Current Issue

  • Select all
    |
    Utilization and Management of Natural Resources in the New Era
  • Utilization and Management of Natural Resources in the New Era
    YANG Zhen-shan, YANG Hang, YANG Lin-sheng, GE Quan-sheng
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Assessment and monitoring are an essential part of promoting the achievement of the sustainable development. Currently, theoretical research and localized program around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been in full swing, but the relevant assessment and practice process is still lacking in the consideration of target constraints and hierarchical transmission. To this end, the study establishes a sustainable development assessment oriented towards the SDGs and concerned on the systematicity and openness, which can be deconstructed and applied in multiscale spatial units. The results show that, at the national and regional levels, the gap between SDGs and the current level in 2020 regarding to the dimensions of safe ecology, pleasant environment and green development is rapidly narrowing. On the contrary, there is still a large gap on the dimension of harmony society, though the index experiences a steady growth, which can be interpreted as the uneven income distribution and large urban-rural differences. It is crucial to identify the priorities of different regions and the synergies and trade-off between indicators in different scaled objectives to promote the implementation of the SDGs. The proposed assessment program supports the diagnosis of regional problems of sustainable development and the understanding of interrelationships between different regions and goals. It also facilitates the active participation of different levels and actors in the cause of sustainable development within an open framework, and helps to systematically assess and monitor the process of realizing SDGs.

  • Utilization and Management of Natural Resources in the New Era
    ZHANG Yang
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Territorial and spatial use regulation can correct market failure, but its policy externality may widen the development gap between regions and affect the overall high-quality development of China's economy. It is of vital significance to clarify and validate the practical effects of territorial and spatial use regulation on high-quality economic development and the underlying theoretical logic. Marginal analysis and geographical detector methods were adopted in this study. Based on provincial panel data from 2010 to 2021, this paper analyzes and verifies the effects of territorial and spatial use regulation on high-quality economic development in China from two dimensions: regulation intensity and regulation validity. Research findings: (1) From a national perspective, the influencing factors of high-quality economic development are opening-up, technology investment, validity of territorial and spatial use regulation, capital stock, human capital, and intensity of territorial and spatial use regulation. (2) There is regional heterogeneity in the impact of human capital and technology investment on high-quality economic development. (3) There is an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between the intensity of territorial and spatial use regulation and the level of high-quality economic development. With the increase in the intensity of territorial and spatial use regulation, the level of high-quality development of regional economy first increases and then decreases. (4) The validity of territorial and spatial use regulation is significantly and positively correlated with the level of high-quality economic development. The factor contribution of the validity of territorial and spatial use regulation to high-quality economic development is 0.406. The following conclusions can be drawn: Scientific implementation of territorial and spatial use regulation can promote high-quality economic development in China. The study proposes suggestions and enlightenments on promoting high-quality development of the China's economy, such as maintaining the optimal range of territorial and spatial use regulation intensity, improving the compensation mechanism, enhancing the validity of territorial and spatial use regulation, and formulating targeted implementation plans for high-quality economic development in different regions.

  • Utilization and Management of Natural Resources in the New Era
    CHENG Jin-hua, ZUO Zhi-li, ZHAN Cheng, GUO Hai-xiang
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Strategic critical minerals are crucial for the development of emerging industries and constitute a top priority for resource security. With the ongoing deepening of global multipolarity and economic globalization, the level of mutual connection and interdependence between nations has unprecedentedly increased. China not only has a sustained demand for mineral resources in economic growth but also experiences a growing need for various strategic critical mineral resources in emerging technologies, green energy, and other sectors. The widespread application of lithium resources in electric vehicles, energy storage, and other fields has led to an increasingly complex supply-demand relationship and market structure for lithium resources, with associated risks gradually becoming apparent. This underscores the urgency and necessity of early warning and scientific management of comprehensive risks related to lithium resources. This study constructed a comprehensive risk assessment framework for China's lithium resources, covering "resources-technology-trade-market-society," based on the five basic meanings of resource security. Five primary indicators and 22 secondary indicators were selected. The CRITIC weight, combined with the gray relational projection method, was employed to assess and warn about the comprehensive risk of lithium resources from 2008 to 2022. Path analysis was also conducted to clarify the pathways of influence. The study addresses three main research questions: "What is the current risk situation?", "What are the future risks?", and "How to avoid risks?". The results indicate that: (1) The comprehensive risk of China's lithium resources has consistently been at a medium-risk level or above, showing a dual-peak changing pattern since 2015. Among them, technology risk, trade risk, and social risk exhibit a typical multi-peak curve, with a prominent polarization phenomenon. (2) The early-stage comprehensive risk of China's lithium resources has been consistently in a "heavy warning" state and is expected to be maintained at a "medium warning" state in the future. Global events are often accompanied by abrupt changes in warning levels before and after their occurrence. Specifically, since 2017, there have been sudden changes in resource risk, technology risk, trade risk, market risk, and social risk, with their warning levels showing a phased growth pattern. In the future, market risk may continue to be in a "heavy warning" state. (3) There is a significant positive impact among the risks.

