising the level of the multiple cropping index (MCI) plays a critical role in food production of China. Therefore, exploring the spatiotemporal differences and factors of the MCI in China is of important practical significance. This paper examines the trend of multiple cropping index (MCI) changes in China at the national, regional and provincial levels during 1998-2012. Based on the Theil index, this paper explores the spatiotemporal differences of the MCI in China. Additionally, a spatial econometric model is used to identify the determinants of the spatiotemporal differences of the MCI from a behavioral perspective. The results are summarized as follows: (1) From the national perspective, the MCI shows an increasing trend year by year, rising from 120.1% in 1998 to 134.26% in 2012; (2) at the regional level, the northeastern region is the fastest growing area in terms of MCI, whereas the central region is the slowest growing area. The central region has the highest MCI level, whereas the northeastern region is connected to the lowest MCI level; (3) according to the Theil index value, the differences in the MCI show a narrowing trend from 0.11 in 1998 to 0.03 in 2012, which is primarily attributed to the differences among the four regions; (4) the MCI shows differences among China's 31 provinces, and the gap that it shows is great; and (5) the proportion of non-agricultural population has a significant negative effect on the MCI. However, the proportions of non-agricultural industry, agricultural policy, per capita operating arable land area and rural household per capita net income have a significant positive impact on the MCI. Therefore, the following policies are suggested to increase the level of China's cultivated land MCI: transferring rural surplus labor, increasing the farmers' income, accelerating the transfer of the use rights of arable land, developing the scale effect of land use, providing further support and benefits to farmers in less developed regions and major grain-producing areas, and strengthening the role of the national agricultural policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport infrastructure plays an important role in shaping the configuration of spatial socio-economic structures and influencing regional accessibility. Although China's transport infrastructure has been experiencing a rapid development in the last 100 years, there lacks a systematic examination of the complete evolution history of China's transport development, particularly with all kinds of transport modes. This paper first aims to clarify the history of China's transportation from 1910 to 2012, and divides its evolution process into five periods (1911, 1935, 1953, 1981 and 2012) whereby each period represents the preliminary development time for each transport mode. Second, the paper calculates the transport dominance and analyses its spatial distribution in each period, with county as the basic analysis unit. Transport dominance here is defined as an integrated indicator for evaluating regional transport conditions. The results demonstrate the following: (1) areas with relative good transport dominance have expanded from scattered dots such as Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou in 1911 to extensive areas with each provincial city as cores in 2012; (2) transport development is improved by advances in transportation technology. The construction of modern transport infrastructures such as seaports, airports, high-speed rails (HSRs), and freeways lead the expansion of national territorial areas with good and excellent transport dominance and the increase of the value of transport dominance over time; (3) transport dominance is spatially unevenly distributed and exhibits resemblance with the expansion of transport network, which is closely related to China's socio-economic development and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the features and dynamic changes of the spatial layout of air transportation utilization among different provinces in China. It makes use of data for the airport throughput and socio-economic development of every province throughout the country in the years 2006 and 2015, and employs airport passenger and cargo throughput per capita and per unit of GDP as measures of regional air transportation utilization, which is significant for refining indicators of regional air transportation scale and comparing against them. It also analyzes the spatial differences of coupling between the regional air transportation utilization indicators and the key influencing factors on regional air transportation demand and utilization, which include per capita GDP, urbanization rate, and population density. Based on these key influencing factors, it establishes a multiple linear regression model to conduct forecasting of each province’s future airport passenger and cargo throughput as well as throughput growth rates. The findings of the study are as follows: (1) Between 2006 and 2015, every province throughout the country showed a trend of year on year growth in their airport passenger and cargo throughput per capita. Throughput per capita grew fastest in Hebei, with a rise of 780%, and slowest in Beijing, with a rise of 38%. Throughput per capita was relatively high in western and southeastern coastal regions, and relatively low in northern and central regions. Airport passenger and cargo throughput per unit of GDP showed growth in provinces with relatively slow economic development, and showed negative growth in provinces with relatively rapid economic development. Throughput per unit of GDP grew fastest in Hebei, rising 265% between 2006 and 2015, and Hunan had the fastest negative growth, with a fall of 44% in the same period. Southwestern regions had relatively high throughput per unit of GDP, while in central, northern, and northeastern regions it was relatively low. (2) Strong correlation exists between airport passenger and cargo throughput per capita and per capita GDP, urbanization rate, and population density. Throughput per capita has positive correlation with per capita GDP and urbanization rate in all regions, and positive correlation with population density in most regions. Meanwhile, there is weak correlation between airport passenger and cargo throughput per unit of GDP and per capita GDP, urbanization rate, and population density, with positive correlation in some regions and negative correlation in others. (3) Between 2015 and 2025, it is estimated that all provinces experience a trend of rapid growth in their airport passenger