Against the background of rapid urbanization, China's districts and counties are characterized by unbalanced, inadequate, and asynchronous development, accompanied by different degrees of population loss. It is of theoretical and practical significance to explore the spatial distribution, evolution, and influencing factors of population shrinkage in county and district units in order to adapt to population shrinkage and formulate locally adapted development plans. Taking Guangdong Province as an example, this study analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics of population shrinkage during 2000–2010 and 2010–2020 based on resident population data at the district and county scales from 2000 to 2020. The study also constructed a socioeconomic-natural-demographic indicator system, explored the factors influencing its formation and evolution from the perspective of non-linear influence with the help of a multi-classification logit regression model and a random forest model, and put forward relevant suggestions. This study has the following results: (1) In the spatial dimension, the population shrinkage areas in Guangdong Province are primarily distributed in the periphery of the Pearl River Delta, with a spatial core-periphery imbalance, as well as differences between counties (including counties and county-level cities) and municipal districts. Among these, counties and county-level cities are the main areas of population shrinkage, characterized by a wide range of shrinkage, a more profound degree, and a more extended period; (2) In the temporal dimension, in the two stages of 2000–2010 and 2010–2020, Guangdong Province has seen an increase in the intensity of population shrinkage, with a trend towards slower, more sustained, wider, and more widespread population shrinkage and a deepening of the shrinkage in the areas adjacent to the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta. The degree of population shrinkage deepened in the eastern part of the northern mountainous region of Guangdong, mainly Meizhou. In contrast, the northern mountainous region of Guangdong, mainly Shaoguan, has gradually recovered from shrinkage; and (3) In the context of globalization, regionalization, and aging, the formation of population shrinkage areas in Guangdong Province is affected by the interaction of multiple factors in the four dimensions of demographic structure, production, life, and nature, with complex mechanisms and different impacts on different types of population shrinkage. Persistent population shrinkage is mainly affected by the demographic structure, especially the increasing aging problem, which leads to a long-term stable population decline. At the same time, economic and social factors also impact the continuous population shrinkage. Additionally, the policy regulation of ecological reserves, which has a direct impact on population distribution and mobility, cannot be ignored. However, in addition to the endogenous factors of the population, intermittent shrinkage is also affected by social and economic aspects such as industrial adjustment and fiscal expenditure, which may lead to fluctuations in economic activities in the short term and thus affect the population distribution.

The population problem has always been an overall, long-term, and strategic issue facing China; the fertility rate can reflect the population problem, and the identification of the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics and driving factors of fertility rate is of great significance to the long-term balanced development of population and the coordination of human-land relationship. Based on the census data of 2000, 2010, and 2020, the Theil index, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and geographically weighted regression models were used to explore the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of city fertility in China from 2000 to 2020. The results showed that: (1) Based on the perspective of time series characteristics, from 2000 to 2020, China's fertility rate presented a downward trend, the degree of distribution first increased and then decreased with the passage of time, the discrete trend between cities decreased, and the regional differences in fertility rate have narrowed. (2) Based on the perspective of spatial pattern, the fertility rate is high in the south and west and low in the north and east, whereas heterogeneity is obvious. Specifically, the west side of the Hu Line is higher than that of the east side, but the fertility rate fluctuation on the east side is higher than that on the west side. China's four major economic regions are in the order of Western > the Central> the Eastern > the Northeast, with fertility rates still declining in the Western and Northeast regions. Focusing on the five major urban agglomerations, the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River has the highest fertility rate, followed by the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration, with the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration having the lowest fertility rate. Overall, the H-H cluster agglomeration areas are mainly distributed in the southern and western regions of China, while the L-L cluster agglomeration areas are concentrated in the northern and eastern regions. (3) Based on the perspective of influencing factors, economic, policy, demographic, and social factors are always the key factors affecting fertility, with economic and policy factors generally having a greater impact on China's fertility rate. The spatial heterogeneity of economic factors represented by per capita GDP and urbanization rate is significant, the positive impact of policy factors in northern and eastern China is significant, the population quality and fertility rate in the west of the Hu Line are strongly negatively correlated, the population number and fertility rate in southeast China are positively correlated, the negative impact of marriage and childbearing on fertility on the east side of the Hu Line is greater than that on the west side, and the influence of the concept of raising children and preventing old age in some areas in the east is still greater.

With the rapid growth of the digital economy, integrating the cultural and tourism industries has become a key driver of regional economic development and industrial upgrading. As a vital component of the cultural and digital sectors, the gaming industry facilitates integration through digital innovation and creative design. While existing research on cultural-tourism integration is extensive, little attention has been paid to how virtual cultural symbols transform and drive this process in the digital era. Recent advancements in gaming have blurred the boundaries between virtual and real experiences through virtual scene construction, cultural symbol reproduction, immersive interactions, and social media dissemination, accelerating the transformation of cultural resources into tourism assets. Understanding how the gaming industry promotes cultural-tourism integration enhances existing research frameworks, deepens insights into the dissemination and reproduction of cultural symbols in the digital economy, and offers new regional cultural tourism development strategies. Using Black Myth: Wukong as a case study, this research applies the field conversion theory to examine the flow and transformation of cultural symbols between virtual and real-world tourism contexts. It explores two key questions: (1) How does the gaming industry reconstruct traditional cultural symbols through digitalization and integrate them into real-world tourism using field conversion mechanisms? and (2) How does the participation and feedback of different groups influence the effectiveness of this integration, shaping the gaming industry's role in regional cultural tourism development? The findings indicate that digital technologies not only overcome spatial constraints on cultural resources but also enhance interactivity and dissemination, promoting the transformation of symbolic capital into cultural, social, and economic capital. However, engagement levels varied across groups. Players deeply immersed in virtual cultural symbols strengthened the connection between gaming and real-world tourism through social media, offline activities, and digital communities. In contrast, non-players rely on traditional tourism information sources and respond passively and indirectly to game-driven cultural symbols. This study identifies capital accumulation, habit migration, and stakeholder collaboration as the core mechanisms facilitating cultural-tourism integration. While gaming fosters cultural identity, tourism consumption, and economic diversification, it also presents challenges, such as infrastructure strain and tourism industry homogenization due to sudden visitor influxes. This research expands the scope of the theory's application by integrating the field conversion theory into the study of gaming and cultural-tourism integration. It examines how cultural symbols gain value through cross-field transformations. Furthermore, it highlights how digital games that leverage virtual reality, short videos, and social media facilitate cultural symbols' cross-regional flow and reproduction. Moving beyond static cultural transmission models, this study reveals the dynamic evolution of virtual culture and offers fresh perspectives on the development of the cultural industry in the digital economy.

As an important economic form for the innovation and development of human society, since the 21st century, the low-altitude economy has become one of the key ways to promote China's modern industrial development, with its unique charm and broad application prospects. Research on the low-altitude economy of manned vehicles has a long history. However, this research is still growing; and there are many ambiguities within the human-cultural research of low-altitude economies. Therefore, it is necessary to review the existing results so as to promote the development of a theoretical and methodological system for low-altitude economic research. Based on data from the Web of Science (WOS), Scoups, and CNKI databases with the low-altitude economy as the research theme, the CiteSpace software was used to comprehensively sort out the publication status, research content, and research lineage of domestic and foreign low-altitude economy research. This study analyzes and summarizes the characteristics of the publication, subject matter, and characteristics and trends of the various phases. The results show that: (1) Although the leading figures and research teams of domestic and foreign low-altitude economy research have initially appeared, there are fewer cross-institutional academic contacts and a broad academic consensus is yet to be formed. (2) There are also differences in the development history and research characteristics of domestic and foreign low-altitude economy research, but in the early stage of the research, the focus is mainly on general aviation. It then moves to a new era of drone dominance that is centered on the low-altitude economy after 2010. (3) As is, foreign studies have focused on, for example, the exploration of UAV models and their engineering technology, UAV traffic management systems, UAV application scenarios. On the contrary, Chinese studies focus on the reflection and summary of the reform of low-altitude airspace, construction of UAV systems and their industrial development, etc. (4) The directional shift of the low-altitude economy from the natural space to the human-cultural space is an important feature in this growth period but the current low-altitude economy research on human culture is still in the trial phase. Therefore, it is recommended that scholars establish a scientific system suitable for the development of low-altitude economies in China, expand research perspectives and interdisciplinary cooperation, and strengthen extensive communication and exchanges among scholars, which helps construct a diversified inter-institutional, interdisciplinary, and inter-geographical cooperation network. In addition, it will deeply excavate the human-earth relations and spatial organization concepts in the study of low-altitude economies and integrate natural-social-economic-humanities perspectives on intelligent, synergistic, and sustainable development of UAVs, as well as systematically expose the UAV industry chain, UAV-related supporting facilities, market consumption, and public attitudes. This study aims to accelerate the high-quality development of China's low-altitude economy and comprehensively promote its modern development.

With the rapid development of tourism, conflicts between the protection and utilization of tourist destinations have become increasingly prominent. The effective promotion of sustainable development of tourist destinations has become an important issue in academic circles. The essence of the conflict between the protection and utilization of tourist destinations is the disharmony and imbalance between the protection and utilization of tourist destinations. The root cause of this conflict is the restriction of the policy system and the difference in the interest demands of multiple subjects in the protection and utilization of tourist space resources, which leads to various disputes, contradictions, or opposites. Based on a review of relevant research at home and abroad, this study systematically reviews and summarizes the conceptual connotation, basic theory, identification and classification, feature analysis, occurrence mechanism, and adaptive governance of the conflict between tourism destination protection and utilization. The results show the following: 1) Based on a multidisciplinary perspective, scholars have enriched and refined the conceptual connotation and basic theory of the conflict between tourism destination protection and utilization, have gradually paid attention to the specific demand conflict between different stakeholders in tourism destination protection and utilization, and have attempted to reveal its intrinsic nature and development trends; 2) In terms of identification and classification, owing to the significant differences in research areas and perspectives, the types of conflict between the protection and utilization of tourist destinations also show a diversified trend; 3) Researchers mainly analyze features from the perspectives of subject, time, and space, and the conflicts between tourism destination protection and utilization are characterized by diverse interest subjects, complex spaces, and stages; 4) In terms of the occurrence mechanism, the research mainly explored the driving factors from the macro perspectives of policy system, environment, economy, and social culture, and micro perspectives of subjects' cognition, attitude, and behavior. The macro policy system and micro-subject perceptions were the focus of this study; 5) In terms of adaptive governance, research countermeasures mainly promote the organic combination of macrospatial governance and microsubject regulation to achieve the effect of adaptive governance. Macro-spatial governance provides an overall framework and directional guidance for the development of tourism destinations, while micro-subject regulation ensures that all stakeholders can act reasonably within this framework and jointly promote the sustainable development of tourism destinations. And finally, this research proposes that future research should include supplementing and improving the theoretical system of tourism destination protection and utilization conflict in the context of social change, expanding and deepening the research content of tourism destination protection and utilization conflict in the context of sustainable development, strengthening the research method innovation of tourism destination protection and utilization conflict with the support of geospatial information technology, and promoting the integration of tourism destination protection and utilization conflict in the perspective of multidisciplinary integration, combined analysis and application of results.

