Exploring well-being disparities between urban and rural areas:A case study in the Stavropol Territory,Russia

Rural areas are crucial for a country’s sustainable economy.New strategies are needed to develop rural areas to improve the well-being of rural population and generate new job opportunities.This is especially important in countries where agricultural production accounts for a significant share of the gross product,such as Russia.In this study,we identified the key indicators of satisfaction and differences between rural and urban citizens based on their social,economic,and environmental backgrounds,and determined whether there are well-being disparities between rural and urban areas in the Stavropol Territory,Russia.We collected primary data through a survey based on the European Social Survey framework to investigate the potential differences between rural and urban areas.By computing the regional well-being index using principal component analysis,we found that there was no statistically significant difference in well-being between rural and urban areas.Results of key indicators showed that rural residents felt psychologically more comfortable and safer,assessed their family relationships better,and adhered more to traditions and customs.However,urban residents showed better economic and social conditions(e.g.,infrastructures,medical care,education,and Internet access).The results of this study imply that we can better understand the local needs,advantages,and unique qualities,thereby gaining insight into the effectiveness of government programs.Policy-makers and local authorities can consider targeted interventions based on the findings of this study and strive to enhance the well-being of both urban and rural residents.

Influence of Transportation Accessibility on Urban-rural Income Disparity and Its Spatial Heterogeneity

Transportation accessibility has been treated as an important means of reducing the urban-rural income disparity.However,only a few studies have examined the effects of different types of transportation accessibility on urban-rural income disparity and their spatial heterogeneity.Based on data from 285 prefecture-level(and above)Chinese cities in 2000,2005,2010,2015,and 2020,this study uses spatial econometric models to examine how highway accessibility and railway accessibility influence the urban-rural income disparity and to identify their spatial heterogeneity.The result reveals that highway accessibility and railway accessibility have‘coreperiphery’ring-like circle structures.The urban-rural income disparity exhibits strong spatial clustering effects.Both highway accessibility and railway accessibility are negatively associated with urban-rural income disparity,and the former having a greater effect size.Moreover,there is a substitution effect between highway accessibility and railway accessibility in the whole sample.Furthermore,these associations differ in geographic regions.In the central region,highway accessibility is more important in reducing the urban-rural income disparity,but its effect is weakened with the increase of railway accessibility.In the western region,railway accessibility has a larger effect on narrowing the urban-rural income disparity,and this effect is strengthened by the increase of highway accessibility.We conclude that improving transportation accessibility is conducive to reducing the urban-rural income disparity but its effect is spatial heterogenetic.Highways and railways should be developed in a coordinated manner to promote an integrated transport network system.

A Study on the Factors Influencing the Income Gap between Urban and Rural Areas Based on State-space Model

The increasingly widening income gap between urban and rural areas is affected by many factors. Using the stepwise regression analysis,we find that urbanization level,socio-economic development,education level,financial development scale and financial development efficiency have the greatest impact on the income gap between urban and rural areas. By cointegration test,it is found that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between these five variables and the income gap between urban and rural areas. We build the state-space model to research the dynamic impact of these factors on the income gap between urban and rural areas. The results show that by improving the level of urbanization,we can effectively narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas,while socio-economic development,the improvement of education level,expansion of financial development scale and financial development efficiency all significantly expand the income gap between urban and rural areas.

Research on the Harmonious Development of New Rural Communities under the Perspective of Balancing Urban and Rural Areas

On the basis of offering a definition of New Rural Communities (NRCs), the paper analyzes the values of New Rural Communities and argues that the construction of NRCs is able to contribute to the enhancement of the comprehensive agricultural production capability as well as the development of social productivity. Meanwhile the incomes of the rural residents can be boosted, which denotes the realization of a harmonious society where the achievements of China's reform and development are shared by each citizen. Moreover, the construction of NRCs facilitates the economization of land use and thus improves the overall living standard of the residents, while helping to cut the administrative cost and promote democracy at the primary level. This paper also points out various problems arising during the construction of NRCS in China: blindly following suit in accordance with the modes of the urban communities; lack of funds, which leads to the absence of the supporting mechanisms of NRCs; vague positioning and the ensuing shortage of impetus for continued development. Finally, the paper raises the corresponding measures and suggestions: first, based on reality, make overall planning and scientific arrangement; second, the government should play the dominant role while respecting the principal position of the rural residents and introducing the market mechanism; third, increase science and technology input and attach equal importance to economic and social benefits; fourth, broaden fund-raising channels while completing the supervision mechanism.

