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.

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.

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 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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The statistical definition of migration in China is attached with its unique household registration (hukou) system, the migrants so defined are also called the floating population. A new analytical paradigm is needed to deal with the complexity of sub-flows in the floating population. The paper classifies five types of the floating population in census context by referring the UN migration criteria, and constructs a new paradigm for analyzing the floating population in China. As a particular provincial-level region (hereafter province) is concerned, the inflow and outflow people belong to different hukou groups balanced by their own counter-flow, namely, inflow vs back-inflow (both have no hukou of the province), outflow vs back-outflow (both have hukou of the province). With the clue of inter-census migration cohort, a sub-flows model is constructed to identify the inter-provincial migration based on the retention rate. The annual retention rate of the inter-provincial migration cohort from 2010 to 2020 is 88.7%. Based on the provincial retention rates, an all-increment table of population change by province in China is made by modelling simulation. The paper surfaces new characteristics of population growth and inter-provincial migration: (1) Provincial population changes are divided into five types, among which the inflow-leading increase type is mainly found in municipalities and the eastern coastal areas, while the fertility-leading increase type and the fertility-overriding increase type are mainly in the western provinces and the agricultural provinces in the middle, and the outflow-overriding decrease type and the outflow-leading decrease type in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and the northeastern provinces. (2) The mechanical growth of population can be divided into four types: rapid increase, equilibrium, outflow-overriding decrease and dual decrease (both hukou and non-hukou migration are negative). A "W"-shaped mechanical growth rate profile from northwest to southeast is found with the equilibrium belt standing in its middle. (3) Population floating is divided into three types. The counter-flows are highly-correlated: inflow rate and outflow rate are negatively correlated while the inflow-back-inflow and outflow-back-outflow are significant positively correlated. The analytical paradigm and model of floating population in China can be further extended to the study of "citizenship seeking migration" including international migration, and even further to identity migration including migrations with status changing such as enrollment, employment and marriage.

In the course of urbanization in mountainous and hilly regions, the rapid and disorderly expansion of urban areas has led to environmental degradation of natural landscapes, the gradual erosion of cultural heritage inherent to landscapes, and an intensification of the conflict between human activities and environmental preservation. This dilemma has emerged as a prominent challenge confronting the sustainable development of cities. The integrated advancement of mountain management, water governance, and urban planning emerges not only as a pragmatic imperative for new urbanization and the realization of a visually appealing China, but also as a pivotal pillar supporting urban spatial restructuring and the pursuit of green, low-carbon transformations. This study advocates for a comprehensive exploration of the reciprocal influences and interactions between urban spatial expansion and natural landscapes, necessitating the adoption of an integrated research pattern. This pattern systematically scrutinizes the organizational dynamics and mechanisms of interaction among urban physical spatial configurations, natural ecological networks, and the structure of landscaping and cultural spaces. The spatial pattern termed "mountain-water-city" encapsulates the symbiotic relationships forged through the interplay and adaptation between urban artificial environments and natural landscape environment, with an emphasis on the holistic fusion of urban spaces, natural elements, and cultural components. Building upon this conceptual foundation, the present paper endeavors to elucidate the theoretical contexts and practical imperatives underlying the investigation of the "mountain-water-city" spatial pattern. It delves into the conceptual nuances of this spatial pattern, elucidating its constituent elements, hierarchical scales, and formation mechanisms from a comprehensive perspective integrating spatial, natural, and cultural interactions. Subsequently, it examines the analytical framework and future prospects for research on the "mountain-water-city" spatial pattern, which should center on analyzing its spatiotemporal processes, identifying key controlling factors, and discerning its evolutionary patterns. Furthermore, it should elucidate the driving mechanisms, organizational models, and holistic impacts shaping the formation and evolution of the "mountain-water-city" spatial pattern, as well as explore governance strategies and regulatory pathways conducive to fostering the symbiotic development of this spatial pattern.

