Archive

  • 2021 Volume 41 Issue 1
    Published: 05 January 2021
      

  • Select all
    |
  • Fangqu Niu, Zhongling Xin, Fang Wang
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    On December 31st, 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued the first report of the pneumonia epidemic of novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Studies regarding the relationships between traffic and the epidemic situation are far from systematic. When the epidemic broke out in Wuhan, Hubei province, an important transportation hub of China, it occurred at the peak of Spring Festival-related travel. Therefore, the relationships between the spread of the epidemic and the impact of traffic have remained underexplored. This paper systematically analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics, hazards, and the growth trend of COVID-19 spread from a macroscopic and full sample perspective, to provide a comprehensive understanding toward epidemic prevention and control in China and abroad. The analysis performed in this article is based on the publicly available data, using the basic reproductive number measure and complex network method. This study found the following. First, the overall growth of the epidemic is exponential, and the outbreak of Hubei province in China has a strong spread in the eastern and southern directions. Provinces such as Jiangsu, Hunan, and Fujian have seen rapid day-to-day growth rates, and the epidemic situation is generally more serious in the capital or the developed city in each province. Based on analyzing the disturbance of the spread of the epidemic through traffic control, the average incubation period of COVID-19 was approximately found to be four days and the number of basic regenerations showed a downward trend in fluctuation. As of April 8th, the R0 in all regions of China tended to be one. The ratio of cure to death outside Hubei province is much higher than that within Hubei province, indicating that with sufficient medical resources, the risk of the epidemic can be greatly reduced, and it is not to be feared. Second, the quarantine policy of Hubei has a greater impact on cities with higher centrality. From the perspective of changes in centrality, most cities in the northern region have increased their centrality, indicating that the region's connection with Hubei Province is relatively weak. The cities with decreasing centrality are mainly located in the Beijing-Guangzhou line and the Yangtze River Delta. Similarly, the changes in the bottom 20 cities on the centrality ranking are also analyzed. Except for a slight change in the ranking, the cities have been not affected. Additionally, before and after the "closing of the Hubei province", the number of edges of China's railway network, Beta and gamma indicators all declined, but the decline was not significant. Thus, although Hubei plays an important role in China's railway network, in general, the " quarantine of the Hubei province" does not have a particularly large impact on China's entire railway network.

  • Wenyue Liao, Meiwei Sun, Chuying Yu, Yingbin Deng, Miao Li, Ji Yang, Yong Li, Jianhui Xu, Yuchan Chen, Yingwei Yan
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    With more than 26 million confirmed cases and over two million case-fatalities worldwide, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has transformed the dynamics of human lives globally. It has been designated as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The COVID-19 virus can be transmitted through droplets, aerosols, or direct contact. It possesses evident characteristics of human-to-human transmission. Additionally, COVID-19 is a highly pathogenic new coronavirus, and people are prone to serious respiratory diseases resulting in high mortality after becoming infected. It has posed a great security threat to the entire human society and caused hundreds of billions of economic losses. The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic spread from Wuhan to all other cities in China before Spring Festival, causing serious public health issues and preventing the growth of the social economy. Analyzing the spatial-temporal spread pattern of COVID-19 can support the prevention of the epidemic. Thus, this study aims to analyze the temporal-spatial spread characteristics of COVID-19 in Hubei Province. First, a regression model with variables of migration big data (mobility scale index (MSI) and traffic intensity) is employed to explore the temporal pattern of the spread of the epidemic. Second, the spatial spread characteristics of COVID-19 are analyzed using a regression model comprising transportation information (primary and secondary road transportation networks) and social economic information (2018 GDP data). The results illustrate the following. First, the regression model based on population migration data and daily COVID-19 cases in each city was significant (Sig.=0.00), with R2 up to 0.715, indicating that the independent variable could explain the dependent variable. As indicated by the standardized coefficient results, MSI (0.85) has a greater impact on the daily new cases in each city. Second, the cumulative infection rate per 10000 people was positively correlated with the number of medical institutions and GDP with correlation coefficients of 0.689 and 0.774, respectively, Sig. was less than 0.05. However, it was not correlated with the number of beds (Sig. > 0.05). Third, the spatial regression model based on the traffic network, socio-economic data and cumulative infection rate of ten thousand people in each city of Hubei was also significant. The independent variables in the model can explain the variability of 67.2% of the dependent variables. The results of the standardized coefficient show that the GDP ratio of each city has a greater impact on the model. The results of the study are expected to provide scientific data support for the government and epidemic prevention workers to formulate efficient epidemic prevention and policy decisions. In conclusion, the model fit of multiple regression on the time scale is better than that on the spatial scale. Population migration has the greatest impact on the spread of the epidemic. That is, population mobility has a greater effect on the prevention and control of epidemic situations. The results of the study are expected to provide scientific data support for the government on formulating epidemic prevention policies.

