The relationship between economic growth and resource-environmental pressure is an important research area for regional sustainable development. However, few studies have systematically summarized relevant research results within different theoretical contexts, and few have compared the pros and cons of different theories, methods, models, indicators, and evaluation systems. Therefore, it is difficult to determine their theoretical contributions. This article reviewed five kinds of theoretical models and empirical studies in this field. It also compared their theoretical connotations, methods, evaluation systems, and applicability. In addition, this article proposed the basic framework and key content of analysis on the relationship between regional economic growth and resource-environmental pressures. We aimed to provide some theoretical reference and technical support for advancing related research. The results show that: (1) The theories, methods, and indicators of this field have different advantages, disadvantages, and application scope. Relevant research should be carried out under the basic framework of testing the direction of causality → identifying the EKC turning point/decoupling state → assessing the eco-efficiency intensity → determining the coupling coordination phase. Regional sustainable development policies should be developed based on the idea of “direction regulation → turning point/state regulation → intensity regulation → system regulation.” (2) We should focus on method, model, and evaluation system optimization. Studies on discovering driving factors, mechanisms, and path selection should be emphasized. Furthermore, it is necessary to implement research on multi-case comparison, remote coupling, and theoretical association in the future.
Ecosystem service research has been widely concerned by the Chinese and international scholars. Revealing the current international research hotspots and development trends will provide a reference for ecosystem service research and practice in China. Based on bibliometric analysis and CiteSpace, this study took the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) databases of the Web of Science Core Collection as sample data sources to systematically analyze the basic characteristics, main research impacts, and research hotpots in the field of ecosystem service research. The activity index (AI) and the attraction index (AAI) were used to evaluate the research efficiency and academic influence of different countries or regions in this field over time. The research results show that: (1) The number of publications and citations of international ecosystem service research increased significantly with time, especially after 2012, and the number of scholars focusing on this issue has continued to increase; (2) The concentration of published articles in relevant journals is strong; the number of published articles in the top 10 journals accounts for 40% of the total number of published articles; (3) In recent years, China’s research strength in ecosystem services has been continuously enhanced, but it is still lower than the global average. (4) The assessment framework and research method framework of ecosystem services are currently hot topics in this research field. Particular attention should be paid to integrating social needs, human well-being, and ecosystem regulation services into the analysis framework of ecosystem services while focusing on the value and role of cultural ecosystem services, and making full use of innovative methods such as machine learning and big data mining to solve complex social and ecological problems.
Using the literature from the Web of Science (WOS) and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases and the CiteSpace software as an analytical tool, this study analyzed the national distribution and hotspots of the publications from international natural resources accounting and assessment research, and core author distribution and research institution distribution of the research in China, with a special focus on the hotspot changes of natural resources accounting and assessment research in China. The following results were derived: (1) In this field, America is the country with the highest number of research articles, followed by China. China and Australia have high influence in international cooperation. (2) International research mainly covered the estimation methods, development and utilization, management and protection of various resource elements. (3) Domestic research involved many fields. A stable core author network has not been formed. The cooperation relationship of each institution was greatly restricted by the region. (4) According to the requirements of specific policies, Chinese research hotspots can be divided into three stages including establishment, development, and improvement. (5) In addition to the non renewable resources and clean energy that are generally concerned at home and abroad, China has done a lot of researches on fishery resources, and studied the unique resources of traditional Chinese medicine; “ecosystem services” has become an important aspect of international research, while it is only in recent years that the ecological value has been included in the discussion in China. The results are helpful for a comprehensive understanding of the overall developing stages and the frontiers of the natural resources accounting and assessment research in China, providing a reference for the theoretical and methodological developments of future research.
The rapid development of the world economy and society, the reduction of forest area, forest degradation, and other ecological and environmental issues have become significantly prominent. The forest has become an important stage for the game of different actors. In order to analyze the social network relationship in the research field of forest governance, this article introduced the Actor-centered Power theory established by Max Krott and other colleagues. The theory proposes that actors can impose their interest on others through three power elements coercion, (dis)incentive, and dominant information, which would change the latter’s behavior and determine the ultimate effect of forest governance. Through the analysis of social networks to guide the formulation and implementation of relevant policies, this theory has gradually become an important analytical framework for many research fields. Our article summed up the concepts of power theory, research methods, and classification of power elements, and further explored the research boundary and applicable fields of the theory. Finally, combining Chinese research situation, our article put forward the application prospect and development potential of the theory in China. Under the background of ecological civilization construction, the Actor-centered Power theory could provide an effective analytical framework for Chinese scholars to analyze the existing governance structure of natural resources such as forests and build a good governance system.