and cargo throughput. Inner Mongolia and Hebei will see the fastest growth, rising 221% and 155%, respectively, while Yunnan, Sichuan, and Hubei will see the slowest growth, with increases of 62%, 63%, and 65%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of overseas industrial parks is a key component of the Belt and Road Initiative and an expected experimental way of promoting inclusive globalization by inventing new forms of cooperation between China and local host countries. Policy mobility, a classic theory within international political geography addressing the connection between local and global policies, has implications for overseas industrial parks development. In this paper, we argue that policies are not easily moved directly from one place to another; instead, policies are embedded due to the role of local actors in policy mobility. This article first provides an overview of seven China-Southeast Asia economic and trade cooperation zones identified by the Ministry of Commerce, and analyzes their key participants. It then discusses policy mobility by looking into the roles of revenue, land, and talent in developing these industrial parks. The paper finds that these parks face challenges, such as the complicated geographical environments of host countries, huge pressure from enterprise investment capital, the lack of overseas service platforms, and underdeveloped agglomeration economies. In the light of the current situation, policy suggestions for the future sustainable development of overseas industrial parks are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has been one of the major concerns behind the world's high-speed economic growth. How to implement the coordinated development of the carbon footprint and the economy will be the core issue of the world's economic and social development, as well as the heated debate of the research at home and abroad in recent years. Based on the energy consumption, integrated with the 'Top-Down' life cycle approach and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, this paper analyzed the spatial differences and multi-mechanism of carbon footprint in provincial China in 2010. Firstly, this study calculated the amount of carbon footprint of each province using 'Top-Down' life cycle approach and found that there were significant differences of carbon footprint and per capita carbon footprint in provincial China. The provinces with higher carbon footprint, mainly located in northern China, have large economic scales; the provinces with higher per capita carbon footprint are mainly distributed in central cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and energy-rich regions and heavy chemical bases. Secondly, with the aid of GIS and spatial analysis model (GWR model), this paper had unfolded that the expansion of economic scale is the main driver of the rapid growth of carbon footprint. The growth of population and urbanization also acted as promoting factors for the increase of the carbon footprint. Energy structure had no considerable promoting effect for the increase of the carbon footprint. Improving energy efficiency is the most important factor to inhibit the growing carbon footprint. Thirdly, developing low-carbon economies and low-carbon industries, as well as advocating low-carbon city construction and improving carbon efficiency would be the primary approaches to inhibit the rapid growth of carbon footprint. Moderately controlling the economic scale and population size would also be required to alleviate carbon footprint. Meanwhile, environmental protection and construction of low-carbon cities would evoke extensive attention in the process of urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2007, the Chinese government has initiated the building of national eco-cultural protection areas (NECPAs), thereby embarking on a significant transformation of the model of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) protection in China. To understand the origin and outputs of this policy, this paper demonstrates the context of China's NECPAs. It proposes a conceptual NECPA framework that mainly features regional overall ICH protection. This is followed by an examination of the case of Xiangxi in Western Hunan as a pilot zone for China's eco-cultural protection. Xiangxi has performed much related work to promote NECPAs and made great progress in regional overall ICH protection. This insight suggests that there are benefits and costs associated with promotion of China's NECPAs and regional overall ICH protection. Despite the advantages of institutional innovation, the unexpected side effects actually undermine the success of plan implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the spatio-temporal transmission features and process of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mitigation strategies are of great practical significance to understand the development of COVID-19 and establish international cooperation for prevention and control. In this paper, the cumulative number of confirmed cases, number of confirmed cases per day and cumulative number of deaths, were used to compare transmission paths, outbreaks timelines, and coping strategies of COVID-19 in China and the US. The results revealed that: first, the COVID-19 outbreaks in both China and the US exhibited a 6-week initiation stage. In China, the COVID-19 erupted in late January. It lasted only a short period of time and was almost completely contained within 6–8 weeks. But the COVID-19 erupted in early March in the US and was still in the peak or post-peak stage. Second, in China, the COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan and spread to other regions of Hubei Province and then nationwide, exhibiting a cross("+")-shaped of spread with Wuhan city as the center. Importantly, the COVID-19 in China had a large concentration and there were no national outbreaks. In contrast, the COVID-19 in the US first spread through New York and the western and eastern coasts but has since emerged throughout the entire country. Third, the lack of emergency response planning in both countries in the early stage (about 6-week) hampered COVID-19 prevention. However, actively high-pressure prevention and control measures were used to basically control COVID-19 in early March in China. And then China has gradually resumed business and production activities. Unfortunately, the US government missed the best opportunity to contain the epidemic. Faced with the choice between economic recovery and coronavirus containment, the