  • Tenghui Xing, Xiaofeng Wang
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    The COVID-19 interrupted the lives of Wuhan residents. This study attempted to understand the psychological loss and emotional changes in urban residents in this unusual period by exploring the relationship between city, residents, and landscape. By comparing the typicality of Wuhan's representative landscape during this period, we chose cherry blossoms as representative of the landscape of Wuhan. We then selected six cities as data sources for non-Wuhan regions (i.e., Beijing, Shenyang, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Kunming). Using crawler software, we collected Sina micro-texts that contained Wuhan cherry blossoms and were published by residents of Wuhan and non-Wuhan areas. After eliminating the invalid text, using the big data text analysis tools ROST CM6 and Gephi, we obtained the key nodes in the micro-texts expression. Then, using coding analysis of grounded theory, we explored the emotional relationship between the urban representative landscape and the residents in different regions and identified the emotional effect of Wuhan cherry blossoms during the epidemic. The study reached the following conclusions: 1) There were many indications of scattered concern in the posts of cherry blossoms from local residents, which were closely related to the details of life and emotional changes during the epidemic. Non-natives had fewer concerns and were more focused, mainly expressing blessings for Wuhan and China. 2) The average emotion value of Wuhan residents' micro-texts was negatively correlated with the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 during its rising period and positively correlated during its declining period, while the emotional value of non-Wuhan residents was negatively correlated with the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients. 3) The impact of the urban representative landscape on the emotions of residents in different regions was closely related to the development of the epidemic situation. In particular, the Wuhan cherry blossoms had an emotional support effect on Wuhan local residents during the epidemic, which gave people the power to face the epidemic positively, while at the same time, having an emotional cohesion effect on non-Wuhan residents during the epidemic, which prompted people to help Wuhan positively. (4) The epidemic changed the background of human emotions and landscape interpretation, giving the landscape new meaning. This new landscape meaning in turn affects human emotions and constitutes a closed emotional circuit. Based on the research conclusion, different emotional effects were discussed based on the theory of sense of place and national identity. The research conclusion had not only theoretical value but also practical significance. Finally, we suggest that anti-epidemic recovery work should pay more attention to residents' psychological problem and start with the emotional relationship between residents, the city, and the landscape to convey the idea of better urban life to Wuhan residents.

  • Wei Zhu, Xin Chen, Jiaxin Wang
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    The novel coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 has been profoundly transforming people's lives. In China, countermeasures such as city and community lockdowns were successful in mitigating the epidemic. Such measures predominantly take effect by limiting close contacts between humans through work and school closures, for instance. However, high concentrations of human interactions are a feature of large urban areas, and daily commuting is a major source of the interactions, determined by the job-housing spatial relationship of the city. This study aims to explore the effects of optimizing the urban job-housing spatial relationship on mitigating disease spread. Taking Shanghai as an example, a multi-agent simulation model was established using NetLogo with a spatial granularity of 523×523 m grids to simulate disease spread through the daily basic activities of individual residents, including residence, working and commuting. The data used for the simulation were based on the current job-housing spatial relationship reflected by mobile phone grid data, from which a sample of 20 000 people with home and job locations was extracted to simulate the process of disease spread from 9 designated disease source locations. The selection of the source locations considered different location types of the Shanghai region, covering the central city area, the near suburbs and the outer suburbs. The measure of job-housing spatial relationship optimization was based on excess commuting. Using a method to simulate individual exchanging residences according to the principle of Pareto Optimality, the current excess commuting of Shanghai was found to approximately reach 69%. The job-housing spatial relationship was then measured as the extent of the excess commuting reduction. Analyses on the relationships between the optimization and the disease spread in space and time were conducted based on 20 simulations under each scenario of the 9 sources. The results showed that the proportions of the infected agents develop in S-shape curves with time, and the fastest spreads occur in the commuting periods. Diseases originating from sources that are closer to the city center spread faster than those originate from farther sources. Although 75% of the optimization constitutes the turning point for the job-housing spatial relationship to significantly postpone the spread, before this point, the influence of job-housing optimization on the spread time is limited. Such optimization can steadily reduce the spatial area of the spread, limit the scope of spread, localize the spread, and change its spatial mode from the "width-first mode" to the "depth-first mode." When the disease source is in the outer suburbs, the localization effect is particularly strong. Based on these findings, methods like job-housing balance, decentralizing jobs from central urban areas, and multi-center regional structures that can reduce commuting distances may constitute appropriate long-term strategies for urban epidemic intervention. The major contributions of the study are the exploration on the spatio-temporal regularities of infectious disease spread and epidemic intervention from the perspective of urban spatial structure, and the use of mobile phone data to provide relatively realistic base environment for disease spread simulation.

  • Wenyue Yang, Xin Li, Yingmei Mo, Huiling Chen
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Neighborhood parks are green spaces where nearby residents can have their recreational activities. However, in many cases, land use planning and park design do not consider the relationship between the park location, its shape and size, and distance to the main road, traffic, and air pollution, which may expose residents using the park to the risks of air pollution. Meanwhile, existing research has paid less attention to the air pollution of green park spaces, especially at the neighborhood level. Based on air pollution monitoring and survey data, this study explored the spatial characteristics of air pollution in 33 neighborhood parks in the central urban area of Guangzhou, China, as well as the influencing factors, and residents' perception of air pollution when using the neighborhood park. The main conclusions are the following: 1) The air pollution exposure risks and their spatial pattern distribution in neighborhood parks in various districts are quite different, and the proportion of parks with low exposure risk is relatively small; 2) the Air Quality Index (AQI), PM1.0, and PM10 are significantly negatively associated with the area of neighborhood parks, while AQI, PM1.0, PM10, and PM2.5 are significantly positively associated with the patch shape index. In addition, the carbon dioxide (CO2) index is significantly negatively associated only with the distance from the urban main roads. However, there is almost no correlation between primary and secondary road density within the 1 km buffer zone of the neighborhood boundary and the degree of air pollution. 3) More than one-third of the residents' subjective perception of the air pollution level is better than the objective measurement, which indicates that they overestimated the air quality of the neighborhood park. This may have possibly led them to more exposure to the bad air environment when they do some physical activities there. When there are possible traffic pollution sources around neighborhood parks, residents' subjective perceptions of air quality are low. 4) Alternative activity spaces and accessibility of neighborhood parks affect the risk of residents' exposure to air pollution. If there is no alternative activity space around the residence, or the nearest neighborhood park is more accessible, residents would be more inclined to head to the neighborhood park for physical activity, even if they perceive the risk of air pollution exposure. In addition, this study has some policy insights. Neighborhood parks can help to suppress the diffusion of particulate matter, but most of them are small and have limited effects on mitigating traffic air pollution. To maximize the ecological service function of neighborhood parks and their role in air pollution purification, neighborhood parks covering larger areas, having higher accessibility and fuller shapes, and being far away from main traffic roads should be promoted. It is necessary to implement targeted space optimization and air pollution control strategies, such as control traffic around neighborhood parks with more serious air pollution; increase protective green spaces, the number of street trees, and road greening; optimize building planning and layout; and improve non-motorized travel environments.