  • Utilization and Management of Natural Resources in the New Era
    LI Yi, ZHAO Yuan, XIA Si-you
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Energy interconnection is an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative, and ensuring the safety of energy transportation pipelines is of great significance in promoting the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative. This paper takes China's cross-border oil and gas transport pipelines as the research object, and constructs an oil and gas transport pipeline safety evaluation index system covering five dimensions of pipeline, resources, economy, politics and diplomacy from two aspects of pipeline safety and pipeline routing involving national security. Based on the entropy-catastrophe progression method, the safety of China's cross-border oil and gas transport pipelines in 2020 is evaluated and classified into categories. The results show that: (1) The catastrophe level values of crude oil transportation pipelines are ranked as China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline>China-Russia crude oil pipeline>China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline; the catastrophe level values of natural gas transportation pipelines are ranked as China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline line C>China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline lines A and B>east route of China-Russia natural gas pipeline>China-Myanmar natural gas pipeline; and the pipelines have their respective advantages and disadvantages under the sub-dimensions. (2) According to the system clustering method, the pipelines are divided into two types: high security type and low security type. The high safety pipelines are in good condition at present, but there are still safety hazards; resource scarcity, political instability, and economic weakness have become unfavourable factors affecting the safety evaluation of low safety pipelines.

  • Regular Articles
  • Regular Articles
    WANG Yan-kai, ZHAO Miao-xi, JI Rui, SHI Hao-chen
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Affected by major emergencies such as extreme weather, public health, and the Russo-Ukrainian war, maintaining the stability of the food supply network system has become an essential issue in ensuring food security in urban areas. This study uses public transaction data of food enterprises to construct a coupled geospatial food supply network, exploring the food supply network structure and transaction distance characteristics in the Pearl River Delta mega-city region using a network analysis approach. On this basis, the "dynamic" resilience of regional food supply networks from a risk propagation perspective is assessed, and critical nodes affecting network stability are identified. The results show that the PRD has formed a polycentric food supply organizational structure and urban self-loop structure with Guangzhou-Foshan and Shenzhen as the core, and the polycentric structure has a high ability to avoid external risks; the regional food supply is characterized by spatial proximity and source diversity, and the total number of transactions generally conforms to the distance decay law; the attacks significantly reduce the resilience of the food supply network compared with random failures, and the top 15 nodes in the degree centrality ranking are the critical nodes that trigger the cascade effect and lead to severe degradation of network performance. Based on the above results, policy recommendations to ensure the stability of regional food supply are proposed in terms of deepening domestic and international production network cooperation, strengthening food supply infrastructure construction, and optimizing territorial spatial planning patterns.

  • Regular Articles
    JIANG Fan, CHONG Cong, SONG Hong-yuan
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Based on micro survey data from 14 provincial-level regions of China in 2022, this paper empirically tests the impact and mechanism of agricultural production trusteeship on technology efficiency of grain production by using inverse probability weights and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment methods. The result shows that: (1) The participation of agricultural production trusteeship in decision-making is influenced by multiple factors and is a self-selection behavior of farmers. (2) The purchase of agricultural production trusteeship services by farmers is beneficial for improving the technical efficiency of grain production. Compared to farmers who do not purchase services, the technical efficiency of grain production by farmers who purchase services is about 2.51%-3.40% higher. The reason is that agricultural production trusteeship can effectively reduce the input of pesticides and fertilizers in grain production, and increase the probability of technology adoption by grain farmers. (3) Further analysis shows that the improvement effect of agricultural production trusteeship on the technical efficiency of grain production is most evident in the balancing areas of grain production and marketing and in wheat production, and the positive effect is more prominent in small-scale, high level of part-time employment, and the new generation of farmers.