Thermokarst lakes, as prominent thermokarst landscapes in permafrost regions, significantly influence ecological vegetation, hydrological processes, and carbon cycling in the Arctic. However, the current understanding of the distribution characteristics and change mechanisms of Arctic thermokarst lakes remains limited. To address this gap, this study employs meta-analysis and mathematical statistical methods to investigate the distribution patterns and dynamics of thermokarst lakes. The results reveal a pronounced spatio-temporal heterogeneity in the distribution and changes of Arctic thermokarst lakes. These variations are closely associated with permafrost conditions, lithology, soil types, subterranean ice content, and soil temperatures. Most Arctic thermokarst lakes are located in continuous permafrost area, where subterranean ice content exceeds 10%, average soil temperatures are above -4°C, and there are specific vertical soil temperature gradients. The change trends of thermokarst lakes differ under various environmental conditions. Generally, the development of thermokarst lakes follows three stages: initial formation, mid-term expansion, and late-stage contraction, all influenced by hydrological and thermohydrological balances. As critical indicators of permafrost degradation and climatic environmental changes, thermokarst lakes profoundly impact carbon cycling, hydrological processes, and ecological environmental changes within the Arctic ecosystem.

Shanghai is one of the most significantly urbanized cities in modern China, and its urban spatial pattern and urban area have changed dramatically since its opening up (1843-2020). Reconstructing and analyzing the expansion process of Shanghai has great importance toward attaining a deeper understanding of China's urbanization. This study collected multi-source and multi-precision urban spatial data such as old urban maps, topographic maps of the Republic of China (1912-1949), declassified images from the U.S. military (KeyHole), and remote sensing data (Landsat), and reconstructed a long time series of urban built-up areas, and finally examined the evolution process and driving forces of the spatial structure of Shanghai. The results show that: (1) Since 1843, the area of urban built-up areas increased tremendously, with a total expansion of about 1453 times, and the expansion rate and expansion intensity also changed drastically. (2) The overall change trend of compactness is decreasing, and the fractal dimension shows a certain cycle. (3) The center of gravity of the built-up area in different periods showed a trend of developing first to the north and then to the south, and the most important direction of expansion was southwest and west by south. (4) The urban change was complicated by multiple driving factors: the natural location established the prerequisite for the development of Shanghai as a port city; as the most fundamental driving force, social change and policy determined the main direction of urban development at different stages; the spatial agglomeration of industry and trade is the direct cause of the formation and expansion of cities; population migration also injected new impetus into the urbanization; transportation, as an urban infrastructure, has been used to strengthen the connection between the city's external and internal regions. This study clarifies the processes and mechanisms of urban expansion in Shanghai and provides historical knowledge and scientific support for a deeper understanding of urban change and the evolution of the human-land relationship. Moreover, the ways in which a set of general data with a wide coverage and high resolution can be used for the study of the spatial and temporal processes of urban expansion on a centennial scale are discussed, which is quite instructive for understanding the pre-remote sensing era and developing longer time series.

Soil erosion is influenced by various factors, such as land use and climate change. The Wangmaogou watershed, as a typical area for soil and water conservation in the hilly and gully regions of the Loess Plateau, has implemented a series of measures since the 20th century, including the Grain for Green Project. This study evaluated the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of soil erosion intensity in the watershed in the years of 2010, 2015, and 2020 using the CSLE model. It also studied the situation of land use/cover change (LUCC) to analyze the spatial distribution patterns of land use and the responses of soil erosion in different time periods, thereby verifying the effectiveness of the soil and water conservation measures. The results revealed that from 2010 to 2020, the annual average soil erosion modulus in the study area decreased by 0.11 t hm^-2 a^-1, indicating a slight improvement in overall soil erosion conditions. However, the proportion of slight erosion decreased by 5.56%, while severe erosion increased by 4.02%, with the higher erosion zone mainly distributed in the northern, central, and northwestern parts of the watershed. Compared to the year 2010, soil erosion conditions in the watershed were greatly relieved in 2015 due to the decrease of rainfall and restoration of vegetation, but rebounded in 2020 resulting from the extreme rainfall events and declining vegetation cover quality. From 2010 to 2020, there were significant conversions between grassland and farmland in the northern and northeastern parts of the watershed. The decline in grassland quality resulted in a higher average soil erosion modulus compared to farmland, at 13.69 t hm^-2 a^-1 and 12.99 t hm^-2 a^-1, respectively. This study would contribute to figuring out the relationship between soil erosion in typical small watersheds of the Loess Plateau, extreme climatic events, and land use changes, providing scientific data support for future efforts to improve soil and water conservation benefits and mitigate soil erosion risks.

