Social-Ecological System (SES) is a collection of social subsystems, ecological subsystems, and the interactions between them. It is a common difficulty of cross-multidisciplinary fields to predict the changes in human-earth systems and support the relevant management decisions through clarifying the interaction between the ecological environment and human society. The framework of ecosystem service provides a new perspective for revealing the transmission and the role of various elements in SES. Taking ecosystem service as an entry point, this study follows the context of "Ecological System Supply-Ecological Coupling Human Intervention-Promoting Social Development". And the research progress and trends of existing coupling simulation methods related to SES are summarized. This article argues that in the conduction research of the ecosystem services cascade, the academic cognition has emphasized the "impact of natural ecosystem to social-economic system" rather than the "interaction and feedback mechanisms for ecosystems and social systems". In terms of research content, scholars have trsnsformed their focus from "changes in ecosystems and environmental effects" to "social-economic system and the effect on different groups". The focus of research has shifted from the theoretical inquiry of the "internal mechanism and power mechanism" to the applied practice of "optimization and regulation strategy" among the coupling systems. Future research of SES should strengthen the simulation of social-ecological coupling with equal emphasis on nature and humanities. It is the focus of breakthroughs to comprehensively understand the internal interactions and feedback of complex systems.

Carrying capacity, a concept entrenched in the natural resources and environmental field for nearly two centuries, has continually evolved to address the conflicts and sustainability of the human-nature relationship. This paper introduces an analytical framework for understanding carrying capacity within the context of the human-nature relationship. It systematically reviews the progression of international carrying capacity studies, analyzes global research trends, and compares these with Chinese studies, highlighting key research directions in China. Historically, carrying capacity traces its roots to (neo)Malthusian theories. Its evolution spans four distinct stages: resource carrying capacity (since the 1800s), environmental carrying capacity (since the 1970s), ecosystem carrying capacity (since the 1990s), and natural system carrying capacity (since the 2010s). The concept of carrying capacity varies widely across global disciplines and even within the same discipline, showcasing diverse applications. Carrying capacity has sparked controversy due to its connection to political economy theories and factors such as technological progress, market mechanisms, and spatial and temporal constraints. Therefore, it is imperative to engage in a restrained and explicit discussion and application of carrying capacity. Presently, China's carrying capacity studies align closely with the international community, capitalizing on regional-scale studies employing a holistic and systematic human-nature relationship approach. However, there is an opportunity for enhancement in terms of global-scale perspectives and the integration of natural and social sciences theories and methodologies. This paper proposes fostering innovation and application in carrying capacity research within the Chinese context. This entails integrating various disciplines and theories, exploring scale effects and mechanisms, utilizing model-data fusion and integration, applying case studies in various spatial units and typical zone types, and improving policy systems and institutions.

The rise of global neoliberalism and reflexive governance has driven the political flows at the global level. Policy movements thus have shown new dynamics and characteristics. Political science, within the sphere of rational formalism, whose dependence on traditional frameworks, as well as the neglect of geographic mobility in sociology, have limited the explanatory power of existing concepts. The geographical orientation and spatial correlation of policy mobility offer the possibility of a theoretical breakthrough by introducing human geography in the policy research. Based on the literature in geography, this study traces the process of resembling rolling conversation through transdisciplinary research on policy mobility, and further clarifies the conceptual connotations, commitments, and research starting points of policy mobility. As an effective conceptual tool for understanding how policymaking operates, how policy knowledge and models flow, and how these mobilities shape places in the context of neoliberal globalization, policy mobility seeks to clarify the geographic positions, power relations, spatial characteristics, and social and geographical formation processes that are involved in the movements of policies. Policy mobility thus becomes a core field in the social sciences exploring "ideas in motion" and "production of mobilities". In addition, the theoretical orientation and research elements in the study of policy mobility also enhance the explanatory powers of literature from other disciplines to this subject. To a certain extent, this study compensates for the lack of empirical analyses of ideas and knowledge in mobility studies and insufficient research on power theory in human geography. It provides an important research field for applying geography in transdisciplinary research.

Economic globalization has reshaped the world economy's spatial pattern while simultaneously changing the context for developing economic geography theories. This study revisited the changing features of economic globalization and investigated its geographical implications. Next, it summarized the new trends in economic geography studies in response to the changing economic globalization. Lastly, this study proposed a research agenda for domestic economic geography studies by combining the requirements of global trends and national strategies. The main findings include the following: The scale of geographical integration during economic globalization keeps shrinking, leading to a pattern of regionalization. The driving forces of economic globalization have gradually shifted from cost-saving to innovation. Accordingly, the benefits of economic globalization will be reallocated between developed and developing countries. The trade-offs between efficiency and resilience alter the global value chain, shifting outsourcing from off-shoring to re-shoring or near-shoring. The changing economic globalization has witnessed the rising effects of geographical distances, institutions, and resilience on increasing the inequality of the global economic geography. In economic geography, the scalar structures shifted from the global-local to the global-national-local. The relational networks evolved toward a multi-level, multi-agent, and multi-scale one. The role of the nation has been revisited. More attention has been paid to geopolitical hotspots. Overall, economic geography's institutional, cultural, relational, and evolutionary turns exhibit an emerging trend to convergence. In such a setting, domestic economic geography should find a new balance between global trends and national strategies. This study proposed seven research issues, including: (1) the practice of the Belt and Road and the pattern of inclusive globalization; (2) the economic geography of dual circulation; (3) the paths and resilience of regional development in response to the global production network restructuring; (4) the evolution and competitiveness of industrial clusters; (5) the building of multi-level innovation systems; (6) the regional sustainable development within the global environmental governance system; and (7) the impact of geo-economics on national economic security and interests.

