Rural sustainable development:A case study of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone in China

Sustainable development is the central theme of modern global development.With the arrival of the urban era,the vulnerability and instability of rural areas have significantly increased,and rural sustainable development faces serious challenges.To address these issues,the study took the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone in China under the National Sustainable Development Agenda as a case,combined with economic,social and land use data during 2016-2020,and applied Granger causality test method to explore the theoretical and practical pathways of“innovation-driven rural sustainable development”.The results showed that rural sustainable development and economic sustainability displayed a trend of synergistic change,with“explosive”growth from 2018 to 2020.The social sustainability steadily increased from 2016 to 2020.Ecological and spatial sustainability continuously declined during the study period.Moreover,the rural innovation capacity of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone displayed rapid growth during 2016-2020.Although the rural innovation capacity of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone has rapidly improved,it has a weak driving effect on rural sustainable development and economic sustainability.There are two primary challenges that must be overcome to ensure the rural sustainable development of the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone.The first challenge is the imbalance among the multi-dimensional relationships in the process of rural sustainable development,and the second challenge is the weakening of rural innovation capacity to drive rural sustainable development.To overcome these challenges,this study proposed a systematic pathway for rural sustainable development in the Zaozhuang Innovation Demonstration Zone from multidimensions,such as policy actions,technologies,projects,and institutional guarantees,and formed a universal and representative“Zaozhuang model”.This study expands the theoretical foundation of rural sustainable development and provides theoretical and practical support for innovation-driven rural sustainable development.

Knowledge mapping of research on sustainable utilization of landscape resources:a case study of Guilin National Innovation Demonstration Zone for sustainable development in China

Worldwide interest has increasingly focused on the sustainable utilization of landscape as a resource in urban areas,emphasizing its ecological,cultural and social significance.This study examines Guilin City,China,as a representative case study due to its rich landscape resources and status as a national innovation demonstration zone for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.This study uses bibliometric visualization tools like CiteSpace and VOSviewer to analyze research trends from 1980 to 2021 in the Chinese Academic Journal Network Publishing Database(CNKI).The results show increasing academic interest over three stages:initiation(1982-1997),exploration(1998-2004),and diversified development(2005-2021).Contributions are predominantly from local academic and tourism sectors,indicating a strong regional influence;however,relatively weak interinstitutional collaboration occurs,suggesting potential for more integrated research efforts.Primary research is also concentrated within economic disciplines,particularly tourism-related ones.The evolution of research frontiers reveals three main paths:urban development strategies,industrial economic theories and empirical validation,and ecosystem analysis and evaluation.A multidisciplinary approach and stronger collaborative efforts are crucial to enhance research on ecological values and empirical models while supporting evidence-based urban development strategies in Guilin City and comparable cities globally.

COP 28: Challenge of coping with climate crisis

The 28th Conference of Parties(COP 28)of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC)is being held in Dubai,United Arab Emirates,from November 30 to December 12,2023,with the participation of over 160 world leaders(Figure 1).The tone of the COP 28 is set by the observation that,clearly,the nationally determined contributions related to CO_(2) emission reduction are not on track to curb the temperature rise as per the Paris Agreement.In order to hold the increase in global mean temperature to well below 2℃ above the pre-industrial level and to pursue efforts to limit the warming to 1.5℃,there is a need for ratcheting up ambition for near-term climate action.

From concept to action: a united, holistic and One Health approach to respond to the climate change crisis

It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the planet,which is seriously affecting the planetary health including human health.Adapting climate change should not only be a slogan,but requires a united,holistic action and a paradigm shift from crisis response to an ambitious and integrated approach immediately.Recognizing the urgent needs to tackle the risk connection between climate change and One Health,the four key messages and recommendations that with the intent to guide further research and to promote international cooperation to achieve a more climate-resilient world are provided.