Spatio-temporal Evolution of China's Economic Power Based on Asymmetric Theory

In the 21 st century, economic interdependence between countries has gradually become an important source of state power. Globalization and the rise of China's economy have had a significant impact on other economies around the world. China's economic influence is becoming more and more important. On the basis of the sensitivity dependence and vulnerability dependence of asymmetric interdependence theory, the economic spillover between countries is selected to construct a quantitative model to measure economic power. This paper analyzes the evolution of China's economic power both in time and space from 2000 to 2014. Four conclusions were drawn from the study: 1) The spatial spillover effect of China's economy on other countries has been continuously growing since the beginning of the 21 st century, which has brought about the rapid increase in China's economic power; 2) China's economic power has been significantly strengthened both in intensity and scope, having expanded from the surrounding countries to the whole world. In 2014, China had a high amount of economic power over 18 countries from the 41 main countries in the world, compared to 2 in 2000; 3) China's power in terms of sensitivity dependence takes on an evolutionary trend from point distribution to flaky growth, and it shows a process ‘from point to line' from the aspect of spatial diffusion. Furthermore, China's power in terms of vulnerability dependence shows a trend that extends from the surrounding countries to European and South American countries; 4) comprehensively, China's power in terms of vulnerability dependence is higher than that of sensitivity dependence, and the spatial distribution pattern demonstrates a process from centralization to decentralization from 2000 to 2014.     

Land-use change and socio-economic driving forces of rural settlement in China from 1996 to 2005

While urbanization has accelerated, the rural population in China has started decreasing in recent years. However, the expan- sion of rural settlement has not been sufficiently curbed. The questions of why this has happened and who has driven the land-use change （LUC） of rural settlement in China have aroused great interests among researchers. In this paper, it is suggested that population is not always a positive driving force for the LUC of rural settlement in China. Furthermore, socio-economic driving forces other than urbanization, population and industrialization are analyzed. On a national scale, the major driving forces are the per-capita rural housing area and the cultivated land area. On a regional scale, the main driving forces in the eastern China are the house-building capacity of rural households and the per-capita rural housing area; while in the central China, the main driving forces are rural housing investment, the proportion of primary industry employees in the rural working population, and the cultivated land area. For the western China, the main driving forces are rural register population and cultivated land area.     

Spatio-temporal Evolution Characteristics and Driving Forces of Winter Urban Heat Island: A Case Study of Rapid Urbanization Area of Fuzhou City,China

Under the influence of anthropogenic and climate change, the problems caused by urban heat island(UHI) has become increasingly prominent. In order to promote urban sustainable development and improve the quality of human settlements, it is significant for exploring the evolution characteristics of urban thermal environment and analyzing its driving forces. Taking the Landsat series images as the basic data sources, the winter land surface temperature(LST) of the rapid urbanization area of Fuzhou...     

Revisiting the Relationship Between Urbanization and Economic Development in China Since the Reform and Opening-up

The relationship between urbanization and economic development has become a hot topic in the scientific community due to its great practical significance,and economic and social value.However,this relationship continues to change dynamically.In the new stage of urbanization,it is urgent to reveal the causal relationship quantitatively and diagnose the future direction systematically.Based on this,this paper calculates the contribution rate of China’s urbanization to economic development from 1978 to 2019 and uses the panel data cointegration test method to explore the causal relationship between urbanization and economic development in China.The study has three principal results.First,the contribution rate of urbanization to economic growth has maintained the overall growth trend from1978 to 2019,but the growth rate of urbanization’s contribution to economic growth has been relatively low since 2012.It is an important reason that the real estate sector has moved into a new stage of transformation.Second,the cointegration test shows that economic development is a significant factor in advancing urbanization and the urbanization is the product of economic development.Urbanization has a positive feedback effect on economic development,but this effect does not pass the 5%significance level test.The impulse response function shows that the impact of urbanization on economic development is relatively small and stable,indicating that it is limited that the boost of economic development by land-centered urbanization.Third,China’s urbanization and economic development have both shown rapid growth for some time,but their relationship is still the low level of coordination,which has also led to a downward trend in the contribution of new-type,people-oriented urbanization to economic growth in recent years.In the future,China’s urbanization and economy need to maintain relatively medium-low speed growth in the medium-long term,and we should boost the coordinated development of urbanization and economy from low level to high level.     