US removed the quarantine and restriction measures too early. The COVID-19 is continuing to spread in the country and blossom everywhere, still showing no signs of receding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban-rural transformation from dichotomy to integration is a gradual process. Like rural areas in many countries, Chinese rural society is experiencing a decline in all spheres due to depopulation, aging, lack of economic opportunity, and so on. Aiming at solving the serious rural issues, China proposed the implementation of a rural revitalization strategy and the promotion of an integrated urban-rural development for the first time in 2017. This proposal marks the transformation of the urban-rural relationship, and the integrated urban-rural development reflects a significant conceptual change. Researches on issues of rural decline are urgently needed to determine the most effective method for rural revitalization and development from the perspective of the urban-rural dynamics. In this context, this paper focuses on studying the theory, technology and management of rural revitalization and development. We construct a theoretical framework for urban-rural integration based on population-land-industry-right between the urban and rural systems, regarding land engineering for land capacity building as the technical support and the rural land system reform and reconstruction as the policy support for management. This research will provide theoretical support for the implementation of China's rural revitalization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Man-land relationship research, as the core of geographical research, runs through each development stage of Geography. Based on extensive literature review, this paper systematically generalizes the connotations, research development and contents of man-land relationship in China. (1) It explores the connotations and evolvement rules of man-land relationship in different social development stages in China, and finds that the core role of man-land relationship in geographical research has been strengthened continuously. Changing with times, its connotations have been considerably enriched by sustainable development and other notions, and so does its theoretical system. (2) It applies the bibliometric method to sketch out the basic research status of man-land relationship in China. Specifically, it quantitatively identifies the funding sources, major research teams and journals for publication. It finds that the funding sources show a diversification trend with national funding being the primary source of research grants. The most competitive research teams are mainly concentrated in the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and normal universities. Journals sponsored by The Geographical Society of China are most influential in publishing man-land relationship research. (3) As resources and environment are the fundamental carriers of man-land relationship, this study focuses further on the research on resource-environmental base of man-land relationship, and finds that the resource-environmental base research in China has gone through an evolution process from single factor perspective research to comprehensive multiple perspective research gradually. Research themes have also experienced similar changes from land, water, energy minerals or other single factor research to comprehensive factor research of resources and environment. Empirical study on national and regional development strategies is the feature of man-land relationship in China. More emphasis should be put on considering and following the changes in features of 'man' and 'land' and research on the impacts of new factors on man-land relationship in a developing and dynamic manner in the future. Particularly, we should pay more attention to research on the impacts of spatio- temporal changes in resource-environment absolute location on modes of man-land interaction, and to strengthening interdisciplinary research and systematic research on comprehensive techniques so as to advance the development of application of man-land relationship theories and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies investigating innovation networks shaped by large innovative enterprises (LI-ENTs), which play a very important role in intercity diffusion of technology and knowledge, are rather thin on the ground. Using location information of LI-ENTs in China, we performed a headquarter-branch analysis to generate intercity innovation linkages and analyzed the patterns and dynamics of the generated network of knowledge diffusion. Although the network covers 353 cities across China, its spatial distribution is extremely uneven, with a few cities and city-dyads dominating the structure of the network. Furthermore, intercity linkages of innovation within and of urban agglomerations, as well as their central cities, stand out. With regard to network dynamics, the economic development level, innovation ability, and administrative level of cities, as well as the geographical, institutional, and technological proximity between cities are all found to have a positive impact on intercity linkages of innovations, whilst the impact of FDI on the national distribution of Chinese innovative enterprises is negative. Most importantly, the status of cities within the urban agglomeration exerts a significant positive effect in relation to the innovative enterprises' expansions, which reflects that the top-down forces of government and the bottom-up forces of market function together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calculated spatial accessibility of all counties (city, urban district) in China with cost weighted distance method. Region divisions of county accessibility were conducted, and relation of traffic accessibility and population aggregation was discussed in this paper. The results indicated that county accessibility in China had mainly low values and a distribution structure of circle layer and reverse-to-natural gradient. There was an obvious correlation between county accessibility and population density in China. With these analyses, inner mechanisms of population migration in different traffic conditions and region types were revealed, and can provide useful proposals to regional planning, traffic planning and smart distribution of people in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of China’s energy supply security is not only the key problem which affects China’s rapid and sustainable development in the 21st century, but