Understanding the Relationship Between Shrinking Cities and Land Prices:Spatial Pattern,Effectiveness,and Policy Implications

Urban shrinkage has emerged as a widespread phenomenon globally and has a significant impact on land,particularly in terms of land use and price.This study focuses on 2851 county-level cities in China in 2005–2018(excluding Hong Kong,Macao,Taiwan,and‘no data’areas in Qinhai-Tibet Plateau)as the fundamental units of analysis.By employing nighttime light(NTL)data to identify shrinking cities,the propensity score matching(PSM)model was used to quantitatively examine the impact of shrinking cities on land prices,and evaluate the magnitude of this influence.The findings demonstrate the following:1)there were 613 shrinking cities in China,with moderate shrinkage being the most prevalent and severe shrinkage being the least.2)Regional disparities are evident in the spatial distribution of shrinking cities,especially in areas with diverse terrain.3)The spatial pattern of land price exhibits a significant correlated to the economic and administrative levels.4)Shrinking cities significantly negatively impact on the overall land price(ATT=–0.1241,P<0.05).However,the extent of the effect varies significantly among different spatial regions.This study contributes novel insights into the investigation of land prices and shrinking cities,ultimately serving as a foundation for government efforts to promote the sustainable development of urban areas.

Tomographic inversion of OBS converted shear waves:case study of profile EW6 in the Dongsha area

Studies of converted S-wave data recorded on the ocean bottom seismometer(OBS)allow for the estimation of crustal S-wave velocity,from which is further derived the Vp/Vs ratio to constrain the crustal lithology and geophysical properties.Constructing a precise S-wave velocity model is important for deep structural research,and inversion of converted S-waves provides a potential solution.However,the inversion of the converted S-wave remains a weakness because of the complexity of the seismic ray path and the inconsistent conversion interface.In this study,we introduced two travel time correction methods for the S-wave velocity inversion and imaged different S-wave velocity structures in accordance with the corresponding corrected S-wave phases using seismic data of profile EW6 in the northeastern South China Sea(SCS).The two inversion models show a similar trend in velocities,and the velocity difference is<0.15 km/s(mostly in the range of 0–0.1 km/s),indicating the accuracy of the two travel time correction methods and the reliability of the inversion results.According to simulations of seismic ray tracing based on different models,the velocity of sediments is the primary influencing factor in ray tracing for S-wave phases.If the sedimentary layer has high velocities,the near offset crustal S-wave refractions cannot be traced.In contrast,the ray tracing of Moho S-wave reflections was not significantly impacted by the velocity of the sediments.The two travel time correction methods have their own advantages,and the application of different approaches is based on additional requirements.These works provide an important reference for future improvements in converted S-wave research.

Three dimensional shear wave velocity structure of crust and upper mantle in South China Sea and its adjacent regions by surface waveform inversion

We assembled approximately 328 seismic records. The data set was from 4 digitally recording long-period and broadband stations of CDSN. We carried out the inversion based on the partitioned waveform inversion (PWI). It partitions the large-scale optimization problem into a number of independent small-scale problems. We adopted surface waveform inversion with an equal block (2((2() discretization in order to acquire the images of shear velocity structure at different depths (from surface to 430 km) in the crust and upper-mantle. The resolution of all these anomalies has been established with (check-board( resolution tests. These results show significant difference in velocity, lithosphere and asthenosphere structure between South China Sea and its adjacent regions.

Microbial Responses of Soil Fertility to Depth of Tillage and Incorporation of Straw in a Haplic Chernozem in Northeast China

Straw is widely incorporated into soil worldwide,but most studies have concentrated on the effects of straw mulching or incorporation with topsoil.To determine the effect of depth of straw incorporation on bacterial and fungal communities,we established a field experiment in a region in Northeast China with Haplic Chernozems using four treatments:conventional tillage(CT,tillage to a depth of 15 cm with no straw incorporation),straw incorporation with conventional tillage(SCT,tillage to a depth of 15 cm),inversion tillage(IT,tillage to a depth of 35 cm)and straw incorporation with inversion tillage(SIT,tillage to a depth of 35 cm).The soils were managed by inversion to a depth of 15 or 35 cm after harvest.The results show that soil organic carbon content was significantly higher and pH and bulk density were significantly lower in the 15–35 cm layer in IT and SIT than CT and SCT.Fungal abundance was higher with straw incorporation,but fungal diversity was lower in the 0–15 cm layer in SCT and SIT than in CT and IT.Path length in the bacterial network was shorter and connectivity was higher in CT+SCT than in IT+SIT,leading to a more complex ecosystem,and the fungal network had opposite patterns.The key taxa in the phylum Actinobacteriota and Ascomycota in the microbial networks changed dramatically at the genus level following inversion tillage with straw amendment,which may increase bacterial network resistance to environmental disturbances and unstable fungal networks,resulting in large changes in the fungal community involved in the decomposition of recalcitrant straw-derived C and the more efficient acquisition of limiting resources.