  • Xiangdong Zhu, Shengjun Zhu, Yongyuan Huang, Haifeng Huang
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Green finance is a novel concept that combines environmental protection with finance. It aims at ensuring sustainable development by regulating investment and financing. The features of green finance meet the demands of China's economic transformation and environmental protection. Since 2015, green finance has increased rapidly in China and attracted a great deal of research. Previous studies focus on the concept, overseas experience, development models, and policy incentives, while green finance's environmental effect has been largely neglected. Theoretically, we deduce that as an innovation of environmental governance, green finance would potentially promote the impact of the existing environmental regulations. Moreover, both green finance and environmental regulations can alleviate pollution through upgrading the regional industrial structure and stimulating technological innovation. Moving on to regional heterogeneity, we hypothesize that the effects of the two kinds of environmental governance are varying across regions. This paper applies the econometric model to explore green finance's impact on the Chinese urban haze pollution and its interaction with environmental regulations, industrial structure, and technological level. Our dependent variable is the volume of the reduction of the haze pollution index in 289 Chinese prefectural cities. The scale of green finance in each city is denoted by the insuring scale of green bonds. Environmental regulation is denoted by a commonly used indicator system consisting of two kinds of contaminants: sulfur dioxide and liquid waste. Industrial structure is denoted by the percentage of the secondary industry to GDP in each city. Technological level is denoted by the number of selected patents over prefectural industrial output. We confirm the correlations between variables by descriptive analysis and apply the Spatial Durbin Model to test our hypothesis. The results show that green finance has significant spatial spillover, as a high level of regional green finance can benefit the alleviation of haze pollution. Green finance and environmental regulation exert a synergistic impact on improving environmental quality. Compared to the eastern and western regions, the synergistic impact is less significant in the central part of China. Green finance can reduce pollution by optimizing local industrial structure and upgrading technology. In both eastern and western regions, green finance's structural and technique effects are significant and positive, while in the central areas, the structural effects are not noticeable. Compared to environmental regulations, green finance has a stronger technique effect and a weaker structural effect. This article argues that the impact of green finance and environmental regulations on alleviating environmental pollution can complement each other. Thus, we suggest several policy implications. First, the policy system of green finance should be modified by taking existing environmental regulations into consideration. For example, restrictions on investment and financing can be applied to punish polluting firms and institutes. Second, with the significant effect of green finance on technological innovation, green finance should be encouraged to promote regional industrial upgrading. Third, the development and potential of green finance is varying across regions. Thus, mechanisms for promoting regional cooperation should be established to enhance the inclusivity of green finance. Overall, implementing green financial instruments can help different regions balance their environmental and economic goals and achieve sustainable development.

  • Ka Ian Lei, Zhuo Zheng, Junjie Gu, Ting Ma, Xibing Yi, Yongjie Tang
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    This study analyzed the radiocarbon chronology, lithology, and diatom and mollusk shell assemblages obtained from the profile of the Jiefang Middle Road archeological site in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou. It is determined that the Guangzhou Old Town, which lies on the northern bank of the Pearl River, was in a river bed and an estuarine wetland or lowland during the pre-Qin period. Microfossils of organisms with a high salinity tolerance were not observed in the sediment as the inflow of fresh water reduced the estuarine salinity; only estuarine-marine diatom taxa were found, with the mollusk shell fragments being mostly those of freshwater species and a few brackish water species. Therefore, we postulate that the salinity of the water bodies within the Guangzhou region was completely different during the pre-Qin period than during the mid-Holocene. In the former period, the area along the riverbanks of the Pearl River was mainly affected by riverine freshwater discharge and upward tidal convergence. In addition, radiocarbon dating results and the absence of enclosed bivalve mollusk shells in situ suggested that most of the freshwater and brackish water mollusk shells excavated at the site were food waste discarded by the ancient Nanyue people during the period in which their fishing tradition boomed in the pre-Qin (Eastern Zhou Dynasty) period. This also suggested that the shell deposits were relocated to the later strata via constant digs by the Nanyue successors, most probably due to the expansion of the town and restoration of the river, development of agricultural irrigation, or redeposition caused by the flooding that occurred throughout the Tang Dynasty. Since the establishment of the Nanyue Kingdom, signs of frequent human activity–particularly during the Tang Dynasty–can be recognized in the study area, which was then still a wetland or lowland area influenced mainly by fluvial and tidal dynamic forces, with its soil fertility serving as a foundation for the flourishing of agriculture. This is also consistent with the human-driven shoreline reorganization of the Pearl River noted in the Tang historical records. During the period from the late Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, rulers expanded the wetland in the south due to a marked growth in population. Moreover, the region was exposed above water and gradually developed into the Guangzhou Old Town during the Northern Song Dynasty, despite having been affected-to some extent-by multiple flood events, as recorded in the history of the Kaibao reign (AD 968-976) and Zhidao reign (AD 995-997). The expansion and development of the Guangzhou Old Town continued during the Song Dynasty, with the expansion of agricultural and industrial practices, and the shoreline of the Pearl River was pushed farther south. In conclusion, the environmental and urban transformation of the Pearl River Delta region since ca. 2 ka BP were mainly related to the influence of Holocene sea level alterations, the quantity of river sediment being discharged, pressure from human use of the land, and the practice of river restoration. This study also suggests that the archeological records coincide with the historical records and the general course of the progressive transformation of the Pearl River Delta region, thereby providing new evidence for environmental archeological research.

