Rocky desertification constitutes a severe land degradation issue in the karst mountainous regions of Southwest China. Accurate extraction of rocky desertification information via remote sensing is indispensable for large-scale monitoring, with the Gaofen (GF) series satellites providing stable, high-quality data support. Focusing on a typical rocky desertification area in Puding county, Guizhou province, this study utilized GF-2, GF-6, and GF-7 imagery to extract rocky desertification severity levels. Five methods were compared: Fully Convolutional Network (FCN), Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, BP Neural Network, and Linear Spectral Mixture Model (LSMM). The results demonstrate the following: (1) the FCN model exhibited the best overall performance, yielding overall accuracies of 83.43%, 78.59%, and 85.61% for GF-2, GF-6, and GF-7 imagery, respectively; (2) the extraction accuracy achieved using GF-7 (0.65 m) was significantly higher than that of GF-2 (0.8 m) and GF-6 (16 m), indicating that spatial resolution is a critical factor affecting extraction accuracy; (3) for the multispectral GF-6 imagery, LSMM achieved the highest inversion accuracy for the Fraction of bare rock (R²=0.78, RMSE=0.06). Classification accuracy based on this FBR index reached 83.17%, demonstrating the superior performance of LSMM on such multispectral data. Ultimately, the optimal extraction methods and data sources identified in this study provide a robust scientific basis for the fine-grained assessment of rocky desertification and land degradation, offering precise data support for ecological restoration, cultivated land protection, and environmental management.

Tree radial growth in alpine timberline regions is highly sensitive to climate change, making it essential to study growth dynamics for understanding ecological processes and spatiotemporal patterns of timberlines under a changing climate. Using tree-ring samples of Abies forrestii collected from eight timberline sites in the Shaluli Mountains, southeastern Tibetan Plateau, we employed the modified negative exponential curve method to remove growth trends and develop standard chronologies. Our aim was to reveal spatiotemporal patterns in radial growth responses to climate change. The results showed that over the past 60 years, radial growth trends of Abies forrestii exhibited strong consistency across sites, with an increasing trend during 1981-2000 followed by a decline from 2001 to 2019. Radial growth was positively correlated to temperature (particularly December of the previous year to April of the current year), and weakly correlated to precipitation and relative humidity, but strongly correlated to the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). Response heterogeneity was observed along geographic gradients: correlations with December-April temperatures and May-September precipitation significantly decreased with increasing longitude (P < 0.05), while the response to May-September precipitation significantly increased with elevation (P < 0.001). These findings suggest that while initial warming promoted growth, continued warming induced drought stress (especially in eastern longitudes), leading to reduced radial growth during 2001-2019. Under future climate scenarios, these patterns imply intensified growth suppression, increased mortality risk for timberline trees, and potential shifts in timberline position, highlighting an urgent need for enhanced ecological monitoring.

Population shrinkage is found across regions in China and may strongly impact the country's future sustainable economic and social development. Due to its marked regional differences, a geographical perspective is crucial to understanding population shrinkage. This paper defines population shrinkage, reviews current geographical research on the issue, and discusses future research directions concerning its evolutionary patterns, influencing factors, effects on regional development, and policy responses. The findings are as follows: (1) Based on existing research on the scale of population shrinkage, more in-depth analysis of its characteristics and evolutionary patterns should be conducted from a structural differentiation perspective, as well as making better predictions of future regional-scale population shrinkage patterns. (2) To improve understanding of the mechanisms underlying regional population shrinkage, the interplay between macro-level and regional-level factors should be considered. Population shrinkage mechanisms should be analyzed from both structural and dynamic perspectives, with greater emphasis on identifying differences in their evolutionary mechanisms across regions with varying developmental backgrounds. (3) More research attention should be directed toward exploring the effects of population shrinkage on regional sustainable development in terms of economic, social, environmental, and other key dimensions. Regional and urban-rural differentiation characteristics of these effects should be analyzed, exploring how they may transform dynamically over time. (4) Further in-depth discussion is needed on the related key issues of population shrinkage in different regions, including ecologically fragile areas, traditional agricultural areas, resource-based regions, border regions, and city cluster regions. Differentiated strategies to address population shrinkage in these regions should be explored, alongside strengthening the evaluation of policy implementation effects. Our results offer implications for future research on population shrinkage from a geographical perspective and facilitate dialogue between geography and other disciplines engaged in population shrinkage research.