Governing the country is a matter of routine and people-oriented strategy, and improving the people's well-being is "the greatest thing in the country". At present, China is facing the challenge that the national well-being declines with the economic development. This study is based on the national large-scale regional space and adopts the survey data collected in 2020 by the "China People's Livelihood Survey" research group of the Development Research Center of the State Council. The data cover 31 provincial-level regions (hereafter provinces) across the country, including 164 cities at prefecture-level and above, and the number of valid samples is 26370. The research adopts the methods such as the trend surface analysis and spatial analysis of hotspots and coldspots to construct the spatial differentiation and agglomeration pattern of urban residents' perceptions of living conditions in the 31 provinces; the multi-level regression model is used to explore the multi-dimensional influencing factors of perceptions of living conditions at the individual and city levels. The findings are as follows: (1) The differentiation of the living improvement, living condition evaluation, future life confidence and perceptions of living conditions of urban residents in China shows a pattern of high in the west and low in the east, and high in the south and low in the north. (2) The living conditions of urban residents show the characteristics of "continuous agglomeration", and the evaluation of living conditions shows the characteristics of "coexistence of massive agglomeration and scattered distribution", and shows the characteristics of high in the south and west and low in the north and east together with the future life confidence and overall perceptions of living conditions. (3) On average, the highest and lowest values of life improvement, urban residents' living condition evaluation, future life confidence and perceptions of living conditions are also located in the west and east respectively. (4) The influencing factors at the individual level are reflected in gender, age, education level, employment status, household registration status and satisfaction evaluation of urban public services. Among them, satisfaction evaluation of urban public services is reflected in government services, social security status, fair law enforcement status, food safety status, housing status, education status, medical services, transportation status, environmental status, etc. (5) The city size has a significant impact on the perceptions of living conditions of urban residents. Compared with large cities, the perceptions of living conditions of residents in small and medium-sized cities is higher, while that of residents in megacities is lower. In addition, the positive impact of satisfaction evaluation of public services in megacities on the perceptions of living conditions of urban residents has been weakened. Specifically, it mainly weakens the positive correlation strength of medical status evaluation and traffic status evaluation on the well-being effect. The research provides a practical and theoretical reference for the research, judgment and governance direction of China's national perceptions of living conditions.

According to the strategic direction of urban-rural integration and rural revitalization, the spatial reconstruction of rural settlement system is the spatial organization foundation of future urban-rural integration development. This paper focused on the hierarchical scale and spatial organization characteristics of the rural settlement system. It comprehensively revealed the evolution process and regional characteristics of rural settlement systems of 111 administrative units in Guangdong province from 1990 to 2020, and discussed their evolutionary mechanism and spatial optimizing and reorganizing regional modes. The results show that: (1) There were significant regional differences in the hierarchical scale distribution of the rural settlement system in Guangdong. The patches of rural settlements show the characteristics of concentric aggregation and distribution centered on the geometric barycenter of each administrative unit. The spatial distribution pattern of the rank cumulative size coefficients of rural settlement system was "high in the southwest, but low in the northeast" and "high in coastal areas, and low in the inland". The decreasing region of the rank cumulative size coefficient was concentrated on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary and coastal areas of eastern Guangdong, while the increasing region was mainly distributed on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary. (2) The influencing factors such as natural background, economic development, urbanization development, transportation and location, institutions and policies jointly drove the development and evolution of the rural settlement system. Rural settlement system of urban areas is small in scale in the mature stage of urbanization, which will gradually die out and integrate into the city. Driven by urbanization, industrialization and policies, rural settlement system of suburban areas has experienced survival of the fittest and maintains a stable scale, but the mixed distribution of urban and rural land makes the spatial organization of rural settlements increasingly loose. Driven by the continuous outflow of production factors, exurb rural settlements appear to be "hollowing out". The villagers returning to build new houses and the lack of homestead exit mechanism have led to a continuous and stable growth in rural settlement scale, and their spatial distribution is characterized by more peripheral diffusion. Rural settlement system with poor location in mountainous areas develops slowly under the support of policies, and the aggregation characteristic along the transportation line is significant. (3) Facing the integrated development of urban and rural spaces, four models of spatial optimization and reorganization of rural settlement system are proposed: urban-rural integration development, dual-core-driven development, central place hierarchical system development, and pan-center chain-connecting cluster development.

With the increasing global warming over the past three decades, the climatic zones and eco-geographical regions characteristics in China have changed. This study used the climatic data of 641 meteorological stations over the past three decades (1991-2020), as well as the high-precision data of eco-geographical elements to optimize the eco-geographical regions in China. The study updated the map of eco-geographical regionalization in China (2023) and increased the scale to 1:4000000. The new map divided China into 11 temperature zones, 22 dry and wet regions, and 50 natural regions. The results show that compared with eco-geographical regionalization in 2007, the overall pattern of eco-geographical regions in China has not changed significantly over the past three decades, but the boundaries of temperature zones, dry and wet regions, and eco-geographical regions (natural regions) in some areas have changed to some extent. Firstly, the boundary change of temperature zones is more obvious in the east. Particularly, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the northward shift of the temperature zone boundary between the northern subtropical and the mid-subtropical zones is obvious. Secondly, the boundary between dry and wet regions has changed, and that between semi-arid and arid regions in the north of the second-order landform step has shifted slightly to the west. In addition, the boundary between semi-arid and sub-humid regions in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has shifted slightly to the southeast, reflecting a slight expansion of the scope of semi-arid regions. Finally, boundary changes in natural regions in some areas vary greatly. This study can provide a macro-regional framework for guiding ecological conservation and restoration in different regions.