  • Regular Articles
    TIAN Cai-hong, LI Lin, LIAO Bin
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    This research uses panel data of 579 counties in China's Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2006 to 2021 to explore the impacts and nonlinear adjustment mechanisms of integration of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries on agricultural green development using fixed-effects models and threshold models. The main conclusions show that: (1) During the study period, the level of agricultural green development and the integration of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries index in the counties of the YREB showed a fluctuating upward trend, with a spatial divergence pattern of downstream>midstream>upstream. (2) The integration of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries in the counties of the YREB can significantly promote the agricultural green development, but there is regional heterogeneity in the impact effect, manifested as downstream>midstream>upstream. (3) There is a double-threshold in the impact of the integration of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries on agricultural green development. The whole region and midstream counties are characterized by a "leapfrog" growth. Downstream counties are characterized by a "U"-shaped pattern. Upstream counties show increasing marginal effects followed by decreasing marginal effects. The impact of the integration of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries on agricultural green development is characterized by the existence of a double-threshold for industrial upgrading. The whole region and midstream and upstream counties are characterized by a "leapfrog" growth. Downstream counties are characterized by a "growth-buffer-growth" pattern. The impact of the integration of rural primary, secondary and tertiary industries on agricultural green development is characterized by the existence of a double-threshold for technological innovation. The whole regional midstream counties are characterized by a "leapfrog" growth. Downstream counties are characterized by a "growth-buffer-growth" pattern. There is no threshold effect in upstream counties. The results of the study can provide a reference for decision-making to promote agricultural green development in China, as well as lessons for agricultural green development in the remaining less developed countries.

  • Regular Articles
    LYU Xiao, SUN Xiao-wen, PENG Wen-long
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Based on 526 survey data of farming households in Qufu and Juxian county, this paper comprehensively evaluates the sustainable intensification level of farming households' cultivated land use by carbon footprint and emergy analysis methods. Based on the analysis of the transmission mechanism of cultivated land renting-in affecting SICLU, we use the mediated effect model to test the mediated role of management scale and fragmentation of cultivated land. The results show that: (1) The SICLU level of cultivated land transferred to farming households is higher, producing better economic and social benefits, but its ecological efficiency needs to be improved. The economic benefit, ecological benefit, social benefit and the level of SICLU are 0.115, 0.067 and 0.081; 0.623, 0.630 and 0.628; 0.045, 0.043 and 0.044; 0.261, 0.247 and 0.251 for renting-in farming households, non-renting-in farming households and the whole sample, respectively. (2) Baseline regression shows that cultivated land renting-in has a significant positive effect on SICLU, which is still valid after a series of robustness tests. The average years of education and the ratio of family dependency are important factors affecting SICLU. (3) The mediated effect model shows that cultivated land renting-in has a significant positive effect on the management scale and the average land size. The cultivated land management scale whose mediating effect is 0.019 shows a significant positive and complete mediating effect, and the average land size shows a significant positive and partial mediating effect, whose mediating effect accounts for 43.021% of the total effect. All the mediating effects above pass the robustness test. (4) The results of farming households heterogeneity test show that cultivated land renting-in has a significant positive effect on the SICLU of farming households in the "high family dependency ratio" and "participating in agricultural insurance" group, but has no significant effect on the SICLU of farming households in the "low family dependency ratio" group and "not participating in agricultural insurance" group. The conclusion of this study is helpful to understand the impact of cultivated land renting-in on the SICLU and its mechanism, and has guiding significance for promoting the transformation of cultivated land use.

