In this study, we developed an energy security evaluation model (ESEM) from three dimensions, energy supply-transport security, safety of energy utilization, and stability of political-socioeconomic environment, based on the integrated application of subjective and objective weight allocation technique. Then the spatial-temporal evolution of global energy security pattern and its driving mechanism was analyzed with the method above, and the results are shown as follows: (1) since the 1990s, the spatial patterns of global energy security have shown a deteriorating trend, with the growth of countries in at-risk type and relatively at-risk type. (2) The spatial distribution of countries with secure energy system shows a strong stability, and these countries are concentrated persistently in Western Europe and North America. The spatial evolution of countries with relatively secure energy system also presents a strong stability, which are mainly distributed in the periphery of the secure ones, namely Central and Southern Europe, South America and Eurasia, while countries with general energy system are mainly distributed in Asia, Africa and Southern Europe, and the spatial-temporal evolution of this type is the main cause for the deterioration of world energy security pattern. Countries with at-risk and relatively at-risk energy system are mainly concentrated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eurasia, rendering spatial extension to the east and south. (3) In the past 20 years, the mechanism for world’s energy security pattern formation gradually transforms from the ‘unitary dimension dominated’ to the ‘binary dimension-dominated’, and the main factors influencing the global energy security pattern become more diverse. (4) In the pattern of world’s energy security, China’s performance on energy security has been the global average since the 1990s, which shows a decreasing trend in safety of energy utilization dimension. Findings in this study can provide a reference for the government in terms of formulating strategic responses and policy options.
China’s coupled human-environment system (CHES) is assessed here via a systems schema that emphasizes the complex interactions of components and their attributes. In addition to the human and environment components, we identified two other components to evaluate the relationship. The four components are human activity intensity, resource carrying capacity, ecological constraints and system’s openness. Based on their interactions, we derived a cognitive schema for classifying the level of strain or stress of an area. The analysis draws on 11 indicators and 29 sub-indicators including remote sensing data and statistical data that are used to estimate the four components. The findings indicate that human activities are highly intense in a few geographical areas, particularly large urban systems and trade and investment zones on the eastern coastal areas. Nonetheless, these areas are also well-endowed in water resources and fertile soils although urban systems are increasingly stressed from negative pollution externalities. They are also open systems which allow them to bear a higher level of pressure and adjust accordingly. Desertification and soil erosion point to relatively fragile biophysical systems in the west and southwest, but human activities are still relatively less intense compared to their coastal counterparts. As a whole, only 14% of areas may be said to be relatively or highly strained. This however belies another one-third of areas that are currently unstable, and likely to become strained and thereby vulnerable in the near future.
With the rapid development of knowledge economy, a number of important shifts are emerging in urbanization pattern across the world. Traditional urbanization theory has become hard to interpret these changes on a global scale, and “innovation” is a core concept to explain the new changes of the urbanization dynamics. As one of the important contents of urban geography, urbanization dynamic needs to turn from the general population flows between rural and urban areas into emphasizing high skilled migrants flow among cities and regions research. Against this background, we propose a conception of innovation-based urbanization. Using this concept, this study analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics of high skilled migrants and cultural diversity on urban innovation in China, based on the data of the sixth census of 270 cities at the prefecture level or above in China. This study measures the extent to which highly skilled migrants and cultural diversity increase urban innovation, by using spatial Durbin method to construct urban innovation regression model, to support the concept of innovation-based urbanization. The result shows that: first of all, the concept of innovation-based urbanization conforms to the development of knowledge economy, which emphasizes the migration process of highly skilled labor to cities. It helps to promote the changes in urban functions and landscapes and the expansion of urban knowledge activities, which undelines new dynamics of urban development, innovative landscape. Secondly, innovation urbanization based on highly skilled migrants flow is an important driving force for the development of Chinese cities, especially for eastern coastal cities and capital cities. Thirdly, the scale of highly skilled migrants flow and the level of urban cultural diversity in China both have been demonstrated of having positive effect on urban innovation output. With other conditions unchanged, a 10% increase in the number of urban highly skilled migrants and urban cultural diversity will directly result in an increase of 3% and 2% in urban innovation output respectively. This research has deepened our understanding and awareness of the openness and dynamics of the regional innovation system, and it has also provided an important theoretical basis for the formulation of urbanization and urban development policy under knowledge economy.