also the one which international attention focuses on. Based on the notable characteristic of spatial imbalance between energy production and consumption in China, this paper takes the evolution of China’s primary energy resources development(excluding hydropower) from 1949 to 2007 as the study object, with the aim to sum up the evolutive characteristics and laws of China’s energy resources development in the past nearly 60 years. Then, based on comprehensive considerations of coal’s, oil’s and natural gas’s basic reserves, qualities, geological conditions, production status, and ecological service function of every province, this paper adopts development potential index ( DP)to evaluate the development potential of every province’s energy resources, and divide them into different ranks. Conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) Generally speaking, China’s gross energy production was increasing in waves from 1949 to 2007. From the viewpoint of spatial patterns, China’s energy resources development has shown a characteristic of “concentrating to the north and central areas, and evolving from linear-shaped to “T-shaped” pattern gradually since 1949. (2) The structure evolution of China’s energy resources development in general has shown a trend of “coal proportion is dominant but decreasing, while oil and gas proportions are increasing” since 1949. (3) At the provincial scale, China’s energy resources development potential could be divided into large, sub-large, general and small ranks, four in all. In the future, the spatial pattern of China’s energy production will evolve from “T-shaped” to “Π-shaped pattern”. These conclusions will help to clarify the temporal and spatial characteristics and laws of China’s energy resources development, and will be beneficial for China to design scientific and rational energy development strategies and plans, coordinate spatial imbalance of energy production and consumption, ensure national energy supply, avoid energy resources waste and disorderly development, and promote regional sustainable development under the globalization background with changeful international energy market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, meteorological industry standard, daily mean temperature, and an improved multiple regression model are used to calculate China's climatic seasons, not only to help understand their spatio-temporal distribution, but also to provide a reference for China's climatic regionalization and crop production. It is found that the improved multiple regression model can accurately show the spatial distribution of climatic seasons. The main results are as follows. There are four climatic seasonal regions in China, namely, the perennial-winter, no-winter, no-summer and discernible regions, and their ranges basically remained stable from 1951 to 2017. The cumulative anomaly curve of the four climatic seasonal regions clarifies that the trend of China's climatic seasonal regions turned in 1994, after which the area of the perennial-winter and no-summer regions narrowed and the no-winter and discernible regions expanded. The number of sites with significantly reduced winter duration is the largest, followed by the number of sites with increased summer duration, and the number of sites with large changes in spring and autumn is the least. Spring advances and autumn is postponed due to the shortened winter and lengthened summer durations. Sites with significant change in seasonal duration are mainly distributed in Northwest China, the Sichuan Basin, the Huanghe-Huaihe-Haihe (Huang-Huai-Hai) Plain, the Northeast China Plain, and the Southeast Coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border area is not only an important gateway for inland opening-up, but also an important part of completing the building of a moderately prosperous society and optimizing national urban spatial pattern in China. Due to the location, natural resources endowment, and traffic accessibility, the urbanization speed is relatively slow in border areas. Therefore, it is a special area that needs to pay close attention to, especially under the background of the Belt and Road Initiative and China's regional coordinated development program. Based on the county-level data from 2000 to 2015, this paper tries to analyze the spatio-temporal pattern of urbanization in 134 border counties, and applies geographical detector method to study the driving forces of urbanization in border areas. Conclusions are as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2015, urbanization rate in border areas has been lower than the national average, and the gap has been widening. Some border counties in southern Xinjiang, Tibet, northeast of Inner Mongolia, and Yunnan, are even facing the problem of population loss. (2) In the same period, urbanization rate in the northwestern and southwestern border is low, while their urbanization rate grows relatively faster comparing with other border counties; urbanization rate in Tibet border is the lowest and grows relatively slowly; urbanization rate in the northeastern and northern border is slightly higher, but it grows slowly or even stagnates. (3) Transportation and industry are the important driving forces of urbanization in border areas, while the driving forces of market is relatively weak. And there are obvious mutual reinforcements among the driving forces, while the effort and explanatory power of resource force increases obviously after interaction. (4) Urbanization rate in the northwestern and southwestern border areas grows relatively fast, with industrial force and transportation force, market force and administrative force as the main driving forces respectively. Tibet border area has the lowest urbanization rate and growth rate, as the driving force of urbanization with strong contribution has not yet formed in Tibet. In the northeastern and northern border areas, the contribution of transportation force to urbanization is greater than other forces, and its interaction with market and industry has obvious effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial structures of China's Major Function Zoning are important constraining indicators in all types of spatial planning and key parameters for accurately downscaling major functions. Taking the proportion of urbanization zones, agricultural development zones and ecological security zones as the basic parameter, this paper explores the spatial structures of major function zoning at different scales using spatial statistics, spatial