The people-oriented new-type urbanization emphasizes the synergistic improvement of level and quality. This study, based on a quantity-quality synergy perspective, constructs a unified theoretical framework integrating these two dimensions. Focusing on the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2000 to 2022, this study comprehensively examined its new-type urbanization using methods including the entropy method, kernel density estimation, and a synergy evolution model, with driving mechanisms revealed by a Geodetector. The results indicate: (1) Both the urbanization level and quality in the YREB have continuously increased, with the level rising from 32.54 to 61.64 and quality from 43.47 to 67.93. However, the urbanization level remains below the national average and exhibits significant regional disparities. (2) The spatial pattern reveals a hierarchical gradient characterized by "downstream leading, middle stream in the middle, and upstream lowest". While central cities demonstrate radiating effects, siphoning effects persist in major southwestern cities, and the northern downstream area lag relatively. (3) The synergistic evolution of urbanization level and quality significantly improves, transitioning from a polarized state of "quality lag" and "level imbalance" towards coordinated development. (4) The urbanization development patterns have shifted from crude to optimal and imbalanced types. The downstream region is dominated by the optimal type, while the midstream and upstream areas primarily exhibit the imbalanced, highlighting a significant potential for level improvement. (5) New-type urbanization in the YREB is driven by the synergistic effects of natural endowment, government regulation, and market adjustment, forming a tripartite system where "Innovation+" plays a particularly crucial role. This research provides a scientific basis for promoting new-type urbanization construction and high-quality development.

Significant progress has been made in the Beautiful China Initiative, where the discipline of geography has leveraged its comprehensive and regional strengths to play a key role. To address the technological needs of this initiative, geographers have organized and undertaken major scientific and technological tasks, such as the "Ecological Civilization Project Towards a Beautiful China". Through continuous innovation across multiple domains—including Major Function Oriented Zoning, territorial space development and protection, comprehensive environmental pollution control, regional joint prevention and control, eco-geographical regionalization, ecological environment restoration and protection zoning, and the evaluation of Beautiful China Initiative's progress and the synergy of ecological civilization construction—geographers have continuously advanced the geographical theories, methods, and research paradigms pertaining to the Initiative. These efforts have provided crucial scientific and technological support for opening the pathway for turning "lucid waters and lush mountains" into "invaluable assets", promoting the integrated protection and restoration of mountain-river-forest-farmland-lake-grassland-desert system, and advancing the prevention and control of environmental pollution, thereby played a prominent role in building a "Modernization Characterized by Harmonious Coexistence between Man and Nature". The Beautiful China Initiative has propelled the geographical study of human-environment interactions into a new era of ecological civilization; it likewise stands as a major national-level practice for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. In the new phase of comprehensively advancing the Beautiful China Initiative and implementing the global sustainable development agenda, geography should focus on addressing resource and environmental pressures and spatial disparities. Specifically, it should: (1) Conduct research on integrated prevention and control of ecological environment risks in key regions; (2) Deepen the understanding of human-environment relationships, and advance research on enhancing resource carrying capacity and promoting efficient resource utilization; (3) Coordinate the Regional Coordinated Development Strategy, Regional Major Strategy, and Major Function Oriented Zoning Strategy to conduct research on the spatial framework supporting the Beautiful China Initiative across all domains; (4) Leverage new technologies such as large-scale Low Earth Orbit satellite constellations and artificial intelligence to enhance ecological and environmental monitoring and assessment capabilities, and to plan the spatial distribution of green, low-carbon, and new quality productive forces; (5) Share the experiences of the Beautiful China Initiative and strengthen green cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative, thereby contributing to the shared goals of global sustainable development.

Research on the geomorphological regionalization of the Mongolian Plateau has long been limited by ambiguities in boundary delineation and inconsistencies in indicator systems. This study integrates multisource geospatial data to establish principles for defining the extent of the Mongolian Plateau on the basis of dominant genetic mechanisms and morphological characteristics, and it presents a comprehensive framework for geomorphological regionalization. By combining a bottom-up merging strategy with a top-down subdivision approach, and by employing a hybrid clustering model that couples a self-organizing feature map (SOFM) with Ward's hierarchical method, we systematically delineate the boundaries of the Mongolian Plateau and construct a three-level geomorphological regionalization scheme. Results indicate the following: (1) The total area of the Mongolian Plateau is approximately 2.83 million km², spanning Mongolia, China, and Russia. Its boundaries extend eastward to the western slopes of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, southward to the Qilian Mountains-southern Ordos margin, westward to the Sayan-Altai mountain systems, and northward to the southern edge of the Stanovoy Highlands. (2) The regionalization scheme identifies 3 primary geomorphological regions, 18 secondary subregions, and 66 tertiary units. This framework reveals spatial heterogeneity patterns of landforms, where macroscale structures are governed by tectonic uplift, and microscale differentiation is shaped by climatic processes. This study provides a scientific basis and foundational dataset for ecological security assessment and transboundary resource management across the Mongolian Plateau.