Analysis of major driving forces of ecological footprint based on the STRIPAT model and RR method: A case of Sichuan Province, Southwest China

The Ecological Footprint(EF) equation provides useful accounting to analyze the relationship between human activities and the environment.Knowledge of the specific forces driving EF is not fully understood but the STIRPAT model provides a simple framework for decomposing the impact of human activities on environment.We applied the EF model in Sichuan Province,China to assess the impact of human activities.The per capita EF increased by 2 fold in the 14 years between 1995 and 2008,but ecological capacity decreased in the same period,suggesting that the biologically productive area of Sichuan Province is inadequate to sustain human activities.According to the refined STIRPAT model,the hypothesized driving forces of EF include population size(P),GDP per capita(A1),quadratic term of GDP per capita(A2),percentage of GDP from industry(T1) and urbanization rate(T2).However,the multi-collinearity among these drivers could be a substantial problem which may reveal negative effect in the final results.Application of the Ridge Regression(RR) method to fit the STIRPAT model had the advantage of being able to avoid the collinearity among independent variables.The results showed that population is the principal driving force of EF variation in Sichuan Province and that urbanization and industrialization also have a positive association with the EF.Analysis of affluence elasticity(EEA) showed that the relationship betweenEF and economic growth was not curvilinear,suggesting that variation of EF does not follow an Environmental Kuznets Curve relative to economic growth in Sichuan Province.     

Spatio-temporal Pattern Characteristics of Relationship Between Urbanization and Economic Development at County Level in China

The relationship between China’s urbanization and economic development(RCUED) is an important concern nationwide. As important actors in regional strategy and policy, county-level regions have played an increasingly significant role in the development of China’s social economy. However, the existing research on the RCUED lacks the fine depiction of the county-level administrative units.Using 2000 and 2010 census data and the statistical analysis method, we uncovered the evolution characteristics of China’s urbanization and economic development and conducted a quantitative identification for the RCUED with improved methods using the quadrant map approach. In addition, we investigated the spatial correlation effect of the RCUED using the spatial autocorrelation analysis method. The results were as follows: 1) In general, a high degree of matching exists between China’s urbanization and economic development at the county level at the significance level of 0.01. The correlation coefficients between China’s urbanization and economic development in2000 and 2010 were 0.608 and 0.603, respectively. 2) A significant regional difference exists in the RCUED at the county level. Based on a comparative analysis of 2276 county units in China in the two years, we found that county units can be categorized as under-urbanized, basic coordination and over-urbanized in various areas. No situation was observed where urbanization seriously lagged behind the economic development level, so the levels of urbanization and economic development appear to be basically coordinated,and the coordination state may be gradually optimized over time. 3) Over time, the spatial dependency of the RCUED has weakened and the spatial heterogeneity has increased. Northeast China has always been an area characterized by over-urbanization. The number of county units classified as under-urbanized has begun to decline in eastern coastal urban agglomeration areas, while counties rich in resources have transformed from having point-shaped over-urbanization to plane-shaped under-urbanization along the northern border,and the number of over-urbanized county units has increased in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. 4)’Lag-lag’ type and ’advance-advance’ type accounted for 68% of all counties in China, and these counties were shown to have obvious spatial differentiation characteristics.     