modeling and landscape metrics methods. The results show: First, major function zones have spatial gradient structures, which are prominently represented by latitudinal and longitudinal gradients, a coastal distance gradient, and an eastern-central-western gradient. Second, the pole-axis system structure and core-periphery structure exist at provincial scales. The general principle of the pole-axis structure is that as one moves along the distance axis, the proportion of urbanization zones decreases and the proportion of ecological security zones increases. This also means that the proportion of different function zones has a ring-shaped spatial differentiation principle with distance from the core. Third, there is a spatial mosaic structure at the city and county scale. This spatial mosaic structure has features of both spatial heterogeneity, such as agglomeration and dispersion, as well as of mutual, adjacent topological correlation and spatial proximity. The results of this study contribute to scientific knowledge on major function zones and the principles of spatial organization, and it acts as an important reference for China's integrated geographical zoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid development of air transportation, the airspace structure of the future will need to be flexible and dynamic to accommodate the increase in traffic demand. The corridors-in-the-sky has become a new technology to support the full exploitation and utilization of airspace resources. This paper proposes a method of designing corridor, identifying congestion state, and analyzing the influence of air routes' traffic flow. From this, we have reached a number of conclusions. (1) The congestion periods present the multi-peak "wavy" scattered distributions and the peaks back-end agglomeration characteristics in the whole day. (2) The congestion segments present the structural characteristics of unbalanced coverage and concentrated distribution to the crossing points. The corridors with high congestion level present as an italic "N-shaped" frame, which presents incomplete penetration of short segments. (3) For the temporal and spatial interaction, there are two types of congestion segments, and there are some common congestion periods in different congestion segments of multiple corridors. The high-density air route plays a relatively decisive role in corridor congestion, and the influence of two directions is unbalanced. This research can provide a basis for the dynamic evaluation of China's airspace resources and corridors construction in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haze pollution has become a severe environmental problem in the daily life of the people in China. PM makes a significant contribution to poor air quality. The spatio-temporal features of China's PM concentrations should be investigated. This paper, based on observed data from 945 newly located monitoring sites in 2014 and industrial working population data obtained from International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), reveals the spatio-temporal variations of PM concentrations in China and the correlations among different industries. We tested the spatial autocorrelation of PM concentrations in the cities of China with the spatial autocorrelation model. A correlation coefficient to examine the correlativity of PM concentrations and 23 characteristic variables for 190 cities in China in 2014, from which the most important ones were chosen, and then a regression model was built to further reveal the social and economic factors affecting PM concentrations. Results: (1) The Hu Huanyong Line and the Yangtze River were the E-W divide and S-N divide between high and low values of China. (2) The PM concentrations shows great seasonal variation, which is high in autumn and winter but low in spring and summer. The monthly average shows a U-shaped pattern, and daily average presents a periodic and impulse-shaped change. (3) PM concentrations had a distinct characteristic of spatial agglomeration. The North China Plain was the predominant region of agglomeration, and the southeastern coastal area had stable good air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the progress of population geography in China since the 1980s. The review results suggest that contrary to the common perception of its invisibility and marginalized status in the field, tremendous progress has been made in population geography in China since the 1980s. Population geographers have made significant contribution to the understanding of a wide range of population issues from geographical perspectives, including migration, urbanization, population distribution, the relationships between population, environment and resources, aging, marriage patterns, and migrants' crimes, although such contribution often did not appear in the geographical circle. Furthermore, population geographers have played an indispensable role in revitalizing population studies in China and forging its links to human geography, occupying an important position in this multi-disciplinary field. Population geographers' contribution to the areas of migration and urbanization research has been particularly significant, reflected in their leading roles in these areas' research. The paper demonstrates that as latecomers in the field after more than 20 years of isolation, population geographers in China have gone through a process of catching up and increasing engagement with developments in social sciences and increasing interaction with social scientists since the 1980s, and have benefited greatly from it; however, there is a tendency for population geography to be increasingly alienated from the main stream human geography, a phenomenon similar to but not exactly the same as Anglo-American geography in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The paper argues that population geography is only half way in the course to forge the links between population studies and human geography, and it needs to return to geographical sciences to strike a healthy balance between the field of population studies and that of human geography, and promote its further development in a multi-disciplinary field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion and upgrading of Chinese industries have accompanied with the spatial restructuring process across the country. This paper provides a literature review on China's industrial geography, paying special attention to industrial agglomeration and industrial clusters. The increasing industrial agglomeration