Interpreting the humanistic space of urban-rural interface using consumption behaviors

The Urban-rural interface is a transitional geographic space, bordering between urban and rural areas and experiencing intensive flows of material, energy and information, in terms of goods, money, people, data and ideas. This interface can be viewed as a physical space exhibiting climatic, topographical, soil, hydrological and bioecological properties, and more importantly, as a humanistic space exhibiting social, cultural and economic properties. Consumption behaviors are humanistic properties that can be viewed as an integration of social, cultural and economic conditions and interactions in a specific human geographic space. Interpreting the humanistic aspects of border areas using consumption behaviors is a type of macro space interpretation stemming from a microcosmic perspective. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey from 1166 households in Gongyi City, Henan Province, China, and used interactive geographic detectors to explore the humanistic aspects of the urban-rural interface using residents' consumption behaviors. Our results revealed that the spatial patterns delineated by consumption behaviors, a humanistic property influenced more by other humanistic properties, were similar to the spatial patterns delineated by land use, a humanistic property influenced more by other physical properties. However, there were some differences or inconsistencies between the delineated humanistic and physical spaces, indicating that social and economic developments are not occurring at the same pace in places where similar physical conditions prevail. Our results also revealed that differences in consumer consumption behaviors among residents of the urban-rural interface are influenced by complex interactions of economic, social, and spatial factors. We concluded that emphasizing the optimization of humanistic spaces, in addition to the improvement of physical spaces, is essential in enhancing the sustainable development of urban-rural interface. Our results showed that interactions between these factors are promoted by the additive effects of the urban-rural interface and these interactions in turn strengthen the interpretation power of these factors. Such synergistic effects are most evidently reflected by the interactions between spatial factors and economic and social factors.