Changes in cultivated land patterns and driving forces in the Three Gorges Reservoir area,China, from 1992 to 2015

Changes of cultivated land patterns caused by major water conservation projects are rarely reported. We selected the Three Gorges Reservoir area in China to study the change in area and landscape pattern of the cultivated land in the head,central, and tail areas of the reservoir that took place between 1992 and 2015; we then studied the spatial distribution of the cultivated land in the three parts of the reservoir; finally, we studied the driving forces behind the changes in the cultivated land. The results derived are as follows.(1) During the construction of the Three Gorges Project(TGP, 1992–2015), the area of cultivated land around the reservoir decreased by30.23 million ha. This reduction occurred in phases:the most severe change in cultivated land occurred during the later stage of the project(2002–2010);only 0.62 million ha of cultivated land did not change between 1992 and 2015.(2) Spatial pattern analysis showed that the cultivated land in the three parts of the reservoir changed from a northern distribution to a southern distribution; thus, the area of cultivated land in the north decreased over the time period. The area of cultivated land in the head and tail areas decreased by varying degrees, while it increased in the central area over the 23 years, indicating that the change in cultivated land showed regional differences.(3) The TGP, the policy of reverting farmland to forest,and urbanization were the main driving factors for the change of cultivated land, but there were differences in their impacts at different stages.(4) According to the patch dynamics of the land cover change, the degree of change gradually intensified during the early and later stages of the project and then stabilized during the operational period. Our research provides scientific support for the protection of cultivated land resources and food security in the reservoir area and for the coordination of social and economic development, which is of great significance to sustainable development in the reservoir area.     

Non-coordination in China＇s Urbanization： Assessment and Affecting Factors

Urbanization is a comprehensive concept, a trinity process that population urbanization, economic urbanization and space urbanization, is based on the interactions and mutual influences among the in which, people are the central and leading players in this process, while economic activities serve as the driving force and space is the carrier-the physical or material setting as well as the product. So the coordination among these processes is crucial for a country or region＇s sustainable development. China is experiencing rapid growth of cities and a surge in urban population, with the basic national condition of many people and little land, which calls for a systematic study of the issue of coordinated urbanization from theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives. Based on the concept of urbanization and non-coordination of urbanization, this article built a quantitative method to identify and evaluate the urbanization and non-coordination of urbanization, and made an empirical analysis in China between 2000 and 2008. The results show that the non-coordination overall level of China＇s urbanization declined during the study period, because population urbanization, economic urbanization, and space urbanization exhibited different trajectories of change. This study also reveals that performance assessment system, household registration system, and urban land expropriation system, etc., are the main affecting factors. At the end, we put forward some suggestions to achieve sustainable development of China＇s urbanization from the aspects of improving the local government＇s obiective function, imolementing the urban plalming svstem, enforcing public particination asnects and so on.     

AGGLOMERATION AND RADIATION EFFECT OF THE PULL OF URBANIZATION

In order to explore the train of thought for China‘s urbanizing development and coordinated rural eco-nomic development, and to find good ways of solving rural problems through urbanization, this paper absorbs the push-and-pull forces theory and the systematic dynamic theory in the traditional population migration theories, views urbanization as a dynamic system, makes research on the push-and-pull mechanism of urbanization. The pulling power of urbanization is analyzed according to two aspects, the agglomeration effect and the radiation effect of cities. The agglomeration effect provides continuous propelling force for urbanization, and the radiation effect further accelerates the urbanization process by pushing forward the development of rural economy. Of course, the slow de-velopment of urbanization can result in the hindrance to rural economic development.     

Livelihood diversification as an adaptation approach to change in the pastoral Hindu-Kush Himalayan region

Migratory livestock raising has been one of the most important livelihood options for people residing in high mountain areas and has made a significant contribution to the economy of the Hindu Kush Himalayan（HKH） region, both in terms of supporting households and in export earnings. However, in recent decades, changes in the socioeconomic situation and increasing climate variability have led to a need to enhance adaptation by building the resilience of local socio-ecological systems, including economic diversification and sustainable management of natural resources. Based on semistructured interviews with pastoral communities in six countries within the pastoral HKH region, this paper discusses the situation, trends and driving forces behind the diversification of pastoral livelihood. For internal diversification the study highlights the need for enhancement of pastoral livelihoods through value-adding activities in the pastoral sectors. For external diversification changes on policy changes are needed to support free out-migration, market exploitation, and multiple resource use. Finally the paper highlights the role of education in determining household adaptation strategies in the face of various socio-ecological pressures and recommends integrating innovative and indigenous knowledge to develop appropriate methods for risk management and resource management in the pastoral HKH region.     