The mass elevation effect (MEE) is a thermal phenomenon associated with uplifted landmasses, leading to spatial differentiation in water-heat assemblies that profoundly affect the geo-ecological pattern and environmental evolution of mountains and regions. This study developed a ground-air temperature regression model to simulate the temperature distribution on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau using MOD11C3 data and meteorological observations, analyzing the spatiotemporal diversity and dynamic evolution of the MEE across the entire plateau and internal landform regions were estimated and analyzed from 2000 to 2019. Employing the Geodetector method, the research uncovered the genesis patterns of the MEE at different scales, revealing an average MEE of 4.13 ℃ with a pronounced centripetal pattern from northeast to southwest and decreasing elevation-dependent characteristics that were significantly negatively correlated with longitude and latitude. The average MEE of the landform regionalization was 5.06 ℃, indicating a stronger internal spatial differentiation within landform regionalization. Seasonally, the MEE was slightly stronger in the dry season, with distinct patterns of weakness in the northwest and strength in the southeast during the dry season, and the opposite in the wet season. The MEE showed an asymmetric linear enhancement pattern under global climate change, with an inclination rate of 0.26 ℃/10 a, presenting a "ring-like" characteristic of strong in the east and weak in the west and decreased from the hinterland core to the edge. The weak areas were significantly enhanced, whereas the strong areas showed small variations. The MEE fluctuation magnitude and change rate were both stronger in the dry season than in the wet season, with the dry season primarily contributing to MEE changes. The spatial and temporal patterns of the MEE were influenced by scale effects, with latitudinal zonation at the macroscale and microtopographic features at the regional level. Moreover, NDVI and barometric pressure were found to enhance the seasonal spatial variations of the MEE. This comprehensive analysis provides deep insights into the mountain science and responses to climate change.

Sustainable development is a significant scientific issue of global concern. Geography, as a comprehensive discipline focusing on the coupled relationship between human activities and the natural environment, provides systematic research and solutions for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, there is currently a lack of comprehensive reviews. This paper summarizes the theoretical framework and research progress of Geography supporting the SDGs and explores its future key research areas. This article indicates that: (1) Geography, in conducting integrated research on human-nature systems and serving regional and global sustainable development processes, has innovatively proposed and developed theoretical frameworks such as social-ecological systems, pattern-process-service-sustainability, metacoupling, and Classification-Coordination-Collaboration. These research frameworks include elements of human-environment system interconnections, process coupling, spatial coupling, and systematic regulation oriented towards SDGs, forming a comprehensive theoretical framework supporting sustainable development research in Geography, also referred to as "sustainable geography theoretical framework". (2) Geography has made positive progress in supporting the United Nations SDGs research in areas such as multi-source data acquisition, localization of indicator systems and multi-scale progress assessment, analysis of inter-target linkage mechanisms, and SDG achievement pathways. Geography provides important theoretical and methodological support for SDG research. (3) Geography and sustainable development-related research mainly focus on climate-ecological crisis response, sustainable utilization of food-energy-water resources, regional development and planning, human well-being and social governance, and the construction of SDG assessment indicators and databases. (4) In future research, there is a need to innovate and develop sub-disciplines of Sustainable Geography, optimize the construction of SDGs indicator systems, develop SDGs assessment and decision-making models, strengthen artificial intelligence geography, deepen research on human-nature system coupling, and promote regional and global sustainable development in the process of advancing innovation in the discipline of Geography.

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. It assesses developmental capacity under varying preferences and subsequently delineates strategic blueprints using an integrated "point-axis-area" approach. The findings reveal that: (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, the Harbin-Beijing-Guangzhou corridor and the corridor along the Yangtze River standing out. (4) Strategic points progressively converge along key axes, while 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 prioritizing development, status quo maintenance, and conservation, respectively. The outcomes of this research offer a technical foundation and theoretical guidance for the pursuit of high-quality territorial space development and the vision of a picturesque landscape.