  • Hengyu Gu, Wei Tao
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Although host-guest interaction has become an important and heated issue in tourism and leisure research, the effect of geographical location is largely underexplored. Additionally, quantitative analysis methods are less applied in the existing empirical studies. Based on Space Syntax theory and using qualitative analysis (participant observation and in-depth interviews), the present study examined the role of the configuration of spatial elements in the process of host-guest interaction in the lobby of the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. Results suggested the following: 1) The hotel lobby's spatial configuration is visually integrated while also divided and permeable. These characteristics of the space meet the tourists' requirements. 2) The host-guest interaction in the hotel lobby can be categorized as temporary, limited to specific times and locations, and imbalanced. The tourists' position usually prevails over that of the hotel staff, in order for the hotel to make a profit. 3) Spatial configuration plays a role in the imbalance between host and guest in the lobby. Specifically, the hotel lobby "caters to" the needs of all kinds of tourists, enhancing the sense of tourism and leisure. In contrast, "discipline" is required of the hotel staff and is reinforced by the design of the space. There is also a positive "spillover" effect of the spatial configuration on hotel employees. The lobby can be regarded as the "facade of a shop" and "stage" to present the hotel's service level, and thus senior management uses it to maintain the unbalanced host-guest relationship. 4) The hotel managers and employees aim to construct a sense of "home" for tourists to ensure their satisfaction and provide a positive travel experience. The construction of a sense of "home" is related to tourists' emotions in the context of modernity, which can be encompassed in a kind of experience (e.g., comfort and convenience) in a specific spatial configuration, and impacts tourists' consumption behavior. Space syntax regards the space of daily life as the background of social relations and recognizes the subjective role of space. It provides a channel for quantitative analysis of the spatial configuration of the hotel lobby and its social cultural logic with relation to host-guest interaction through mathematical modeling.Host-Guest Interaction from a Spatial Perspective: The Case of the White Swan Hotel Lobby in Guangzhou

  • Fei Li, Jigang Ma, Xianghui Liu
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    The protection, activation, and utilization of the cultural heritage has attracted increasing attention from the international community. Cultural heritage is an important carrier for inhabitants to promote their local identity and express the emotions and geographical memory of local communities. The Linear Cultural Heritage Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, which once played an important historical role, is at the critical point between decline and revival. With its traffic and economic function declining daily, its heritage value is gradually being manifested in people's nostalgic mood and emotional recall. By investigating residents' perceived and expected value of the cultural heritage at several important stations along the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, this paper explores the realistic basis of value reconstruction and excavates the multiple values of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, which can contribute to the scientific protection and sustainable utilization of the linear cultural heritage of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. The survey covers such issues as the economy, transportation, culture, society, ecology, tourism, spiritual attribution, local identity, and international contacts. By comparing the data collected using the Richter scale, the paper explores the differences between the twelve common factors of perceived value and expected value. It was found that the local identity of the residents along the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is mainly reflected in the functional turn, value reproduction, and tourism development; the perceived value and expected value of the residents along the railway are identical, and there are obvious differences,which are embodied in five aspects: frontier stability, economic development, international trade, ecological environment and national integration. The research concludes that: First, the residents along the railway consistently affirm the cultural heritage value of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, expressing an optimistic and supportive attitude toward its future functional turn, value reproduction, and tourism development. Second, the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is a common element of the local memories of residents along the line, the source and symbol of their common cultural and local identities. The protection and utilization of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is a continuation of the local context that will greatly enhance the national spirit. Finally, the residents have different expectations for the future development of the railway. The overall utilization of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway is not equal to sustaining the development of the whole railway. Attention should thus be focused on the sections with better resource conditions and foundations for tourism. The theme of the whole railway should be unified, and an international tourism route can be opened jointly with Vietnam at an appropriate time.

  • Zhengliang Duan, Zhen Peng, Zuo Yang, Qing Bao, Lien Nguyen Thi
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Currently, little research exists on the deviation phenomenon between tourists' environmental responsibility behavior and theoretical willingness. Based on a field survey of 447 tourists visiting Yuelu Mountain, this study used the extended theory of planned behavior combined with a logistic regression model to analyze the factors that affect this deviation phenomenon, and further employed the Interpretative Structural Modeling Method to analyze the logic relationships between these factors. From the logistic regression results, it was found that the basic characteristics of tourists, such as age, gender, and education level; behavioral attitudes in rational cognition and perceived behavior control; positive and negative environmental emotions; and seven other factors caused a deviation away from their environmental responsibility behavior and willingness. The better the tourists' behavioral attitude, perceived behavioral control and other related rational cognition, the lower the possibility of deviations. Both positive and negative environmental emotions of tourists have negative effects on dissonance. The stronger the related environmental emotions are, the lower the possibility of dissonance is. The higher the age and the higher the education level, the more consistent the tourists' environmental responsibility behavior and intention; In terms of gender, male deviation is higher than female. From the results of the Interpretative Structural Modeling Method, tourists' gender, education level and age are the deep root problems, and through the tourists' behavior attitude and perceived behavior control two intermediate factors and two surface direct factors of positive environmental emotion and negative environmental emotion, causing the tourists' actual behavior and environmental responsibility behavior intention conflict. Therefore, it can be inferred that rational cognition plays an important mediating role in the process of the contradiction between behavior and will, and environmental affective factors are important external influencing factors. The formation of this hierarchical structure is mainly due to the tourists in the implementation of environmental responsibility behavior in the non-customary environment, the occurrence of behavior is the result of a variety of factors. Among the deviant surface factors, the most direct influencing factor is the tourists' positive or negative environmental emotion towards the destination, which indicates that tourists' environmental responsibility behavior is influenced by the intuitive environmental emotion. This provides a new research view for studying this deviation phenomenon and a preferable analytical framework, thus enriching and perfecting the theory system of tourists' environmental responsibility behavior to a certain extent. At the same time, this research proposed adding two major factors, positive and negative environmental emotions, to the theory of planned behavior to analyze the deviation phenomenon of tourists' environmental responsibility behavior and willingness, from the perspective of the integration of emotion and reason, which means combining rational cognition with environmental emotion, thereby providing a new entry point for the study of tourists' environmental responsibility behavior. The management implications of this study are as follows: firstly, tourism destination managers should pay attention to tourists' emotional appeal and resonance, and be good at stimulating tourists' environmental emotions. Secondly, tourism destination managers can stimulate tourists' sense of urgency to adopt environmentally responsible behaviors through the publicity and education of environmentally responsible behaviors. Finally, tourism destination managers can reduce the time and physical cost of tourists' environmental responsibility behavior through reasonable allocation of cleaning facilities.