Yangtze River Delta, as a pivotal region where the coastal axis and the riverside axis intersect, is characterized by complexity, diversity and typicality of the spatial structural evolution. Therefore, understanding its evolutionary pattern and constructing a theoretical model has important theoretical significance and application value. According to the core-periphery structure theory, the Yangtze River Delta can be divided into a core area that is centered on the Taihu Lake Basin and remaining periphery areas. However, due to its location at the junction of the river and the sea, a gateway area has emerged within the periphery area, thus forming a spatial structure that is composed of the core area and the gateway area. In the early period, the core area was centered on Suzhou, and a five-tier central place structure became well established since ancient times. However, the gateway area kept evolving and underwent three main changes: in ancient times, the gateway area was centered on Yangzhou, forming the canal gateway cluster; in the modern age, the gateway area became centered on Shanghai, forming an offshore gateway cluster; and in the contemporary era, the gateway area became centered on Ningbo, forming an oceanic gateway cluster. Their corresponding navigation capacities were 500 t, 10,000 t, and 200,000 t, respectively. Therefore, in addition to the existing central place theory and seaport spatial structure theory, the spatial structure evolution of the Yangtze River Delta presents a new evolutionary model: namely, the fusion evolutionary model of central places and port gateways. According to this model, in the early period, it was an endogenous evolution of the core area's spatial structure, which was in line with Christaller's hexagonal structure; while in modern times, the evolution of the spatial structure of the Yangtze River Delta was no longer dominated by central places, but rather, it became dominated by the gateway areas, making the k = 3 market principle turn into the k = 4 transportation principle. In this way, the Yangtze River Delta provides a globally exemplary empirical case for validating the process test of the central place theory, analyzing functional attributes of urban centrality and gateway, and refining the relevant theoretical model.

Coastal wetlands, a pivotal realm of sea-land interactions, exhibit profound ecological sensitivity. Increasingly shifting climatic patterns and intensifying anthropogenic interventions pose formidable challenges to the sustainable utilization of these invaluable assets. Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) represent a subtle, yet crucial conduit connecting the natural environment and human society, thereby playing a pivotal role in the holistic management of coastal and oceanic domains. This study employed the theoretical framework of CESs involvement in the sustainable management of coastal wetland resources, and integrated multi-sourced social media data with the MaxEnt model to conduct an empirical investigation focused on nine Chinese coastal wetlands which are listed in Ramsar Convention. The results reveal the following: (1) From the mean level of each CES, the coastal wetlands with the strongest capacity for biodiversity, historical, educational, and recreational service respectively was the Guangxi Shankou Mangrove Wetland (0.222), with a high level area of 61.218 km², accounting for 27%; Fujian Zhangjiangkou Mangrove Wetland (0.336), with a high level of 9.037 km², accounting for 17%; Tianjin Beidagang Wetland (0.092), with a high level of 70.981 km², accounting for 11%; and Fujian Zhangjiangkou Mangrove Wetland (0.350), with a high level of 9.037 km², accounting for 17%. (2) Delineating the spatial differentiation pattern of each CES, the high-level zone for biodiversity service in Shankou Mangrove Wetland is predominantly clustered within the eastern and central regions. A high level of historical service was more significant in the western and eastern Fujian Zhangjiangkou Mangrove Wetland. Regarding educational service in the Tianjin Beidagang Wetland, high-level areas were clustered in the western sector. The high-level recreational service areas of the Zhangjiangkou Mangrove Wetland were mainly clustered in estuarine area. (3) Assessing the contributions of environmental variables to CESs, it became evident that distance to nature reserves, land-use type, and distance to bird habitats emerged as the principal factors steering the divergences in biodiversity service patterns. Simultaneously, distance to infrastructure, roads, and bird habitat proximity significantly influenced the historical, educational, and recreational services within the nine coastal wetlands, albeit to varying extents. (4) In line with both regional and national strategies, this study categorised sustainable resource management approaches for the nine coastal wetlands into three distinct modes: ecological restoration, ecological and cultural rejuvenation, and ecological and industrial integration, thereby presenting innovative paradigms for the research and implementation of comprehensive governance within China's coastal and oceanic domains.

Nowadays, the disordered expansion of urban land has become an important problem on China's urbanization. Urban population growth is widely recognized as a crucial driver of urban spatial expansion. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the spatiotemporal differentiation characteristics of urban expansion and understand the relationship between urban population size and urban expansion. Based on Landsat TM/OLI remote sensing images and socioeconomic statistics data, this paper identified the urban land in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), China, between 1990 to 2020. This was achieved by combining object-oriented automatic extraction and human-computer interaction visual interpretation. The study then examined the spatiotemporal differentiation characteristics of urban expansion at difference scales using expansion speed, expansion difference index, kernel density analysis and spatial autocorrelation. Finally, the relationship between urban population size and urban expansion in different regions was investigated using the Two-way Fixed Effects Model. The main results are as follows: (1) After 2015, urban expansion speed decreased significantly in different parts of the YREB. Moreover, the time series characteristics of urban expansion in the cities of the upper and middle reaches were found to be different from those in the lower reaches. The upper reaches had higher expansion speed than the middle reaches after 2010. Spatially, the urban expansion in the YREB shows significant spatial heterogeneity. High-speed expansion areas have shifted from east to west, and the differences in urban land scale between the upper-middle and the lower reaches tend to converge. Urban expansion in the lower reaches exhibits strong spatial dependency, while in the middle-upper reaches, there is no significant spatial autocorrelation. (2) The relationship between urban population size and urban expansion differs significantly among different regions. The upper reaches show a negative correlation, while the middle-lower reaches exhibit a "U-shaped" relationship. This indicates that there is no obvious over-expansion of population size in the upper reaches, whereas there is in the middle-lower reaches. Residents in the middle reaches have demonstrated a higher sensitivity to urban comfort and quality of life. Finally, the study provides regional policy recommendations, aiming to offer scientific references for targeted urban policies and promote high-quality urban development.