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) labels represent elements of ICH, highlighting the features and attributes of ICH products or destinations and reflecting optimized ICH tourism resource allocation. However, destinations often misunderstand ICH label implications and mechanisms, leading to issues such as over-commercialization due to a lack of regulation. This study adopts a tourist micro-perspective to deepen the understanding of ICH label connotations and origins, and to explore their impact on destination perception and potential value in cultural and tourism integration and new productive force development. Given the infancy of ICH label research and unclear conceptual understanding, this study sought to explore the relationship between ICH labels and tourist destination perception through in-depth interviews and grounded theory. Based on 25 in-depth interviews, the study clarified the unique essence of ICH labels as geographical indications recognized by local governments based on local culture, integrating intrinsic and extrinsic values, and being both reliable and distinctive. This study also elucidates how ICH labels affect destination perception: cultural empowerment is fundamental to ICH label formation, label value and attributes are key expressions of local cultural empowerment, diverse stakeholders promote sustainable ICH label development and regulate market activities, and online and brand marketing effectively influence tourist perceptions of destinations. The research contributes in three ways. First, it analyzes the relationship between geographical indications and ICH labels, clarifying their connotations and origins, strengthening the link between ICH and local culture, and broadening heritage research perspectives. It deepens the analysis of the cultural factors behind spatial phenomena and enhances the conceptual refinement and framework of heritage tourism theory, emphasizing the role of tourism in dynamic heritage protection. Second, it explores the role of ICH labels as innovative labor material factors, systematically explaining their impact on destination perception. This study found that ICH labels influence perceptions of ICH resources, tourism infrastructure, services, and experiences, reflecting how ICH and inheritor dynamics affect local development and discusses the utility of ICH labels. Third, the essence of ICH is shaped by local and translocal geographical and cultural practices involving diverse actors. This study reveals that the government, ICH inheritors, tourists, and businesses play significant roles in the ICH label mechanism, responding to the ICH and social justice initiative, an important topic at the intersection of ICH and geography, providing a theoretical basis for fairer ICH label development. The detailed insights presented here are intended to guide policymakers, tourism professionals, and cultural heritage managers in their efforts to harness the potential of ICH labels to benefit local communities and the tourism industry.

As the pace of life accelerates and the demand for tourism quality increases, slow tourism, which emphasizes experiences, relaxation, and sustainability, has emerged. However, slow-tourism behaviors and perceptions differ widely across different urban contexts. We applied the basic framework of landscape perception theory to popular Citywalk routes in Chengdu, Wuhan, and Shanghai, which were obtained from the Xiaohongshu platform. By integrating spatial, multimodal data, and content analyses, as well as other methods, we explored the spatial behavioral patterns, perceptual differences, and the associated mechanisms of tourists during Citywalk activities in different urban contexts. The findings indicate that Citywalk activities mainly occurred within the second rings of cities, representing small-scale urban exploration that emphasizes experiential feelings over conventional mobile tourism. Tourists preferred culturally and artistically vibrant urban destinations. Citywalks are generally free, thereby embodying a subcultural phenomenon that contrasts with the stressful rhythm of life emitomized by "involution" and "996" work culture. Notable differences in cognitive imagery, emotional imagery, and cultural perception were present among the tourists in different cities, which shaped unique urban Citywalk tourism experiences. Based on different models and perceptual differences, Chengdu's Citywalk was defined as "a slow city tour centered around creative cultural districts that blends creative spaces and gourmet exploration," whereas those in Wuhan and Shanghai were defined as "a slow city tour centered around historical architecture, that blends cultural spaces and natural scenery" and "a slow city tour centered around urban landscapes that blends humanities, arts, and modern fashion," respectively. Differing geographical locations, planning concepts, development orientations, and historical backgrounds affected the Citywalk tourism experiences by influencing aspects such as the natural environment, spatial layout, developmental direction, and cultural characteristics of each city, which created different place perceptions. Geographical location affects the natural environment, tourism facilities, and cultural atmosphere of a city, whereas planning concepts influence urban spatial layouts, functional zoning, and the mode of tourism resource development, which affect the form and experiences in slow tourism. Development orientation determines the development direction of a city, thereby crafting unique attractions. Differing historical backgrounds create distinct urban cultural features, lifestyles, and tourism resources, which affect the direction of slow-tourism development. The findings of this study present the differences in Citywalk behaviors and perceptions in various urban contexts, filling a gap in comparative studies of cities within slow-tourism scenes. The findings also provide a new theoretical perspective for understanding the interactions between tourism behavior and urban spaces and offers reference experiences for other cities to develop slow tourism, enhance urban cultural tourism competitiveness, and promote sustainable urban tourism development.

With the trend of the "Internet of Everything" breaking the time and space boundaries of information dissemination, virtual and real interactive activity spaces are gradually replacing physical activity spaces and becoming the dominant form of carrying out human activities. For the tourist town, the "user-generated content" and community sharing platform represented by TikTok not only improves the convenience of tourists in planning trips, booking products, obtaining real-time information, and sharing experiences, but also enhances tourists' perception and interest in the living environment and cultural atmosphere of the ancient town. Under the background of the integration of virtual and real in the digital age, it is very important to explore the spatial characteristics and internal relations of the online and offline heat of the ancient town for understanding the phenomenon of large-scale tourist gathering. From the perspective of environmental behavior and attention economy theory, this study used multi-source heterogeneous data and spatial econometric analysis methods to take Dayan Ancient Town in Lijiang as an example to explore the following: 1) What are the spatial performance characteristics of online and offline popularity in tourist towns? 2) What is the potential relationship between online and offline popularity in tourist towns? The results were as follows: 1) The spatial correlation between online and offline popularity heat in Dayan Ancient Town was high, and the overall distribution was extremely uneven. The top 10% of the space unit's online popularity contributed to more than 90% of the traffic and attendance, showing clear power-law attenuation characteristics. The top 10% of the space units of offline popularity contributed more than 33.6% of the total tourists, showing a tourist gathering mode with Sifang Street as the core and decreasing to the periphery. 2) The spatial and temporal differentiation of tourist volume in ancient towns was the result of the interaction between online and offline environments. In the online dimension, the concentration of tourists, number of digital content punch cards, and number of digital content views formed a positive promotional effect. In the offline dimension, tourists' mobile behavior was positively affected by shopping service facilities, attractions, leisure and entertainment facilities, functional density, building density, and sDNA (spatial Design Network Analysis) proximity (r=400 m), and negatively affected by infrastructure, educational service facilities, and sDNA accessibility (r=n). Tourists' calling behavior was positively affected by accommodation service facilities, infrastructure, and functional density. 3) The online and offline popularity of ancient tourist towns was transformed by the influence of digital media traffic on tourists' punching and mobile behavior. In this process, the environmental characteristics and cultural landscapes of traditional villages were packaged as tourism attractions. Local tourism resources were transformed into digital content through tourists' card-making behavior. High-quality digital content accumulated attention capital through traffic transmission, drove tourist movement and consumption demand gathering, and created a new "net red card" in the physical geographical space.

In recent years, the integration of red culture into rural areas has led to a remarkable upsurge in red tourism in the revolutionary old areas. The residents of these tourist destinations play a crucial role as carriers and stakeholders in tourism development. However, the role of residents' red culture-inspired awe in tourism development and its underlying mechanisms have not yet been thoroughly explored. Against this backdrop, this study aimed to fill this research gap. This study is firmly grounded in the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. To achieve the research objectives, a quasi-experimental design and a field survey method were employed. In the quasi-experimental study, materials related to the red culture of Jinggangshan were carefully selected to induce awe. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and a series of measurements were conducted, including assessments of red culture-inspired awe, red cultural identity, and support for tourism development. For the field survey, the Jinxiang Coastal Red Tourism Area in Lufeng City, Guangdong Province, was chosen as the research site. Questionnaires were designed and distributed to collect data on the relevant variables after conducting reliability and validity tests. Our study revealed several significant findings. First, awe inspired by red culture has a direct and positive impact on residents' support for tourism development. This indicates that in the context of red tourism, residents' awe towards local red culture can effectively stimulate their prosocial behaviors. Second, red cultural identity mediates the relationship between red culture-inspired awe and support for tourism development. It was found that when residents experienced a higher level of red culture-inspired awe, their identification with red culture became stronger, which in turn led to a greater inclination to support tourism development. Third, trust in the government also serves as a mediator. Red culture-inspired awe can enhance residents' trust in the government, and this trust significantly influences their attitude towards tourism development policies and their willingness to support tourism. Finally, there exists a serial mediating effect of red cultural identity and trust in the government in this process. This study made several important contributions. Theoretically, this broadens the application scope of the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions in the field of red tourism, providing a new perspective for understanding resident attitudes towards tourism development. It also deepens our understanding of the role of emotions in promoting cultural identity and trust in the government. This study offers valuable suggestions for sustainable development of red tourism. For example, it emphasizes the importance of protecting and inheriting red cultural resources to enhance residents' feelings of awe, promote residents' in-depth identification with red culture through various means, and establish a transparent policy communication mechanism to strengthen residents' trust in the government. Future research should expand the sample range and explore the dynamic changes and long-term effects of red culture-inspired awe to provide more comprehensive theoretical support and practical guidance for the development of red tourism.

The accelerated promotion of new urbanization has brought about population mobility, which has placed greater pressure on megacities in terms of inter-regional competition for high-quality resources in compulsory education and their carrying capacity. To achieve high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education, it is not only necessary to achieve a balanced allocation of resources in terms of quantity and structure, but also to pay attention to the spatial balanced distribution of quality. This study uses Wuhan, a central Chinese megacity, as a case. Integrating Point of Interest data of primary and secondary schools, educational resources, road network information, this study uses GIS methodologies, such as the nearest neighbor index, coefficient of variation, kernel density analysis, service area network analysis, and an improved 2SFCA method to evaluate the spatial distribution characteristics of compulsory education resources in Wuhan and the accessibility and resource distribution equilibrium across districts. In terms of spatial quantity equilibrium, although the distribution of primary and secondary schools in Wuhan's districts is relatively uniform, the resource density is biased towards the central urban areas and shows a single-center clustering, resulting in sparse resource distribution in the remote urban areas. In terms of spatial structural equilibrium, considering students' commuting modes, time cost and the matching of supply and demand, primary schools exhibit better accessibility and resource equilibrium than junior high schools. In terms of spatial quality equilibrium, the human, material, and financial resource allocation equilibrium of primary schools is generally better than that of junior high schools, and both primary and junior high schools in the remote urban areas are less balanced than those in the central urban areas. This imbalance in resource distribution is in conflict with the population expansion and uneven distribution in the urbanization process of Wuhan. Therefore, it is suggested that the future layout for compulsory education in Wuhan should be combined with regional functions, population size, and educational needs to strengthen the forward-looking allocation of educational resources and land use planning in the remote urban areas, optimize the educational layout of functional areas to adapt to population growth and enhance accessibility, and build a balanced system of teacher resource allocation to promote the high-quality and integrated development of compulsory education. This study builds a spatial analysis framework based on a three-dimensional perspective of 'quantity-structure-quality', which expands the research perspective of high-quality and equilibrium allocation of compulsory education resources, and the spatial accessibility analysis from the perspective of supply and demand provides methodological references for other megacities to optimize the layout and resource allocation of primary and secondary schools in different regions, and also enhances the understanding of the differentiated layout of compulsory education resources in different administrative districts of megacities.