China's Global Shipping Connectivity: Internal and External Dynamics in the Contemporary Era(1890–2016)

China's global shipping connectivity had been somewhat overlooked as the bulk of related studies predominantly focused on the throughput volume of its own port cities. This article tackles such lacunae by providing a relational perspective based on the extraction of vessel movement archives from the Lloyd's List corpus. Two complementary analyses are proposed: long-term dynamics with all ships included(1890–2008) and medium-term dynamics focusing on container flows(1978–2016). Each analysis examines China's maritime connectivity in various ways and on different spatial scales, from the global to the local, in terms of concentration, vulnerability, and expansion. The main results underline the influence of technological, economic, and political factors on the changing distribution of connectivity internally and externally. In particular, China has managed to reduce its dependence upon external transit hubs, to increase the internal connectivity of its own port system, and to strengthen its dominance towards an increasing number of foreign nodes and trade partners through the maritime network.     

The developmental characteristics and strategic ideas of urbanization in China

Since cities and towns are places where those nonagricultural industries are centralized, urbanization is greatly interrelated with industrialization and de-agriculturalization. By means of this kind of interrelationship, Chinese urbanization level may be estimated with the formulas: P1=I1/I0/u0, Pr = N1/N0/u0. The urbanization after the founding of the People's Republic of China can be divided into the following 5 stages: the stage at the out set of industrialization (1949-1957); the high-speed urbanization stage (1958-1960); the first counter-urbanization stage (1961-1965); the second counter-urbanization stage (1966-1976); and the high-speed urbanization stage (1978-now). The characteristics of Chinese urbanization are: the industrialization launched by the government; the simultaneous development of urbanization of cities and urbanization of rural areas; the quite low capability of urbanization to absorb nonagricultural labor force; the incoordinate development of cities, etc. Before establishing a     

Spatio-temporal dynamic patterns of rural area development in eastern coastal China

The aim of this study is to evaluate the current state of rural area development at the county level in the eastern coastal China. An evaluation index system including 18 factors was developed, and a rural development index (RDI) was constructed to evaluate rural development state in 2000, 2004, and 2008. The quantitative evaluation indicated the following results. 1) This study derived four dominating components by means of principal component analysis, which can explain 78.2% of the total information, namely agricultural production input, the basic condition of agriculture, the comparative effectiveness of grain production, and the household′s own basic conditions. 2) Since the turn of the new millennium, the rural area in the eastern coastal China has experienced a rapid development in general. Well developed, developed, moderately developed and undeveloped rural areas respectively occupied 29.32%, 22.33%, 21.91%, and 10.51% in 2008. 3) The countryside had maintained a sound momentum of developing trend between 2000 and 2008, while the rural development in the eastern coastal China lacked sustainability. And 4) industrialization, urbanization, original economic basis, and location are four major driving forces of the disparity of rural area development in the eastern coastal China. Given these results, the strategies and policies for the improvement of each rural group were put forward.     

Comprehensive Assessment of Urbanization Coordination:A Case Study of Jiangxi Province,China