The great practice of China’s targeted poverty alleviation and reduction strategy has promoted the continuous improvement of regional poverty governance ideas. On the basis of summarizing the dialectical relationship between individual poverty alleviation and regional poverty alleviation, poverty-stricken areas and regional poverty governance needs, and based on the specific Chinese practice of targeted poverty alleviation, this article systematically reviewed the ideas of regional governance of poverty-stricken areas, aiming to enrich the theoretical system of targeted poverty alleviation, and provide a reference for the implementation of China’s rural revitalization strategy and the international action of the global poverty reduction by in 2030. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The idea of regional poverty governance includes three aspects: poverty spatial differentiation, poverty region development strategy, and poverty region management, corresponding to the precision identification, precision assistance, and precision management of the targeted poverty alleviation strategy, which provides the theoretical basis and practical tools for targeted poverty alleviation; (2) The poverty-stricken areas show significant spatial differences and spatial differentiation characteristics. They are divided into poverty-stricken county and village categories, and the areas that are difficult to get rid of poverty and where poor counties are concentrated are divided into concentrated and contiguous special poverty areas; (3) Based on the regional development theories of resources science, geography, and other disciplines, a poverty region development strategy is formed, which is composed of eastern-western region cooperation and counterpart support, priority development of agriculture and rural areas, and differentiated measures according to local conditions; (4) Based on the distinct hierarchical system of poverty-stricken areas, a poverty alleviation object system of “poverty county, poverty village, poverty household” is formed and the exit assessment mechanism is proposed, and the poverty region management means composed of the working mechanism of “central government responsible for overall planning, provincial government taking overall responsibility, city and county governments responsible for implementation” are suggested.
With intensified human activities, natural disasters have become more frequent, and post-disaster recovery and reconstruction have received widespread attention. Recovery and reconstruction planning is an essential public policy to guide post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, and the evaluation of its implementation will help ensure the efficient implementation and the sustainable development of disaster areas. This article reviewed the current status of research by analyzing the progress in the assessment of the implementation of post-disaster recovery and reconstruction planning and provides a basis for the construction of comprehensive assessment techniques. Combined with the analysis of theories, contents, and methods of the implementation evaluation of Chinese and international recovery and reconstruction planning, the authors compared and then summarized the experiences and deficiencies of various types of implementation evaluation. The results show that the current planning and implementation evaluations are mainly based on traditional planning, such as urban planning and land-use planning. Due to the characteristics of frequent natural disasters and social and economic fragility in disaster areas, implementation evaluation faces more challenges. Existing assessment methods mostly use traditional assessment theories and need to be integrated with theories of sustainable development and disaster economics to improve their theoretical systems. The evaluation content focuses more on infrastructure, ecological environment, and other physical aspects, but it needs to pay attention to social equity, cultural protection, and so on. During the evaluation phase, current ways pay more attention to the results rather than the process and impact. Furthermore, there are differences in the evaluation methods at various stages. Therefore, qualitative and quantitative methods need to be comprehensively applied. In the future, we need to design a full-stage evaluation process, build a comprehensive evaluation system, and conduct post-disaster sustainability assessments to improve the scientific nature of assessments. Comprehensively examining the results of the implementation of post-disaster recovery and reconstruction planning will play an essential role in ensuring the recovery and reconstruction of disaster areas.
Land use transition (LUT) provides theoretical and practical guidance for the regulation of the conflicts in human-land relationship in the process of social and economic development. As an important part of rural land use, rural residential areas are closely related to the migration and movement of rural population. Systematically understanding the transition of rural human-land relationship and its formation mechanism can provide a theoretical basis for rural transition and development. In view of the reality of the loss of rural population and the hollowing of rural residential areas in the process of urbanization, this study depicted the theoretical process of rural residential area transition (RRAT) from the perspective of the changing human-land relationship. Then, per capita rural residential area (PCRA) was used as the characterization index of RRAT, and spatial autocorrelation least linear quadratic regression model (ordinary least squares) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models were used to reveal the spatial and temporal characteristics of RRAT and its influencing factors and mechanisms. The empirical analysis of Shandong Province from 1996 to 2016 shows that: (1) The PCRA transition trend was not significant, with obvious regional incompleteness and imbalance, but only in some areas it showed an inverted U-shaped transition process from rising to falling. The reason is that the passive reduction of rural residential land lagged behind the active rural population movement. (2) The spatial distribution of PCRA showed clear heterogeneity and tended to gather in high or low value clusters as a whole; the Jiaodong Peninsula and the vicinity of the provincial capital economic circle showed a tendency of contraction and expansion of cold spots, while the vast plain showed a tendency of contraction and expansion of hot spots. (3) The transition of rural residential areas is affected by factors such as topography, economy, urbanization, and policy, the main factors in different time periods and the sensitivity of factors in different regions are different, and the process of influence has some instability. (4) The linkage between rural population movement and rural residential land change determines the process of accelerating the coordinated development of rural human-land factors. There are differences in the RRAT in various areas as well as in the driving factors. Relevant government departments should promote the people-oriented urbanization and accelerate the process of scale reduction of rural residential land use to achieve rural transition and development.