The transformation of livelihood tourism is a key factor for fishermen in optimizing their livelihood strategies and achieving sustainable development. This is an effective strategy for improving the marine ecological environment, protecting marine biodiversity, and supporting the development of destination tourism. Recent research has demonstrated that the transformation of livelihood tourism is one of the most promising strategies for rural tourism destinations. In addition to considering the individual livelihood capital status, livelihood tourism transformation must assess the risks and uncertainties that may exist. Based on sustainable livelihood and prospect theories, this study considered the unique characteristics of coastal fishermen and established a livelihood capital evaluation index system for them. An integrated model was constructed using livelihood capital, risk cognition, and livelihood tourism transformation intention. An empirical test was conducted using 310 valid questionnaires obtained from a survey of fishermen in Tanmen Town, Qionghai City, Hainan Province, China. The results were as follows. (1) The overall level of sustainable livelihood among coastal fishermen was relatively low, with significant differences in its dimensions. The level of natural capital was relatively high, with a livelihood capital value of 0.646. Human and material capital were at moderate levels, with livelihood capital values of 0.555 and 0.510, respectively. Financial and social capital levels were relatively low, with livelihood capital values of 0.280 and 0.192, respectively. The livelihood capital levels of coastal fishermen were generally lower than those of farmers in other regions. (2) Livelihood capital significantly influenced fishermen's willingness to engage in livelihood tourism transformation, with human, material, and social capital showing significant positive effects, consistent with previous research findings. Natural and financial capital had significant negative effects. Owing to the unique attributes of coastal fishermen, the impact of financial capital on their willingness to engage in livelihood tourism transformation differedO from previous research conclusions. (3) Risk cognition had an intermediate effect between human, social, and financial capital on livelihood tourism transformation intention. The mediating effects of natural and material capital on livelihood tourism transformation intention were not significant. This study revealed the relevant factors influencing livelihood tourism transformation intention. It innovatively discusses the mediating role of risk perception in the influence of livelihood capital on livelihood tourism transformation intention by combining it with prospect theory. It deepens the understanding of existing studies on the livelihood level and structure of coastal fishermen and enriches the application of prospect theory in tourism research. It provides theoretical support and a scientific basis for improving the livelihood level of fishermen and the driving force of livelihood tourism transformation, offering new insights for optimizing livelihood strategies and sustainable development of coastal fishermen.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has profoundly reshaped human society and significantly impacted academic research. In the current era of intelligence, geography requires the development of new theoretical frameworks. By constructing and elaborating the theoretical framework of the "Poetics of Life," this study explores new pathways for geographical expression within the context of human-AI integration. The relationship between AI and humans manifests in four modes: tool, partner, friend, and soul. In the process of human-AI integration, place, body, and emotion emerge as three key vectors that are currently irreplaceable by AI. Drawing on existentialist philosophy, geographical poetics, and humanistic geography, and employing a digital autoethnographic approach, this article conducts an in-depth analysis of 122 songs co-created by Ye Chao(The first author) and AI and published on the personal WeChat Channel "Ye Shenxun." It compares the characteristics of individual writing with those of human-AI collaborative creation and summarizes their public communication effects. What distinguishes Poetics of Life in the new era from geographical poetics lies in three fundamental shifts: the creative subject has transformed from a solitary author to human-AI co-creation, the form of expression has expanded from single-text delivery to multisensory stimulation, and media dissemination has evolved from one-way output to multidimensional interaction. The song samples exhibited diverse styles and themes, reflecting the interplay of emotion, place, and AI, thereby highlighting the importance of new forms of geographical writing and expression in the intelligent age. In terms of communicative effects, a top-ten analysis of the texts revealed that audiences with a background in geography paid more attention to the mutual construction of place and everyday life, whereas other audiences focused more on emotional resonance. Surreal works, such as Chronicle of Light and Dust, demonstrate a cross-disciplinary, future-oriented dimension. The Poetics of Life in the intelligent age not only extends and deepens the humanistic tradition of geography but also provides new theoretical insights for interdisciplinary fields such as digital art and media geography. The expression, performance, and public communication of the Poetics of Life constitute key directions for future research.

The advent and deep permeation of digital media technologies have precipitated a paradigmatic shift in the ontological and phenomenological understanding of place. No longer conceived as a stable, bounded physical container, place in the contemporary era is dynamically produced, mediated, and continually reconstituted through the intricate interplay of platform architectures, algorithmic operations, locative media, and networked social practices. This transformation has catalyzed the emergence of "digital sense of place" as a critical interdisciplinary concern. Scholars across the disciplines of human geography, environmental psychology, sociology, anthropology, and media studies have engaged with this phenomenon, yet their inquiries have largely progressed in parallel, resulting in a fragmented intellectual landscape characterized by conceptual dispersion, methodological insularity, and theoretical compartmentalization. A cohesive framework capable of elucidating the complex, recursive coupling between the digital and the placal remains conspicuously absent. To address this gap, this article conducts a systematic knowledge archaeology and synthesis of relevant literature spanning the years 1980 to 2025. Employing bibliometric analysis and critical discourse review, we trace the genealogical development of place scholarship within each of the core disciplines and map their convergent trajectories toward the digital. Our analysis identifies a fundamental theoretical evolution: a move from essentialist, static, and physically deterministic models of place (exemplified by Tuan's topophilia and Relph's place identity) toward relational, processual, and mediated conceptions. Human geography's "relational turn" and its subsequent engagement with "hybrid space" dismantled the physical-digital binary. Environmental psychology meticulously operationalized and measured place attachment, later extending its quantitative paradigms to validate the psychological reality of digital emotional bonds. Sociology and anthropology foregrounded the social construction of place, revealing how power dynamics, cultural practices, and embodied rituals undergird place-making—a perspective extended to digital communities and virtual belonging. Media studies evolved from treating media as mere representational tools to recognizing platforms and locative media as constitutive infrastructures that actively shape spatial perception and social interaction. The synthesis of these multidisciplinary insights exposes their collective yet unintegrated recognition of digital sense of place as a multifaceted, systemic phenomenon. Building on this foundation, this paper makes a central theoretical contribution by proposing "digital sense of place" as a systemically generative integrative analytical framework. This framework posits digital sense of place not as a possessed attribute but as an ongoing, emergent process generated within a dynamic system composed of five interconnected subsystems: (1) the technological-infrastructural subsystem (platforms, algorithms, interfaces); (2) the affective-psychological subsystem (digitally mediated attachment, identity, meaning); (3) the social-relational subsystem (networked communities and mediated interactions); (4) the cultural-semiotic subsystem (the remediation and circulation of place-based narratives and memories); and (5) the power-political economic subsystem (the governance, ownership, and algorithmic curation of digital space). These subsystems operate in continuous feedback loops, co-constituting the lived experience of place in a digital society. This systemic, generative perspective facilitates a critical analysis of core tensions inherent in digital place-making, such as between delocalization and re-localization, authentic affective experience and platform-engineered engagement, and discursive openness and algorithmic exclusion. Consequently, this integrated framework advances the field from multidisciplinary parallelism toward theoretically robust, holistic explanation. It provides a potent lens for examining pressing contemporary issues, including the affective politics of platform societies, the governance of smart cities, the preservation of digital heritage, and the ethical implications of algorithmically modulated spatial experience. The framework thus repositions digital sense of place as a central analytical node for understanding how locality is persistently forged, contested, and lived within the matrix of contemporary techno-social life.

With the pervasive penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, traditional paradigms of social space governance are undergoing a fundamental shift—from "digital governance" to "intelligent governance." In the governance space dimension, AI innovations such as AI-generated content (AIGC) and spatial intelligence have endowed digital twin spaces with unprecedented capabilities, transforming them from static reflections of physical reality into dynamic systems capable of proactive inference, simulation, and real-time optimization. This transition extends governance functions beyond mere representation to include predictive intervention and anticipatory regulation. On the dimension of governance subjects, algorithms have qualitatively mutated—from passive instruments of execution into "artificial agents" or "auxiliary governance actors" possessing autonomous learning, environmental adaptation, and predictive decision-making capacities. This mutation fosters an emergent symbiotic "human-machine collaboration," challenging established power structures and reconfiguring accountability boundaries. In this study, building upon this analysis of the data-to-intelligence governance transition, we examine—through case studies including Shanghai's "Quantum City" and Hangzhou's "City Brain"—the expansion logic and practical manifestations of multidimensional social space governance in the AI era. First, the governance space has expanded from a tripartite "physical-social-data" framework to a quadrilateral "physical-social-data-algorithm" structure. Spatial intelligence technologies and "real-world model" paradigms have positioned algorithms as the core of digital twin systems. Empowered by spatial intelligence, digital twin environments achieve heightened precision and synchronicity, enabling real-time and efficient interactions with physical spaces while demonstrating enhanced generative capacity and operational autonomy. These developments constitute the multidimensional spatial arena of public governance. Second, the governance subject has evolved from a "government-market-society" triadic relationship to a "government-market-society-intelligence" quadrilateral synergy. As AI agents gain greater autonomy, their subjectivity becomes increasingly manifested, elevating AI from a mere instrument to a co-constitutive governance actor that must operate in parallel with traditional subjects. This transformation necessitates fundamental theoretical and practical interpretations of the relationships among all governance stakeholders. This multidimensional expansion has engendered a series of novel challenges for public governance practices. First, AI and digital twin technologies have accelerated the convergence of the physical, social, and digital domains, yet this nascent "hybrid space" has precipitated profound normative conflicts in governance practices. Second, as AI transitions from a tool to an intelligent agent, algorithmic bias becomes more acute, and an "accountability vacuum" risk emerges within human-machine collaborative frameworks. Finally, persistent digital divides are metamorphosing into a new configuration—the "intelligence divide"—exacerbating social stratification. To address these emergent challenges, social space governance in the intelligence era requires innovative pathways. First, cross-spatial coordinative governance mechanisms must be constructed to enable the synergistic integration of virtual and physical domains, shifting from normative fragmentation to spatial order reconstruction. Second, a human-machine coordinative governance framework should be built upon technical foundations of "trustworthy AI" and institutional safeguards ensuring "ultimate human control." Third, governance must uphold a people-centered value orientation, ensuring that the benefits of intelligent governance are equally distributed across all citizens.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a key driver of high-quality regional development by reshaping innovation systems, industrial structures, and spatial economic dynamics. Consequently, the scientific measurement of the spatial distribution and evolutionary trajectories of AI technologies has become a critical issue in economic geography. Existing empirical studies typically measure AI activity using enterprise registration data or granted invention patents based on proxy variables, keyword searches, or the International Patent Classification system. However, these methods often suffer from limited semantic accuracy and incomplete coverage, making it difficult to fully capture the rapidly evolving and context-dependent nature of AI technologies. To address these limitations, this study developed a semantic-based identification framework based on large language models. Drawing on approximately 1.2 million granted invention patent abstracts from Guangdong Province between 2001 and 2021, we employed Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) large language model to identify AI-related technologies based on deep semantic understanding. This approach yielded a dataset of approximately 200,000 AI-related patents and provided a more comprehensive and accurate representation of regional AI innovation activities. Building on this dataset, we applied BERTopic for topic modeling to identify major technological themes and trace their temporal evolution. The empirical results reveal several key findings. (1) From a temporal perspective, the evolution of AI technologies in Guangdong Province followed a clear two-stage trajectory. During the initial stage from 2001 to 2014, AI patenting activities remained at a relatively low level, gradually increasing from 37 patents in 2001 to 3,514 in 2014. By contrast, the period from 2015 to 2021 represents a phase of rapid expansion, characterized by a sharp increase in AI patenting activities and a substantial acceleration in innovation intensity. This shift indicates the growing strategic importance of AI in regional innovation systems. (2) From a spatial perspective, AI technologies are highly unevenly distributed across Guangdong Province, exhibiting strong agglomeration in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Shenzhen and Guangzhou together account for 75.1% of all AI patents in the province, forming a pronounced core region of AI innovation. Shenzhen contributed to more than half of the provinces' AI patents, demonstrating a strong primacy position. Beyond these two leading cities, Dongguan, Zhuhai, and Foshan constituted the secondary tier in terms of patent volume. Further analysis of co-invention patents revealed the network characteristics of AI technological collaboration. Within Guangdong Province, inter-city cooperation exhibited a clear dual-core structure centered on Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with dense collaborative linkages concentrated in the Greater Bay Area. While Shenzhen dominates AI patent production, Guangzhou demonstrates the highest level of intraprovincial collaboration, indicating a stronger coordinating and connective role within regional innovation networks. (3) In terms of technological content, topic modeling identified five major AI technology themes: data and image processing, robotics and automation devices, intelligent transportation and fault detection, smart homes and environmental control, and bio-simulation and image analysis. Among these themes, data and image processing constituted the most active and foundational domains throughout the study period, entering a phase of rapid growth around 2013 and peaking in 2019. Robotics, intelligent transportation, and smart home technologies have expanded markedly after 2015, reflecting the increasing diversification and application-oriented nature of AI innovation. By contrast, biosimulation and image analysis exhibited modest growth, suggesting a narrower range of applications. Moreover, cities within Guangdong displayed differentiated thematic advantages, reflecting the distinct trajectories of regional AI specialization. Shenzhen has maintained a leading position in image and data processing, as well as robotics; Guangzhou has developed distinctive strengths in intelligent transportation and urban service applications; Zhuhai integrated AI into its home appliance manufacturing base and marine technologies; Dongguan focused on AI applications in intelligent manufacturing and environmental governance; and Foshan emphasized the integration of smart home technologies with industrial automation.