Urban-rural equivalent integration signifies a dynamic process wherein urban and rural areas substantially realize interactive population mobility, equitable land valuation and tenure, synergistic industrial chains and agglomerations, harmonized infrastructure deployment, equitably accessible public services, collaborative ecological conservation and governance, and integrated information networks. This constitutes the ultimate objective of urban-rural integrated development under the paradigm of Chinese-style modernization. The core tenet of urban-rural equivalent integration is the equivalence of quality and well-being of life across urban and rural settings, represented by diverse lines of equivalence. Throughout distinct phases of urbanization and urban expansion, the fluctuation of urban-rural equivalent lines and the degree of urban-rural integration exhibit variability, theoretically charting an evolutionary trajectory characterized by an initial gentle gradient, followed by a steep ascent, and culminating in a return to a gentler slope. The driving mechanisms for urban-rural equivalent integration encompass identity equity for urban and rural residents, free flow for urban and rural construction land, intelligent mobile connectivity across urban-rural areas, market-based adjustment, and policy interventions. Quantitative indicators of urban-rural equivalent integration include 31 indicators across five dimensions: living standards, infrastructure, public services, ecological environment, and informatization. Empirical evidence from 1980 to 2023 indicates that China's overall urban-rural equivalent integration predominantly remained within a medium stage (30%-60%), while some indicators achieved a medium-high stage (60%-90%), demonstrating a progressive trajectory towards high equivalence. Notably, the urban-rural living standards and the urban-rural informatization exhibit a medium-high stage of equivalent integration, and the urban-rural infrastructure and public services are situated at a medium level, whereas the ecological environment persists in a state of non-equivalence (< 30%). Conclusively, while the trajectory towards high urban-rural equivalent integration remains a protracted and challenging endeavor, the outlook for achieving such integration is nonetheless optimistic. This research offers significant theoretical underpinnings and pragmatic guidance for advancing urban-rural profound integrated development in China.

Southeast Asia's geographical proximity to China and its substantial ethnic Chinese population make it a pivotal region for studying transnational cultural dynamics in the new globalization era. This study integrates historical migration patterns with contemporary cultural exchanges to elucidate the evolution of cultural communication and human-place interactions. Utilizing qualitative analysis across three "going global" intangible cultural heritage (ICH)—Yingge, Liangcha, and Wangchuan—the research constructs an interdisciplinary framework combining cybernetic communication theory from communication studies with diffusion models from cultural geography. Findings reveal a tripartite transcultural communication pathway: cross-border cultural migration, localized interaction and adaptation, feedback-driven civilization exchange. Spatially, dissemination manifests as migration diffusion - expansion diffusion-return diffusion, reflecting complex spatial and temporal dynamics. Transcultural communication embodies an innovative evolutionary process through the interaction between culture and cultural carriers, while the cross-regional dissemination of ICH reflects mechanisms of "delayed spillover", "localized rooting", and "temporal-spatial circulation". The interdisciplinary integration of communication studies and cultural geography advances theoretical frameworks for analyzing cultural transmission's spatial and bidirectional linkages between migration, trans-region, and identity construction. It also offers actionable insights for China's global cultural strategy, enriching debates on shared human futures in an interconnected world.

Climate change significantly affects the arid/humid processes and patterns in China, directly impacting management decisions related to adaptive agriculture and water resources management, desertification control, and spatial ecological restoration. However, current studies primarily focus on changes in arid/humid climate variables, lacking quantitative characterization of the dynamic evolution of areal systems and their nonlinear responses. Based on the data of national meteorological stations from 1961 to 2020, we systematically quantified the nonlinear response of arid/humid patterns to climate change. The results revealed that 6.98% of eco-geographical arid/humid regions underwent type shifts over the past six decades, with 4.95% transitioning toward wetter conditions. Humid and semi-arid regions expanded significantly while sub-humid and arid regions contracted significantly. In the late 1990s, trends of the humid and sub-humid region shifted. Humid region contraction in northern China was driven primarily by precipitation decline, whereas the Tibetan Plateau responded to increasing potential evapotranspiration. During the same period, the retreat rate of the arid region slowed, linked to intensified aridification in the west part of northern China and a decelerating wetting trend in northwest China, both primarily driven by precipitation trends. Our study reveals the nonlinear response of the arid/humid patterns under climate change, providing a scientific basis for the improvement of regional climate resilience.