In the context of urban and rural construction land expansion, the paid withdrawal of homestead is important to improve the efficiency of rural construction land use, and the decision-making behavior of farmers is the key to the policy implementation of paid withdrawal of homestead. Based on the perspective of farmers and taking Jinzhai County in Anhui Province as an example, this study constructed a tradeoff model of perceived value of homestead withdrawal based on the theory of perceived value, and analyzed the impact of perceived value of farmers on their decision-making behavior in the process of homestead withdrawal. The results show that: (1) Farmers’ participation in the withdrawal of homestead follows the path of perceived value → willingness to withdraw → decision-making behavior. Perceived value is the basis of farmers’ willingness to withdraw from homestead and decision-making behavior, the willingness to withdraw is the main driving force for the actual withdrawal behavior, farmers’ perceived benefits have a positive impact on perceived value and willingness to withdraw, and perceived risk has a negative impact on perceived value and willingness to withdraw; (2) Farmers are “risk averse” in the process of the withdraw of homestead, but the policy system will promote farmers’ willingness to withdraw into the actual withdrawal behavior; (3) The surveyed farmers showed the dual action logic of “initiative” and “inducement,” and the effect of “inducement” behavior is higher than “initiative,” indicating that “inducement” behavior logic is dominant. Therefore, this article put forward two suggestions to ensure the smooth development and pilot promotion of homestead exit: safeguarding the rights and interests of farmers’ homestead exit; and increasing the support for the policy of homestead exit.
At present, China’s food security situation is grim because cultivated land is the basis of food security, but abandoned cultivated land has become a common phenomenon of land use change. This study used the panel data of household survey in China to analyze the change of cultivated land use behavior and influencing factors of farming households that contracted cultivated land from 2010 to 2016, and examined the probability change and regional difference from the perspectives of explicit abandonment and implicit abandonment. The results show that: First, cultivated land contracted by farmers experienced both explicit and implicit abandonments. Implicit abandonment is relatively large, but the phenomenon of abandonment in the future will gradually decrease. Second, in terms of consistency, investment in seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers, and the implementation of agricultural subsidy policies have significant inhibitory effects on land abandonment, but their marginal effects will be reduced. Land expropriation will prompt farmers to choose land abandonment, which has a negative long-term effect. Third, the influencing factors of explicit and implicit abandonments are different. Explicit abandonment is significant in hilly areas. The scale of cultivated land and the strategy of returning the grain plots to forestry and grass can reduce the probability of implicit abandonment for farmers. Natural hazards will cause explicit and implicit land abandonment, the marginal effect of natural hazards on explicit abandonment will be reduced, but the marginal effect on implicit abandonment will increase. Last, in terms of spatial differences, it is still possible that the cultivated land in the economically developed areas will experience an explicit abandonment, and the main grain-producing areas may continue to experience an implicit abandonment. In the future, it is necessary to formulate and improve relevant land and agricultural policies, continue to increase agricultural investment, carry out large-scale land transfers, and so on in order to solve the problem of farmland abandonment.
With the rapid urbanization in China, the emergence of urban diseases has led to the decline of urban quality and urban vitality. Urban vitality provides a new perspective for the study of urban issues. The use of big data provides an accurate and efficient means for the study of urban vitality. Based on the dimensions of population heat map and point of interest (POI) distribution, this study quantitatively evaluated the urban vitality in the central city of Chongqing, and validated the derived vitality values based on the score of street view perception. The results show that the spatial distribution of urban vitality in Chongqing is characterized by multi-center distribution, which is consistent with its multi-center and clustered urban structure. The urban vitality evaluated by three indicators is similar in spatial pattern. It shows that the areas with high urban vitality are mainly located in the inner ring of Chongqing, especially in the main center of Jiefangbei and sub-centers, such as Shapingba, Yangjiaping, Guanyinqiao, and Nanping. The areas with high urban vitality correspond to the sub-centers of Chayuan and Xiyong outside the inner ring. This result is also consistent with the score of street view perception. The study confirms that the evaluation of urban vitality based on big data can compensate for the deficiency of traditional qualitative analysis methods and provide a new way of thinking and perspective for the quantitative study of urban vitality. The study of a mountainous city also addresses the deficiency of the existing studies on mountain city vitality and can help policy making in spatial planning.