Resource-dependent cities are cities whose economic development depends on the exploitation and processing of natural resources. Their transformation and sustainable development are an important area of research on regional industrial development, regional economy and urban development. Since the Chinese government launched a pilot project to transform resource-dependent cities, starting with Fuxin in Liaoning Province in 2001, accurately identifying and classifying China’s resource-dependent cities has become a focus of geographical research. Based on previous studies, this paper uses the theory and methods of urban function classification to analyze indicators and threshold values for identifying and classifying resource-dependent cities. It has thus identified 262 cities as being resource-dependent. Looking at the development levels, problems, characteristics and developmental direction of such cities, this paper attempts to establish a comprehensive analytical framework using the two evaluation indicators of resource security and sustainable development. It also creates a model to classify the 262 cities identified as resource-dependent cities into four types: growing cities, mature cities, declining cities and regenerating cities. The different connotations and characteristics of the city types were then analyzed. The results of this research support the delineation of scopes and categories of resource-dependent cities set out in the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-Dependent Cities published by the State Council, and they serve as a foundation for formulating policies on planning, classification and guidance.
Urban agglomerations in China have become the strategic core of national economic development and the main component of the new type of urbanization. However, they are threatened by a series of eco-environmental problems and challenges, including the severe overexploitation of natural resources. Eco-efficiency, which is defined as accomplishing the greatest possible economic benefit with the least possible resource input and damage to the environment, is used as an indicator to quantify the sustainability of urban agglomerations. In this work, a traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with a slack-based measurement (SBM) model of undesirable outputs, was used to assess and compare the economic efficiency and eco-efficiency of four major urban agglomerations in eastern China (UAECs) in 2005, 2011, and 2014. The spatio-temporal characteristics of the evolution of urban agglomerations were analyzed. Based on the results of a slack analysis, suggestions for improving the eco-efficiency of the four UAECs are provided. The overall economic efficiency of urban agglomerations located in the Shandong Peninsula, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta displayed a V-shaped pattern (decreased and then increased). In contrast, the overall economic efficiency of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration declined during the study period. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration had a considerable loss of economic efficiency due to pollution, whereas the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration was less impacted. Overall, the eco-environmental efficiency of the four UAECs declined from 2005 to 2011 and then increased from 2011 to 2014. In addition, the urban eco-efficiency in the four coastal UAECs was characterized by different evolution patterns. The eco-efficiency was higher in the peri-urban areas of the core cities, riverside areas, and seaside areas and lower in the inland cities. The core cities of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations were characterized by high resource consumption, economic benefit output, and eco-efficiency. In most of cities in the urban agglomerations, the emission of pollutants declined, leading to a reduction of pollutants and mitigation of environmental problems. In addition, a differential analysis, from the perspective of urban agglomeration, was performed, and concrete suggestions for improvement are proposed.
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008, China witnessed gradual shrinkage of cities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD). In this study, we introduce the concept of economic resilience to analyse urban growth and shrinkage in the context of a rapidly-urbanising region. Multiple regression analysis is performed to explore the determinants of economic resilience in the PRD. By measuring resistance in the shrinking phase and recoverability in the growing phase in a group of cities in the PRD, this study distinguishes four scenarios and investigates their characteristics from a spatial perspective. The results demonstrate that the financial crisis had a severe and asymmetric influence on this area, indicating more than 15% of cities are faced with shrinking. The spatial distribution of economic resilience indicates a centre-periphery pattern, that is, high economic resilience in the inner ring and low economic resilience in the outer ring of the PRD. The service economy is found to play a significant role in promoting urban economic resilience. Results imply that sound economic policies for enhancing resilience: both poor local financial status and a high degree of export concentration adversely impact resistance, while upgrading the manufacturing economy and stimulating of industrial innovation are conducive to improve recoverability.
Urban land intensive use is an important indicator in harmonizing the relationship between land supply and demand. The system dynamics (SD) can be used to construct the feedback loop between urban construction land supply and demand and index variable function. Based on this, this study built a supply and demand system dynamic model of urban construction land for Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration. This model can simulate the change trends of supply and demand of construction land, industrial land, and residential land in 2016-2030 by three scenarios of low, medium, and high intensity modes. The results showed that the scale of construction land of urban agglomeration is expanding, with a rapid increase rate for the urban construction land. The scale and speed of land use based on the three intensity modes existed differences. The large scale and supply of construction land in the low intensity mode caused easily the waste of land resources. In high intensity mode, the scale and supply of construction land were reduced against the healthy development of new-type urbanization. In the medium intensity mode, the scale and supply of land use adapted to the socio-economic development and at the same time reflected the concept of modern urban development. In addition, the results of this study found that the proportion of industrial land in construction land ranged from 15% to 21%, which increased year by year in the low intensity mode, and decreased slowly and stabilized in medium and high intensity modes. The proportion of residential land in construction land ranged from 27% to 35%, which decreased in the low and the medium intensity modes, and maintained a high level in the higher intensity mode. This study contributes to provide scientific reference for decision-making optimization of land supply and demand, urban planning, and land supply-side reform.