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from crop production is essential for mitigating climate change and achieving sustainable agricultural development. Using micro-level data from the Fixed Observation Rural Survey (FORS) spanning 1993-2020 and the China Rural Development Survey (CRDS), we calculate the agricultural total factor productivity (ATFP) and GHG emission intensity from crop production among farmers based on the Cobb-Douglas production function and life cycle assessment, respectively. A two-way fixed effects model was employed to examine their relationship. The results show that ATFP has a rebound effect on GHG emission intensity under current technological and managerial conditions, with the optimal ATFP level below the sample mean. This suggests that continuous improvements in ATFP may initially reduce but eventually increase emission intensity. These findings remain robust across a series of tests. Moderating effect analysis indicated that higher education levels, per capita income, and labor input significantly strengthened the impact of ATFP on emission intensity. Heterogeneity across nine agricultural zones also indicates consistent rebound effects but with varying turning points. The results suggest that policies should focus on farmer education and training, optimize the agricultural planting structure, and adopt region-specific mitigation strategies to enhance ATFP while avoiding rebound effects in GHG emission intensity.

Rural construction, encompassing infrastructure, public services, and human settlement improvement, serves as a critical pathway to harmonize human-environment relationships in rural areas and a pivotal endeavor for advancing the comprehensive rural revitalization strategy. Integrated geographical research on rural construction offers a new opportunity for geography to serve national strategies. Despite substantial investments in rural construction in China, persistent gaps and underdeveloped regions remain, necessitating deeper theoretical and practical research to address these challenges. This study, based on a systematic review of the progress in rural construction research, elucidates the scientific connotations and practical requirements of rural construction from a geographical perspective. It further outlines the key areas for geographical research and innovative practical pathways to advance rural construction in the new era. Rural construction is a comprehensive, systematic undertaking that builds on current conditions while being geared toward the future. Against the backdrop of climate change, population mobility, and prominent sustainability challenges, it exhibits multidimensional, multilevel, and differentiated demands. In terms of the research, it is imperative to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge and construct a multi-objective, multilevel, and multi-stakeholder collaborative framework to distill differentiated regional models and optimization strategies based on comprehensive effects, implementation mechanisms, and problem diagnosis. From the perspective of practice, it is essential to actively explore more effective mechanisms for supply-demand matching, planning guidance, funding mobilization, subsequent operation and maintenance, and performance evaluation, thereby promoting a more inclusive, equitable, efficient, and sustainable approach to rural construction that effectively contributes to comprehensive rural revitalization.

Clarifying the spatio-temporal development gap and the endogenous contributions of China's new quality productive forces provides a solid foundation for decision-making aimed at accelerating the formation and developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the "Element-Structure-Function" of the new quality productive forces system, this study measured the cultivation and development degree of new quality productive forces across 282 cities in China from 2011 to 2021, utilizing multi-source data and double-improved coupling coordination degree model. Through machine learning regression prediction and SHAP visualization methods, this study analyzed the spatio-temporal dynamics and development gaps of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities, while identifying the contributions of various subsystems and variables. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) The absolute level of cultivation and development of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities has continued to rise, exhibiting a spatial distribution pattern of "cluster strengthening" and "hinterland improvement". Some cities have achieved breakthrough progress in "stage transition", though overall, the cities remained in a transitional phase from "cultivation and formation" to "coordinated improvement". (2) A clear "block segmentation" pattern has emerged in the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces across Chinese cities. The high-value areas in the north are concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Shandong Peninsula regions. The development momentum of the Central China Plains urban agglomeration is prominent, while the northeast region demonstrates a north-south differentiation pattern. The northwest region is predicted to exhibit a "hammer-shaped" low-value area. The high-value areas in the south are primarily distributed in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Guangdong-Fujian-Zhejiang coastal areas, and the Chengdu-Chongqing region. The Guangdong-Fujian-Zhejiang coastal areas, along with their adjacent regions, are predicted to show significant development momentum, while a "belt-shaped" low-value area will emerge from the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to the Beibu Gulf region. (3) The development process of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities has shifted from being predominantly driven by "factor enhancement" to a more balanced model involving both "factor enhancement" and "structural optimization". The construction of digital new infrastructure has made the most substantial positive contribution to the new quality productive forces. Optimizing the policy support framework and productivity distribution structure represents an effective lever for promoting the advancement of new quality productive forces.