Urban land development intensity is a comprehensive reflection of the present situation of land use and the starting point of sustainable utilization in the future. It is also a comprehensive index reflecting the breadth of urban land development and carrying capacity of population and social and economic development. Based on the remote sensing monitoring data of land use in the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2015, this study examined the spatiotemporal differentiation and influencing mechanism of urban land development intensity by using spatial analysis, multiple regression, and spatial error regression models, in order to improve land use efficiency and environmental quality. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The index value of urban land development intensity in the Yangtze River Delta had been increasing from 0.089 in 2000 to 0.165 in 2015, which is higher than the national average of 0.046 in the same period. The development intensity of the “Z” axis of the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo area is higher than the regional average, which is consistent with the level of social and economic development. The development intensity of surrounding counties and cities is relatively low, and the spatial structure of core-periphery is remarkable. (2) Urban land development intensity shows a positive spatial correlation. Urban construction and industrial development are based on trunk transportation network and core urban areas. Economic spillover and foreign capital injection make the export-oriented economic development of surrounding counties very distinctive. The heterogeneity of land development intensity is high and relatively stable, and the spatial layout gradually reaches equilibrium step by step. However, the correlation gradually weakened in time. (3) The constraints of natural conditions on urban land development are weakening, and the deep industrialization and transformation and upgrading of industrial structure lead to efficient urban construction land development. Urbanization gathers a large number of immigrants, and the construction of highly developed transportation network facilitates the inflow of talent, capital, technology, and other essential resources. Both the level of social development and the force of economic development have become important factors that promote the enhancement of regional land development intensity. Meanwhile, the spatial agglomeration effect of higher urban administrative level in infrastructure investment, talent attraction, transportation facilities, and other aspects also promotes the large-scale development of urban land.
Precision poverty alleviation policy, as a special public policy benefiting some poor people, is essentially fair. Under the background of the widening income gaps in rural areas, the positive role of precise poverty alleviation policy in promoting distribution equity urgently needs to be tested. Using the sample data of 909 rural households in poverty-stricken areas in 2017, this study investigated the impact of precise poverty alleviation policies on distribution equity and its impact mechanism through propensity score matching (PSM) model and ordinary least squares (OLS) model with interactive items. The results show that the precise poverty alleviation policy can effectively improve the disadvantageous position of the poor in income distribution by means of transfer payment and opportunity supply, and greatly improve the sense of fairness in the distribution of the poor. The treatment effects are 4.2% and 0.470, respectively. However, the irrational preference of the poor farmers for transfer payment also arises. Therefore, on the one hand, we should give full play to the governance function of the rural acquaintance society, fully mobilize the poverty-stricken people’s poverty alleviation subjectivity, and improve their irrational preference for transfer payment. On the other hand, we should optimize the distribution structure of poverty alleviation resources and implement differentiated poverty alleviation policies for different types of poverty-stricken families, so as to ensure that precise poverty alleviation policies promote fair distribution and improve the utilization efficiency of poverty alleviation resources.
Facility agriculture is a symbol of agricultural modernization and an important way to improve the quality and efficiency of agricultural products and production. As the leader and innovator of modern agriculture, large-scale farmers can greatly promote the development of facility agriculture. Using Probit and Tobit models, this study analyzed the development status of facility agriculture of specialized households and family farms based on the data of the second phase of the “national new agricultural management entities development index survey.” The results show that: The proportion of these two types of farmers operating facility agriculture is low, their planting scale is small, the types of products are diversified, and the main products are vegetables. The operation of facility agriculture is restricted by capital and technology, and the overall benefit is not high. In addition, the development of facility agriculture is significantly affected by the characteristics of household heads, family characteristics, external environment, among other factors. On the whole, the richer the household head’s human capital is, the more beneficial it is to the development of facility agriculture. The influence of family characteristics on different types of farmers is inconsistent. External environment plays a significant role in promoting the development of facility agriculture. Industrial agglomeration is an important direction for facility agriculture to grow and become stronger and for realizing agricultural modernization. Therefore, in order to further promote the development of facility agriculture of family farms and specialized households, the government also needs to support them in terms of policy, capital, technical support, and market development.