In order to make assessment on urbanization coordination, we developed a comprehensive model by integrating entropy weight method(EWM), coupling degree model(CDM), coupling coordination degree model(CCDM), multi-index grading method(MIGM) and Remote Sensing Geographic Information System(RS GIS) technology. Then we applied this integrated model to a case study in Jiangxi Province, China. Our study finds that: 1) EWM, CDM and CCDM can evaluate the temporal dynamic of urbanization. Urbanization process of Jiangxi Province can be divided into three periods, the stable development period(1990–2001), the accelerated development period(2002–2009) and the rapid development period(2010–2015). Coordinated development of urbanization in Jiangxi Province can be divided into two phases, an increasingly coordinated phase(1990–2003) and an increasingly incongruous phase(2003–2015). The state transition was due to low development rate of population urbanization. 2) RS GIS technology is an effective tool for detecting urban growth. Urban construction land area of Jiangxi Province increased from 615.8 km~2 in 1990 to 2896.8 km~2 in2015, and the per capita urban construction land area(PCUCLA) reached 122.9 m~2, with the maximum value of 343 m~2 in Gongqingcheng City. 3) MIGM and RS GIS technology can analyze spatial difference of urbanization. There is a significant spatial difference in socioeconomic development at county scale, with the maximum value six times the minimum value for both PCUCLA and per capita GDP in 2015. Population urbanization lag and excessive land use are the main reasons for uncoordinated urbanization. There were 15 counties with a lag in demographic urbanization and 33 counties where PCUCLA exceeded the national standard in 2015, among which 20 exceeded the national standard of PCUCLA by 50%(≥165 m~2). Since there are significant spatio-temporal differences in urbanization, it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive assessment to facilitate differential urbanization strategy making.     

Examining Health of Wetlands with Multiple Ecosystem Services as Targets in China's Coastal Regions

Coastal zones are key interconnectors of terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Due to the degradation and fragmentation of coastal wetlands, there is an urgent need to develop assessment methodology to compare the health of wetland ecosystems at different spatial scales. This will help efficiently develop and implement protections using easy-to-access ecosystem health data. This study aims to understand the spatial distribution of coastal and inland wetland health for China's coastal regions. A Wetland Health Index(WHI) was developed to provide a basis for policy and decision making. Four utilization models—Long Term Model, Open Model, Nature Reserve Model, and Protected and Economic Model—were defined in the context of China's coastal regions to specifically examine wetland health. Results show that the average WHI score was 63.6 with the range of 44.8–84.3 for 35 National Nature Reserves(NNRs), and the southern NNRs generally performed better than the northern NNRs. The wetlands in the southern provinces/municipalities are relatively healthier than their northern counterparts. The competent authority has slight influence on WHI scores but duration of conservation establishment does not show a clear correlation. With increasing economic activity, the differences in health conditions(WHI scores) of China's coastal regions also increase. Gross Domestic Product(GDP) or economic intensification does not relate to WHI scores. Appropriate trade-offs between wetland management and economic development could contribute to improve health conditions, conservation and utilization of coastal and inland wetlands.     

The Evolution and Differentiation of Economic Convergence of Resource-based Cities in Northeast China

A key target of the overall strategy implementation for regional development since the 18th Party Congress of China has involved taking measures to narrow regional disparities. This is because resource-based cities' economic development has fallen below general levels due to resource exhaustion and an unbalanced industrial structure, among other factors. Further, an economic gap has long existed between Northeast China's large number of resource-based cities and non-resource-based cities. This article comprehensively studies the economic convergence of Northeast China's resource-based cities and non-resource-based cities from 1996 to 2015 by using a dynamic panel to analyze not only the economic development of different industries and types of cities, but also the main factors that influence economic development. The empirical results demonstrate that economic convergence exists in both resource-based and non-resource-based cities, but the economic gap between them has clearly narrowed since the implementation of a strategy to revitalize the Northeast's old industrial base. Shrinking cities are the fastest to converge, as mature cities are slower and regenerating cities are the slowest; regarding industry structure, the secondary industry dominates the economy in mature and shrinking cities, and the tertiary industry in regenerating cities. The primary stimulus in resource-based cities' economic development involves upgrading the industrial structure and investing in human capital. As China faces a ‘new normal' economy, resource-based cities in Northeast China should restructure the economy and perfect their market system to avoid again widening the economic gap.     