Based on seventh population census data, Point Of Interest (POI) data, road network data, elevation data, and night light index, we used the entropy method, nuclear density analysis method, spatial dislocation index, geographic detector, and other methods to study the phenomenon and driving factors of population aging and the spatial disequilibrium of pension service resources in each township (street) of Wenzhou in 2020. This research plays a positive role in realizing the fine allocation of resources for elderly care facilities at the township level in Wenzhou City, improving elderly care service facilities in urban and rural areas, and promoting the equalization of public service facilities at the township and village levels. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) As Wenzhou enters a deeply aging society, the spatial distribution of the elderly population, elderly population density, population aging coefficient, elderly population support ratio, and comprehensive aging index are basically the same, showing a gradually increasing spatial pattern from the municipal district to the peripheral streets of the municipal district to the remote towns; 2) Elderly care service resources in Wenzhou present an asymmetrical and unbalanced north-south spatial distribution pattern with the municipal districts as " diversified supply in municipal streets, basic guarantee in developed coastal towns, and shortage of supply in inland mountainous towns "; 3) The streets of the municipal district have rich elderly care service resources, including Grade 3 general hospitals and comprehensive nursing homes, to provide diversified elderly care services for the elderly in the municipal district; there are many old-age care facilities such as hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes in Ruian, Yueqing City, and central towns such as Hongqiao and Aojiang, which provide basic old-age security for the elderly in and around the area. In the northern part of Yongjia County, Wencheng County, Taishun County, and other remote towns and villages, the number of old-age medical resources and facility resources is scarce, and the accessibility of health centers and nursing homes to residents in marginal villages is low, which makes it inconvenient for the elderly to see a doctor in time and enjoy professional old-age services; 4) The size of the elderly population, nighttime Light Index, and road network density are the main driving factors causing the spatial imbalance of elderly service resources in the townships (streets) of Wenzhou City. Specific suggestions based on this study are as follows: Wenzhou should break the restraints of administrative divisions, speed up the process of co-construction and sharing of elderly care service resources between Lucheng District, Ouhai District, Longwan District and Yongjia County, southern townships of Yueqing City and eastern streets of Ruian City, achieve cross-regional linkage of elderly care facilities, improve the utilization rate of elderly care service resources, and prevent the situation of idle elderly care service resources; financial support for deeply aging towns in Wencheng County, Taishun County and Yongjia County should be increased, the construction of elderly care facilities in remote towns and health service consulting and cross-regional medical security capabilities of the elderly population in towns and cities should be increased, and the gap between the elderly service resources and the level of elderly care services in developed towns and cities should be narrowed; Yueqing City, Longgang City, Cangnan County, and Pingyang County should coordinate the existing resources, use the stock of land, combine urban renewal and the transformation of old urban communities, accelerate the construction of public infrastructure such as health service stations, nursing homes, leisure squares, and green parks within the 15-minute life circle of neighboring communities, and constantly improve the suitability of elderly care service resources for the elderly population.

In the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Large Language Models (LLMs) have become important informational mediators through which the public perceives urban spaces, and AI discourse has emerged as a powerful force in the construction of urban spaces. Using Guangzhou as a case study, we categorized urban consumption spaces into four types: shopping spaces, catering and entertainment spaces, tourism and leisure spaces, and residential and commercial housing. We constructed an evaluation question set for hallucinations in urban consumption spaces within a discourse-power framework and used hallucination tests to examine the commonalities and differences between Chinese and international AI models, namely, DeepSeek and ChatGPT, in the production of spatial discourse, thereby explaining how AI hallucination discourse constructs urban consumption spaces. The main findings of this study are as follows. (1) In the hallucination tests of urban consumption spaces, ChatGPT exhibited lower hallucination rates than DeepSeek at both the overall level and across individual categories. Residential and commercial housing emerged as high-incidence domains of hallucinations for both AI models, whereas the most pronounced divergence in hallucination rates between the two models occurred in tourism and leisure spaces. The primary sources of AI-generated content, in descending order, were news media, individual or commercial institutions, government agencies, and online encyclopedias. Both models tend to respond to mainstream spatial discourses, demonstrating a limited capacity for revealing the complex, diverse, and contradictory realities of the city. Specifically, ChatGPT favors generalized frameworks in its depiction of urban consumption spaces, whereas DeepSeek's spatial narratives display a planning-oriented logic aligned with urban development strategies. (2) By integrating and reproducing specific discourses originating from governments, news media, and commercial institutions, AI discourse operates as a novel power subject that constructs multiple "realities" and promotes the production of meanings attached to consumption centers, symbolization of architectural landscapes, and technologization of consumption spaces and also adjudicates spatial value, allowing its power to operate in a "rational" manner. (3) The AI hallucination discourse constructs space by producing subject positions tailored to users, such as "supporters of urban development," "experience-oriented consumers," "beneficiaries of technological progress," and "astute investors." As users identify with and accept these positions, they enact specific consumption-space practices grounded in particular forms of knowledge, generating new data that are subsequently mobilized to reproduce the same discursive system. In this process, a specific knowledge regime is sustained, and power continues to operate. From a discourse-power perspective, this study elucidates the pathways through which urban consumption spaces are constructed by AI in the era of artificial intelligence. Although, it advances our understanding of the modes and impacts of urban knowledge circulation amid the rise of generative AI, critical reflection on the discursive and power relations embedded in technological products contributes to ethical scrutiny of smart city practices.

Against the strategic backdrop of "Digital-China" and the "Dual-Carbon" goals, the synergistic advancement of digital economy and carbon emission reduction is crucial for achieving high-quality, sustainable development. As a leading region in China's economic and digital transformation, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) urban agglomeration provides a critical-case study for examining the complex interplay between digital growth and decarbonization. In this study, we aimed to systematically analyze the spatiotemporal-coupling characteristics and underlying influence mechanisms between the digital economy and carbon emissions in the YRD region from 2011 to 2023. Moving beyond aggregate-analysis and linear-assumptions, this study seeks to reveal the spatial heterogeneity, nonlinear-relationships, and threshold-effects to provide a nuanced empirical basis for differentiated-regional policymaking. Methodologically, we integrated the Geographically Weighted Random Forest (GWRF) model with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). We constructed comprehensive evaluation systems for both the digital economy and carbon emissions, and calculates the coupling coordination degree (D) between these two systems for 41 cities. The core analytical approach uses the GWRF model, which embeds a spatial-weight matrix into the Random Forest algorithm to simulate the spatially-varying and nonlinear effects of multiple influencing factors on the degree of coordination. Subsequently, the SHAP framework was applied to interpret the GWRF " black-box model and quantify the global-importance, directional-contribution, and potential nonlinear or threshold-behavior of each explanatory variable. This study yielded several key findings. Regarding temporal evolution, the overall coupling coordination degree of the YRD urban agglomeration shows a clear upward trend, increasing from 0.411 in 2011 to 0.505 in 2023, marking a transition from an "imminent-imbalance" to a "barely-coordinated" stage. However, this progression is not monotonic; the significant dip observed in 2021 reflects dynamic tension and potential lagged-adaptation between technological-advancement cycles and stringent emission-reduction targets. In terms of spatial patterns, a distinct hierarchical "core-corridor-periphery" radial structure has formed. Shanghai, leveraging its advanced technological foundation and institutional advantages, remains at the forefront, achieving "high-quality coordination" by 2023. The provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang exhibit follow-up growth, entering the "barely-coordinated" stage. In contrast, Anhui province, despite exhibiting the fastest growth rate, remains at the threshold of "imminent-imbalance," highlighting persistent regional disparities within the agglomeration. At the city level, high-coordination cores were concentrated along the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hefei-Hangzhou development axis, with coordination levels gradually diffusing along major transport corridors and weakening in northern Anhui and southwestern Zhejiang. Concerning the model validation and identification of key drivers, the GWRF model demonstrated significantly superior explanatory power and predictive accuracy compared to the standard-Random Forest model, confirming its efficacy in capturing spatial-non-stationarity. The SHAP analysis identified variables from the digital economy subsystem, specifically, the number of mobile phone subscribers, employees in information transmission and software services, and postal business volume, as important positive drivers. Their intensity-of-influence exhibited a spatial-diffusion pattern, radiating outward from core metropolitan areas to key manufacturing nodes and emerging industrial zones. Conversely, variables from the carbon emissions subsystem, particularly carbon emissions intensity and per-capita carbon emissions, act as primary inhibitors of coupling coordination. In summary, this study elucidates a dual-path mechanism, wherein the agglomeration of digital elements drives synergistic improvements, whereas high-carbon economic structures exert inhibitory pressure. This study makes substantive contributions to both the theoretical and methodological fronts. Theoretically, it provides robust empirical evidence for the complex, nonlinear-interdependencies between digital and green transitions, challenging simplistic linear-assumptions and enriching the understanding of their coupling dynamics in a regional context. Methodologically, the integrated GWRF-SHAP framework was validated as a powerful tool for dissecting high-dimensional and spatially-heterogeneous problems in urban and regional studies, offering a replicable-analytical pathway. These findings provide actionable-insights for policymakers to advocate tailored-strategies that reinforce positive digital diffusion, especially in lagging areas, while implementing targeted measures to decouple economic growth from carbon emissions in high-pressure zones. Ultimately, this approach aims to foster a more balanced and synergistic development pathway for the YRD and similar regions.