In the post-Cold War era, the global landscape has evolved towards multipolarity, and the geostrategic behavior of states has gradually shifted away from the traditional binary model of "balancing-bandwagoning" to a more flexible and diverse one called hedging strategy, and it is the current strategy that the countries surrounding the South China Sea have adopted in response to China's actions. By introducing the hedging theory of international relations, we seek to understand, from a geopolitical perspective, how these geopolitical entities employ hedging strategies. First, an analytical framework is constructed to theorize hedging strategy, consisting of driving factors, mediating factors, and strategic choices. Second, the hedging intensity is assessed quantitatively via the geopolitical risk and the relative power index of the countries surrounding the South China Sea. The evolution of it is presented through a bivariate visualization method, and the various hedging patterns are classified by utilizing the quadrant diagram. Finally, both the theoretical framework and quantitative outcomes are validated by analyzing the strategic practices of the study region. We conclude that: (1) the geopolitical risks of the countries surrounding the South China Sea have been "tending to be stable but difficult to achieve" since the beginning of the 21st century, with significant heterogeneity among these countries. The evolution of state relative power exhibits a fluctuating trend, closely linked to U.S. intervention. (2) The hedging intensity of the countries surrounding the South China Sea results from the interaction between geopolitical risk and state relative power, leading to three distinct forms, represented by Vietnam and the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia and Brunei, respectively. (3) The intrinsic logic of the hedging strategies of these countries can be seen as a strategic cognition shaped by their threat awareness and national strategic orientation. This cognition then orientates diverse hedging approaches that guide these countries in applying either cooperative or competitive tools. By understanding the intensity and nature of the strategic hedging by the countries surrounding the South China Sea, we aim to provide a unique vantage point for China's regional governance in the South China Sea.

The empowerment of spatio-temporal information fully releases and amplifies its value as a critical factor of production, meeting the need of the era to support the high-quality development across diverse economic and social sections. Currently, foundational research into the empowerment of spatio-temporal information remains undeveloped, predominantly constrained by the perception that empowerment is synonymous with application. The lack of comprehensive understanding and investigation into its mechanism results in ambiguity in both the connotation and extension of spatio-temporal information, as well as the intrinsic mechanism of its empowerment. Such vagueness restricts the empowerment in a scientific and efficient manner. There is an immediate necessity to delineate its fundamental essence, mechanisms of empowerment, and operational modes clearly. To address the aforementioned challenges, this paper defines the foundational concept, explores the rich connotation, and outlines the essential characteristics of spatio-temporal information. It posits that entropy serves as the physical foundation for the empowerment of spatio-temporal information, with entropy decrease acting as its inherent driving force. The empowerment of spatio-temporal information utilizes spatio-temporal information as the medium, driven by the negative entropy flow, marked by the transformation of inherent uncertainty. This process enhances both the system's structure and performance through the dynamic interplay among humans, machines and the external environment. This paper describes three empowerment modes of spatio-temporal information: taking spatio-temporal information as the in-itself information for direct empowerment, employing it as the being-itself information for indirect empowerment, and converting it into spatio-temporal knowledge for enhanced empowerment. Lastly, this paper investigates the pathways through which the empowerment of spatio-temporal information contributes to the high-quality development of natural resources.