At present, the contradiction of unbalanced and inadequate development between urban and rural areas in China has become prominent. It is of great significance to accurately judge and understand the characteristics and changes of this contradiction for coordinating urban-rural integrated development and promoting the land use equity between urban and rural areas. Based on the perspective of urban and rural comparison, this paper established the theoretical analysis framework of land use relative equity, explored the temporal and spatial characteristics, obstacle factors and optimization paths of land use equity between urban and rural areas by using data from 291 municipal units in China from 2004 to 2021. The results showed that: (1) From 2004 to 2021, the comprehensive index of land use equity between urban and rural areas in China showed a trend of "first decreasing and then increasing", with spatial characteristics of "global dispersion and local agglomeration" and gradually showing a trend of "economic dependence". (2) The length of LISA time path from 2004 to 2021 showed that the spatial structure of land use equity between urban and rural areas fluctuated greatly in some regions, the curvature indicated that land use equity between urban and rural areas had strong temporal and spatial dependence and regional differences, and the moving direction revealed that the change of land use equity between urban and rural areas showed strong spatial integration. The temporal and spatial transition of LISA reflected that the land use equity between urban and rural areas was both inert and active. (3) From 2004 to 2021, due to the rapid urbanization and industrialization, the widening income gap between urban and rural residents, the unbalanced supply of public services, and the expansion of urban areas and the decline of rural areas in industrial restructuring are the key factors leading to the land use inequity between urban and rural areas. (4) The optimization of land use equity between urban and rural areas should take the balanced flow of resources and elements and the complementarity of structural and functional advantages as the key breakthrough points, adopt the path of "establishing a sound system and optimizing the mechanisms, filling in the gaps and strengthening the weaknesses", and promote the free flow and equal exchange of resources and elements in the multi-decision-making process, multi-stakeholder and multi-scale space.

Gridded meteorological data obtained by spatial interpolation play a crucial role in ecological, hydrological, and land surface process models. The key challenge in current spatial interpolation is to effectively match the physical behavior of meteorological variables with the mechanistic properties of interpolation methods to maximize accuracy. This study constructed 12 interpolation models using thin plate spline (TPS) and random forest (RF) with six combinations of covariates including elevation, slope, aspect, and reanalysis data. These models were applied to daily interpolation and comparative analysis of eight meteorological variables (maximum temperature, minimum temperature, precipitation, skin temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, surface pressure, and sunshine duration) across China from 2000 to 2020. The results indicated that: (1) TPS with elevation as a covariate was optimal for maximum temperature, minimum temperature, skin temperature, relative humidity, and sunshine duration; RF with elevation as a covariate performed best for precipitation and wind speed; RF with elevation, slope, and aspect as covariates was the best for surface pressure. (2) Minimum temperature and skin temperature were better interpolated using TPS with elevation, slope, and aspect in winter, while surface pressure was better interpolated using TPS with elevation in spring. The optimal interpolation methods for the other variables remained consistent across seasons. (3) The interpolation accuracy of maximum temperature showed an interval-dependent preference, with RF performing better for daily maximum temperature below 15 °C, whereas TPS was more accurate above this threshold.