In recent years, advances in pre-training techniques and improvements in computing hardware have led to substantial breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Large-scale models, such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, have demonstrated unprecedented capabilities in natural language processing and generation, accelerating the deployment of intelligent technologies across diverse domains. Nevertheless, current large models still face notable challenges in terms of physical common-sense understanding, causal reasoning, and the modeling of dynamic environments. In response to these deficiencies, the concept of "World Models" has recently emerged, with the goal of constructing cognitive engines that internally model, simulate, and predict physical environments. In this review article we describe the origins and research pathways of World Models, tracing their technical evolution from representation learning and dynamic modeling to embodied interaction. We summarize the core approaches to understanding environmental structure, simulating future states, and supporting decision-making and reasoning. From a geographical perspective, the generative, multimodal, and interactive capabilities emphasized by World Models are regarded as key requirements for characterizing complex spatial structures and dynamic processes. These capabilities are conceptually aligned with key research topics in geography: spatial organization, behavioral processes, and interactions with the environment. With the development of video generation, large-scale multimodal learning, and embodied intelligence, the field of AI is increasingly shifting from symbolic descriptions of the world to computable forms of spatial cognition, reflecting an intelligence paradigm fundamentally oriented toward space. The advancement of World Models not only provides new ways in which AI can understand the structure and processes of the real world, but also offers important opportunities for geography to explore spatiotemporal process modeling, mechanisms of spatial cognition, and the construction of integrated virtual-physical environments. With this overview we seek to establish a systematic framework for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of AI and geographical science and to provide references for future studies on spatial intelligence and AI.

Using images and interview data from the Nanzhi Street in the Songyang County, combined with K.-S. Lee's five-dimensional theory of food memory, this study explores the impact of media and commercialization on traditional food and local memory. This work analyzes how five factors—population hollowing, commercialization of preparation methods, standardization of sensory experiences, weakening of emotional connections, and uniformity—affect the relationship between food and local memory. It also discusses the mediating role of media as an intermediary factor. The findings indicate: (1) Loss of native residents: The departure of native residents has led to external operators maintaining emotional ties but failing to restore the community atmosphere. The demographic shift in the Nanzhi Street has transformed local memory from the emotional memory of native residents to the commercial memory of external operators. Media has simultaneously enhanced commercial vitality and accelerated the commodification and symbolization of local memory; (2) Differences in shop styles: There is a clear distinction between the styles of registered and non-registered shops. Registered shops preserve local characteristics but tend toward symbolic traditional appearances under policy support and media influence, while non-registered shops cater to influencer-driven culture, leaning towards commercialization. This dual influence maintains commercial vitality but also speeds up the commodification of local memory, reflecting the tension between preserving local culture and pursuing commercial development; (3) Changes in traditional food and sensory experiences: The preparation methods and sensory experiences of traditional food have changed to meet consumer demands, leading to differences in how tourists and locals perceive local memory. Media's simplified narratives and excessive commercialization reduce the cultural depth of local cuisine, reinforce stereotypes, and overlook the importance of craftsmanship and deep-rooted culture. These shifts not only affect consumer perceptions but also undermine the authenticity and completeness of local memory. Additionally, under the influence of commerce and media, traditional food has become increasingly standardized, with weakened artisanal techniques and local characteristics. Younger consumers are more exposed to adapted, standardized flavors, further simplifying the cultural essence of local cuisine and diminishing its role in cultural diversity and regional identity; (4) Impact of media on emotional connections: Media's influence on emotional connections is dual-faceted. For locals, private memories are made public, transforming traditional food from a familial emotional symbol into a symbol of local culture. For tourists, media transforms local memory into a commodified and emotionalized product, replacing personal connections with consumer-driven experiences. This shift reflects the commercialization of local memory and highlights the disconnect in emotional ties between locals and tourists, as private memories are gradually replaced by mass-consumption emotions. The work reveals the conflict between commercialization and local characteristics in the Nanzhi Street under media and policy guidance, emphasizing the importance of preserving local memory and emotional connections during urban transformation.

City serves as a medium for communication and, in turn, reshapes the city. Since the 21^st century, social media has rapidly spread worldwide, providing users with a platform for self-presentation and channels for expression. This has greatly changed people's lives and exerted a substantial influence on the reconstruction and gentrification of urban social spaces. However, few studies have focused on the underlying mechanisms. To gain a deeper understanding of the role of social media in commercial gentrification, Nantai Alley, a renowned Internet-famous block in Nanjing, was selected as a case study, and Xiaohongshu (Red note), whose main active user group is young women, was chosen to represent social media. This study conducted an in-depth analysis of the occurrence process, formation mechanism, and comprehensive effects of commercial gentrification under social media intervention. The research found that social media is deeply involved in the commercial gentrification process and continuously promotes the gentrification process through media information dissemination. Social media involvement in commercial gentrification is mainly achieved through two types of entities: merchants and consumers. On the one hand, social media provides merchants with replicable Internet celebrity aesthetics and business models and serves as a platform for self-marketing, increasing the probability of occurrence and promoting a more simplified and rapidly evolving trend of gentrification. On the other hand, consumers, engage in trendy check-ins and act as "discourse investors," accelerating commercial gentrification. Social media's representation of urban space amplifies and reinforces commercial gentrification; the progression and outcomes of gentrification are magnified on social media, occupying its central discursive spaces, whereas the daily lives and consumption practices of local residents are marginalized and rendered invisible in these digital representations. Furthermore, the profit-driven behaviors of certain local residents have laid the groundwork for gentrification, and the government has further consolidated the achievements of gentrification through urban renewal plans. The comprehensive effects triggered by commercial gentrification present significant dual characteristics: it exerts positive effects, such as commercial revitalization and beautification of the built environment, while also generating negative impacts, such as commercial exclusion, displacement, and cultural distinction from the neighborhood. Therefore, in future urban renewal processes, it is imperative for the government to intervene in a timely manner to preserve the community's original public value orientation and sense of place. This study enriches research on gentrification in the digital age by incorporating the factor of social media, and provides references for the renewal and management of urban space in the context of stock development.

The preservation of traditional architecture, which is a tangible carrier of regional culture and identity, requires precise and scalable methods for style classification. Here, we address the critical need for such methodologies by developing and applying an integrated computational framework that synergizes deep learning with spatial analytical techniques from cultural geography to document and analyze traditional architectural heritage. The primary research objectives were threefold: first, to construct a high-performance automated system for quantitatively classifying major Chinese traditional architectural styles(CTASs) from visual data; second, to leverage the system's outputs to analyze the multiscale spatial patterns of these styles; and third, to interpret these patterns to identify cultural boundaries and regional diversity, thereby providing a data-driven foundation for heritage conservation and planning. To achieve these aims, the research methodology began with the curation of a multimodal image database derived from 646 nationally designated traditional villages. An EfficientNet model, enhanced for multiscale feature fusion to capture both global and local details, was trained on this dataset to classify six typical styles: Jing, Jin, Chuan, Wan, Su, and Min. To ensure transparency and interpretability, Grad-CAM was used to visualize the key architectural components that informed the model's decisions. Subsequently, the geographically referenced classification results were subjected to a comprehensive spatial analysis suite, including spatial autocorrelation, standard deviational ellipse analysis, and calculation of Shannon diversity and Simpson evenness indices at the provincial level. The results and conclusions of the integrated analysis are detailed and multifaceted. The EfficientNet model achieved an overall classification accuracy of 90%, confirming the efficacy of the deep-learning approach. However, a misclassification rate of 10.7% was observed between the Jing and Chuan styles. Grad-CAM analysis provided critical insights into this phenomenon, revealing that the model's confusion stemmed from a shared, significant focus on similar wooden walls and colonnade features in both the Jing and Chuan styles, highlighting subtle inter-style visual overlaps. At the macroscale, the spatial distribution analysis confirmed that CTASs generally follow a cultural dissemination model that conforms to mountains, waters, and other natural barriers. For instance, the northern Jing and Jin styles cluster in the Yellow River Basin, the southern Su and Wan styles follow intricate water networks, and the Min and Chuan styles are dispersed across hilly and mountainous terrain. At the mesoscale, Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) analysis identified statistically significant high-high clustering areas for each style. Synthesizing these with topographic and hydrological data allowed for the delineation of coherent cultural geography: five distinct cultural core areas (where a single style is intensely concentrated), three well-defined cultural transition belts (exhibiting high stylistic mixing), and two cultural fracture zones (areas of low style density and diversity). This regionalization provides a precise spatial template for designing cross-provincial heritage corridor protection systems. At the micro (provincial) scale, the diversity and evenness indices revealed three characteristic patterns: Multi-Style Fusion Zones (high diversity, high uniformity), Oligarchic Equilibrium Zones (low diversity, high uniformity), and Style-Pure Zones (low diversity, low uniformity). These patterns offer crucial insights for tailoring provincial-level conservation strategies and regional planning. This study makes significant strides on these two fronts. Methodologically, it pioneers a replicable and scalable framework that successfully bridges computer vision and cultural geography, offering a new and robust tool for automated architectural stylistic analysis. Substantively, it provides the first comprehensive, quantitative, and multiscale spatial dissection of CTASs based on large-scale empirical data. Collectively, these findings provide a rigorous scientific foundation for evidence-based policies in multiscale heritage conservation, cultural landscape management, and sustainable regional development.

Traditional geography teaching has long faced core challenges, such as difficulties in visualizing abstract concepts and the limitations of high-risk or high-cost practical activities. Although AI-generated content (AIGC) and metaverse technologies have individually shown educational potential, existing research is largely confined to single-technology applications. There is a lack of a cross-technology synergistic framework tailored to the three-dimensional attributes of geography ("spatial-temporal-process"), resulting in insufficient adaptation between technology and pedagogical needs. To address this gap, this study aimed to construct a novel geography teaching model synergistically empowered by "AIGC + Metaverse". Through empirical research, it sought to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model in enhancing students' core competencies, thereby providing a verified and systematic solution to overcome traditional teaching dilemmas an."d promote the intelligent transformation of geography education. This study developed a closed-loop teaching model consisting of "Scenario Immersion—Intelligent Guidance—Assessment Optimization". The model employed metaverse technology to create high-fidelity immersive geography scenarios (e.g., a digital twin environment of a dangerous rock mass), while leveraging AIGC to build an intelligent tutoring system that supported personalized guidance, intelligent Q&A, and formative assessment. Deep integration was achieved through data and pedagogical process synergy mechanisms. To validate the model's effectiveness, a quasi-experimental study was conducted over two academic years using the "Spatial Information Collection and Risk Assessment of Dangerous Rock Mass" experiment as a case study. A multidimensional dataset, including experimental scores, learning behavior data, and system logs, was collected to comprehensively compare outcomes between a traditional teaching group and an "AIGC + Metaverse" synergistic group. The empirical results demonstrated that the "AIGC + Metaverse" synergistic teaching model achieved significant improvements over the traditional model. In terms of practical operation ability, students' average scores in operational standardization and data completeness both increased by 12.5%. Improvements in spatial analysis ability were particularly prominent, with the average score for measurement accuracy increasing by 28.57% and the average score for analytical logic by 14.29%. Regarding innovative application ability, the average score for the quality of risk assessment reports rose by 28.57%, and the average score for thinking questions by 14.29%. Ultimately, the average score for comprehensive task ability improved by 11.25%. The study concluded that this synergistic model, by combining immersive metaverse scenarios with the intelligent AIGC feedback, effectively resolved the core contradictions of traditional geography teaching. It facilitated a shift in students' roles from passive recipients of knowledge to active explorers of capability, thereby achieving a fundamental paradigm shift from "knowledge transmission" to "capability empowerment." The contributions of this study are threefold. First, it offers theoretical innovation by constructing and validating a synergistic teaching framework integrating AIGC-generated content, metaverse-hosted scenarios, and real-time AI tutor interaction, thus filling the gap in existing research on cross-technology synergy and discipline-specific adaptation. Second, it provides a practical paradigm by delivering a replicable, scalable, and systematic teaching solution, serving as a concrete example for geography education reform. Third, it contributes to domain expansion by exploring a viable path for the deep integration of advanced intelligent technologies with subject teaching in the context of educational digitalization, offering theoretical references and practical insights for innovative teaching in related disciplines.