The long historical development process has shaped rural settlements in China with distinct regional characteristics that profoundly reflect the unique geographical environment, history, culture, and lifestyle of each region. Therefore, the comprehensive regionalization of Chinese rural settlement characteristics on the basis of the regional differentiation pattern of rural settlement characteristics is an fundamental research for preserving and transforming the characteristics of rural settlements with adaptation to local conditions. It is also one of the long-term topics in human geographical studies. This study constructs an index system for comprehensive regionalization from four aspects of rural settlement characteristics: earthscape, settlement, architecture, and culture. On the basis of systematic field research results and multisource data, a comprehensive evaluation of rural settlement characteristics is conducted, recognizing the regional differentiation pattern of Chinese rural settlement characteristics. On the basis of its results, a comprehensive regionalization of Chinese rural settlement characteristics is proposed using existing regionalization studies on physical geography, agricultural geography, cultural geography, landscape of rural settlements, and traditional dwellings as references. This regionalization is developed in accordance with the principles of regional conjugacy, synchronicity, coordination of comprehensiveness and dominant factors, and relative consistency. We use the qualitative and quantitative methods of category mapping, spatial cluster analysis, geographical correlation analysis, dominant factor analysis, and overlapping analysis. In the proposed regionalization, China is divided into 12 regions and 82 subregions in accordance with rural settlement characteristics. The 12 regions are as follows: (1) Northeast China, (2) North China, (3) the Loess Plateau, (4) East China, (5) Central China, (6) Fujian-Hakka, (7) Lingnan, (8) Sichuan-Guizhou, (9) Yunnan, (10) Northern Border, (11) Northwest China, and (12) the Tibetan Plateau. The characteristics of rural settlements in each region are also summarized. By comprehensively reflecting on the similarities and differences of the characteristics of Chinese rural settlements at different scales, the proposed regionalization is capable of providing scientific support to the regionalized and classified preservation of characteristic rural settlements.

The border issue holds significant importance in China-India relations, persistently hampering their development. Existing scholarship tends to interpret the causes of China-India border disputes through lenses of colonization, history, security and third-party involvement. However, these approaches overlook the complex power dynamics within the state which regards the border as the tools. To comprehensively explore the new-round China-India border dispute since May 2020, this paper cites the thought and methods of critical geopolitics, applies discourse analysis of geopolitical imaginations, and proposes a novel perspective that analyzes the border dispute in terms of the synergetic role of multiple actors. The findings indicate that: (1) The border dispute can be considered as tools or resources for multiple actors to achieve their goals or interests through jointly constructing geopolitical discourses and imaginations related to border disputes; (2) Based on Indian mainstream media news from April 2020 to March 2021, the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress Party, the military, Ministry of External Affairs and the business and social elites in India have utilized the border conflicts as tools and resources to pursue political and economic interests through three forms of geopolitical imagination: paranoid style, intimate metaphor and moral resistance, thereby exacerbating the dispute; (3) The border dispute from May 2020 to February 2021 is regarded as a continuous process exploited by Indian multi-actors, which means that the conflicts, like the confrontation in Pangong Lake, occurred when the multi-actors' interests were not yet secured, but tend to subside once their interests are largely met. In this regard, China should rationally understand the periodic and persistent nature of China-India border disputes and actively build complementary and cooperative structures between the two countries through positive methods like "appreciative inquiry" which may effectively mitigate or resolve border disputes.

The deciduous broad-leaved forests are a typical vegetation in the eastern monsoon region of China. This work utilizes the fine classification data of surface cover of composite elevation information to extract the upper limit of montane deciduous broad-leaved forests. We examine the distribution characteristics of the upper limit and its factors influencing the montane deciduous broad-leaved forests by constructing cloud models of the upper limit height. Moreover, this work constructs multiple linear regression models (with the upper limit of deciduous broad-leaved forests at multiple scales (regional, mountain, and local) as the dependent variable and the influencing factors as the independent variables), and a weight coefficient cloud model of influencing factors. Furthermore, this work compares and analyzes the scale changes and spatial differences of the effect of influencing factors on the upper limit of deciduous broad-leaved forests. The sensitivity differences of different montane deciduous broad-leaved forest upper limits to climate factors are also explored. Results show that: (1) The upper limit height of the deciduous broad-leaved forest in the eastern monsoon region of China first increases and then decreases from north to south. The expectation (Ex), entropy (En), and hyper entropy (He) of the distribution height cloud model are 965.77-1993.52 m, 132.80-514.09 m, and 27.58-205.34 m, respectively. (2) Significant scale changes can be observed in the impact mechanism of the upper limit of deciduous broad-leaved forests in the mountainous areas: at the regional scale, the dominant factor for non-climatic and climatic forest lines is mountain base elevation, with contribution rates of 71.36% and 44.06%, respectively. The climatic forest line is more affected by temperature than by precipitation. Meanwhile, non-climatic forest line is more affected by precipitation than by temperature. At the mountain scale, the upper limit of deciduous broad-leaved forests in the mountainous areas is mainly influenced by January average temperature and annual precipitation, and the role of January average temperature in most mountainous areas is larger than that of annual precipitation. On a local scale, except for the Dabie Mountains, the mountaintop effect has the highest weight on the upper limit of deciduous broad-leaved forests in each mountainous area (Ex: 44.84%-68.15%). In addition, the expectation weight of annual precipitation (Ex: 15.45%-41.86%) is higher than that of the January average temperature (Ex: 4.3%-9.97%). (3) The deciduous broad-leaved forests in the Dabie Mountains and Taihang Mountains are most sensitive to annual precipitation (Ex: 40.24% and 18.95%; He: 0.96% and 1.89%). Lvliang Mountains are the most sensitive to January average temperature (Ex: 8.31%; He: 1.09%). Exploring the spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of the upper limit of deciduous broad-leaved forests in the mountainous areas can promote the study of differences in altitudinal belt response to climate change and provide theoretical support for the construction and management of regional ecological security monitoring systems.