The administrative hierarchy of the city in China determines its ability of mobilizing resources and the direction of migrations, and it is also the direct subjects of policy implementation. Previous literature has rarely analyzed migrations from the perspective of urban administrative hierarchy. Using data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this study explores the patterns of migration across urban administrative hierarchy and the influencing factors of destination choice. The results show that according to the urban administrative hierarchy, upward migrations are dominant. Spatially, inter-regional migration to the eastern region is a prominent feature. For the population that has migrated multiple times, subsequent migrations are dominated by horizontal and intra-regional migrations, with the proportion of downward migrations increasing and exceeding that of upward migrations. In the first migration, ordinary prefecture cities and provincial capital cities are preferred. In the subsequent migrations, the proportions of county-level cities (counties), separately planned cities and directly-administered municipalities have increased, which reflect repositioning of population after the first migration. Economic profits are the main driving force of migration, the socio-economic attributes and hukou-registered places affect the choice of destinations, which reflect the migrants' employment competitiveness, employment preferences, life cycle and path dependence on hukou-registered places. The choice of destination is also related to the migration scope, provincial capital cities are being preferred in intra-provincial migrations, while directly-administered municipalities are most likely to be chosen in inter-provincial migrations. This paper provides evidence for the theory of population migration that urban administrative hierarchy works, which shows a different pattern from Ravenstein's laws of step migration, and deepens the connotation of push-pull theory. The findings of the study are of revelatory value for the implementation of the new urbanization policy with counties as important carriers.

Emerged as a cutting-edge research agenda in urban studies more than half a century ago, gentrification remains an evergreen and debatable topic in the practices and research of urban and rural governance in contemporary China. In response to the lasting and heated debates within the international and domestic academic communities, it is of vital significance to examine and clarify the prevalent discourse of "Chinese-style gentrification" and conduct in-depth exploration and reflections on its historical evolution, conceptual boundaries, research approaches, and theoretical value. This paper situates Chinese-style gentrification into the broader context of the Global East by highlighting its unique features to be distinguished from the Western contexts. We dissect the historical evolution and contemporary identity of the "gentry" class in China under the framework of state-society relationship. The research contends that studies on Chinese gentrification should grasp three fundamental elements: "dynamism", "scale", and "process", namely, to understand the spatiotemporal variations of "the right to the city" conjuncturally, to develop a multi-faceted comprehension of the multi-scalar relationships in urban and rural governance, and to systematically examine the historical evolution of local experiences. Grounded in the specific "state-market-society" interactions in the Global East and China, the inherent complexity and diversity of Chinese-style gentrification will transcend the paradigms of Western gentrification research and make distinctive contributions to international debates. Currently, the processes of gentrification in China have engendered more profound social and spatial ramifications compared to that in the Global North. Balancing efficiency and equity will be a key task for promoting effective governance in urban and rural communities in China. In this new era, exploring innovative approaches to enhancing urban and rural governance and residents' well-being, engaging in comparative studies and constructive dialogues with international researchers should be our utmost tasks. In light of this, researchers should re-examine Chinese-style gentrification in an open-minded yet rigorous, critical yet scientific manner, drawing on but not being constrained by local experiences to make significant contributions to this ever-green and ever-evolving research field.

This study analyzes the development of the discipline of human geography in China over the past 40 years, based on projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) from 1986 to 2023. The analysis focuses on research directions and themes, the hosting institutions and their spatial distribution, as well as the structure of high-level talents. This paper primarily employs methods such as keyword cloud analysis, probability density distribution analysis, and spatial analysis. The findings are as follows: (1) Although the number and financial volume of funded projects have grown rapidly, human geography remains at a disadvantage in terms of scholarly influence and the magnitude of funding support. (2) The majority of approved projects and funds are concentrated under the application codes for Urban and Rural Geography (D0109) and Economic Geography (D0108), though growth in these areas has been limited in recent years. Promising areas of focus include cultural geography, political geography, and behavioral geography. (3) New research topics have emerged, such as spatiotemporal behavior and quality of life, social space and mobility, innovation networks, city networks, rural revitalization, geopolitics, and carbon reduction. (4) The distribution of approved NSFC projects in human geography generally follows a Pareto distribution and is predominantly located east of the Hu Line. (5) There are relatively few high-level talents in human geography in China, with an unbalanced gender ratio. To advance the field, we propose to raise human geography's profile in interdisciplinary dialogue, to consolidate disciplinary consensus, to articulate key research priorities and assessment frameworks, address developmental disparities among subfields, and prioritize groundbreaking research agendas. The study underscores key unresolved issues in the discipline's governance and financing, including the generality-specificity spectrum in knowledge generation, and reconciling inter-direction competition with distributive justice in resource allocation. The research advances scholarly understanding by documenting funding-driven development patterns in Chinese human geography while addressing dual challenges of international disciplinary recognition and domestic academic consensus-building.