  • Regular Articles
    LIU Hai-long, WANG Gai-yan, ZHANG Peng-hang, WANG Zheng-lei, ZHANG Li-ping
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    This paper constructs a "Size-Density-Morphology" basin ecological resilience evaluation system, using the coupled coordination model to estimate and analyze the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of coupled coordination between new urbanization and ecological resilience in counties of the Fenhe River Basin from 2000 to 2021, and the spatial autocorrelation model is used to reveal the spatial clustering characteristics of coupled coordination. The coordination influence index is introduced to characterize the effect and the degree of role of each subsystem on the overall coupling coordination degree. The results show that: (1) From 2000 to 2021, the level of new urbanization in counties of the Fenhe River Basin had been improved slowly, the "core-edge" spatial pattern was significant, and the comprehensive index of ecological resilience had been decreasing continuously. The high-value areas in the spatial pattern are distributed in an "S" shape, and the low-value areas are concentrated in the central valley. (2) The coupling coordination degree is characterized by a downward trend from "mild coordination" to "mild imbalance". Affected by the location advantages and ecological endowment factors, the spatial distribution of the coupling coordination degree showed a "ring" distribution pattern of increasing from the core to the edge, and the spatial agglomeration trend is significant. (3) In the new urbanization, the population, space, society and green subsystems have a reverse blocking effect on the integrated coupling coordination degree, while the influence of economic urbanization on the comprehensive coupling coordination is first blocked and then promoted, and the ecological resilience subsystem has a reverse blocking effect on the integrated coupling coordination degree, with the scale and density toughness blocking increased and the morphological toughness blocking degree weakened. (4) The "Matthew effect" of the unbalanced development of new urbanization level is more obvious, and the external supply of energy in resource-based counties forces the density toughness to drop significantly. The ecological resilience is restricted by ecological resources, and the spatial evolution is path-dependent. The Fenhe River Basin has both the universal characteristics of urbanization, which has negative effects on the ecology, and the particularity of slow industrial transformation in resource-developing counties, and the significant lag of ecological construction compared with urbanization.

  • Regular Articles
    ZHANG Xiao, LI Dong-hua, ZHANG Xiao-yao, SI Yue-fang, GU Ren-xu
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    The establishment of national economic and technological development zones was a pioneering initiative in China's economic system reform, which has had a profound impact on promoting regional economic development and urban spatial restructuring. Based on land use data from the Yangtze River Delta Region over the past 30 years, the evolutionary characteristics of urban form, including its external contours and internal patterns, are comprehensively depicted from five dimensions: scale, form, compactness, fragmentation, and diversity, using landscape metrics. Methods such as buffer analysis and multi-period difference-in-differences model are employed to examine the effects and mechanisms of national economic and technological development zones on urban form evolution at multiple scales. The results indicate that: (1) Both the 3 km and 5 km buffer zones have undergone a transition from rural to urban areas, and the urban form has become more regular and compact, with some spatial differentiation characteristics. (2) The construction of national economic and technological development zones has led to a decrease in shape metrics and an increase in compactness metrics within the two buffer scales, as well as a significant reduction in the size metrics within the 5 km buffer zone. (3) Factors such as the agglomeration and restraint effects of national economic and technological development zones on various production factors, the jurisdiction mode of administrative trusteeship, and excessive land use by enterprises have jointly shaped the evolution pattern of urban form in surrounding areas. The "top-down" development model of national economic and technological development zones not only attracts numerous production factors but also formulates and implements various supporting policies and plans. This plays a crucial role in driving urban expansion, establishing development boundaries, and regulating land use order. It is the direct cause for inducing the regularization and compactness of urban form.

  • Regular Articles
    XU Ke-xi, ZHAN Bing-qian, JIANG Chun, BAO Hai-jun, SU Jie-yu, HE Min-yu
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Constructing a low-carbon urban spatial pattern is a crucial path for promoting the green and low-carbon development of cities. This study, based on the constraint goals of urban carbon emissions, establishes a theoretical framework for optimizing the urban spatial pattern under the principles of intensity, compactness, efficiency, and green orientation. It analyzes the inherent relationship between urban spatial patterns and the carbon accounting system and subsequently develops an evaluation indicator system covering four dimensions: urban scale, urban form, urban layout, and blue-green space. The urban scale dimension aims to control urban sprawl, involving indicators of population, economy and spatial scale. The urban form dimension is orientated towards external compactness and covers indicators of urban plan form and facade form. For the urban layout dimension, the focus is on functional efficiency, covering indicators such as residential density and the ratio of jobs-housing balance. Blue-green space is considered important for enhancing urban carbon sink, with indicators including the proportion of such space and its integration degree. Following the logic path of "Evaluation indicator-Planning strategy-Planning content-Spatial response", this study proposes four practical paths: (1) enhancing urban carrying capacity to control urban expansion reasonably, (2) optimizing urban spatial structure to create compact urban form, (3) integrating development of People-City-Industry-Transportation to enhance urban service functions, (4) constructing an ecological network to increase carbon sink capacity. These four paths provide guidance for optimizing urban spatial pattern under carbon emission constraints.