and development of industrial clusters have been the prominent characteristics of dynamics of industrial landscape in China. The major driving forces of China's industrial geography include economic globalization, decentralization and regional competition and rebuilding of regional advantages. This paper concludes with a discussion of future research focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is distinguished by a prominent monsoonal climate in the east of the country, a continental arid climate in the northwest and a highland cold climate on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Because of the long history of Chinese civilization, there are abundant and well-dated documentary records for climate variation over the whole of the country as well as many natural archives (e.g., tree-rings, ice cores, stalagmites, varved lake sediments and corals) that enable high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstruction. In this paper, we review recent advances in the reconstruction of climate and extreme events over the last 2000 years in China. In the last 10 years, many new reconstructions, based on multi-proxies with wide spatial coverage, have been published in China. These reconstructions enable us to understand the characteristics of climate change across the country as well as the uncertainties of regional reconstructions. Synthesized reconstructed temperature results show that warm intervals over the last 2000 years occurred in AD 1-200, AD 551-760, AD 951-1320, and after AD 1921, and also show that cold intervals were in AD 201-350, AD 441-530, AD 781-950, and AD 1321-1920. Extreme cold winters, seen between 1500 and 1900, were more frequent than those after 1950. The intensity of regional heat waves, in the context of recent global warming, may not in fact exceed natural climate variability seen over the last 2000 years. In the eastern monsoonal region of China, decadal, multi-decadal and centennial oscillations are seen in rainfall variability. While the ensemble mean for drought/flood spatial patterns across all cold periods shows a meridional distribution, there is a tri-pole pattern with respect to droughts south of 25°N, floods between 25° and 30°N, and droughts north of 30°N for all warm periods. Data show that extreme drought events were most frequent in the periods AD 301-400, AD 751-800, AD 1051-1150, AD 1501-1550, and AD 1601-1650, while extreme flood events were frequent in the periods AD 101-150, AD 251-300, AD 951-1000, AD 1701-1750, AD 1801-1850, and AD 1901-1950. Between AD 1551-1600, extreme droughts and flood events occurred frequently. In arid northwest China, climate was characterized by dry conditions in AD 1000-1350, wet conditions in AD 1500-1850, and has tended to be wet over recent decades. On the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, centennial-scale oscillations in precipitation have occurred over the last 1000 years, interrupted by several multi-decadal-scale severe drought events. Of these, the most severe were in the 1480s and 1710s. In southwest China, extreme droughts as severe as those seen in Sichuan and Chongqing in 2006 are known to have occurred during historical times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sprawl has been a prevailing phenomenon in developing countries like China, potentially resulting in significant carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the transport sector. However, the impact of urban sprawl on transport CO2 emissions (TCEs) is still not fully understood and remains somewhat rudimentary. To systematically investigate how urban sprawl influences TCEs, we employ panel regression and panel threshold regression for 274 Chinese cities (2005–2020), and obtain some new findings. Our results affirm that the degree of urban sprawl is positively associated with TCEs, and this holds true in different groups of city size and geographical region, while significant heterogeneity is observed in terms of such impact. Interestingly, we find urban sprawl nonlinearly impacts TCEs—with an equal increase in urban sprawl degree, TCEs are even lower in cities with larger population size and better economic condition, particularly in East China. Furthermore, the low-carbon city pilot policy shows potential in mitigating sprawl's impact on TCEs. Drawing on our findings, we argue that to achieve the target of TCEs reduction in China by curbing urban sprawl, more priority should be placed on relatively small, less developed, and geographically inferior cities for cost-efficiency reasons when formulating future urban development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the main sites of urban residents' recreational activity in a mass leisure era, urban public recreational space (UPRS) is the primary component of urban public spatial systems. To satisfy current demands for the construction of livable cities and to meet the challenges of UPRS development in an urbanizing context, a scientific and systematic review of the latest developments in UPRS research is important for developing this field. Based on 1264 papers from the China National Knowledge Internet and the Web of Science from 1985 to 2018, this study examined research developments on UPRS in China. Through a quantitative literature analysis, we divided UPRS-related research in China into three stages of development: the starting period (1985–2000), the growth period (2001–2009), and the consolidation period (2010–2018). Next, we identified nine "hot" research topics on UPRS and reviewed developments in each of these. These topics were the classification of UPRS, spatial structure and layout, comprehensive evaluation, planning and development, the impacts of UPRS development, spatial-temporal evolution laws and mechanisms, space imagery features, sustainable utilization, and governmental decision making on UPRS. We also systematically reviewed the research methods and spatial scales used in UPRS-related studies in China. In response to deficiencies in existing research, we put forward several suggestions regarding future research: Chinese UPRS studies should focus on basic theoretical research; construct a new research system that accounts for Chinese characteristics, based on interdisciplinary and multilevel spatial integration; develop a humanistic philosophy and build management systems for UPRS that can lead to the development of world-class cities based on a global vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the process of transportation construction in China and investigates the