Urban agglomeration is caused by the continuous acceleration of the urbanization process in China. Studying the expansion of construction land can not only know the changes and development of urban agglomeration in time, but also obtain the great significance of the future management. In this study, taking Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan (Chang-Zhu-Tan) urban agglomeration in Hunan province as a study area, Landsat images from 1995 to 2014 and Autologistic-CLUE-S model simulation data were used. Moreover, several factors including gravity center, direction, distance and landscape index were considered in the analysis of the expansion. The results revealed that the construction area increased by 132.18%, from 372.28 km 2 in 1995 to 864.37 km 2 in 2014. And it might even reach 1327.23 km 2 in 2023. Before 2014, three cities had their own respective and discrete development directions. However, because of the integration policy implementation in 2008, the Chang-Zhu-Tan began to gather, the gravity center moved southward after 2014, and the distance between cities decreased, which was in line with the development plan of urban expansion. The research methods and results were relatively reliable, and these results could provide some reference for the future land use planning and spatial allocation in the urbanization process of Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration.
As the Rural Revitalization Strategy is gradually implemented, China’s rural areas are set to have more diverse function requirements. This paper selects the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan region (Chang-Zhu-Tan) consisting of 23 county-level units) as a case study and looks at its economic development, agricultural product supply, social security and ecological service functions during 1996-2016. It then constructs an index system to evaluate the temporal evolution of the region’s rural functions. SPSS 19.0 and DPS 7.05 software, as well as Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis, system clustering, optimal segmentation of ordered samples and other methods, are used to study the evolution traits, regional differentiation characteristics and driving forces of rural functions in the region. The results show, first of all, that the overall evolution trend is increasing in functions with periodic characteristics, the key nodes being 2000 and 2008. Second, there is clear geographical differentiation in the evolution of rural functions. The economic development function shows rapid growth in the urban agglomeration’s center and relatively weak growth at the periphery; the agricultural product supply function and ecological service function are concentrated in county-level units with abundant cultivated and forest land; and the social security function displays similar geographical differentiation to the economic development function. Overall, there is an obvious discrepancy in the degree of development of rural functions among county-level units of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration; the rural functions of the agglomeration and peripheral county-level units have different development traits; and county-level units display functional differentiation. Third, rural functions have evolved as a result of interactions between various factors, such as natural resources, socio-economic conditions and local transport conditions. The new driving forces caused by urbanization are ultimately leading the evolution of rural functions toward multi-functional comprehensive development.
With the implementation of the “Going out” strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s investments have become increasingly influential in the global market. The contemporary literature has revealed how overseas Chinese networks and communities have actively promoted foreign investments into China over the past four decades. Whether this factor can help Chinese capital flow out once again is still ambiguous. This study examines this question by investigating Chinese corporate investments in Southeast Asia from 2001 to 2016. Through the discrete-selection logistic regression model, the study analyzes the correlation between overseas Chinese social networks and the location choices of Chinese corporate investments. The results show the following: (1) overall, there is a significant positive correlation between the population of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian countries and the location choices of Chinese corporate investments; (2) in terms of the time sequence, the significance of the correlation is increasing, which implies that overseas Chinese have positive impacts on promoting the location choice of Chinese enterprises and that the impact is potentially increasing; and (3) in terms of the industrial structure and corporate functions, the impacts vary and are only significant in some industries and corporate segments.
According to the complex adaptive systems theory, tourist destinations may be regarded as complex adaptive systems formed by multiple adaptive agent interactions and composed of an agent system, tourist attraction subsystem, tourist service facility subsystem, and external environment system. This paper explores the spatial evolutionary progress of the Southern Anhui tourist area. The period 1979 to 1990 comprised the formation stage of spatial agglomerates, during which tourist attractions centering on Huangshan Scenic Area and Jiuhuashan Scenic Area were gradually exploited and formed scale agglomeration; tourism spatial structure began to show the characteristics of agglomeration development, and Gini indexes of the number of tourists and tourism revenue increased significantly from 0.26 to 0.29, and from 0.33 to 0.35, respectively. From 1991 to 2008, the system experienced a growth stage in which Huangshan Scenic Area and Jiuhuashan Scenic Area were further developed with improved tourist service facilities. Rapid development of Xidi-Hongcun Scenic Area and establishment of Fantawild Tourist Area promoted the formation of more spatial agglomerates with larger scales; Gini indexes of the number of tourists and tourism revenue presented fluctuating changes, reaching low points of 0.15 and 0.25 in 2000 and 0.12 and 0.22 in 2007, respectively. From 2009 to the present day, the system has remained in a blowout-development stage, during which non-linear interactions among agents are strengthened; various emerging development factors generate cultural tourism, vacation tourism, rural tourism and other new tourism products jointly with traditional development factors. New tourism products form a large number of new spatial agglomerates that are interconnected, accelerating the spatial flow of tourists and tourism revenue and reducing the differences in tourism development levels within the region; Gini indexes of the number of tourists and tourism revenue declined steadily from 0.17 and 0.23 in 2009 to 0.12 and 0.15 in 2016.