A GIS-based Spatial Analysis of Housing Price and Road Density in Proximity to Urban Lakes in Wuhan City, China

As one of the essential urban open spaces, lakes usually contribute immensely to the quality of residents′ daily lives. Different from hedonic approach employed in existing researches on urban open spaces in China, this paper integrates housing price surface with road density to analyze the spatial characteristics in proximity to urban lakes in Wuhan City, China. With the expansion of Wuhan City, urban lakes became polluted, they shrunk or even disappeared, leading to unfavorable conditions for sustainable development of the city. To better understand the spatial relationship between the city and lakes, we classify the urban lakes in Wuhan central area into ′lakes in the urban center′ and ′lakes in urban fringe′. Based on housing price surface we explore the spatial characteristics in proximity to different lakes and differences between the lakes. We also use Geographic Information System(GIS) tool to calculate road density as a supplementary indicator to reflect the accessibility in proximity to urban lakes. The results indicate that relative independence exists between different towns, and the spatial characteristics are different depending on scales and locations. In most of cases, the road density is lower where closer to the lakeshore while the housing price exhibits an opposite pattern. We conclude that city governments and urban planners should give more considerations to these spatial differences, somewhere should be better planned and protected as an important waterfront and somewhere the control of unreasonable real estate development nearby should be strengthened.

How did the price and income elasticities of natural gas demand in China evolve from 1999 to 2015? The role of natural gas price reform

As a cleaner,high-efficiency,and low-carbon fuel,natural gas has been an important fuel resource for China.To achieve a substantial increase in natural gas demand,China has sought to reform its natural gas pricing mechanism.Employing a set of unbalanced panel data for China’s 30 provinces covering 1999-2015,this study aims to estimate the evolving price and income elasticities of natural gas demand and explore the effect of natural gas price reform in China.For this purpose,a series of econometric techniques allowing for cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity is utilized.The results suggest that although natural gas demand in China still lacks negative price elasticity,the phenomenon is improving.Moreover,the estimates suggest that natural gas demand in China is indeed becoming increasingly sensitive to income changes.Our estimates also provide strong evidence in favor of the effect of natural gas price reform on the change in price elasticity as the price elasticity decreases in five of the seven regions.In addition,the results indicate large variations in the change in price and income elasticities of natural gas demand across China’s regions.Natural gas demand is becoming more price inelastic in Southwest China and Northwest China,while such demand in North China and East China responds less sensitively to income changes.These findings offer several policy suggestions for the reform of China’s natural gas market at the national and regional levels.

Effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere from joint inversion in western China and its implications

The western China lies in the convergence zone between Eurasian and Indian plates.It is an ideal place to study the lithosphere dynamics and tectonic evolutions on the continental Earth.The lithospheric strength is a key factor in controlling the lithosphere dynamics and deformations.The effective elastic thickness(T_(e))of the lithosphere can be used to address the lithospheric strength.Previous researchers only used one of the admittance or coherence methods to investigate the T_(e) in the western China.Moreover,most of them ignored the internal loads of the lithosphere during the T_(e) calculation,which can produce large biases in the T_(e) estimations.To provide more reliable T_(e) estimations,we used a new joint inversion method that integrated both admittance and coherence techniques to compute the T_(e) in this study,with the WGM2012 gravity data,the ETOPO1 topographic data,and the Moho depths from the CRUST1.0 model.The internal loads are considered and investigated using the load ratio(F).Our results show that the joint inversion method can yield reliable T_(e) and F values.Based on the analysis of T_(e) and F distributions,we suggest(1)the northern Tibetan Plateau could be the front edge of the plate collision of Eurasian and Indian plates;(2)the southern and part of central Tibetan Plateau have a strong lithospheric mantle related to the rigid underthrusting Indian plate;(3)the southeastern Tibetan Plateau may be experiencing the delamination of lithosphere and upwelling of asthenosphere.

Moment tensor inversion and source rupture process of the September 27, 2003 M_S=7.9 earthquake occurred in the border area of China, Russia and Mongolia

plane with the strike of 127°, the dip of 79° and the rake of 171°. The rupture process inversion result of MS=7.9 earthquake shows that the total rupture duration is about 37 s, the scalar moment tensor is M0=0.97 × 1020 N·m. Rupture mainly occurred on the shallow area with 110 km long and 30 km wide, the location in which the rupture initiated is not where the main rupture took place, and the area with slip greater than 0.5 m basically lies within 35 km deep middle-crust under the earth surface. The maximum static slip is 3.6 m. There are two distinct areas with slip larger than 2.0 m. We noticed that when the rupture propagated towards northwest and closed to the area around the MS=7.3 hypocenter, the slip decreased rapidly, which may indicate that the rupture process was stopped by barriers. The consistence of spatial distribution of slip on the fault plane with the distribution of aftershocks also supports that the rupture is a heterogeneous process owing to the presence of barriers.