Recently, the integration of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and tourism has generated new consumption hotspots that facilitate the transformation of cultural resources into cultural capital, producing notable economic and social benefits. Drawing on critical heritage studies, this research applies cultural capital theory and scale theory to examine Yingge Dance, a national-level ICH item originating from Chaoshan region (comprising 3 prefecture-level cities: Shantou, Jieyang and Chaozhou), China. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews, we explored the multi-scalar formation and scale transformation of cultural capital related to Yingge Dance. This study yielded three main findings. First, Yingge Dance embodies both cultural publicity and capital productivity. Its preservation and transmission depend on embodied practice, objectified transformation, and institutionalized support, reflecting a fusion of tradition and modernity as well as a symbiotic relationship between economy and culture. Second, at the individual scale, performers continually refine their bodily knowledge and skills in intergenerational practices, extending training and performance into broader community contexts. This process transforms Yingge Dance into cultural capital that fosters group cohesion and enhances community governance. At the regional scale, cultural tourism consumption and market participation accelerate the production of objectified cultural capital. Supported by local government initiatives, Yingge Dance becomes a form of urban cultural capital that stimulates tourism consumption and contributes to urban branding. At the national scale, China incorporates Yingge Dance into narratives of physical, moral, and aesthetic education, embedding it within cultural governance frameworks through top-down policy empowerment. This elevates Yingge Dance to national cultural capital that reflects cultural diversity and strengthens international competitiveness. Third, Yingge Dance has achieved the reproduction of the functions, values, and meanings by scaling up from group-level cultural capital to urban cultural capital and subsequently to national cultural capital. However, challenges emerge during this scaling-up process, including cognitive conflicts among stakeholders, blurred genre boundaries, uneven development, and diminishing authenticity. To address these issues, China promotes a scaling-down approach through policies and discursive frameworks to maintain the vitality of ICH transmission. This scaling down is reflected in the stewardship and empowerment of ICH bearers, incorporation of national ICH strategies into urban development agendas, and strengthening of local governments' narrative and discursive power. This study offers a critical perspective on understanding the practices and interactions of multiple actors in ICH inheritance. It also provides practical recommendations for cultural tourism development and the extraction of ICH value through the lens of cultural capital and scale theories.

Virtual cities and their built environments play a significant role in video games. Understanding their interactions with physical spaces and considering appropriate planning responses to this interaction are crucial for advancing digital twin technology and urban development in the digital age. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses of representative games such as Black Myth: Wukong, Genshin Impact, and SimCity, this study identifies a cyclical four-stage interaction pathway: (1) Perception: extraction of cultural symbols, (2) Re-organization: gaming-driven reconstruction, (3) Re-understanding: virtual urban areas understanding, and (4) Feedback: real-world application. Perception and Re-organization highlight that virtual space design does not merely replicate real-world spatial characteristics, but rather reorganizes them according to specific aesthetic and functional principles, thereby operationalizing Kevin Lynch's Image of the City theory. This design process is reflected in form and function perspectives. From a form-based perspective, games such as Genshin Impact exemplify how spatial distribution heterogeneity is evident, even in virtual environments. For example, an analysis of the in-game item distribution using the ht-index (value = 5) and log-log plots indicates that although the upper tail approximates a straight line, the lower tail exhibits a rapid decline, suggesting structured spatial heterogeneity. Similarly, a comparative analysis of Florence in video games versus its real-world counterpart supports the idea that virtual spaces selectively reinterpret, rather than mirror physical environments. From a functional perspective, city-building games, such as SimCity and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, deconstruct cities into core elements (housing, industry, service facilities, geographic surroundings, and natural resources) and integrate these components through distinct game mechanics. Re-understanding and Feedback emphasize the influence of virtual cities on urban planning education and tourism. In particular, city-building games have a substantial, yet often underestimated, impact on urban planning practices, public participation, and collaborative projects. By lowering the knowledge barriers associated with professional urban planning, virtual cities offer an accessible platform for the public to engage with urban dynamics and foster a more informed and participatory planning approach. Similarly, video games significantly shape place perception in tourism. The immersive experiences provided by virtual cities can inspire players to visit real-world counterparts of game locations, resulting in phenomena such as 'anime pilgrimages.' Notable examples include the Fate series in Japan and the recent Black Myth: Wukong in China, both of which stimulated tourism by reinforcing place attachment through interactive storytelling and visual aesthetics. Based on this interaction pathway, we propose two planning recommendations. First, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between urban planners, architectural scholars, and game designers can facilitate the dissemination of architectural and urban cultures on digital platforms. Second, leveraging the interactive and participatory nature of video games can enhance the public's understanding of urban systems, paving the way for game-based participatory planning and promoting multi-stakeholder engagement in urban development. This study contributes to emerging theoretical frameworks such as Digital Twins by elucidating the bidirectional relationship between physical and virtual urban spaces, thereby offering new insights into the evolving role of digital environments in shaping real-world urban experiences.

Special industries are being developed to revitalize rural areas. Aromatic tourism is a special industry that is important for expanding agricultural functions, increasing the economic value of rural services, innovating business formats, and promoting the in-depth development and integration of the first, second, and third industries: agriculture, culture, and tourism, respectively. Aromatic tourism is an increasingly strong driver of rural revitalization. This article thoroughly covers the concept of and research progress on aromatic tourism. CiteSpace 6.3.1 was used to analyze the knowledge map of domestic and international research on aromatic tourism. Aspects such as aromatic plant resources, the cultural value of aromatic festivals, and the integration and development of the aromatic industry and tourism were reviewed. The following results were obtained: 1) Research on aromatic plant resources, with aromatic plants as the core subject, mainly focused on how to effectively use their unique resource advantages to promote and optimize the tourism industry development. 2) Aromatic festivals and their cultural value have been researched different perspectives; however, the research has mostly focused on the perception of tourists regarding activities at tourist destinations. Historical periods differ in their manifestations of aromatic culture, which is inherently culturally valuable. 3) The research on integrating the aromatic industry and tourism has mainly explored the various applications of aromatic products in tourism scenes; the overall effects of aromatic tourism on the economy, society, culture, and ecology; and the pathway to deeply integrating the two industries. A research framework for aromatic tourism was constructed from three development levels: new directions for aromatic tourism research; new paths for integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism; and new fields for the rural revitalization strategy. Suggestions are proposed for developing aromatic tourism from the perspectives of optimizing the allocation and development of aromatic tourism resources; integrating and developing aromatic culture and tourism; innovating pathways for developing aromatic tourism products; conducting multidimensional research on aromatic tourism; identifying methods of integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism through aromatic tourism; and creating new areas for promoting rural revitalization strategies through aromatic tourism. Finally, research themes of aromatic tourism should be further deepened, research on the integration of aromatic tourism should be focused., and the mechanisms through which multiple industries can be integrated with aromatic tourism should be studied in depth. Research methods should be innovated to provide scientific and technological support for the aromatic industry. The integration of multiple disciplines should be deepened to comprehensively evaluate the benefits and form a more comprehensive understanding of the aromatic industry.

The homestay industry, an essential component of rural tourism, plays a crucial role in promoting the rural industries and realizing rural revitalization strategies. Female homestay owners, as important participants in this industry, have driven the development of rural tourism and the homestay sector and benefited from it. Therefore, further research is necessary to explore how female homestay owners leverage their feminine traits to become rural tourism elites, thus becoming a significant force in developing and revitalizing rural homestays. This study considerd 30 female homestay owners in Guangdong Province as research subjects, combines the four core principles of life course theory, and employs interviews and thematic analysis to explore the bidirectional interaction mechanism between the growth of female homestay owners and the development of rural homestays. This study divides the driving forces of female homestay owner growth into personal agency, accumulation of past resources, socio-historical conditions, and social relationship networks, thereby analyzing the growth path of female homestay owners. The results indicate that female homestay owners are key in promoting rural tourism development. Under certain socio-historical conditions, they actively exercise personal agency; integrate accumulated resources with family, social, and governmental relationship networks; obtain elite status; respond to rural development needs at different stages; and contribute to developing rural tourism and the homestay industry while achieving personal growth. In the exploration phase, they rely on developing rural tourism, seizing opportunities using social relationship networks, promoting the number of homestays, improving rural living environments, and responding actively to rural homestay development needs. In the foundation-building phase, they use accumulated resources and business experience to weave social relationship networks, drive outstanding homestay practitioners, and meet the need for standardization and branding in rural homestays. In the formation phase, they return to rural tourism, shape social images, pursue social recognition, address homestay clustering and branding issues, and promote exemplary development in the rural homestay industry. The feminine traits of female homestay owners play a vital role in this process; they use traits such as affinity, delicacy, and sensitivity to enhance homestays' competitiveness and customer satisfaction, create a warm accommodation environment, and keenly capture market changes. The traditional role of women in family structures influences homestay owners' career choices. They achieved economic independence through homestay businesses, enhanced their say in the family, and supported their families. In terms of care ethics, they focus on women's development, improving the employment situation of rural women, offering training and support, promoting economic independence and self-development of rural women, and contributing to rural revitalization. This study, from the perspective of integrating micro-individuals with macro-society, provides a reference for clarifying the formation and evolution mechanism of the positive interaction between local elites and local development, offers a new perspective for understanding the role of female homestay owners in rural revitalization, and provides a rich set of empirical data and a theoretical framework for future research.

This study, grounded in the symbiotic relationship between art and geography, constructs a three-dimensional analytical framework composed of data media, algorithmic generation, and multisensory perception. The framework aims to investigate how digital technologies reshape modes of spatial production, sensory engagement, and environmental imagination in contemporary art geography. In the digital era, where data, algorithms, and embodied experience intersect, artistic practices have evolved from static spatial representation to dynamic, participatory, and process-oriented forms of geographic expression. By examining six representative digital artworks including Machine Hallucinations: Nature Dreams and Quantum Memories by Refik Anadol, Monte by Luciano Piccilli, The Deep Listener by Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Peace can be Realized Even without Order by teamLab, and I'm Feeling Lucky by Timothy Thomasson, this study delineates three major thematic dimensions of digital art geography: urban visual documentation, embodied environmental expression, and artificial landscape reconstruction. The analysis reveals that contemporary digital art transforms geographical data into creative material media, using algorithms to generate fluid, dynamic spatial representations that transcend traditional boundaries between the physical and the virtual. Through multisensory and immersive interactions, these artworks invite audiences to inhabit hybrid environments in which data flows, algorithmic processes, and bodily perception are intertwined. Such practices articulate a new form of spatial consciousness, in which human beings experience themselves as simultaneously embedded in both natural and digital ecologies. The study identifies three distinctive tendencies: the transition from artificial selection to data-driven narrative in urban visualization, the shift from philosophical abstraction to informational reconstruction in environmental expression, and the evolution from static fixation to responsive symbiosis in artificial landscape creation. Beyond formal innovation, these transformations embody deeper epistemological and political implications. Digital art geography reveals how data infrastructures, algorithmic systems, and technological mediation carry implicit forms of power that shape perception and representation. The artworks analyzed demonstrate that data are never neutral; rather, they participate in constructing spatial hierarchies and determining who can access, interpret, or intervene in digital landscapes. This study thus extends the critical scope of art geography by engaging with pressing issues of the artificial intelligence era, such as data sovereignty, algorithmic transparency, and the ethical tension between human-centered perception and ecological complexity. In conclusion, digital art geography represents not merely a technological advancement in artistic media but also a profound transformation in the human relationship with space, environment, and information. By integrating artistic creativity with geographic inquiry, the "data medium-algorithmic generation-multisensory perception" framework provides an effective methodological tool for analyzing how digital art redefines the production of space and the aesthetics of inhabitation. Simultaneously, new theoretical and ethical questions concerning how human beings negotiate agency, embodiment, and coexistence within an increasingly algorithmic world are raised. This research contributes both to the theoretical development of art geography and to broader debates on perception, ecology, and critical spatial practice in the digital age.

