Spatial and Temporal Pattern of Urban Smart Development in China and Its Driving Mechanism

Smart urban development is an inevitable choice, and is essential to overall strength improvement. It is important to explore an urban smart development path which unites smart growth with driving shrinkage perfectly in forming scientific and sustainable development concept and responding to new normal strategic opportunities. Based on statistic data of 294 prefecture-level cities and above in China from 2000 to 2015, we analyzed spatial and temporal evolution of urban smart development in China by constructing a dynamic fitting model of urban land expansion, population growth, and economic development as well as the coefficient of variation of urban smart development(CVSD). Further efforts were then made to consider differential distribution regularity of urban smart development so as to understand the driving mechanisms of heterogeneous classification of urban smart development in China from different scales and scale variation. Our results indicate that: 1) the disordered growth tendency of urban cities in China is overall well controlled in the middle, and late research and it mainly presented a doublet coexistence of shrinkage disordered cities and smart developing cities. It is particularly obvious that Northeast China and East China have regarded shrinkage disordered cities and smart developing cities as main development tendency separately. 2) Areas with basic stability and relative variation were relatively dispersed across the time period, but the proportion was far beyond areas with significant variation. It demonstrates a relative equilibrium spatial and temporal differential evolution pattern of prefecture-level cities and above in China, except for Tongling, Lanzhou and Chaoyang. 3) prefecture-level cities and above in China are mostly characterized by shrinkage disordered and smart development classification under the background of different scale and scale variation from 2000–2015; however, the spatial resonance relation is not obvious. 4) There are many interaction factors forming an important driving mechanism in developing the spatial and temporal pattern of urban smart development in China, including natural geographical factors, industrial structure adjustment, human capital radiation, regional traffic accessibility, and government decision-making intervention.

Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Supply and Demand Balance of Water Supply Services in the Dongjiang Lake Basin and Its Beneficiary Areas

Water-related ecosystem services is a hot topic in ecological research. Water supply services are crucial to regional water cycles and water quantity balance. The Dongjiang Lake basin is a national priority river basin in China where ecological compensation pilot programs concerning water resources and water supply services are top priorities for ecosystem service protection. We analyzed spatial and temporal patterns associated with generation and use of water supply services in the Dongjiang Lake basin using the In VEST model, socio-economic data and water resource data. We found that between 1995 and 2010, water yield in the Dongjiang Lake basin and its beneficiary areas increased before declining, varying 9350–12 400 m3 ha-1 y-1; average water yield peaked in 2000. The spatial distribution patterns of water yield during these years are similar, progressively decreasing from upstream to downstream with a remarkable reduction in surrounding areas of city clusters. Average water consumption of the basin and its beneficiary areas ranged from 2900–4450 m3 ha-1 y-1 between 1995 and 2010; the spatial distribution patterns of water consumption during these years are similar, dropping gradually from urban construction land to its surroundings with a stronger gradient between urban and rural areas. More water was consumed on both banks and surroundings of the lake. From 1995 to 2010, water supply fell short of demand for urban construction land and its proximity as well as areas along the lake. Water supply services were able to satisfy needs in other regions. The Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan city cluster suffers from the most strained water supply.

Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Lakes in the Bashang Plateau for Nearly Recent 30 Years

Lakes are important ecological water sources in the Bashang Plateau. Its expansion or shrinkage directly affects the ecological security of the plateau and its surrounding areas. In this study, Landsat images from 1984 to 2015 were selected to monitor the area of lakes in the Bashang Plateau and to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution and driving forces of lakes in the Bashang Plateau. The results showed that there were 47 lakes in the Bashang Plateau in 2015, with a total area of 37.63 km2, mainly distributed in the central and western regions of the region. From 1984 to 2015, the lakes in Bashang Plateau showed a shrinking trend. At the same time, there are obvious stage differences in lake changes. During 1984-1996, the number of lakes increased by 99 and the total area increased by 124.43 km2. From 1996 to 2015, the number of lakes decreased by 142, and the total area decreased by 183.96 km2. Before 1996, climate change was the dominant factor. However, the shrinkage of lakes after 1996 is the result of climate change and human activities. Among them, the large-scale planting of water consuming crops such as vegetables is the main human activity mode leading to lake shrinkage. This study will help to understand the expansion and contraction factors of the Bashang Plateau lakes in Hebei province and provide a reference for the future protection and management of the lakes.

Temporal and Spatial Differentiation of Cultural Heritage in Jingzhou Area of National Great Site Protection and Its Influencing Factors

In the context of territorial spatial planning,the overall coordinated protection has become a consensus in the field of cultural heritage protection,and the study on the spatial and temporal pattern of trans-regional cultural heritage is of great significance to the overall protection.Based on the cultural relics protection units in Jingzhou area of national great site protection,the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of cultural heritage resources were studied with the help of ArcGIS.The data show that on the whole,the cultural heritage in Jingzhou area of national great site protection presented the time series of “a large span,more at two ends” and the spatial distribution pattern of “one main,two secondary and three cores”.Cultural heritage in different historical periods had the characteristics of differentiated regional aggregation.The formation of the spatial pattern of different types of cultural heritage was closely related to the local historical and cultural background.Cultural heritage was affected by rivers,terrain,transportation,land,culture and other factors.It was mainly distributed along rivers in areas with little topographic fluctuation and low altitudes.The development and construction of cultural heritage sites were weak,and the ecological foundation was poor.However,the traffic accessibility was good,and the cultural heritage was deep.The research results are expected to provide a scientific basis for guiding the large site protection area to strengthen the integrated protection of cultural resources.