  • Hongping Zhu, Wentao Zhu, Rongbao Zheng
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Agglomeration is an important feature of the spatial distribution of an urban internal service industry. Most of the previous studies on the influencing factors of urban internal service industry agglomeration have ignored traffic factors, especially the influence of subways. The improvement of traffic convenience can often affect the location of a service industry by gathering a flow of people. With the rapid growth in the number of China's metro cities, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of subways on the service industry activities within the city. In addition, most of the previous literature has not considered the spatial dependence of service activities, and there is little discussion on the heterogeneity of the service industry. In view of this, based on POI(Point of Information) data in Guangzhou as an example, this study uses a spatial autoregressive (SAR) model to identify the impact of subways on service industry agglomeration and analyzes the heterogeneity of different types of service industry. The results are summarized as follows. 1) Using Moran's I to measure the spatial correlation of Guangzhou's service industry agglomeration, the results indicate strong spatial correlation characteristics. In addition, according to the regression results of the SAR model, the spatial lag coefficient is significantly positive, which indicates that the service industry agglomeration has a considerable spatial dependence. Specifically, the degree of local service industry agglomeration will increase with an improvement in the surrounding areas. 2) The opening of subways has a significant positive impact on the spatial agglomeration of Guangzhou's service industry, which could increase the agglomeration levels in urban areas. One possible reason for this is that subways bring a floating population and reduce transaction costs. 3) There are different industries within the service industry, each of which has varying characteristics; thus, the impact of subways is heterogeneous, specifically as follows: the impact of a subway opening is higher on the wholesale and retail industry, accommodation and catering industry, and other life services than on other service industries but not significant on scientific research and technical services. 4) The impact of the metro on service industry agglomeration is also affected by the level of regional economic development. In areas with a higher level of economic development, the promotion effect of the metro on service industry agglomeration is more obvious. 5) Finally, a metro transfer station has a higher impact than a non-transfer station. One possible reason for this is that a metro transfer station is the intersection of multiple metro lines, which can often attract a greater flow of people and promote the flow of production factors, making service industry agglomeration more likely. The main contributions of this paper are as follows: first, taking Guangzhou, which has a well-developed metro network, as an example, this study evaluates the impact of the metro on service industry agglomeration and analyzes industry heterogeneity. Second, on the basis of constructing a spatial distance matrix of each economic unit, when considering the spatial dependence of service activities, the method of spatial economics was used to investigate the impact of subways on service industry agglomeration; third, taking big data represented by POIs as the source data, and taking streets and towns as the units of analysis, it more objectively and accurately reflects the spatial distribution characteristics of service industry agglomeration in cities.

  • Peihuan Huang, Gang Wang, Ziyin Huang, Dongsheng Guan
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Evaluation of coastal water quality and identification of the main factors affecting water quality were the prerequisites for the targeted implementation of environmental protection measures, which would help to improve the coastal water quality and promote the construction of regional marine ecological civilization. This study area included 32 cities along the coastline of South China. Firstly, coastal water quality was evaluated using the single factor standard and comprehensive evaluation index. Second, canonical correspondence analysis and stepwise linear regression analysis were used to explore the correlations between the various impact factors and the quality indicators of coastal water. The results showed that the quality of coastal water of South China in 2017 was mainly influenced by inorganic nitrogen (N), active phosphate (P), and suspended solids (SS). The N and P contents significantly exceeded the Chinese national standards in Xiamen, Ningde, Fuzhou, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, and Qinzhou, which were mainly located in the coastlines of Fujian, Guangxi, and Guangdong provinces. Correlation analysis showed that N, P, and SS pollution were closely related to marine aquaculture. The high quantity of domestic wastewater discharge should also be accountable for N and P pollution. The contents of heavy metal and petroleum pollutants in the coastal waters in 2017 did not exceed the national standard along the coastline of most cities in South China. However, analysis results of the integrated water quality indices indicated that coastal water quality would be more likely affected by the heavy metals and petroleum in these cities (such as Huizhou, Zhanjiang, Jiangmen, Shantou, Zhuhai, and Yangjiang) in Guangdong province, in comparison with other cities. This can be attributed to the vigorous development of local industrial production in these cities. Industrialization is usually related to industrial wastewater discharge. As a result, industrial wastewater discharge was directly related to heavy metal and petroleum pollution. Furthermore, the correlation analysis results found that the heavy metal copper (Cu) is more likely related to the influencing factors in comparison with other heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb). In addition, frequent water traffic might also affect the pollution level of Cu. At the same time, it was also found that there was a positive correlation between the comprehensive water quality index and the regional gross domestic product. This result partially indicated that environmental infrastructure would be more improvable with economic development, and thus, the treatment efficiency of domestic and industrial wastewater was relatively higher in cities with higher economic levels. As mentioned above, to promote the construction of regional ecological civilization and improve the coastal water quality in South China, these measures can be carried out in these relevant cities and regions along the coastline of South China as follows: (1) The scale and intensity of marine aquaculture should be rationally planned and ecological aquaculture should be recommended; and (2) more attention should be paid to the interception and emission reduction of domestic and industrial wastewater. In particular, the removal efficiency of N and P could be largely improved through technical innovation for existing wastewater treatment facilities. Moreover, the construction of environmental infrastructure should be largely strengthened in these undeveloped cities; and (3) it was also noteworthy that an environmental risk assessment should be carried out before entering the sea for these ships using Cu ion antifouling paint or ships made by Cu-containing metals.