The spatial restructuring of large Chinese cities has exacerbated internal spatial differentiation and social segregation, resulting in disparities in the distribution of environmental risks across social groups and regions. This has negatively impacted the health and well-being of urban residents. This study analyzes the socio-spatial disparities in environmental risk distribution in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu using pollution discharge permit data and census data, with ArcGIS spatial analysis methods. Principal component analysis is then applied for dimensionality reduction to capture the characteristics of urban spatial restructuring. Interaction term models are applied to analyze the intrinsic connections between environmental inequality and the urban spatial restructuring process. The findings reveal that individuals with lower education levels and migrant populations are exposed to greater environmental risks, with environmental inequality increasing from the city center to the periphery. The spatial variations in environmental inequality across the three cities can be attributed to their respective urban spatial restructuring processes and development trajectories, resulting in three distinct patterns of environmental inequality: minimal impact, localized improvement, and environmental deprivation. The study draws on Spatial Production Theory and Rawls' Theory of Justice to elucidate the evolution of environmental inequality in spatial differentiation within the context of urban spatial restructuring, emphasizing the shift from capital-driven spatial production to government-led social justice practices. It is suggested that when formulating and implementing strategies to promote environmental justice and sustainable urban development, the global and dynamic nature of urban space development should be considered to ensure equitable sharing of environmental benefits across all regions and social groups.

Terraced farmland is a unique agricultural landscape and high-quality farmland resource in mountainous areas, with great production and ecological functions, which makes it a valuable livelihood asset for rural households. As a type of farmland resource, the high-quality of terraced farmland originates from the substantial investment of labor force and materials in land improvement processes such as terracing projects, which results in higher "landesque capital". The economic essence of landesque capital is land appreciation. In recent years, the phenomenon of farmland asset devaluation has been widespread in mountainous areas, yet how the landesque capital value of terraced farmland change remains unclear. Therefore, based on land capital theory, this study clarifies the definition of the landesque capital value of terraced farmland, constructing a comprehensive diagnostic framework from the dual perspectives of land economic productivity and land marginalization. Using data from national rural household surveys and literature synthesis in China's mountainous areas, the study reveals the trends and regional differences of landesque capital value. The findings demonstrate that in recent decades, the landesque capital of terraced farmland in China has devalued, with the trend being particularly pronounced in the eastern region. From 1996 to 2020, the differential rent reflecting the landesque capital value of terraced farmland decreased from 793.2 yuan per ha to 441.88 yuan per ha (a 44.29% drop), based on 1995 constant prices. The grain yield increase effect of terraced farmland relative to sloped farmland has been declining, with the rocky mountainous areas in Northern China showing a more significant downward trend than the Loess Plateau region. The economic benefits derived from the landesque capital of terraced farmland are increasingly unable to cover the costs of maintaining their unique functions. Therefore, it is recommended to actively explore optimal utilization approachs for existing terraced farmland while cautiously implementing new terracing projects in China's mountainous areas.

The changes in the natural-artificial dualistic water cycle system have triggered the inconsistency of hydrometeorological time series. Continuing to use traditional frequency calculation methods would affect the accuracy of water resource planning and flood-drought management decisions, underscoring the need for (in)consistency testing before performing hydrological calculations. To address the misjudgement issues of current methods, this study proposes a hydrological (in)consistency testing method (CT) based on correlation coefficients. The CT method applies a discrete wavelet transform to extract high-frequency pure random components from the original time series, then calculates the correlation coefficients between these components and the original time series to determine (in)consistency. Statistical experiments indicate that the CT method significantly reduces false positive rates compared with traditional methods like the Bartels test. Its accuracy and stability improve as the time series length increases, making it especially effective at identifying inconsistent time series. These promising results confirm that the CT method is a valuable tool in (in)consistency test, ensuring robust and reliable outcomes. A case study of the surface water resources amount modulus coefficient time series of 10 major river basins in China (1956-2020) shows that surface water resources in the Southeastern, Yangtze, Huaihe, Pearl, and Southwestern river basins are consistent. In contrast, the Songhua, Haihe, Yellow, Liaohe, and Northwestern river basins display pronounced inconsistency characteristics. Existing studies, based on external driving factors such as climate change and human activities, have validated the inconsistency of hydrological time series in regions like the Songhua River Basin, indirectly confirming the effectiveness of the CT method. For consistent time series, consistent hydrological frequency analysis can be directly applied, whereas for inconsistent time series, researchers should analyze the characteristics of inconsistent components or conduct inconsistent hydrological frequency calculations. These approaches aim to predict and plan for potential risks, thereby providing robust support for scientific water resource management decisions.