Farmers’ cognition and risk perception of soil and water loss are the key factors influencing adoption willingness for soil and water conservation tillage technology in the Loess Plateau. Exploring the effects of the two factors is conducive to improve technology adoption, control of soil and water loss, reduce sediment into the Yellow River and improve ecological environment. Based on the survey data of 1237 households in the Loess Plateau, this paper analyzes the impact of farmers’ technology cognition and risk perception on willingness to adopt soil and water conservation tillage technology and the intergenerational differences by using stepwise regression and grouping regression. The results show that: (1) Technology cognition has a significant positive effect on adoption willingness, effect intensity of technology cognition on adoption willingness of new generations is greater than that of old generations for contour tillage, furrow and ridge planting, moderate or non-tillage, subsoiling, straw returning, stubble mulching and plastic film mulching. (2) Risk perception has a significant positive effect on willingness to adopt contour tillage and furrow and ridge planting, and the effect intensity is different between generations. Risk perception has a significant positive effect on willingness of new generations to adopt moderate or non-tillage, and on willingness of old generations to adopt subsoiling, straw returning, stubble mulching and plastic film mulching. (3) Risk perception plays a positive moderating role between technology cognition and adoption willingness. In willingness to adopt contour tillage, furrow and ridge planting, stubble covering and plastic film mulching technology, risk perception plays a stronger moderating role for old generations than for new generations. In willingness to adopt moderate or non-tillage, subsoiling and straw returning technology, risk perception plays a stronger moderating role for new generations than for old generations. (4) The control variables such as the age of householder, education level, family labor force, non-agricultural income proportion, actual cultivated land area, distance from the village to the town and the traffic convenience have significant differences on the willingness for new generations and old generations to adopt the soil and water conservation tillage technology.
With the construction of the joint system of environmental regulation, the choice of government regulatory tools depends on the local green economic development level. Clarifying the feedback mechanism between them is helpful for the government in choosing appropriate regulatory methods to promote green economy. Based on the interprovincial panel data of environmental regulation and economic input-output in China from 2007 to 2016, the non-radial directional distance function was used to construct the index of green economic performance, and the dynamic relationship between green economic performance and environmental regulation was measured by a panel vector autoregression (VAR) model. Green economic growth rate index was decomposed into “catch-up effect,” “innovation effect,” and “leadership effect.” This study explored the impact of the three effects on environmental regulation in the eastern, central, and western regions of China respectively. The results show that: (1) At the national level, the development of green economy has an interactive positive correlation with the environmental regulation of the government, forming a spiral mechanism of “green economic development-ordered environmental regulation.” However, the development of green economy is negatively related to market-oriented environmental regulation; although the public’s environmental protection behavior has not helped the development of green economy effectively, green economy still has a pulling effect on such behavior. (2) The regional survey found that there are regional dependency of the environmental regulation in the eastern, central, and western regions. The eastern region can promote the use of autonomous environmental policies, but green economic development still depends on market-oriented environmental regulation at this stage. The central region will rely more on mandatory environmental regulation, and green economic development can reduce the use of three types of environmental regulations in the western region. (3) Environmental regulation and policies are affected by different effects because of the difference of green technologies. Each region should take its own characteristics into consideration, improve environmental regulation and policies according to their local conditions, and set phased technological innovation goals.
： Improving the quality of urban development is the essence of high-quality economic development at the present stage. Urban sprawl in the process of urbanization in China has become an important factor that affects the quality of urban development. Using panel data of 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2017, this study empirically investigated the heterogeneous relationship between urban sprawl and green total factor productivity. The research found that: (1) Moderate urban sprawl improved green total factor productivity, while excessive urban sprawl inhibited or did not significantly affect green total factor productivity; (2) Considering regional differences of population agglomeration, urban sprawl had a prominent promoting effect on green total factor productivity in the eastern region, while having more inhibitory effects on the central and western regions; (3) As the economy exceeded the optimal agglomeration thresholds, the inverse correlation became a co-directional relationship. Furthermore, there was a significant inverted U-shaped threshold effect based on manufacturing agglomeration. However, in cities with a higher degree of service industry agglomeration, the promotional effect of urban sprawl is not significant. This study deepens the understanding of the basic pattern of urban sprawl affecting green development of cities. It provides a beneficial reference for the top-level design of high-quality urban development and is of significance for China’s promotion of leading urban agglomeration with central cities and new urbanization strategy.