  • Zi'ai Wang, Shaoxia Tang, Yuxuan Fu, Miao Zheng, Dan Wu, Keke Chen, Wenbo Dai
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    To study the environmental impact caused by higher-place shrimp pond aquaculture, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS, Agilent 7700x) was used to detect the contents of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb in the sediments of three types of shrimp ponds (the bottom of the shrimp ponds was covered with sand, cement, and mulch, respectively) and their surrounding ditches in Dongying Town, Haikou City. The Vario TOC analyzer was used to detect the Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) contents in the sediments. The detected values were analyzed and evaluated using various parameters, such as the single factor pollution index, geo-accumulation index, and comprehensive potential ecological risk index, to reveal the spatial enrichment, pollution status, and ecological risk of heavy metal contents in the sediments of higher-place shrimp ponds and their surrounding ditches. The major results of this study were as follows: 1) The contents of heavy metals in the sediments of the unwashed shrimp pond increased significantly from the L1 layer to the L4 layer. 2) In the sediments of the surrounding ditches, the contents of all heavy metals (except for those of Ni and Cd, which were the highest in the L1 layer) were the highest in the L4 layer and were 1.29-15.51 times higher than those in the surface layer; 3) In the L1 layer of the sediment of the shrimp pond, Cd showed a significant accumulation (pollution); its content were 5.47-35.18 times higher than the soil background value in the Hainan Province . 4) The evaluation of Igeo indicated that there are two or more heavy metals in all types of sediments that reached a mild-medium pollution degree and above. The most serious pollutant in each sample pond was Cd, ranging from a level of 1.87 to 4.55; the highest level, 5, indicates strong-extremely severe pollution, while the lowest level, 2, indicates a medium pollution level. 5) The single-factor potential risk coefficient (Eri) of all heavy metals, except Cd, in the surface layer sediments of each sample pond was ≤40, which indicates a slight pollution degree. 6) The Comprehensive Potential Ecological Risk Index (RI) of the sediments was 176.97 to 1090.87, and the RIs of all plots showed moderate or higher ecological risks, for which Cd was the main contributing factor. The Cd pollution load sharing rate (the proportion of Cd in RI) in the seven sample plots exceeded 90%, mainly because the biological toxicity response coefficient (Ti=30) of Cd was the highest and the reference value (=0.05) was the lowest; this increased the RI values and the ecological risk index levels. 7) Pearson's correlation analysis showed that the Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, and TOC contents in the bait residues and prawn excreta of shrimp pond bottoms had extremely significant correlations with each other, and the correlation coefficient was as high as 0.9 or more, indicating that the bait used contained the above heavy metals at varying concentrations and that organic carbon is an important factor that affects the enrichment of heavy metals in the substrate.

  • Xin Dai, Qingsheng Liu, Xilin Wu, Chong Huang, He Li
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Since heat wave is currently one of the most important meteorological disasters, it has a significant impact on residents' health and social economy. The accurate identification and assessment of heat wave risk is an effective means to deal with this problem. In this paper, the hazard, vulnerability and regional comprehensive prevention ability factors were selected as the indexes for evaluating heat wave risk. The index weight was determined by the H-AHP method, and the spatial distribution map of the risk level of heat wave was calculated by the graph cascade method. The results show that there is a significant spatial difference in the risk of heat wave in the regions along the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed railway. On the whole, the risk in the northern region is higher than that in the southern region, and the risk in the western region is higher than that in the eastern region. The high-risk areas are mainly concentrated in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The medium-high-risk areas were mainly distributed in Jakarta's peripheral suburbs and Bandung City. The low-risk areas are distributed in the central region, forming a typical V-shaped distribution being high on both sides and low in the middle. The overall risk of heat wave in this region is at a medium level, with the medium-level risk area accounting for nearly 50%. With the exception of Jakarta, Bekasi, Bandung, and Cimahi cities, half or even more than half of the other counties are at medium-level risk. The area with low risk level accounts for the least, only 8.10%, mainly distributed in the northern part of Karawang county near the Java sea, and in the southwest part of Bandung county and West Bandung county with high forest coverage. In this paper, a method of heat wave risk assessment based on remote sensing is proposed, and spatial social and economic data are used, providing a new idea for heat wave risk assessment for countries along the Belt and Road region.

  • Mengyuan Su, Jialong Wu
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    The problem of more people and less land and the shortage of cultivated land resources have been a long-term and difficult challenge in China. Comprehensive land consolidation and rehabilitation is an important means to optimize the spatial layout of the land, promote rural revitalization and urban renewal, and realize the integration of urban and rural development. China will promote green development and harmonious coexistence between man and nature in 2021-2025, and the ecological effect evaluation of land consolidation has become one of the hot topics at home and abroad. For a long time, land consolidation and rehabilitation had focused on improving the quality of cultivated land and supporting farmland infrastructure and paid less attention to the impact on ecosystem service value. The research object of this study is Shazai Island, Xinhui District, Jiangmen City, which was the first demonstration project of comprehensive land consolidation and rehabilitation in Guangdong Province. The study employed the ecosystem service value method to explore the impact of comprehensive land consolidation and rehabilitation on the ecosystem service value of the study area. The results showed that the adjustment of land use type and structure before and after comprehensive land consolidation and rehabilitation and the implementation of ecological restoration measures were the key factors in enhancing the ecosystem service value of Shazai Island. After comprehensive land consolidation and rehabilitation, the overall ecosystem service value, economic production, soil protection, wave dissipation and revetment, biodiversity, and habitat protection value of Shazai Island improved by 250%, 587%, 20.2%, and 182%, respectively, while the ecosystem service value of flood regulation and storage decreased by 87%. In terms of spatial distribution, the ecosystem service value and its increase showed the following order: North Island > South Island > periphery of dam area. This study demonstrated that the combination of land consolidation and rehabilitation and ecological protection and restoration could help to improve the ecosystem service function and provide a reference for the evaluation of land consolidation and rehabilitation and ecological restoration.