Geographic environment has exerted profound effect on the origin and evolution of world civilizations. Chinese civilization budded and evolved on a vast and varied territory between Yellow and Yangtze rivers, and has been thus deeply affected by the local geographic conditions. But it has been hardly seen to explore the origin of Chinese civilization from the perspective of geography. On the basis of integrated scientific investigation in China's north-south transitional zone, geographic analysis of Neolithic culture distribution and interpretation of pre-Qin and Qin-Han ancient literature, the conclusions can be drawn as follows: (1) The early agriculture pattern of "Rice in the south and millet in the north" and the ancient astronomy formed before about 8000 years were the background for Chinese civilization. The geographic distribution of Neolithic Dadiwan, Yangshao, Majiayao and Longshan culture sites showed that the earliest civilization elements appeared in the upper reaches of West-Hanshui and Weihe rivers, with a spatial trend of spreading toward east. (2) The West Qinling Mts. region, located between the Tibetan Plateau and the Jialing River, especially its inner Chenghui and Xili basins, being characterized by superior natural conditions and resources, is closely related to the three major mysteries concerning the origin of Chinese civilization, i.e., the main areas of the ancient Di and Qiang ethnic groups, the location of ancient Kunlun Mts., and the site of Dayu water control. (3) The Qin ethnic group stepped onto the stage of history by assisting Dayu in water control, and in their history of multiple ups and downs, built the grand water control projects in ancient China, such as the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, Zhengguo Canal, Lingqu Canal, etc., and pioneered the time of "Books with the same text" and "County system", forming the main line of the origin and early evolution of Chinese civilization. (4) The West Qinling areas are still basically a "blind zone" in archaeological and historical research. It is highly recommended to conduct systematic and in-depth archaeological and historical research in this region so as to realize the breakthrough in the exploration of the origin of Chinese civilization as soon as possible.

Improving rural sustainable development capability from the perspective of perceived resilience is crucial to comprehensively promote rural revitalization. Based on the theoretical connotation of rural perceived resilience, this paper discusses the operational logic of rural perceived resilience from the level of "pressure-state-perception-behavior-response", and constructs an indicator system from the perspective of "state-perception" and "behavior-response" based on the data of farmers' questionnaires in 12 villages in 3 towns, Qufu city, Shandong province in 2020. While evaluating the rural perceived resilience, we use the structural equation model to demonstrate the mechanism of rural perceived resilience. The results show that: (1) Rural perceived resilience refers to the ability of rural system to use rural resources to predict, absorb and adapt to rural change, and promote the restructuring of rural elements and the transformation of production and lifestyle, depending on its level of resource elements; (2) The diversified response of social networks and the state of production and construction have become the main components of rural perceived resilience, while the response path of livelihood diversification and material capital enrichment has not been fully formed; (3) Whether the way the rural system responds to the pressure can promote the transformation of traditional villages to modernization depends on the farmers' perception and behavioral decision-making. The better the farmers' perception of the rural state, the more inclined they are to actively use resources to promote the restructuring of rural elements, and fundamentally realize the transformation and development of villages; (4) We should improve the rural perceived resilience by optimizing spatial governance, promoting the transformation from "state-perception" to "behavior-response", and accurately regulating rural "pressure".

The construction of urban human settlements is an important content to promote the high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and it is also a comprehensive way to realize the coordination of human-earth relations in the watershed. This paper constructs an urban human settlements evaluation index system based on the perspective of "production-living-ecological" function, and comprehensively uses the Grey Relation Analysis-Technique for Order Preference By Similarity To Ideal Solution (GRA-TOPSIS) method, spatial Markov chain, Geographically weighted Random Forest (GWRF) and other methods to analyze the dynamic evolution and influencing mechanism of urban human settlements in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) from 2011 to 2020. The results show that: (1) The urban human settlements in the YRB generally exhibits the positive spatial distribution characteristics of "high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the north", forming a high-value area of the human settlements dominated by Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Qingdao and Jinan, and a low-value area of the urban human settlements dominated by cities of Tongchuan, Zhongwei and Jiayuguan. (2) The dynamic evolution of the urban human settlements in the YRB has significant spatial interaction and dynamic transfer convergence. There is a certain degree of "self-locking" effect of the transfer path at the level of the human settlements. The level of the human settlements usually only transfers between adjacent levels, and the probability of cross-level transfer is small. (3) The human settlements are the result of the comprehensive effects of economic level, environmental quality and social resources. The economic level dominates, while consumption level, air quality, and transportation resources are the main factors that affect the level of urban human settlements. (4) GWRF model can effectively explain the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of influencing factors in the local geographic space. It is expected to become a more effective explanatory tool in the field of human settlements research. This paper deepens the theoretical methods of human settlements research and provides a scientific reference for promoting the construction and high-quality development of the human settlements in the YRB.

The interaction between the energy system and human society is the main focus of energy geography research, encompassing multiple dimensions such as economy, politics, environment, and culture. The uneven distribution and spatial flow of energy, as well as its environmental effects, have attracted the attention of geographers, who can also analyze energy issues through unique perspectives and research methods. The study of energy geographies has emerged due to economic activities and geopolitics in the energy system on the earth's surface and has entered a new prosperous stage due to the challenge of global climate change and discussions on social equity. Due to the different stages of development, energy and environmental issues, and academic atmospheres between China and foreign countries, scholars have different focuses on perspectives and research characteristics. Foreign energy geography research started from the study of resource distribution and economic geography, and has gradually formed an academic community under the traction of energy and environmental issues. In the long-term development process, diverse research topics such as energy production networks and energy flows, energy geopolitics and energy security, energy transitions and climate governance, energy justice and energy poverty have emerged, which can provide many useful references for Chinese scholars. Since the mid-20th century, China's research on energy geographies has roughly formed the tradition of "world resource geography" and "sectoral economic geography", and has continued to carry out practical application research based on national strategic needs. Since the beginning of the 21st century, research on carbon emissions and residential energy consumption has gradually been in line with international standards. In recent years, under the background of emphasizing the carbon peaking and neutrality goals, energy transition, and energy security, energy geography has ushered in new development opportunities. However, there are also internal and external challenges. To build the subject of "energy geography", we need to make innovations in theory and methods, consultation and think tank research, popular science communication, and talent team construction based on inheriting valuable traditions.