Understanding the spatial segregation and social integration of immigrants and local residents is highly significant in summarizing the historical experience of Chinese modernization. Additionally, it serves as a crucial foundation for promoting a people-centered new urbanization, fostering spatial fairness and justice, and achieving common prosperity. However, current research on residential spatial differentiation primarily focuses on analyzing the spatial distribution characteristics, differentiation patterns, and indicator calculations of various groups, and has limited investigation into social integration issues. This paper explores this social and spatial differentiation phenomenon in Hangzhou, usingthe initial residence registration information and mobile phone signalling data to analyze the characteristics and mechanisms of living space differentiation. Additionally, this article combines a small sample of questionnaires with a bottom-up exploration of social integration under spatial differentiation. From the research, four key findings emerge: (1) The majority of residents in the city are migrants. There is a clear difference in the distribution of living spaces between immigrants and local residents, with local residents mainly concentrated in the old city area, while the distribution of immigrants is more scattered. Compared to the typical "immigrant city" in the United States, Hangzhou has less spatial differentiation between immigrants and local residents. (2) The residential space differentiation between immigrants and local residents in the city presents a combination pattern of " multi-nuclei, sectoral, concentric zone". However, unlike the centrifugal diffusion trend of the local people in the United States, the local residents in Hangzhou tends to gather towards the center, while immigrants choose centrifugal diffusion and peripheral aggregation. (3) The spatial differentiation of living spaces is mainly caused by the competition for spatial resources between immigrants and local residents under urban expansion. However, behind the phenomenon of "local residents live in the old city", immigrants are no longer a disadvantaged group. Some intelligent new immigrants actively choose to live in high-quality peripheral areas. (4) The integration between immigrants and local residents is satisfactory, but it is more cautious about the issue of intermarriage. Additionally, residential spatial segregation has not had a negative impact on social integration. There are four main reasons for this. To begin with, the majority of the population consists of immigrants, and urban residents no longer pay attention to identity labels in their daily interactions. Besides, there is relatively little cultural difference within ethnic groups, and the assimilation between immigrants and local residents is increasing. And then, interactions between individuals in workplace and third place can alleviate the negative impacts caused by residential spatial segregation. Finally, China's coordinated development and people-oriented social system can also create favorable conditions for social integration.

As the frontier of China's land and sea economic development, the coastal zone of the East China Sea (ECS) has witnessed a significant escalation of urban risks against a backdrop of high-intensity utilization. Research on urban resilience provides a basis for mitigating the impact of human activities and natural disasters, holding crucial significance for the sustainable socioeconomic development of coastal cities. Taking into account both resilience capabilities and resource environmental costs, we established a "background-operation-efficiency" evaluation system to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of urban resilience at the county scale in the ECS coastal zone. Additionally, geographic detectors and GTWR models were employed to investigate the influencing factors of resilience operation capacity. The results show that: (1) The resilience background capacity of county-level cities in the study area continues to increase, and the spatial pattern is relatively stable. It exhibits a distribution trend with a higher level in Shanghai, a higher level in northern Zhejiang but a lower level in southern Zhejiang, a higher level in the middle of Fujian while a lower level in the north and south of Fujian. Generally, cities tend to cluster homogeneously, mainly forming low-low agglomerations. (2) The resilience operation capacity of county-level cities has steadily improved, showing a positional pattern of Shanghai > Zhejiang > Fujian. High value areas are concentrated in urban areas, presenting a spatial evolution pattern of resilience operation in two stages of polarization and diffusion. Cities in the ECS coastal zone generally exhibit low-low agglomerations. (3) The resilience efficiency of county-level cities initially decreases, then slowly increases before rapidly increasing. High value areas are mostly distributed in urban areas and island cities. The most common city type is "low background-low operation-medium efficiency", and there are many cities of the "low background-low operation-low efficiency" and "medium background-medium operation-low efficiency" types; (4) The level of economic development is the primary factor influencing the resilience operation capabilities of county-level cities in the ECS coastal zone, but its impact tends to weaken. The influence of urban openness and infrastructure level is increasing, while that of urbanization level and urban agglomeration level is gradually diminishing.

Geopolitics is increasingly a focus in ethnography and social networks research, with an urgent need for China to address international criticism regarding the persistent conflicts of ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) in northern Myanmar. These critiques suggest that EAOs maintain "killed but not extinguished" and conflict persistence, drawing sustenance from a complex cross-border network with China, gaining essential resources like food and shelter. Employing long-term ethnographic tracking and social network analysis, this study examines the intricate relationship between the China-Myanmar cross-border complex social networks and the conflict in northern Myanmar. It starts with the "survival decision-making mechanism," which decomposes the survivability data obtained by EAOs in northern Myanmar into three stages: data acquisition, the extent of complex social network data obtained, and the volume of such data. The survivability data linked to these cross-border networks is empirically tested using the Triple-Hurdle model. The discussion emphasizes ethnography's novel contributions to geopolitical research, showcasing its growing relevance and validity in this domain. The findings reveal that: (1) Under the influence of transaction costs or not, the impact of cross-border complex networks on the conflict's sustainability and the EAOs' resource acquisition is marked by uncertainty, negative and weak positive influences, indicating no direct and inevitable link to the conflict's persistence in northern Myanmar. (2) Transaction costs serve as a mediating factor, with their reduction not directly correlated with the data acquired by EAOs. However, the primary role of cross-border networks is to "expand" cross-border complex social networks, increase transaction frequency, and reduce uncertainty, thereby lowering transaction costs. (3) Control variables like education level, age, and livelihood status have varying impacts on data acquisition stages, showing characteristics of coexistence of positive and negative, significant differences in levels, etc. This study's integration of ethnography with complex network analysis provides a comprehensive geopolitical analysis, enriching the ethnographic geopolitical narrative of the continuous conflict in northern Myanmar.