  • Yi Zhang, Yuefang Si, Gang Zeng
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    Offshoring R&D refers to the behavior of multinational companies (MNCs) engaged in research and development abroad through captive offshoring R&D and outsourced offshoring R&D. Offshoring R&D has become an increasingly important strategic choice for enterprises in emerging economies such as China to acquire advanced technological resources as well as to create and maintain competitive advantages gained in the global market over the past decades. With the improvement of China's international status, the offshoring R&D activities of Chinese enterprises have a greater impact on the global innovation network, which has attracted great attention from scholars in the field of economic geography. Economic geographers from domestic and foreign countries have a number of achievements in the research work related to the influencing mechanism of Chinese enterprises' offshoring R&D activities, including the location selection, spatial organization, the role of different actors, and spillover effect of Chinese enterprises' offshoring R&D activities on their home and host counties: The dominant locational factor of offshoring R&D for Chinese enterprises' location varies with the firm's development stage and the host countries' characteristics; Both the model of space organization and the path to knowledge flowing presents the differentiation characteristics, which is influenced by its position in the geography of global innovation; Transnational talents play an important role as the boundary spanner in helping Chinese enterprise and the region obtain the knowledge spillover to realize technological catch-up; However, there are also limitations, such as poor theoretical pertinence, lacking of analytical methods, and insufficient attention to spillover effects. We firstly find that the traditional international business theories based on the practice of MNCs from developed countries could not fully explain the offshoring R&D behavior of Chinese MNCs, and the existing empirical studies on research perspectives, content, and methods have the following limitations: lacking of analytical methods, and less attention on the spillover effect related to offshoring R&D activities of Chinese enterprises. Based on the systematic review of the offshoring R&D research achievements of Chinese enterprises, mainly from the economic geography literature, this paper proposes to reconstruct a new theoretical hypothesis of Chinese enterprises' offshoring R&D from the perspectives of relationship, institution, and evolution, aiming at the unique characteristics of Chinese enterprises' offshoring R&D activities. In addition, from the perspective of "flow space" of innovation activities, it is necessary to reveal the spatial evolution law of offshoring R&D of Chinese enterprises under multiple scales. From the perspective of relational and evolutionary economic geography, it is necessary to clarify the locational factors of offshoring R&D of Chinese enterprises from the perspectives of different scales and multi-dimensional proximity. From the special business culture of Chinese enterprises in the process of operating offshoring R&D, it is necessary to analyze the role of overseas Chinese, overseas talent, and other behavioral actors in the formation and development of Chinese enterprises' offshoring R&D activities. From the perspective of the effect of knowledge spillover, it is essential to distinguish the heterogenous influence of Chinese enterprises' offshoring R&D activities on the development of home and host countries.

  • Yuxing Zhang, Guicai Li
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    The economic status and development history of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China determine the inevitability of becoming a research hotspot and lead to the dispersion, complexity, and accumulation of academic research about the region. After 40 years since Reform and Opening-up, it is necessary to sort and summarize the existing research about GBA. This paper uses CiteSpace, a bibliometric and visualization tool, to analyze the horizontal characteristics of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao research by scientific research institutions and academic cooperation and its vertical characteristics by literature quantity evolution, research fields, and research hotspot migration over the past 30 years. The aim is to reveal the law of changes of the research hotspots in the existing literature and make some basic contributions to the next stage of Bay Area research. The results show: 1) Research institutions can be divided into six categories based on their attributes: university, think tank, government, media, financial institution, and other research groups, which are mainly concentrated in Guangdong Province and the types of institutions are diverse. A cooperation network has initially formed among these institutions, but the intensity is not high. 2) The cooperation network between individual scholars has formed. Although some scholars have posted more than 10 papers and paid attention to this field for a long time, the connection is relatively weak. 3) According to the volume of annual publications, the study of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao can be divided into four stages: start-up period, exploratory period, stable period, and outbreak period. Scholars in the start-up period focused on the issues of how to carry out industrial upgrading and financial cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao under the socialist commodity economic system. During the exploratory period, research topics showed a diversified trend, covering fields such as regional economics, industrial economics, and finance. The promulgation of CEPA (Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement) prompted scholars to carry out research mainly from two major directions: the free trade relationship between Hong Kong, Macao, and the Mainland and the spatial planning of the Greater Pearl River Delta. The main topic of the stable period is the "Free Trade Zone." After 2014, "Bay Area Economy" began to appear as another key topic. During the outbreak period, the disciplines of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao research began to be subdivided, expanding from regional economics and finance to the directions of spatial economics, innovation economics, comparative economics, transportation geography, political science, and sociology. 4) Research before 2015 mainly focused on how to enlarge the economic cake through free trade and promote the coordinated development of the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong, and Macao. After that, research has diluted the conceptual boundary between Hong Kong, Macao, and the original Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration, and strengthened the attributes of the urban agglomerations in the GBA. Meanwhile, the subjects are no longer limited to the economic field.