Sedimentary DNA has been widely used in the studies of climate change, ecological function, and environmental archaeology, because it can provide biological dynamic information with temporal dimension in geographical environment. However, the surface processes and impact factors of sedimentary DNA within the catchments are still not fully understood, which limits the accuracy of sedimentary DNA data interpretation. In this study, topsoil DNA concentrations at the Buha River catchment in northwest Qinghai Lake, which was suitable for DNA preservation, were firstly measured based on domestic new sedimentary DNA laboratory. Meanwhile, soil physical and chemical compositions, including grain size, elements, loss on ignition and TOC, were determined. Subsequently, the abiotic factors which had impact on spatial distribution of topsoil DNA concentration were analyzed by combing the status related with climate, vegetation cover, and land use at the Buha River catchment. The results showed that the average concentration of topsoil DNA at the whole catchment was 0.91 μg/g, with the higher values in the middle reaches of the Buha River and its tributary Jilmon River, while the lower ones in the lower reaches near the Qinghai Lake. In addition, topsoil DNA concentrations at the catchment were positively correlated with the contents of clay and organic matter, but negatively correlated with sand content and the intensity of weathering and leaching. Besides, high vegetation cover and frequent grazing activities contributed to the enrichment of the topsoil DNA, while strong weathering and leaching under warm and wet environment, river transportation and crop cultivation reduced the concentration of the topsoil DNA. All the above results provide a scientific basis for an understanding of the deposition processes of sedimentary DNA and their impact factors in the Buha River catchment, which are helpful for revealing sedimentary DNA compositions and evolution processes of ecological environment and human-environment relationship in regions west of the Qinghai Lake.

Population equilibrium development is the valuable guide and ideal pursuit of China's population policy and has significant implications for regional equilibrium development. However, there are still misunderstandings about interpreting population spatial equilibrium, and its scientific connotation requires further explanation and promotion. Population spatial equilibrium gives the meaning of space based on population equilibrium, which can be understood as the spatial equilibrium of population distribution. When other factors remain unchanged, the net migration between regions is zero; that is, the total number of immigrants of each region are equal to its total number of emigrants to achieve the dynamic equilibrium of population distribution among regions. A migration stream will exist between regions in an equilibrium state. Migration and equilibrium can coexist, but the population distribution between regions remains dynamic and stable, and the population spatial distribution structure will not change. Specific conditions cause the inherent stipulation of population spatial equilibrium. The equilibrium point will also change with economic, social, resource, and environmental changes. Equilibrium is a relative concept derived from the instantaneous concept; instantaneous equilibrium is an ideal state in the long term. The population spatial distribution is constantly changing from disequilibrium to equilibrium and from equilibrium to disequilibrium. This paper describes a theoretical model of multi-regional population spatial equilibrium based on the regional wage rate, human climate suitability index, urban crowding degree, and distance. Using the Yangtze River Delta as an example, the study analyzes the equilibrium population spatial distribution under current economic, social, environmental, and population conditions. The study found that the population of the study area is concentrated along the river and the coast, mainly in the south of Jiangsu, along the coast of Hangzhou Bay, and the canal from Nanjing to the north of Jiangsu. By comparing the equilibrium population with the current distribution, the Yangtze River Delta can be divided into quasi-equilibrium, attractive, and repulsive areas. The attractive areas, such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, have large population agglomeration potential. In contrast, the repulsive areas are mainly located in northern and western Anhui, northern Zhejiang, and other areas close to the quasi-equilibrium area. This suggests that under free migration, the population will further concentrate in the areas of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and southern Jiangsu.

New quality productive forces are advanced productivity that is freed from traditional economic growth mode and productivity development paths, features high-tech, high efficiency and high quality driven by technological innovation in the new era. From the geographical perspective, developing new quality productive forces is the ability to coordinate new human-earth relationships in the Anthropocene, where human activities dominate, promote the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature, transform green waters and mountains into gold and silver mines, drive high-quality development and layout, and comprehensively implement the construction of a beautiful China. Geography focuses on studying the emergence and development process, formation and evolution characteristics, spatial organization patterns, and regional differentiation laws of new quality productive forces driven by innovation, so as to promote the human-earth system to enter the ecological civilization stage of highly coupled and harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Compared with traditional industries, the evolution of new quality productive forces has experienced a fluctuating process of evolution from low-quality productivity to medium-quality, medium-high-quality, and then to high-quality productivity, accompanying the emergence of continuous technological revolutions and industrial revolutions. They exhibit basic characteristics such as high coupling, deep integration, super correlation, rapid iteration, and spatial differentiation. The pivotal directions propelled by the drive of new quality productive forces for geographical research encompass the following: re-coordinating human-earth relationships to foster novel harmonious coexistence conducive to the realization of a beautiful China; restructuring industrial systems to align with the new quality productive forces, facilitating profound industrial transformation; reallocating geographical elements to establish a novel mechanism that harmonizes natural, humanistic, and data-driven components; reshaping spatial pattern to engender a fresh spatial paradigm wherein new quality productive forces and traditional industries are integrated deeply; rebuilding ecological environment to leverage them as green engines of productivity, thus enhancing the intrinsic value of ecological capital; revitalizing geographical science through the refinement and updating of theories and methods, thereby constructing a modern disciplinary landscape of geography.