The rural tourism is an important industrial carrier and key industrial path for implementing the strategy of the rural revitalization and innovation-driven development in the new era, and promoting rural economy and society in China to achieve high-quality innovative development. The iterative development of rural tourism formats has reconstructed the rural economic and social forms and reshaped the nature of rural space. The continuous emergence of new industries and new formats has promoted the re-transformation of rural production functions, and the spatial innovation factors and resource allocation have broken through regional restrictions, giving feedback and enabling the development of rural tourism innovation. In foundation of criticizing and inheriting Schumpeter's innovation theory, this study interprets the connotation and characteristics of the rural tourism innovation, builds a rural tourism innovation system with "one core" and "five supports", and looks into future key areas of China's rural tourism innovation research. The results indicate that firstly the rural tourism has experienced the innovative development processes from scratch with gradual exploration and from weak to strong, which has the characteristics of times, integration and regionalism. Secondly, in the rural tourism innovation system, the format innovation is the core representation form and material space carrier of rural tourism innovation along with the institutional innovation as the start point for the top-level design and logic, the financial innovation as the solid foundation and power support, technological innovation as an important engine and breakthrough force, organizational innovation as the key support and effective guarantee, and social innovation as realistic path and core drive. Finally, the research framework of the rural tourism innovation is constructed from the perspectives of theoretical system, practice pattern, evolution process, dynamic mechanism, and optimization countermeasures to expect the important knowledge contribution and theoretical guidance for understanding, elaborating, and exploring the occurrence, succession, and innovative development of rural tourism, in pace with the effective guidance and decision-making basis for the innovative practice and management of rural tourism under the situation of China.

The historical evolution of administrative divisions is an important part of historical geography and political geography. The research of the change process of administrative units is the basis of the history of administrative divisions, and the restoration and analysis of the whole process of the evolution of administrative divisions over a long period of time in history is the basic support for exploring the law and governance ability of local administrative system change. Based on the original historical documents such as the official history and geographical records of past dynasties, this paper combs the characteristics of the long-term evolution process and spatial pattern change of China's county-level administrative units in the past 2200 years (221BC-2021). The research results show that: (1) The number of county-level administrative units in Chinese history generally shows an increasing trend, but the total number is basically stable. The Tang and the Qing dynasties had a large number of counties, reaching two peaks. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially since modern times, the number of county-level administrative units has continued to increase, which reflects the historical process of border development and county system expansion. (2) In the historical period, the scope of jurisdiction (the number of counties under the jurisdiction of administrative units that govern county) mainly shows a shrinking trend. The average number of counties under the jurisdiction of the administrative units that govern county decreased from 21.3 in the Qin Dynasty to 8.5 in 2021. (3) In the past 2200 years, the establishment of county-level administrative divisions shows a trend of spatial expansion, but there was partially inward contraction in the Xijin, Liao, Song and Jin dynasties. The counties in the historical periods mainly started from the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and gradually expanded outward. The density of counties within each region continued to increase. (4) The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (Henan, Southern Hebei, Shandong and other places) have long been high-density regions with counties. The density of counties in the Chengdu Plain, Guanzhong Basin and Fenhe River Basin is also relatively high. (5) In the past 2200 years, the center of gravity of county-level administrative divisions has changed by about 3° in the north-south and east-west directions, both of which are located to the southeast of the current geometric center of China. The changes in the center of gravity of the county-level administrative divisions in Chinese history is of great geographical significance, which is basically consistent with the migration process of the population / economic center of gravity in the historical periods.