Analysis of the Price of Development Right of Agricultural Land in China

According to the viewpoints of predecessors, we define the signification of development right of agricultural land and connotation of the price of development right of agricultural land as follows: the development right of agricultural land is to change the former use nature of agricultural land, so as to become the right of construction use land; the price of development right of agricultural land refers to the price that is difference between the price of construction use land, and summation of the price of former agricultural land, the expense of developing agricultural land, the expense of management, and profit, after the agricultural land is transformed into non-agricultural construction use land. By using the principle of economics of land, this paper expounds the generation mechanism of the price of development right of agricultural land, namely the diversity of agricultural land use and the change of demand and supply of development right of agricultural land. The influencing factors of the development right of agricultural land are analyzed, and there are mainly the price of agricultural land, the price of construction use land, the contradiction of demand and supply of urban land, land use, and agricultural land.

Earthquake relocation and 3-dimensional crustal structure of P-wave velocity in cen-tral-western China

采用中国中西部地区(2l°～36°N，98°～112°E)193个地震台在1992～1999年间记录到的9988次地震的Pg和Sg震相走时的读数资料，用Roecker的SPHYPIT90程序，反演了该地区三维地壳P波速度结构，并用SPHREL3D90程序进行了地震的重新定位．反演结果揭示了中国中西部地区地震P波速度结构明显的横向不均匀性，这些不同深度上波速的横向变化多以该地区的活动断裂为分界线．可以看出活动断裂两侧存在明显的速度反差．通过重新定位，得到了6459次地震的震源参数，这些精确定位的地震震中明显沿该区活动断裂呈现条带状分布，其范围和尺度清晰地表示了这一地区地震活动与活动断裂的紧密关系．其中，82％重新精确定位的事件的震源深度在20km以内．这一结果与笔者用双差地震定位法得到的重新定位的震源深度分布相一致．

Price Paradox and Strategic Choice of "Vegetable Basket" in China

By using the analysis method of game theory,this paper analyzes the phenomenon of price paradox of "vegetable basket" in China and its reason as follows:the price paradox of "vegetable basket" in China is that if the vegetable is cheap,it will harm farmers,and if the vegetable is expensive,it will harm people;high-cost logistics,low negotiation status of vegetable growers and cooperation predicament are responsible for price paradox.Based on the theoretical basis of strategic choice-theory of intermediaries,it indicates that the intermediaries can realize effective transaction and save transaction cost.The strategic choice of solving price paradox of "vegetable basket" is put forward as follows:support vegetable growers' cooperatives,reduce transaction cost and raise the negotiation status of vegetable growers;develop the model of connection of agricultural products and supermarkets,and reduce the cost of transport and distribution;innovate upon intermediaries and develop the third-party logistics.

INVERSION OF TEMPERATURE FROM AMSU-A AND ITS APPLICATION ON WARM-CORE OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION OVER THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

The linear regression and horizontally stepwise correction are conducted on the observational data from AMSU-A L1 B of NOAA polar orbit satellite to invert a 40-layers(from 1,000 h Pa to 0.1 h Pa) dataset of atmospheric temperature with a horizontal resolution of 0.5°×0.5° after the correction of satellite antenna pattern and limb adjustment. Case study shows that the inversion data of temperature can reveal the detail structure of warm core in tropical cyclone. We choose two categories of tropical depressions(TDs) over the South China Sea, including the non-developing TDs and developing TDs. Both of them are developed downward from the middle and upper level to the lower level. Comparison between the evolutions of warm core in the two categories of TDs indicates that the warm core is developed downward from the middle and upper troposphere to the sea surface in all the downward-developing TDs. The difference is that in the group of further developing TDs, the warm core in the upper troposphere is intensified suddenly when it is extending to the sea surface. The warm core in the upper and lower troposphere is strengthened in a meantime. But the similar feature is not observed in the non-developing TDs. Then it may be helpful to judge the TD development by monitoring the change in its warm-core structure.

The relationship between international crude oil prices and China＇s refined oil prices based on a structural VAR model

With the frequent fluctuations of international crude oil prices and China＇s increasing dependence on foreign oil in recent years, the volatility of international oil prices has significantly influenced China domestic refined oil price. This paper aims to investigate the transmission and feedback mechanism between international crude oil prices and China＇s refined oil prices for the time span from January 2011 to November 2015 by using the Granger causality test, vector autoregression model, impulse response function and variance decomposition methods. It is demonstrated that variation of international crude oil prices can cause China domestic refined oil price to change with a weak feedback effect. Moreover, international crude oil prices and China domestic refined oil prices are affected by their lag terms in positive and negative directions in different degrees. Besides, an international crude oil price shock has a signif- icant positive impact on domestic refined oil prices while the impulse response of the international crude oil price variable to the domestic refined oil price shock is negatively insignificant. Furthermore, international crude oil prices and domestic refined oil prices have strong historical inheri- tance. According to the variance decomposition analysis, the international crude oil price is significantly affected by its own disturbance influence, and a domestic refined oil price shock has a slight impact on international crude oil price changes. The domestic refined oil price variance is mainly caused by international crude oil price disturbance, while the domestic refined oil price is slightly affected by its own disturbance. Generally, domestic refined oil prices do not immediately respond to an international crude oil price change, that is, there is a time lag.