Resilience study has long been a focal point in various fields of geography, social science, urban studies, and psychology. Recently, resilience study from multiple disciplines has scrutinized at individual scale. As an important behavior in daily life of human beings, travel behavior is of spatial dependence, spatio-temporal dynamics, and individual heterogeneity. Moreover, how to understand interaction between travel behavior (demand) and traffic supply and their dynamics is a fundamental question in transport studies when transport systems encounter unexpected disturbance. Based on fundamental theories from multiple disciplines including ecology, traffic engineering, and psychology, this paper refines the definition of travel behavior resilience. Also, this paper proposes a conceptual theoretical framework of travel behavior resilience based on dynamic equilibrium characteristics of traffic supply and demand. In general, travel behavior presents three stages of variations, namely, dramatic reduction, rapid growth, and fluctuation recovery, which has been helpful to capture travel behavior resilience triangle. Then we construct a corresponding evaluation methodology, which is suitable for multi-scale and multi-dimensional perspectives. We emphasize that the evaluation of travel behavior resilience should be process-oriented with temporal continuity or capture inflection points of travel behavior. Using multi-source big data such as mobile phone signaling data and smart card data, this paper offers empirical studies on travel behavior resilience, and explores its spatial heterogeneity and group differences. With the location-based analysis, we confirm that people show the greater travel behavior resilience at places where people are engaged in various socio-economic activities. With the group-based analysis, we find that age, socio-economic attributes of mobility groups significantly affect travel behavior resilience. Overall, travel behavior resilience can be one pillar and also offer geographic perspectives to broaden resilience studies. In future, the study of travel behavior resilience on multiple scales and perspectives can explore spatial heterogeneity of traffic re-equilibrium, transport modal differences, and then contribute to urban spatial structure studies. Indeed, the study of travel behavior resilience can provide scientific and technological support for urban management and resilient city construction.

On the basis of analyzing urban SDGs monitoring and evaluation, this paper expounds the conceptual connotation of geospatial enabled monitoring and its differences from traditional statistical-based monitoring for urban SDGs. Meanwhile, through document comparison and analysis, the development and latest progress of urban SDGs monitoring and evaluation has been revealed, suggesting a transformation of urban SDGs monitoring and evaluation from traditional statistical-based monitoring to geospatial enabled monitoring. In addition, this paper systematically analyzes the research progress and current situation of geospatial enabled monitoring from the aspects of monitoring index system, geospatial data acquisition for monitoring, and monitoring ideas and methods. Results showed that the number of urban SDGs indicators is too large and the relationship is complex, with the lack of clear core and key indicators, which need to be optimized and improved according to the specific situation. The lack of standard, public and directly available data requires the development of appropriate methods for spatial data generation and multi-source data utilization, and the establishment of data products for urban SDGs monitoring and evaluation. Besides, the lack of scientific and efficient monitoring and evaluation methods is also one of the main problems facing the current urban SDGs studies. Finally, through the analysis of current challenges in urban SDGs monitoring, future research in geospatial enabled monitoring for urban SDGs are proposed, including the establishment of scientific and efficient monitoring and evaluation methods, the establishment of a standardized and unified monitoring index system, the construction of data production sharing and monitoring and evaluation knowledge service platform, and the strengthening of the application research of big earth data and related disciplines support for the monitoring and evaluation of urban SDGs.

The demand for urban and rural living services exhibits multilevel differentiation, and currently, there has been little research addressing the issues of multilevel demand differences and supply imbalances between urban and rural areas. This paper proposes and empirically proves the "Different configurations - Equivalent value" path of urban-rural living services equivalence based on the equivalence theory and the people-centered philosophy. Using four types of urban and rural spaces serving as the research objects, we primarily used the kernel density estimation and Densi-Graph threshold determination method to identify the urban core, urban-rural fringe, market town, and the countryside. Based on field questionnaire data of urban and rural residents, we construct a multilevel difference evaluation system for urban and rural living services; hence, the study aims at quantitatively describing the demand differences and shortcomings of living services for urban and rural residents. Our research shows that there are multilevel differences in the demand preference for living services between urban and rural residents, with resident diverse demands gradually converging from the urban core to the rural areas. Rural residents have more pressing demands for public basic services, and countryside-biased infrastructure investment can efficiently promote urban-rural equivalence. The degree of equivalence of urban and rural living services is low, with a multilevel gradient gap between urban and rural areas in the level of living services, manifested in the urban core > market town > urban-rural fringe > the countryside, and an urban-rural gap of 28 times. The gradient gap between the urban core and market towns is the largest and is the main component of the urban-rural gap. Improving the production and living environment in the countryside and implementing differential allocation between urban and rural areas are important means of achieving urban-rural equivalence. This paper provides a quantitative description of multilevel demand differences and supply shortcomings between urban and rural areas and proposes equivalent paths and suggestions for urban and rural living services; thus, the paper offers a scientific basis and methodological reference for the study of multilevel supply and demand relationships and equivalent development between urban and rural areas.

In China, territory development and urban-rural integration have become important ways to promote rural revitalization. However, Japan has relevant policies and rich experiences that are worth summarizing and referencing. This article examines Japan's socio-economic background and changes in the legislation and regulation of rural revitalization. Further, it summarizes policies and practices related to territory development and urban-rural integration, referring to the implementation mechanisms of rural revitalization to demonstrate the implications for China. The findings demonstrate that after World War II, urban-rural Japan shifted from competition to integration, and rural areas became important for ecological and environmental protection, cultural exchanges, sightseeing, and leisure. Through decades of exploration, Japan has formed a rural revitalization mechanism based on territory development and urban-rural integration, with multiple factor flow and spatial expansion functions. The main experiences in Japan provide a solid basis for rural revitalization through economic growth, legal systems, government-led planning and support measures, policy orientation transformation from external to endogenous rural development, balanced regional development with focused sectors, and IT-driven urban-rural value development and exchanges. Noteworthy problems include excessive dependence on centrally driven investments in the early stages, a lack of independent rural revitalization plans, and poor coordination between local and central authorities. In a relatively mature stage of economic development, with a unified national governance system, China has also formed effective rural revitalization policies and practice models. Japan's instructive experiences include improving territory development planning systems, accelerating specified legislation, developing innovative models of business management and rural governance, and smoothing urban-rural information exchanges.