Ecosystem service flows indicate the actually-used services, which act as a link between ecosystem services supply and demand. For effective practical application, it is crucial to understand and clarify its concept and quantification methods. In recent years, the concept of ecosystem service flows has received more and more attention, but there is still a lack of a systematic review connecting the conceptual connotation, quantification method and practical application. Therefore, in order to strengthen the practical significance of ecosystem service supply and demand assessment, and to make up for the limitation of current research, we clarify the conceptual definition of ecosystem service flows based on the perspectives of process, quantity and space, summarize the quantitative methodology of ecosystem services and explore a systematic framework for research of ecosystem service flows. Focusing on the ecological significance and geospatial processes, stakeholder roles and decision-making systems for human well-being enhancement, this paper suggests establishing a systematic research framework of 'ecosystem services supply and demand assessment-ecosystem services management action-human well-being enhancement vision', which is projected to propel a broader prospect and practical domain for future research of ecosystem service flows.

Deepening the understanding of thermal comfort conditions of urban and rural residents is important for improving the outdoor thermal environment. Based on ERA5-Land reanalysis data, this study quantifies the thermal comfort along the urban-rural gradient (urban core-urban expansion-rural area) in 101 large cities in China during the summers from 2000 to 2020 by taking physiological equivalent temperature (PET) as the evaluation index, and explores the spatiotemporal characteristics of thermal comfort and its drivers along different gradients using the Sen's slope estimation, Mann-Kendall significance test and geodetector model. The results show that: (1) The average PET in the core areas (29.89 ℃) of case cities is slightly higher than that in the expansion areas (29.86 ℃) and much higher than that in the rural areas (28.94 ℃), and the cities with higher PET in each gradient are mainly located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. (2) PET shows an increasing trend from 2000 to 2020, with an increasing rate of 0.24℃/10a in the core and expansion areas, and 0.22 ℃/10a in the rural areas. (3) Natural factors dominated by vegetation coverage and socioeconomic factors dominated by population density are key determinants of PET in the core and rural areas, respectively, while the drivers of PET in the expansion areas are unstable, with vegetation and impervious surface coverage playing an increasing role. As PET rises, the population exposed to uncomfortable environments increases, and this state of affairs poses new challenges for addressing thermal environmental issues. In the future, more studies on the thermal environment in urban and rural areas need to be conducted to provide a more comprehensive reference for the development of thermal adaptation strategies.

As an important part of Chinese modernization, rural modernization is the ultimate goal of rural development and comprehensive revitalization in China. The rural modernization in China has entered a new stage. Based on the connotation and logical relationship of rural development and rural modernization, this paper systematically sorts out the stages, paths, strategies and theoretical evolution of global rural development after World War II, summarizes the problems and challenges faced by rural modernization in China, and constructs the research framework of Chinese rural modernization. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Rural development aims to promote rural revitalization and urban-rural integration by continuously optimizing the development elements of rural areas and reshaping rural functions and forms, while rural modernization is the process of realizing the modernization transformation of agriculture, rural areas and farmers by gradually changing rural traditional production and lifestyle through concepts, elements and mechanisms of modernization. (2) After World War II, the development focus of global countryside gradually shifted from agricultural revival, rural ecological environment protection and sustainable development to green, eco-friendly and intelligent development of rural areas in the new period, and the theoretical cognition has experienced the transformation from productivism, post-productivism, multi-functionalism to the paradigm of neo-productivism and sustainable development of the global countryside. (3) The rural modernization in China still faces problems and challenges such as backward conditions for agricultural production, insufficient integration of three rural industries, lagging construction of rural infrastructure, hidden dangers in rural social governance, dilemma of rural resources and environment, and shortfalls in rural human capital. (4) Facing the national strategic needs of Chinese modernization, rural revitalization and urban-rural integrated development, the focus is constructing the theoretical framework of Chinese rural modernization from the aspects of institutional system innovation, regulation and planning technical system of rural space, integration and activation path of resources and elements, and future scene construction of smart and green countryside and its scientific governance. Based on the systematic thinking of human-environment coupling, the future research of Chinese rural modernization should deepen the basic theories and scientific paths, development models and guarantee mechanisms, social collaborative governance and spatial regulation and planning to construct the discourse system of academic disciplines in rural geography associated with Chinese rural modernization transformation.