Rural-urban Migration,Rural Household Income and Sustainable Development in Rural Areas of China

The objective of this paper is to investigate the rela- tionships among rural-urban migration,rural household income and sustainable development in rural areas of China.The typical case study is done and 288 questionnaires are collected from five villages in Hebei and Guangxi provinces,China.The migration and remittance status,household income and sustainable devel- opment of rural areas are analyzed on the basis of questionnaires. Rural-urban migration is becoming a part of routine life in rural areas.And remittance is an important component in rural house- hold income.Rural-urban migration increases the arable land area per labor,which releases the tight human-land relationship in villages.In total,the migration increases the rural household in- come and accelerates the sustainable development of rural areas.

The Exploration to the Historical Origin of Differences between Urban and Rural Areas in China

In order to understand the historical origins of encircling the cities from the rural areas implemented by the Communist Party of China and the current dual structures of urban and rural development, urban-rural differences are analyzed from the four aspects of production mode, management mode, culture and social division of labor. Industrial development in modern times has promoted the modernization of urban production in China. But the rural areas still maintain their traditional self-sufficient natural economy. After the Opium War, the process of modernization of city politics is promoted by more economic elements of capitalism and the formation of Chinese bourgeoisie. During the management of urban modernization, rural areas still adopt the traditional self-management mode. In the aspect of culture, city is the center of development, having large population, developed traffic, and prosperous culture. But the village is lack of information and its culture is relatively backward. In modern times, affected by the foreign capitalist, urban area has become the center of modern productivity. After separating from agriculture, handicraft industry has transferred into urban areas and the social division of labor in both urban and rural areas has shown great changes. Thus, a new pattern of "Urban Industry, Rural Agriculture" has formed.

Heavy Metals Accumulation in Trees Grown in Urban and Rural Areas

Since heavy metals are the big concerns for the public health today. Metals play a vital role as structural and functional components of proteins and enzymes in cell. The most important pathway of metals to transport into human is from soil to plant to human, so this study was carried out to measure the contents of heavy metals concentrations in plants leaves from their natural habitats of urban and rural area in Nasiriyah city, Iraq. The study was conducted to investigate the heavy metals content of four plant species of Eucalyptus, Olea, Zizphus and Conocarpus from urban (Nasiriyah city) and rural area (farms north of Nasiriyah). The concentration of heavy metals was tested, including the zinc, copper and lead. Heavy metals were detected using an atomic absorption spectrometer. The results showed that the highest concentration of heavy metals in Olea leaves and Eucalyptus leaves were found from the urban areas. Zn was the most dominant metal whereas Pb had the lowest concentration for all urban and rural area. Among the Eucalyptus, Olea, Zizphus and Conocarpus studied, showed higher heavy metals concentration (Zn, Cu and Pb) than rural area. The results indicated that the Zizphus and Conocarpus leaves of urban and rural area had the lowest heavy metals content compared with Eucalyptus and Olea. The results suggested that Eucalyptus and Olea leaves are good sources to treat the pollution of heavy metals. Our study provides a detailed examination of habitat location and plant species effects on potential of heavy metals in trees.

Design and Study on Management Tools of Land Data Center for Integration of Urban and Rural Areas

The rapid development of urbanization requires land management business should change the former single systematic pattern, and advance to integration of functions and data sharing. In order to meets the requirement, this paper presents a new thinking for land management pattern, and management tools of data center for integration of urban and rural areas. The tools were based on MapGIS, which have made the management of multi-subjects, multi-areas, multi-sources and multi-measurement data possible. The techniques of this system are designed accord with national related standard. Experimental result shows that the tools have obvious technical advantage in land resource business integration management.

SUSTAINABLE URBAN-RURAL RELATION IN RAPID URBANIZATION AREAS——Case of Transformation of "Urban Village" in Guangzhou

Many studies have been made concerning the problems, characteristics, formation, transformation measures, etc. of urban village from sociology, urban planning and geography, etc., which have made insightful analysis. However, most of these studies started mainly from the standpoint of the city government, drumming for the landscape-oriented urbanization, namely pulling-down the urban village and constructing the splendid residence or business buildings. The article maintains that the most important thing the city government should do is to pay much attention to the sustainable living of urban villagers, who would lose their main income source, namely, the collective dividend and the family housing rent. The single method of compensation has been proved to be harmful to the villagers’ community, in which some young villagers relying on rent were no longer to do anything but stay at home. On the other hand, considering the floating population has become the main stream of renters in urban villages, the emergence of urban villages was inevitable and would continue to exist in a long time under the socio-economic transition in urban China and globalization. Based on the analysis above, the transformation of urban village should take more concerns on the housing demands of floating population besides compensation for local villagers. Meanwhile, it is necessary to avoid the "landscape-oriented urbanization" without the "peasant-to-citizen" transformation.