With the rapid advancement of science and technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a significant force driving scientific development and social progress. In the field of geographical sciences, the application of AI technology is deepening, bringing revolutionary changes to the collection, analysis, and application of big data and spatio-temporal information, and demonstrating innovative and application potential in multiple aspects. This paper systematically reviews the development and application of AI in geographical sciences, providing a detailed introduction to the development trajectories of various AI fields such as machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, planning systems, and large AI models, as well as their applications in geography. It discusses the problems and challenges of AI applications in geography and provides an outlook on the future development of interdisciplinary research between AI and geographical sciences.

The quality of development is crucial for China to comprehensively build a socialist modern country. Drawing on related concepts of development in quality, the paper conceptualizes a city in high-quality development and proposes a stylish framework with five dimensions to evaluate it, in line with the New Development Philosophy, which is composed of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing. Using the methods of spatial analysis, club convergence test and spatial Durbin model, the paper identified the spatial evolution of the quality of city development in China and associated determinants during 2005-2020. On average, the level of city development quality increased by 48.4% during the study period. The number of cities at low-level of quality in development decreased dramatically, accompanied by a profound transformation in the spatial pattern of city development quality, which presents significant spatial aggregation. The spatial imbalance remains for cities with different development qualities, and the challenge is still huge to narrow the gap. With significant role differentiation among cities, a "pioneering-catching up" pattern emerges, and the 11 pioneering cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have become the pioneers of high-quality development in China. Key determinants for cities achieving high quality in development includes urbanization level, public investment, digital economy, environmental regulation and economic growth, while there is inverted U-shaped relationship between city size and development quality. To achieve the goal of high-quality city development in the new era, it is necessary to focus on the development of cities in the central and western regions, making full use of the demonstration role of pioneers, promoting quantitative growth, strengthening environmental regulations, cultivating the new forms of digital economy, and optimizing the city size hierarchy.

Characteristic villages are important carriers of rural industry revitalization and urban-rural leisure tourism. Although a large amount of characteristic rural resources and their tourism potential have been constantly exploited, the spatial synergistic relationship of different types of characteristic villages remains unclear. This paper analyzes the differentiation pattern, spatial linkage, and function complementary features of national characteristic villages, which include 6819 traditional villages, 7586 forest villages, 1199 key rural tourism villages, 1652 ethnic minority villages, and 487 famous villages with Chinese history and culture. The tourism development potential of characteristic villages is evaluated based on the identification of agglomeration areas of characteristic villages. The collaborative optimization zoning of rural tourism space is proposed based on the location matching degree analysis between characteristic villages and tourism facilities. The results show that the characteristic villages in China are densely distributed in the east and sparsely in the west, and the agglomeration regions are characterized by coastal areas (near the East China Sea), and riverside areas (along the Yangtze and Yellow river). The formation and development of characteristic villages are the results of the interaction of multiple factors, among which, the urbanization rate of county, annual precipitation, population density, and tourism industry scale index have significant effects. The high potential areas for tourism development of Chinese characteristic villages have formed a rhombic distribution pattern, which takes the central cities of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration as strategic fulcrums. This paper divides the whole country into priority development area, characteristic mining area, resource integration area, collaborative improvement area, and optimization guidance area, which points out the direction of spatial pattern optimization and coordinated development of characteristic rural tourism.

The second millennium's explosive growth in tourism has led to more large-scale tourism development projects being started, which has prominently sped up the gentrification trend in the tourism industry. Traditional villages and towns in the suburbs of big cities have become the forefront of the occurrence, development, and exploration of tourism gentrification due to their rich historical and cultural heritage resources, favorable geographic conditions, and enormous tourism consumption market demand. This study takes the Zhujiajiao Acient Town as an example and uses field observation, in-depth interviews, and other techniques based on the "rent gap" theory and Lefebvre space production theory to investigate the stage, traits, process, and mechanism of tourism gentrification in this ancient town. The new urbanization development path of traditional villages and towns can be explored through this study, which has significant theoretical and practical implications. The Zhujiajiao Ancient Town has undergone significant changes after the gentrification of tourism in terms of population, housing price, material landscape, social and cultural atmosphere, etc. The study found that over time, Zhujiajiao experienced the embryonic stage of tourism gentrification, the primary stage of tourism gentrification, and the development stage of tourism gentrification. In the process of space production, the practice of space is represented by the landscape shaping of tourism gentrification space (the material space), the spatial representation is represented by the planning and restriction of tourism gentrification space (the institutional space), and the representational space is represented by the perception of the activity under the influence of tourism gentrification (the social spiritual space). Tourism-related gentrification in Zhujiajiao Ancient Town is primarily driven by three factors: power, capital, and social forces. They collaborate closely to build a multi-level gentrification mechanism for the travel and tourism sector, both independently and in relation to one another.

Under the background of rapid global warming, the hydrological regime in the Arctic river basins, where permafrost is widely developed, has changed significantly. These changes not only altered the local ecological environment, but also had far-reaching impacts on the global climate system and socio-economy. Therefore, the study of hydrological processes in Arctic river basins has become a hot-spot issue at the forefront of the international scientific community. Based on a thorough review and critical analysis of domestic and international literature, this paper systematically summarizes the research findings and latest progress on the spatial and temporal changes of the runoff of major Arctic rivers, as well as the driving mechanisms behind these variations. In addition, the patterns and spatiotemporal differences in runoff changes between Eurasia and North America were analyzed in detail. Furthermore, the direct and indirect effects of precipitation changes (e.g., precipitation amount, rain/snowfall fractions) and permafrost degradation on Arctic runoff are thoroughly examined. Despite significant progress in data accumulation and scientific understanding in current Arctic hydrological research, considerable challenges persist, such as the scarcity of ground observations and the difficulty of quantitatively assessing the interactions among climate, snow/permafrost, and hydrological processes. Thus, establishing a robust observation network in the Arctic river basins and developing cold region hydrological models with account for the Arctic specifics are fundamental for gaining in-depth insights into the rapid changes occurring in the Arctic hydrological system. This is also crucial for addressing the risks of water-related disasters and enhancing water resource management in the Arctic region.