Ecological Network Analysis Quantifying the Sustainability of Regional Economies: A Case Study of Guangdong Province in China

To meet the challenge of sustainable development, sustainability must be made. Ecological network analysis(ENA) was introduced in this paper as an approach to quantitatively measure the growth, development, and sustainability of an economic system. The Guangdong economic networks from 1987 to 2010 were analyzed by applying the ENA approach. Firstly, a currency flow network among economic sectors was constructed to represent the Guangdong economic system by adapting the input-output(I-O) table data. Then, the network indicators from the ENA framework involving the total system throughput(TST), average mutual information(AMI), ascendency(A), redundancy(R) and development capacity(C) were calculated. Lastly, the network indicators were analyzed to acquire the overall features of Guangdong's economic operations during 1987–2010. The results are as follows: the trends of the network indicators show that the size of the Guangdong economic network grows exponentially at a high rate during 1987–2010, whereas its efficiency does not present a clear trend over its whole period. The growth is the main characteristic of the Guangdong economy during 1987–2010, with no clear evidence regarding its development. The quantitative results of the network also confirmed that the growth contributed to a great majority of the Guangdong economy during 1987–2010, whereas the development's contribution was tiny during the same period. The average value of the sustainability indicator(α) of the Guangdong economic network was 0.222 during 1987–2010, which is less than the theoretically optimal value of 0.37 for a sustainable human-influenced system. The results suggest that the Guangdong economic system needs a further autocatalysis to improve its efficiency to support the system maintaining a sustainable evolvement.     

Spatial pattern and influencing factor of county-level industrial development in Liaoning Province of China

County-level industrial development and structure upgrade is one of the most important issues of revitalizing old industrial base of China. After the cluster analysis on GDP per capita and GDP per area of each county in Liaoning Province, this paper finds the similarity of population size, land use intensity, and economic development of each county. Location quotient reflects the specialization intensity of industries in each county, and it also reflects the spatial differences of county-level industrial development. Economic development level is higher in the southeast than in the northwest of Liaoning, and the industry driving effect on county-level economy is apparent. The main influencing factors include location, industrial foundation and economic system reform, capital input level, knowledge and technology dissemination, conditions of domestic and overseas markets, population and labor force transfer. Industrialization is an important approach to urbanization for the counties in Liaoning Province. The proportion of agriculture is much higher in the northwest than in the southeast of Liaoning, so it will be take longer time for counties in the northwest of Liaoning to make industrialization, urbanization and modernization.     

Empirical Analysis on Urbanization Patterns in Zhejiang Province Based on Spatial Economy and GIS

1 Introduction For the two past decades of economic reforms in China, the urbanization level has risen dramatically from 17.92% in 1978 to 41.8% in 2004, with the average an- nual increase in the urbanized population of 3.3%. Owing to the social and economic factors, however, the agri- culture, rural area and farmer, named “three agricul- ture-related problems” in the country, have benefited little from the rapid and unprecedented process of ur- banization (Lin and Ho, 2003). Conversely, as…     

Impact of regional development on carbon emission: Empirical evidence across countries

Global warming is recently an urgent issue worldwide. The increase of carbon emissions induced by human economic activi- ties has become a major driving force behind global climate change. Thus, as a matter of social responsibility, reasonable carbon con- straints should be implemented to ensure environmental security and sustainable development for every country. Based on a summary of studies that examined the relationship between carbon emissions and regional development, this paper shows that human activity-led carbon emission is caused by the combination of several influencing factors, including population size, income level, and technical pro- gress. Thus, a quantitative model derived from IPAT-ImPACT-Kaya series and STIRPAT models was established. Empirical analysis using multivariate nonlinear regression demonstrated that the origins of growing global carbon emission included the increasing influ- encing elasticity of the population size and the declining negative effect of technical progress. Meanwhile, in context of classification of country groups at different income levels, according to the comparison of fluctuating patterns of the influencing elasticity, technical progress was found as the main factor influencing carbon emission levels in high-income countries, and population size might he the controlling factor in middle-income countries. However, for low-income countries, the nonlinear relationship between carbon emission and its influencing factors was not significant, whereas population growth was identified as an important potential driving force in future carbon emissions. This study can therefore provide a reference for the formulation of policies on carbon constraints, especially to de- velop more efficient carbon mitigating policies for countries at different income levels.