Overall Planning of Development of Urban-Rural Areas:A Policy Mechanism for Urban-Rural Coordinated Growth

While analyzing overall planning and coordinated development of urban-rural areas, this paper shows that overall planning for the development of urban-rural areas is a requirement for the best use of productive forces. It means the setting up of a policy mechanism for coordinated growth. Recognizing this, the government should set up a way to lead and manage a unified program to increase service and decrease controlling administration power, while safeguarding and fulfilling the farmers' ownership to the means of production.

Urban-rural Integration Based on Regional Economic Integration——A Case of Jiuquan-Jiayuguan Areas of Gansu Province

The relationship between urban-rural integration and regional economic integration is summarized in the paper.Based on the fact,it expressed the necessity and realistic meaning of pushing forward the urban-rural integration process synchronously during Jiuquan-Jia yuguan (abbreviate:Jiu-Jia) areas economic integration.The current degree of the urban-rural integration of Jiu-Jia was analyzed by index calculation,and the related conclusions were obtained.Besides,the development concepts and the key works to accelerate the process of Jiu-Jia urban-rural integration were suggested.The results show that the overall level of urban-rural integration in Jiuquan and Jiayuguan is higher than the average level of Gansu Province,but the urban-rural economic development and social development lose the balance and the dual structure is prominent.In the end,three developmental patterns for accelerating the developmental process of urban-rural integration are put forward.Firstly,the government should find the key of the current work and coordinate the construction of infrastructure.Secondly,rural economic industrialization should be promoted.Thirdly,the urbanized social management should be promoted.

Gap between Urban and Rural Economic Development in Less Developed Areas——A Case of Northern Jiangsu Area,China

Taking northern Jiangsu area as an example,economic disparity between urban and rural areas is described according to the data in 2000-2009 Jiangsu Statistical Yearbook.Result shows that there are significant differences in the rural and urban economic development in less developed areas,which are mainly reflected in the differences in per capita income,living standard,and Engel coefficient.Reasons for urban and rural economic disparity in less developed areas are analyzed.The asymmetry and immobility of rural and urban resources have objectively caused the income gap between urban and rural residents;urban industrial development,which is faster than agricultural development,has widened the income gap between urban and rural residents;and the differences in comparative labor productivity in rural and urban areas have enlarged their income gap.Countermeasures to minimize the urban and rural economic development gap are put forward,such as deepening the reform,realizing the free flow of economic resources between urban and rural areas,developing rural areas through urban development,exerting the function of urban areas in the coordinated development of urban and rural areas,paying attention to the agriculture and rural areas,and improving the comparative labor productivity of agriculture.

Analyzing land use characteristics of rural settlements on the urban fringe of Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing, China

The objective of this paper is to analyze land use characteristics of rural settlements in urban fringe so as to provide references for optimizing the regional distribution of rural settlements, consolidating rural settlements, and coordinating urban-rural integrated development. The methods of spatial statistical analysis, buffer analysis, Ripley's K function, kernel density analysis based on GIS(Geographic Information System) were used to analyze the characteristics of scale, spatial differentiation and spatial patterns of the rural settlements in Liangjiang New Area in Chongqing Municipality of China. The fractal dimension formula was also developed to reflect fractal feature of the rural settlements. The results show that, the scale of rural settlements in Liangjang New Area takes on distinct characteristics of spatial differentiation along with changes in elevation, gradient, location, geohazards distribution, and the like. The fractal characteristic of rural settlements has obvious regional variations subject to the 6 factors of location in the Liangjiang New Area. Overall, the worse the terrain conditions are, the larger the fractal dimension values become. The better the locationconditions, the larger the fractal dimension values are. The spatial pattern in the township scale presents three kinds of distribution as being aggregated, uniform and random. In contract, the spatial pattern in the plaque scale displays a banding distribution from a general view with several aggregation zones centering on each town center. From the results, we can see that the characteristics of rural settlements in urban fringe are more complicated. For such kind of rural settlements in special regions, in the rural land consolidation more attention should be paid to improve the rural living environments and public services, as well as to promote the harmonious relationship between the urban and rural areas.