Advancing digital-twin city development through new infrastructure and promoting the upgrading and transformation of smart cities is critical for building new competitive advantages for cities and is an inevitable requirement for modernizing urban governance systems and capabilities. Since new infrastructure and digital-twin cities share similar construction goals, this study examines 149 smart city pilot projects in China from 2011 to 2022, treating new infrastructure as a critical path to the construction of digital twin cities. First, a three-stage data envelopment analysis was used to assess the potential of digital twin city construction from the perspective of new infrastructure. Subsequently, a multi-stage traditional Markov model and a multi-stage spatial Markov model were used to study the potential of digital twin city construction from the perspectives of temporal evolution and spatial spillover, respectively. The results show that: 1) In the first stage, the nationwide overall technical efficiency generally maintained an upward trend, with the efficiency values in the Northeast, West, and Central regions showing a fluctuating upward trend, whereas the overall technical efficiency value in the eastern region remained at a low level. 2) In the third stage, after removing environmental factors and random disturbances, high-level areas were concentrated mainly in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, eastern Shandong, and some provincial capitals. Further comparison of the comprehensive technical efficiency values between the first and third stages revealed that the eastern region had a higher efficiency than the central region, indicating greater potential for digital twin urban construction. In contrast, the efficiency values of the northeastern, western, and central regions declined. 3) Traditional Markov models show that digital twin urban construction potential has a significant path-dependent effect, and the upgrading trend of digital twin urban construction potential gradually strengthens with an increase in the number of phases. Further introduction of spatial Markov models, accounting for the spatial correlation between neighboring regions, revealed that the evolution of digital twin urban construction potential was substantially affected by the development levels from neighboring areas, with spatial spillover and siphon effects coexisting. Simultaneously, the impact of neighboring cities at different levels of development on the potential evolution of their respective regions also showed significant differences. The contributions of this study are as follows: 1) From a research perspective, it regards the construction of new infrastructure as an important supporting path for the construction of digital twin cities, constructs an analytical framework for new infrastructure to empower the construction of digital twin cities, and measures the potential of digital twin city construction from the perspective of new infrastructure, thus expanding the empirical dimension of cross-disciplinary research on new infrastructure and digital twin cities. 2) In terms of indicator construction, it systematically constructs an indicator system covering the industrial space, social space, governance space, and information space of digital twins, more comprehensively depicting the intrinsic characteristics and development potential of digital twin cities. 3) In terms of research methodology, this study adopts a three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis model to effectively eliminate the influence of environmental factors and random disturbances on efficiency measurement, combining multi-period traditional Markov models and spatial Markov models to reveal the path dependence, gradient evolution, and evolutionary mechanism of spatial spillover and siphon coexistence of the potential of digital twin city construction from the dual dimensions of temporal evolution and spatial correlation.

In the context of the digital age, digital humanities has evolved into a cutting-edge interdisciplinary field that deeply integrates computational and humanistic thinking, representing a fundamental shift in research paradigms driven by data, employing computation as a methodological approach, while remaining guided by the humanities. The importance of spatial representation has become increasingly prominent in this paradigm shift. Visualization technology is particularly crucial compared to other spatial representation methods. As a core method in digital humanities research, it can closely match computational models to humanities data, thereby building a bridge for interdisciplinary research. This study aims to systematically analyze the design principles and implementation paths of typical visualization technologies based on a literature review and to reveal their methodological value in the cutting-edge field of digital humanities. Spatial thinking in human geography underwent four major shifts. This study proposes a new framework for three visualization paths based on the spatial production theory, arguing that spatial representation from a digital humanities perspective is a digital translation of the geographical spatial triad. First, text visualization corresponds to "conceptual space," transforming massive amounts of unstructured text into abstract cognitive maps, aiming to reveal the power logic and cultural imagination behind discourse. Second, geographic visualization corresponds to "experiential space," using geographic information technology to locate data in concrete perceptual maps, aiming to reconstruct the locality of historical events and humanistic activities. Third, relational visualization corresponds to "lived space." Through nongeographical networks of actors or topologies of power and capital, it aims to reflect the reshaping of geographical patterns through social relations. The dialectical relationship among these three elements constitutes a methodological innovation in the expression of the digital humanities space, manifested as a three-dimensional model that is cyclically reinforcing and ultimately unified in specific humanities issues. These new visualization paths help to grasp the multifaceted nature of the concept of "space" in digital humanities, covering both mainstream technological methods and connecting the key directions of humanities research—meaning, place, and connection. They also aim to transcend instrumental technological applications, focusing on how to reconstruct the "spatial imagination" of humanities research through digital methods: methodologically, transforming humanities objects into computable spatial models; epistemologically, revealing hidden spatial logic through visual representation; and in terms of discipline construction, providing a clear research paradigm for digital humanities. In short, the triadic framework of text, geographic, and relational visualization systematically responds to the methodological need for digital humanities to provide an operational and computable interpretation of "space." It precisely corresponds to the complete spectrum of humanistic spaces—conceptual space, experiential space, and lived space—and by promoting cross-validation and fusion analysis of multi-dimensional data, propels digital humanities research from fragmented data presentation to holistic and explanatory spatial integration and theoretical generation. Notably, in this process, we must be wary of both technological instrumentalism and visual centrism, thereby providing a positive reference for the paradigm shift and discipline construction of digital humanities. In particular, new paths for spatial representation must establish a balance between computational precision and humanistic depth, ultimately promoting a shift in research paradigms from purely technology-driven to human-centered intelligent reconstructions.

Rapid urbanization in China has significantly exacerbated light pollution, disrupted the ecological balance, and imposed constraints on both astronomical observations and public access to stargazing. Therefore, addressing light pollution has become a critical issue in ecological conservation and sustainable development. Shenzhen's Xichong Community achieved a landmark milestone in 2023 by becoming China's first International Dark Sky Community certified by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). This designation makes light pollution control practices of Xichong significant for similar regions. This study aimed to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of light pollution control measures in the Xichong Community, providing a scientific basis for balancing conservation and development in comparable areas. This study innovatively utilized high-resolution nighttime light (NTL) remote sensing data acquired using the Sustainable Development Goals Satellite-1 (SDGSAT-1), integrated with NASA's Black Marble products, to establish a refined monitoring and assessment framework for light pollution. To address the challenge of radiometric inconsistencies inherent to multitemporal SDGSAT-1 NTL imaging, this study proposed a novel radiometric consistency correction method based on Random Forest Regression (RFR). During the preprocessing phase, the images were subjected to salt-and-pepper noise removal and absolute radiometric calibration. Subsequently, the RFR model was applied to achieve a radiometric consistency correction. A comparative analysis with traditional linear brightness normalization confirmed the superior accuracy and effectiveness of RFR approach in enhancing image comparability. By leveraging corrected, high-quality, time-series NTL imagery, this study quantitatively assessed the effectiveness of light pollution control measures implemented in the Xichong Community over a three-year period. The key findings were as follows. (1) Significant reduction in light pollution: the Xichong Community exhibited a markedly greater decline in overall light pollution intensity compared to other areas within the Dapeng New District. Pixel-level analysis verified the widespread nature of this decreasing trend, with the brightness values showing a pervasive reduction. (2) Effective control across functional zones: the core stargazing beach area witnessed a substantial brightness reduction (57%) in September 2024 compared with that seen in September 2022. Road-lighting intensity also decreased significantly (56%-70%). Among the residential zones, Xinwu and Xiyangwei villages achieved reductions exceeding 69%, whereas brightness in Nanshe village decreased by 55.7%. Getian and Xigong villages experienced steady declines, while Hesou, Yashan, and Shagang Villages saw fluctuating but overall decreasing trends. (3) Effective management of light pollution sources: although accommodation facilities remain the primary contributors to light pollution, their brightness coefficients decreased significantly (46.11%). Points of Interest (POIs) related to tourism saw reductions exceeding 45% in brightness, with overall POI brightness coefficients declining by 27.68%-74.45%. These results demonstrate that the stringent lighting management policies implemented by the Xichong Community effectively mitigated the adverse impacts of tourism development on the dark sky environment. This study not only successfully applied high-resolution NTL data from SDGSAT-1, but also developed an RFR-based radiometric consistency correction technique, significantly improving the comparability of multi-temporal NTL data. The established methodological framework enables fine-scale monitoring of nighttime lighting at the community level, specifically for areas pursuing "dark-sky conservation + ecotourism" models. Furthermore, this study provides a foundation for establishing a dynamic monitoring and quantitative assessment system for light pollution within existing dark-sky reserves. These advancements offer critical scientific foundations and technical support for balancing the imperative of dark-sky conservation with sustainable tourism development goals.

As psychological research has expanded, the hegemony of vision in landscape studies has become increasingly challenging. As the second most critical sensory system after vision, sound has emerged as a key focus of theoretical inquiry. This paper focuses on individuals who have left their rural hometowns (hometown leavers) and used their auditory experiences as an analytical context. Drawing on in-depth interviews and using qualitative research methods such as coding analysis and semiotics, we uncovered the Xiangchou signification system of rural soundscape symbols and their operational mechanisms. We found that the perception of rural soundscapes by hometown-leavers followed a four-stage cognitive model: experience accumulation, representamen triggering, symbol reception and recognition, and meaning interpretation. First, the rural life experiences of hometown leavers formed the foundational prerequisites for awakening their perceptions of Xiangchou-related soundscape symbols. Their accumulated rural upbringing, inherited memories, and other lived rural experiences endowed them with a heightened sensitivity to sound symbols, which enabled seamless perception and reception. Second, during the symbolization of the Xiangchou soundscape, the perceptual trigger for the subject played an equally vital role. The activation and interpretation of sound symbols requires specific triggers. When respondents encounter sounds from their past, the unique timbre, pitch, or loudness of these sounds manifested as representamina, which overlapped with the imagined rural sound symbols stored in their minds. This overlap evoked a vivid sense of "as if it was yesterday," which propelled the symbolization process forward. Third, within the traditional village spaces etched in the memories of hometown leavers, complex sound symbols intertwined to form a distinct rural soundscape system composed of animal calls, natural noises, and sounds of human activity. These concrete sounds in the physical world acted as triggers to bridge the spatiotemporal divide between the soundscape symbols accumulated in the subjects' rural memory, stirring a rich array of rural recollections. Fourth, soundscapes characterized by greater abstractness and associativity focus on awakening and engaging the auditory culture. Through cognitive processing, the subjects transcended mere auditory perception to form interpretive meanings, which elevated the auditory experiences of hometown leavers to the emotional realm of rural sentiments via specific sounds. Following reception and recognition, the meanings of these soundscape symbols gradually solidified and assumed symbolic weight. Receivers with rural experiences endowed sound symbols with interpretive intent, mirroring them into four categories of Xiangchou soundscape units: sentimental attachment, pastoral leisure, rustic amusement, and seasonal busyness, thereby generating emotional resonances such as nostalgia, relief from pressure, longing for the future, and a sense of belonging. Compared with visual landscapes, soundscapes have greater penetrative power, significantly deepening the sense of belonging and identity of the hometown leavers toward their rural roots. This indicates that, during modernization, the eroded intimate connections between people can find psychological compensatory fulfillment through Xiangchou soundscapes. Xiangchou sound symbols allowed the hometown leavers to project their perceptions of their past rural life based on their unique auditory cultural field. Amid fast-paced urban life, their wandering souls were temporarily disengaged, healed, and comforted, thereby achieving a brief return to their spiritual haven through sound. The seasonal busyness soundscape centers on land as its core symbol, carrying the emotional memories and cultural totems of hometown leavers and acting as a spiritual bond for identity affirmation and the reconstruction of belonging. The rustic amusement soundscape, which has childhood games and local rituals as its symbolic anchors, awakened joyful memories and cultural identity, which became an emotional solace for hometown leavers navigating spiritual displacement.