  • Regular Articles
    LIU Zhi-hua, XU Jun-wei
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Based on the balanced panel data of 30 provincial-level regions from 2007 to 2021, this paper employs the multi-period difference-in-differences model, mediation effect model, and spatial difference-in-differences model to examine the direct effect, mediating effect, and spillover effect of the carbon emissions trading pilot policy on provincial carbon emissions equity. The research results show that: (1) The implementation of the pilot carbon trading policy will have a significant positive impact on the improvement of provincial carbon emission equity, and this impact still holds after a series of tests. (2) Analysis of the impact mechanism shows that, the pilot carbon trading policy has significantly increased the level of equity of carbon emissions by increasing the intensity of environmental regulation, optimizing the energy structure and promoting green technology innovation. (3) The impact of the pilot carbon trading policy on the equity of provincial carbon emissions has a positive spatial spillover effect, this effect through "polarization effect" and "trickle-down effect" on "geographical proximity" and "economic proximity" provincial-level regions have a significant positive impact.

  • Regular Articles
    ZHANG Xue-chun, CAO Xia, SONG Lin-hao
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Under the requirement of collaborative governance of the ecological environment and climate change, the carbon emission trading system (CETS), as a typical market-based environmental regulation tool, has attracted much attention for its role in pollution control and carbon reduction. Based on the panel data of 30 provincial-level regions (hereafter province) in China from 2000 to 2020, this paper applies the Synthetic Control Method to evaluate the effect of CETS in pollution control and carbon reduction in pilot provinces. The paper also applies the DID model to test the paths of CETS in promoting pollution control and carbon reduction. The findings are: In general, the effect of CETS in pilot provinces is more significant in pollution control and carbon reduction. In terms of individual policy, the effect on pollution control and carbon reduction in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong is most significant, followed by other provinces and cities. The study of the function mechanisms has shown that CETS is likely to realize pollution control and carbon reduction by promoting industrial structure upgrading, energy structure optimization, green technology innovation and energy use efficiency improvement. The analysis of regional heterogeneity has shown that the effect of CETS on pollution control and carbon reduction in the eastern region is more significant. The heterogeneity analysis of different types of air pollutants has indicated that CETS is more effective in terms of PM2.5 emission reduction.

  • Regular Articles
    WANG Zong-shun, ZHANG Hai-peng, YUE Chao, YANG Hong-qiang, ZHANG Han
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Afforestation is an important way to mitigate climate change, but its cost effectiveness cannot be ignored, which is especially important for the arid and semi-arid regions in Northwest China. To evaluate the cost effectiveness of afforestation for carbon sink in Northwest China, this paper constructed a three-dimensional integrated geography-economy-ecology analysis framework. The marginal afforestation areas in Northwest China was identified based on the superposition model of environmental factors and the dynamic optimization model of land use. The carbon sink potential by afforestation was predicted using the Richards growth equation, based on which the carbon sink supply curve was fitted. The cost effectiveness of afforestation for carbon sink in Northwest China was also analyzed. The results showed that: (1) The afforestation area that satisfies both natural and economic feasibility is 1027100 hm2 in Northwest China, accounting for about 20.56% of natural afforestation. Among them, grassland and unused land were dominant, and suitable afforestation areas were mainly distributed in Qinghai and Gansu provinces. (2) The carbon sink potential of afforestation in Northwest China is 9.37 million tons CO2 per year, and by 2060, afforestation will contribute approximately 9.70%-15.06% to the carbon neutrality target of this region, which cannot be ignored. (3) The average cost of afforestation for carbon sink in Northwest China was 948.81 yuan/t CO2, which was not cost-effective overall compared with the carbon emission reduction cost of thermal power. And in scenarios where climate change needs to be addressed urgently, the afforestation for carbon sinks in Northwest China will become even less cost effective. Accordingly, policy recommendations were proposed to improve the contribution of afforestation for achieving carbon neutrality.