Spatiotemporal differentiation of coupling and coordination relationship of production-living-ecological space in Yellow River Basin

Based on combing the existing research on the production-living-ecological space,the paper quantitatively analyzes the evaluation system-development level-temporal and spatial evolution,future trend-influencing factors of the production-living-ecological functions coupling and coordination in the Yellow River Basin from 2009 to 2018.Through multi-scale analysis and comparison,the paper tries to identify problem areas and put forward corresponding measures.The research results show that:(1)The coupling and coordination degree of the production-living-ecological functions in the Yellow River Basin both show an upward trend,and its future growth trend is relatively slow.(2)The spatial-temporal differential characteristics of the coordinated development level of the production-living-ecological functions are obvious,and gradually develop towards the direction of benign resonance in time,showing a spatial distribution pattern of“high in the northeast and low in the southwest”.(3)There is a big difference in the level of coordinated development of the production-living-ecological functions,and the coordination degree of the“production-living”function is the lowest.(4)Scientific and technological investment,economic development level,government capacity,and urbanization level have a significant positive impact on the spatial effect of the coordinated development of the production-living-ecological functions of the Yellow River Basin,and the same factor has different effects on different regions.

Coupling and Coordination Characteristics and Influencing Factors of the Livable Environment System for the Elderly in China

The construction of a livable environment for the elderly is an important measure to address the challenges of aging and improve their livelihood and well-being.Based on China’s national conditions and combined with the actual development needs of the cities,it is of great significance to explore the coupling and coordination characteristics and influencing factors within the livable environment system for the elderly for the coordination and stable development.This article was based on the three subsystems of’living service environment,socioeconomic environment and ecological livable environment’,following the research framework of’process-pattern-trend-impact’,constructs an evaluation index system for the livable environment for the elderly.Entropy weight-TOPSIS evaluation model,coupling coordination degree model,center of gravity and standard deviation ellipse model and the geographic detector model were used starting from the evolution of coupling coordination types to study the spatial and temporal pattern and dynamic trend characteristics and influencing factors of internal coupling coordination types in the livable environment system for the elderly from2010 to 2019.The results showed that:1)The coordinated development of life service environment system and ecological livable environment system(LE)and socioeconomic environment system and ecological livable environment system(SE)in the livable environment for the elderly decreased from the intermediate coordination level coordination areas to the low-level quality improvement and optimization areas:coordinated transition type.The overall development level of life service environment system and socioeconomic environment system(LS)was low,and it was always at a low level.2)The coupling degree of livable environment system for the elderly was high,the coupling coordination type shown a gradually decreasing layer structure with Zhejiang,Beijing and Guangdong high-level leading demonstration areas as the axis belt.3)The coupling coordination center of the elderly livable environment system was located in Henan,and the standard deviation ellipse was distributed in the northeast-southwest direction.The development center and the ellipse of the high-level leading demonstration areas and the intermediate coordination level areas were concentrated in the central and eastern regions,while the low-level coordination areas for improving quality and efficiency are mainly located in the western region.4)Urban development,green facilities,infrastructure,government macroscopic regulation and control,economic stimulus,and housing construction were all important factors affecting the coordinated development of the livable environment system for the elderly,exerting a varying degree of effect on the level of coordinated development of various types of systems.

Analysis on the Spatio-temporal Patterns of Water Conservation Services in Beijing

The shortage of water resources is a key factor limiting the sustainable development of the economy and society in Beijing. This study analysed the spatiotemporal patterns of Beijing’s water conservation services(WCS) based on the water balance equation at multiple scales, including city, main functional areas and key districts and counties, determined the differences in the water conservation amount among different land cover types and investigated the reasons for the spatiotemporal differences in the water conservation amount. The results indicated that:(1) compared to 2005, water conservation amount increased substantially in 2010. However, the overall water conservation capacity was low.(2) Among the various land cover types in Beijing, the average water conservation capacity decreased in the following order: wetland, forest, grassland, cropland, bare land and artificial surface.(3) The average water conservation amount in the main functional areas of Beijing varied substantially and was positive only in the ecological conservation area(ECA).(4) The water conservation capacity of each district and county varied substantially within ECA, among which the contribution of the forest in Miyun District, Huairou District and Pinggu District was the highest. The changes in the spatiotemporal patterns of Beijing’s WCS were the synthetic effects of changes in the land covers and meteorological conditions. This study is helpful in achieving the sustainable utilization of water resources in Beijing.