Hypothermia is a type of safety accident that is often neglected in field activities. Its occurrence is not only a medical problem but also a thermodynamic problem and involves a specific geographical environment. An effective way to improve public awareness of hypothermia risk is to analyze hypothermia accidents from the perspective of heat transfer and heat balance between the human body and the environment. However, few reports have been written on relevant research. Therefore, this study uses the heat balance theory to build a calculation model of the clothing thermal resistance required by the human body to maintain a normal body temperature. The two most serious hypothermia death events in Shilin, Yellow River, Baiyin, Gansu province, and Ailao Mountain, Yunnan province, in 2021 are used as cases for analysis. The theoretical clothing thermal resistance has been calculated according to the external ambient temperature and human activity conditions (including metabolic rate and consumption coefficient) at the time of the event. By comparing the actual clothing thermal resistance value of the human body with the model, the theoretical clothing thermal resistance value has been calculated to study the hypothermia risk of the human body in the incident environment. The results show that, in the death incident of the Shilin Marathon on the Yellow River in Gansu Province, the theoretical thermal resistance of clothing required by the human body to maintain a normal body temperature was between 0.72 and 4.45 clo under different temperature conditions (resting, walking, and long-distance running), while the actual thermal resistance of the clothing worn by the accident personnel was 0.32 clo. The theoretical thermal resistance of the clothing is higher than that of the actual clothing, resulting in a high risk of temperature loss. Regarding the death event in the Ailao Mountain geological survey, the theoretical clothing thermal resistances required for the human body to maintain a normal body temperature under different temperatures while camping (sleeping), conducting field work, and mountaineering were 2.70-6.52 clo, 1.06-2.27 clo, and 0.55-1.75 clo, respectively. The actual thermal resistance of the clothing worn by the accident personnel was 1.86clo. During the accident, as long as the human body was in a climbing or working state, the difference between the theoretical and actual clothing thermal resistance was small, and the risk of hypothermia was low. However, while camping (sleeping), the theoretical clothing thermal resistance was higher than the actual clothing thermal resistance, and the lower the temperature, the greater the difference―especially at night when the temperature drops to its lowest point. At that point, the theoretical clothing thermal resistance could have been more than 3.5 times higher than the actual clothing thermal resistance, posing a serious risk of hypothermia. The results show the inevitability of hypothermia deaths in Shilin of the Yellow River in Gansu Province and Ailao Mountain in Yunnan Province. The insufficient prediction of hypothermia risk was the main cause of the hypothermia accidents. The calculation model constructed in this study can predict and evaluate the hypothermic risk of a certain outdoor activity in the future, provide a theoretical basis and research paradigm of thermodynamics and environmental science for improving public awareness about hypothermic risk, and is an effective means to prevent hypothermic accidents. Some measures and suggestions are provided for geographers engaged in long-term field investigation to avoid field hypothermia.

The study of rural spatial distribution, an important aspect of rural research, has great significance in supporting comprehensive rural revitalization and integrated urban-rural development. Previous studies have mainly focused on distribution and factors. With the deepening of relevant research, the connotation of rural spatial distribution has become increasingly rich, where factor study has gradually expanded to an element study, which requires urgent restructure of overview framework. This overview presents the basic concepts of rural spatial distribution at two levels. The evolution of modern research was analyzed in chronological order, and changes in the number of publications, field distribution, and topic distribution in recent years were statistically analyzed using a literature database. Subsequently, based on the two-level meaning of rural spatial distribution, the research content was summarized into four types of units: natural geographic units, administrative regional units, professional characteristic units, and rural element units. Finally, looking ahead to the future research in this area. The conclusions were as follows. The study of modern rural spatial distribution in China is divided into five stages according to the timeline: before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the early years of the People's Republic of China, after the reform and opening up, the early 21^st century, and the new era of socialism. Recently, an overall increase has been observed in the number of related publications. A multidisciplinary intersecting system centered on geography and integrating agriculture, economy, tourism, and architecture was formed from a macro-geographic perspective, which encompasses four research themes. Significant differences were noted in rural spatial distribution across different natural geographical units, where the administrative level affects the distribution characteristics and reorganization modes. Meanwhile, professional characteristic units conformed to important geographical spatial distribution patterns in China. Additionally, various rural elements revealed spatial differentiation in terms of land use and industry distance. In summary, it is recommended to establish a research system for natural geographic units as soon as possible; expand multiple-term research; conduct in-depth analysis of the influencing factors of administrative regional units; conduct cross-administrative research; explore the commonalities of rural spatial characteristics; enrich research on professional characteristic units; introduce new elements such as digitization, intelligence, and networking; and strengthen research on various element units. The significant contribution of this study is that it not only systematically sorts out the concept and development process of rural spatial distribution, but also analyzes the research status and integrates the content into four types of units. In addition, it prospectively guides future research and provides solid theoretical and practical guidance.

In the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and a new wave of technological advancements, integrating technological innovation resources and accelerating strategic emerging industries have become crucial for promoting high-quality economic development. Industrial innovation networks are critical in this landscape, as they enable cities to participate in innovation networks that facilitate the absorption of external knowledge, technologies, and market information, which promotes regional technological innovation. In this study, we focused on the rare earth industry in China, which supports innovation within strategic emerging fields, particularly in technological breakthroughs. Patent collaboration data from three critical stages of the value chain (i.e., mining and smelting, material processing, and end-use applications) were used with social network analysis and Quadratic Assignment Procedure regression methods to explore the spatial characteristics and influencing factors of the innovation network at different stages. The primary goal of the study was to determine the structural differences in innovation networks within an industry and how these differences are influenced by the functional roles of the value chain. The findings indicate that the scale of the innovation network in China's rare earth industry expands progressively along the value chain, particularly in the end-use application stage, in which the density of connections among the participants increases considerably, resulting in a "small world" characteristic. Moreover, the innovation network in the mining and smelting stage exhibits a north-south differentiation pattern that is consistent with the geographical distribution of China's rare earth resources (i.e., light rare earths in the north and heavy rare earths in the south). In contrast, the material processing stage exhibits a radial pattern dominated by national innovation centers such as Beijing and Shanghai, whereas the end-use application stage exhibits a "triangular" pattern centered on cities with concentrated strategic emerging industries, highlighting the importance of regional innovation ecosystems. Analysis of the influencing factors indicates that the innovation network is primarily affected by social and institutional proximities, as well as the innovation output capacity. Notably, the impacts of resource agglomeration and openness to foreign markets vary among different stages of the value chain. For example, resource agglomeration is significant in the material processing stage but has a lower impact in the end-use application stage, where the level of openness to foreign markets is crucial for driving innovation. Building on existing research on industry-wide innovation networks, this study investigated the internal differences in innovation networks and mapped value-creation processes within the rare earth industry. The findings indicate that marked spatial differences exist among the mining and smelting, material processing, and end-use application stages, which are closely related to the value processes and resource endowments in each stage. In addition, the findings obtained herein provide theoretical and empirical support for understanding spatial innovation activities along the industrial value chain. We offer policy recommendations for optimizing the spatial configuration of the innovation network in China's rare earth industry, with the goal of enhancing its competitiveness in high value-added sectors and supporting the nation's transition to a more innovation-driven economy.

Against the backdrop of rapid urbanization and escalating risks posed by extreme rainstorms, the complexity of urban hydrological systems and limitations of fragmented data-driven approaches underscore the necessity of constructing integrated frameworks to enhance rainstorm situation awareness. Traditional methodologies typically rely on isolated physical monitoring, digital modeling, or social response mechanisms and fail to address the interdependencies among physical infrastructure, informational technologies, and social systems. This study aims to deepen our understanding of how digital and intelligent technologies can be configured across a physical-informational-social ternary space to achieve robust urban rainstorm governance by identifying context-specific empowerment paths and their applicability to diverse urban typologies. Guided by the theoretical framework of the physical-informational-social ternary space, this study employs a mixed-method approach combining fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) modeling to investigate the pathways through which digital and intelligent tools empower urban rainstorm perception and to explore the disaster-affected characteristics of cities under different configurational paths. By tracking 35 typical Chinese cities, the fsQCA analysis reveals three differentiated empowerment configurations: (1) Balanced ternary space empowerment (G1), which achieves high-efficiency empowerment through three-dimensional collaboration among physical space data integration (including real-time sensor networks for hydrological monitoring), informational space intelligent analysis (including machine-learning-based risk prediction models), and social space emergency response (including interagency coordination systems), relying on dynamic interactions across the three domains. (2) Physically–socially dominant ternary space empowerment (G2): Grounded in core conditions of multisource data integration (combining meteorological, topographical, and citizen-generated data) and high disaster perception efficiency, this configuration incorporates peripheral conditions of server-side intelligence (including cloud-based data analytics) and user-side participation (including mobile application-driven hazard reporting), emphasizing data diversity and user-centric empowerment. (3) Physically–socially interactive binary space empowerment (G3): Empowerment is realized through the binary coupling of multisource data integration and high perception efficiency as the core conditions, prioritizing the technical synergy between physical monitoring and informational processing. Concurrently, a single-dimensional, low-empowerment configuration, which relies on isolated spatial data or technologies, is found to be insufficient for comprehensive disaster perception, thus empirically validating the necessity of ternary space configurational intersections. LDA topic modeling further demonstrates that different digital-intelligent empowerment patterns align with distinct disaster-sensitive city types: G3 suits hazard-sensitive cities (including Guangzhou), G2 matches vulnerable cities (including Xi'an), and G1 benefits exposure-sensitive megacities (including Beijing and Shanghai). Theoretical contributions of this study include constructing a "ternary space for urban rainstorm situation awareness" framework, which systematically analyzes the effects of digital-intelligent empowerment through the coupling mechanism of real-time physical space perception, intelligent informational space processing, and optimized social space decision-making—thereby transcending the limitations of traditional technological determinism. Methodologically, the research overcomes the constraints of single-method approaches by retaining fsQCA's strength in causal necessity analysis and integrating LDA's capability for semantic theme identification, forming a complete explanatory chain of "causal mechanisms-adaptive paths-type characteristics." At a practical level, this study proposes differentiated implementation strategies that provide both theoretical foundations and practical guidance for the digital and intelligent enhancement of urban rainstorm situation awareness.