developmental and spatial characteristics of transportation patterns. The principles of transportation evolution including stages, structures and orders are systematically analyzed. The investigation shows that China's transportation construction mode has upgraded from investment-driven scale expansion to uality improvement driven by efficiency and promotion. The rapid growth and development of transportation networks has significantly influenced economic and social activities in time and space. The resulting spatial convergence and dominance have improved distribution, promoting development of the socioeconomic structure. Regional development that has traditionally been based on corridors has changed into a networked mode centered on cities and metropolitan areas. The transportation pattern follows evolutionary principles. China has been moving from a hierarchical structure to a cascade structure. Simultaneously, the socioeconomic pattern has changed from an axis to a hub-and-spoke structure with a preliminary ordered network. As transportation networks grow, China's functional spatial structure and ordered network will gradually become stabilized and balanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in regional moisture patterns under the impact of climate change are an important focus for science. Based on the five global climate models (GCMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), this paper projects trends in the area of arid/humid climate regions of China over the next 100 years. It also identifies the regions of arid/humid patterns change and analyzes their temperature sensitivity of responses. Results show that future change will be characterized by a significant contraction in the humid region and an expansion of arid/humid transition zones. In particular, the sub-humid region will expand by 28.69% in the long term (2070-2099) relative to the baseline period (1981-2010). Under 2°C and 4°C warming, the area of the arid/humid transition zones is projected to increase from 10.17% to 13.72% of the total of China. The humid region south of the Huaihe River Basin, which is affected mainly by a future increase in evapotranspiration, will retreat southward and change to a sub-humid region. In general, the sensitivity of responses of arid/humid patterns to climate change in China will intensify with accelerating global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban-rural equalized development (URED) as a definite measure and operating model is beneficial to gradually eliminating the dual-track structure of urban-rural development, bridging the gap of urban-rural development, and creating harmonious urban-rural interactions. This paper aims to explore the status quo of URED in China at prefecture level, and to reveal the spatio-temporal patterns of URED and its differentiation regularity. The results show that: (1) China's URED level can be categorized into two parts, i.e., the eastern and the western, according to the 'HU Huanyong Line', presenting a pattern of 'east high and west low' and the URED level improves on the whole with the increase of distance from the line; (2) China's URED level can also be categorized into the northern and the southern parts according to 'Kunlun-Qinling-Huaihe Line', presenting a pattern of 'north high and south low', and the URED level reduces on the whole with the increase of distance from the line; (3) At the national level, China's URED has a significant trend of spatial agglomeration, the high and low URED regions tend to be adjacent, namely, the URED level presents obvious regional unbalance; (4) The five sub-dimension indicators of the URED level in the geographical space also reveal similar regional differentiation pattern, and in the aspect of space a decreasing trend is found in the URED level from the eastern (northern coast, eastern coast and southern coast), the northeastern, the central (the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River) to the western (northwest and southwest); and (5) China's URED at prefecture-level city can be divided into five types of differentiation areas. This study contributes to promoting the integrative cognition of the status quo of China's URED and can serve as a scientific reference concerning the decision-making of coordinating urban-rural development and of pushing forward new-type urbanization strategy in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovative cities not only constitute an important basis for innovation activities, but also play a strategically critical role in constructing an innovative country, producing new forms of urban development, and fostering urban sustainable development. Currently, China is marching toward the goal of establishing an innovative country by 2020, but in the start-up phase of this process of innovative city construction, the fundamental transition from factor-driven development to innovation-driven development is not being realized. As a result, a wide gap currently exists between China's innovative cities and the advanced innovative cities in developed countries. This paper argues that this necessary transition is being constrained by a series of bottlenecks in investment, income, techniques, contributions, and talents. The article takes 287 prefecture-level cities as its object of comprehensive assessment, developing a comprehensive assessment system for innovative cities and devising innovative monitoring system software in order to evaluate the current situation in China's innovative city construction. The analysis addresses four key aspects - namely, independent innovation, industrial innovation, living environmental innovation, and institutional innovation - as well as the spatial heterogeneity of the innovative city construction process. The results demonstrate that the level of innovation in Chinese cities is low, and the paper warns that building an innovation-oriented country will, as a consequence, be difficult. Some 87.8% of the cities studied maintained comprehensive levels of innovation that were lower than the national average. The level of comprehensive innovation in a city was found to have close and positive correlation with economic development. The level of the eastern region of China was, in particular, found to be significantly higher than that of the central and western regions. The levels of urban independent innovation, industrial innovation, environmental innovation, and institutional innovation showed consistent spatial heterogeneity, as did the comprehensive level of innovation in cities. In