  • Xiuqiong Wang, Haiying Chen, Xiaojie Wu
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    From the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Eigenfactor Project 2015 category, 115 journals in six disciplines which are ranked top 20 in order of impact scores in their own disciplines were selected. A total of 1002 industrial cluster research studies collected from the Web of Science between 1998 to 2019 were used as samples. BibExcel software was used for data cleaning and literature co-citation analysis, and co-occurrence matrix was inserted into SPSS software and Pajek software for exploratory factor analysis and network analysis, respectively. The differences and commonalities of the two results obtained from exploratory factor analysis and network analysis were compared by reading literature abstracts and manuscripts to robustly identify the knowledge base. According to the framework of 2W1H, the knowledge module was integrated into a problem-oriented system to understand the internal logic mechanism of the entire study. The top 41 studies in the citation frequency of each period from 1998 to 2005, 2006 to 2012, and 2013 to 2019 were selected to analyze the keyword co-occurrence in different periods, main theoretical basis, contextual focus, evolution of research topics, and important research trends. The results show that: 1) The knowledge base of industrial clusters can be divided into nine modules: external economics and new economic geography, new industrial district theory, competitive advantage theory, evolutionary economic geography, buzz and pipelines, regional innovation system, new economic sociology, absorptive capacity, and global chains; 2) The knowledge structure of these modules can be reflected through the 2W1H research framework, in which the WHAT part is composed of four modules: external economics, new economic geography, new industrial district theory, competitive advantage theory, and evolutionary economic geography. It answers the questions regarding concept, types and development stages of the cluster. The knowledge base of cluster type research in this part is less, which reflects the lack of corresponding research literature, and therefore this needs to be enriched using typology theory. The part WHY is composed of external economics and this is divided into two modules, i.e., new economic geography and competitive advantage theory, which answer the questions about the causes of cluster and its impact on regional or enterprise competitive advantage. In the 21st century, researchers have paid increasing attention to the causes of urban cultural and creative industry cluster formation. The part HOW is composed of five modules: buzz and pipelines, regional innovation system, new economic sociology, absorptive capacity, and global chains. This part is the most important, and can be categorized into three levels: enterprise, region, and country; 3) Between 1998-2019, the regional innovation system had been the main theoretical source of cluster. Evolutionary economic geography had occupied a significant position between 2006 and 2012 and it tended to blend with the global chain. The important theoretical sources of the three periods were constantly updated and enriched, thereby increasing the degree of integration with management theory. The focused industries of the three periods were more diverse, especially the status of the service industry, and the focus regions were later transferred to emerging markets and underdeveloped markets; innovation and local economic development had always been the core topics of the three periods. From 2006 to 2012, globalization and entrepreneurial activities received more attention. From 2013 to 2019, management theory occupied the main position, as it focused on new topics such as environmental governance and stakeholder management, and paid more attention to social, ecological, and other issues. Finally, based on the results, some suggestions for domestic research were presented.

  • Zenglin Han, Wenchao Zhu, Bo Li
    Download PDF ( ) HTML ( )   Knowledge map   Save

    As a hot regional research realm, regional resilience provides a new research perspective toward regional sustainable development. At the same time, regional resilience is also an important research paradigm of sustainability science. Based on literature from a core database (Web of Science) launched between 1991 and 2019 on the topic of "regional resilience," this study presents a knowledge graph analysis of regional resilience research. The citation visualization analysis software (CiteSpace5.0) was applied. Keywords co-occurrence network analysis, co-citation clustering analysis, social network co-occurrence analysis, and other analytical methods were adopted. This research drew the following three conclusions: 1) The quantity of regional resilience research shows an upward trend, and it mainly focuses on ecosystem, regional economy, social ecosystem, and social well-being. Five countries—including the U.S., Australia, Britain, Canada, China—and research institutes such as the University of Stockholm, University of Queensland, James Cook University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, U.S. Geological Survey, and University of Cambridge are strongly competitive in terms of research on resilience. 2) The representative works of scholars such as Ron Martin, Carl Folke, Angeler D. G., Craig R. Allen, and Gillian Bristow laid a solid knowledge foundation for regional resilience studies. Furthermore, their collaboration deepened the research on regional resilience. Ron Martin is a significant scholar in the field of the theory of regional resilience evolution, and his research reflects how regional resilience evolves from equilibrium theory to evolution theory. 3) Regional economy, social ecosystem, social well-being, and method exploration are hot topics in regional resilience research. According to keyword classification and citation clustering analysis, the research hotspots of regional resilience are mainly concentrated in the following four categories: 1) Due to global warming and increases in human activities, ecosystem disturbances have increased, and the protection of ecosystem diversity has become a long-term research topic. In addition, biodiversity and ecosystem services and management have become new growth points and strategic development directions of geography. 2) Recently, the world economy has been gloomy; global climate is continuously deteriorating, while regional unrest and frictional issues are increasing. At present, with increasing uncertainties in the global economy, how regions maintain long-term development under external strikes has become the core focus of regional resilience research. Not only should the economic structure be adjusted and optimized, but the stable supply of regional food and energy as well as a stable political and social environment should also be emphasized in regional resilience research. 3) Methodological breakthroughs are key points in regional resilience research. Regional resilience is an interdisciplinary concept that requires comprehensive interdisciplinary research, social-economic scenario analysis, and the construction of multilevel models. Exploration of interdisciplinary and multi-level methods is conducive to promoting the standardization and rationalization of regional resilience research. 4) Empirical research is the trend of regional resilience research. Combining resilience research with specific situations is beneficial in solving scientific problems, providing scientific guidance in relevant policies, and boosting the significance of regional resilience in the process of policymaking. With the deepening of the internationalization process, combining specific problems of certain regions and conducting theoretical and empirical research on regional resilience have become an inevitable path for researchers.