Influencing Factors for Formation of Urban and Rural Spatial Structure in Metropolis Fringe Area——Taking Shuangliu County of Chengdu in China as a Case

With rapid urbanization process, the pace of urban sprawl has been quickened and most metropolises have ex-perienced expansions in leaps and bounds in suburbanization, which has greatly changed the urban and rural spatial struc-ture of the metropolis fringe area. In this paper, Shuangliu County is taken as a case, since it is a typical fringe area of Chengdu Metropolis. Based on Landsat TM images of Chengdu City and Shuangliu County obtained in 1985, 2000 and 2004, characteristics of urban and rural spatial structure in Shuangliu County were analyzed, such as core-periphery spa-tial structure and some obvious integration trends. Then the influencing factors for the formation of urban and rural spatial structure were identified, including some natural, social, economic and political factors. According to the discussion of this paper, Shuangliu County is undergoing a key transition and reform period. Its formation of urban and rural spatial structure was affected not only by such common factors as the location, natural background, industrial transition, migra-tion, etc., but also by some unique factors such as city planning and policy guidance, which played an important role in accelerating its uneven spatial structure. The understanding of the role of the influencing factors would be useful for car-rying out spatial management and development planning of metropolis fringe area.

Soil quality and sustainable land use in urban-rural marginal area: a case study of Kaifeng

By using the basic theories of physical geography, land resources and ecology, this article analyzes the soil quality of the rural-urban marginal area in Kaifeng. Computer techniques, based on soil samples analysis, are used to study soil quality changes in the Kaifeng’s rural-urban marginal area. While focusing on nutrient circle key links of input and output in soil, relying on numerous practical survey data, this article reveals clearly the impact of land use change on soil quality.

Integrated Development of Urban and Rural Industries in the Xi'an Metropolitan Area

Based on the diagnosis of the industrial structure in the Xi'an metropolitan area,we point out the problems in the development of urban and rural industries in the Xi'an metropolitan area:there is imbalance in the industrial structure;the planning and layout is chaotic;the service system is unsound;the development of the county economy lags behind.From structural adjustment,urban-rural division of labor,technical support, and the coordination of interests,we put forward the measures for coordinating the development of urban and rural industries.

Mutual Conversion of Land Use between Urban and Rural Area in the Process of Urbanization: A Case Study of Shandong Province

Urbanization is one of the driving forces for the land use change in type and structure, and its prominent effect is to convert rural land to urban land. This paper takes Shan-dong Province as an example to analyze the current situation of the mutual conversion between the urban and rural areas from the aspects of the structure of land use, the decreasing tendency of the cultivated land, the changes of land use in urban and rural residential areas. It points out that cultivated land is converted to residential area land, industrial and/or mining area land. The relationship between the urban area land and the cultivated land is more direct; meanwhile, the changes of rural residential area lag behind obviously. The decrease of the cultivated land and the decline of soil quality will be the two difficult problems in the process of urbanization.

Study on Rural Ecotourism Development in Yingshan Area of Chengyu Urban Agglomeration

Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration covers a large number of rural areas.These areas have unique topographic conditions,diverse landscape types,and beautiful natural environment,but the economic conditions are underdeveloped;the ecological environment is fragile and the tourism carrying capacity is low.At the same time,they are facing the problems of lack of tourism facilities and low management level of scenic spots.Taking Yingshan area as an example,this paper evaluates the rural tourism development conditions from the aspects of location conditions,complementarity of tourism resources,highlights of tourism resources,tourist source conditions,and ecological environment,and makes a detailed plan for the functional zoning and tourism products of rural tourism development.The research shows that in order to realize the sustainable development of rural tourism resources,Chengdu Chongqing urban agglomeration should take the global tourism concept as the scientific guidance,ecological protection as the premise,agricultural resources as the basis,and culture as the soul,carry out rational,orderly,and scientific rural ecotourism development,and create high-quality rural ecotourism products.

An investigation of the health value and self-care capabilities of the elderly in urban-rural fringe area nursing homes and the related in？uencing factors

Objective：To investigate the health value and self-care capabilities of the elderly living in urban-rural fringe area nursing homes and the factors that influence these variables.Methods：A cluster sampling method was used to select 280 elderly individuals from seven urban-rural fringe communities in Xianning to complete a survey regarding their health value and self-care capabilities.Results：The total health value and self-care capability scores of the elderly were 7.45 ± 1.45 and100.25±22.56,respectively.Both of these scores significantly differed by age,education level,marital status,and income（P 〈 0.05,P 〈 0.01）.Self-care capability was correlated with health value（r=0.521）.A multivariate linear regression analysis showed that health value,marital status,and age predicted selfcare capability.Conclusions：Elderly people living in the urban-rural fringe area with higher health values also had higher self-care capabilities.The self-care capabilities of the elderly can be enhanced by improving their health value using the ＂knowing-trusting-acting＂ model.