the future, the authors suggest, China should speed up the construction process in accordance with the basic principles of 'independent innovation, breakthroughs in key fields, market-oriented, regional interaction, talent-supported,' with the pur pose of building up Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as global innovation centers; and Nanjing, Suzhou, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Xi'an, Wuhan, Shenyang, Dalian, Tianjin, Changsha, Qingdao, Chengdu, Changchun, Hefei, and Chongqing as national innovation centers, by 2020. Through this process, China will finally build a national urban innovation network that includes 4 global innovative cities, 16 national innovative cities, 30 regional innovative cities, 55 local innovative cities, and 182 innovation-driven development cities, thereby contributing to the establishment of an innovative country by 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite rapid urbanization, more than 200 million people living in urban areas are still registered as 'agricultural' and are ineligible for most social benefits under China's Hukou (or household registration) system. This paper identifies the regional suitability for settling rural migrants in urban China based on three indicators (the degree of urgency, the skills and ability of the resettled community to adapt, and the ability of the government to support that resettlement). It takes 2008 government socioeconomic data from a county level into consideration. Spatial, statistical, and decision tree analyses, supported by SPSS, Geodata, and ArcGIS software, show that there are five separate population types, each with different degrees of suitability. These include highly suitable region, region suitable for settling migrants to outside regions, region suitable for settling migrants from outside regions, region with moderate potential, and unsuitable region. This paper suggests that regional policies for settling rural migrants are meaningful, since the five regions are distributed relatively separately. Due to the suitability for different bodies across regions, equal treatment should be applied to both the native migrants and that across counties and provinces. Furthermore, demolishment of the social welfare discrimination adhered to Hukou system and equalization of basic public services will be of more practical significance than the so-called settling rural migrants actively and steadily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An international consensus is emerging around the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by the Chinese government, with a growing number of countries seeing it as a way of jointly exploring new international economic governance mechanisms. Meanwhile, with the crisis of neo-liberalism, economic globalization has arrived at a crossroad. In particular, incessant voices speak out against globalization, making the quest for a new way of promoting global development a major challenge. In this context, more and more political elites and scholars consider that the BRI opens up a possible new globalization path, amongst which inclusive globalization warrants exploration. On the basis of a brief analysis of the course and mechanism of global economic expansion and the limitations of neo-liberal globalization, along with the putting into practice of the BRI, this paper outlines some of the core features of inclusive globalization, i.e., inclusive growth with effective and efficient government regulation; inclusive infrastructure development; inclusive development paths chosen nationally that suit national conditions; inclusive participation; and cultural inclusiveness. Although these features are not sufficient to characterize fully inclusive globalization, they do identify some directions for future research, and provide elements of a discursive construction of the BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data for the period 1950-2050 compiled by the United Nations Population Division together with methods including spatial autocorrelation analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and the standard deviational ellipse, to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of population and urbanization in the 75 countries located along the routes of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, to identify future population growth and urbanization hotspots. The results reveal the following: First, in 2015, the majority of Belt and Road countries in Europe, South Asia and Southeast Asia had high population densities, whereas most countries in Central Asia, North Africa and West Asia, as well as Russia and Mongolia, had low population densities; the majority of countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa had rapid population growth, whereas many countries in Europe had negative population growth; and five Belt and Road countries are in the initial stage of urbanization, 44 countries are in the acceleration stage of urbanization, and 26 are in the terminal stage of urbanization. Second, in the century from 1950 to 2050, the mean center of the study area’s population is consistently located in the border region between India and China. Prior to 2000, the trajectory of the mean center was from northwest to southeast, but from 2000 it is on a southward trajectory, as the population of the study area becomes more concentrated. Future population growth hotspots are predicted to be in South Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia, and hotspot countries for the period 2015-2030 include India, China, Pakistan and Indonesia, though China will move into negative population growth after 2030. Third, the overall urban population of Belt and Road countries increased from 22% in 1950 to 49% in 2015, and it is expected to gradually catch up with the world average, reaching 64% in 2050. The different levels of urbanization in different countries display significant spatial dependency, and in the hundred-year period under consideration, this dependency increases before eventually weakening. Fourth, between 2015 and 2030, urban population hotspots will include Thailand, China, Laos and Albania, while Kuwait, Cyprus, Qatar and Estonia will be urban “coldspots.” Fifth, there were 293 cities with populations over 1 million located along the Belt and Road in 2015, but that number is expected to increase to 377 by 2030. Of those, 43 will be in China, with many of the others located in India, Indonesia and the eastern Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]