Pub Date : 2025-12-31DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103700
Ngo Kien Thinh , Hesam Kamalipour , Nastaran Peimani
In the Global South, the visibility and image of informal settlements in urban design, planning, and policy discourse have gained increasing attention in recent years, particularly in relation to the politics of upgrading. Informal settlements are often characterised by small grain size and self-built constructions. While these settlements house millions of inhabitants, they are hardly recognised in long-term urban development. This paper explores the visibility of informal settlements through extensive urban mapping across multiple case studies in the Global South. The analytical framework deployed in this study focuses on how, and to what extent, informal settlements are visible or invisible in relation to new town developments. This framework is then applied to mapping, revealing the dynamics of visibility across the selected case studies in Kunming (China), Abuja (Nigeria), and Jakarta (Indonesia). The study indicates that each case study involves certain patterns of visibility. In particular, different types of visibility are observed in the case study of Kunming. The settlement in Abuja appears largely exposed to clear view from public spaces, while in Jakarta the predominant type of visibility involves blocked and obstructed views. The findings of this article contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the visibility of informal urbanism under the influence of rapid urbanisation.
{"title":"The image of informal settlements: A visibility mapping in the Global South","authors":"Ngo Kien Thinh , Hesam Kamalipour , Nastaran Peimani","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103700","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103700","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the Global South, the visibility and image of informal settlements in urban design, planning, and policy discourse have gained increasing attention in recent years, particularly in relation to the politics of upgrading. Informal settlements are often characterised by small grain size and self-built constructions. While these settlements house millions of inhabitants, they are hardly recognised in long-term urban development. This paper explores the visibility of informal settlements through extensive urban mapping across multiple case studies in the Global South. The analytical framework deployed in this study focuses on how, and to what extent, informal settlements are visible or invisible in relation to new town developments. This framework is then applied to mapping, revealing the dynamics of visibility across the selected case studies in Kunming (China), Abuja (Nigeria), and Jakarta (Indonesia). The study indicates that each case study involves certain patterns of visibility. In particular, different types of visibility are observed in the case study of Kunming. The settlement in Abuja appears largely exposed to clear view from public spaces, while in Jakarta the predominant type of visibility involves blocked and obstructed views. The findings of this article contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the visibility of informal urbanism under the influence of rapid urbanisation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103700"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-30DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103707
Lun Liu , Jin Xu , Zhu Zhang , Yunxiao Bi
The application of digital technologies in rural areas has improved the rural economy and overall development. China places significant emphasis on rural digitalisation, implementing the Digital Village Development Strategy to drive rural revitalization in recent years. Nonetheless, the evolving impacts of digital village development policy remain underexplored, and existing metrics based on traditional indicators may overestimate rural digitalisation by aggregating data at broader administrative levels, thereby obscuring local variations and recent policy-driven effects. To address this, this paper first proposes a quantitative method based on big data from news articles as a new and high-precision data source to measure the digital development in rural China. Using text analysis of 110,000 related reports from mainstream media websites, we derived assessment scores for 334 prefecture-level administrative units across various rural areas of digital development. Furthermore, this paper proposed an analytical framework tailored to the rural context, integrating both technology adoption ability (including digital infrastructure, economic development level and science and education level), and technology adoption motivations (including agricultural importance and local government attention). The study reveals significant progress not only in coastal regions but also in inland and north-eastern China, indicating a more distributed and diversifies pattern across the country. The findings highlight that digital village development is mainly driven by regional science and technology resources and local government attention as a supplementary factor. These findings enrich the dialogue in digital geography and emphasize the need for place-based and targeted strategies to foster digital inclusion in rural regions.
{"title":"Assessing the digital village development in China and its driving factors: An analysis using online media data","authors":"Lun Liu , Jin Xu , Zhu Zhang , Yunxiao Bi","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103707","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103707","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The application of digital technologies in rural areas has improved the rural economy and overall development. China places significant emphasis on rural digitalisation, implementing the Digital Village Development Strategy to drive rural revitalization in recent years. Nonetheless, the evolving impacts of digital village development policy remain underexplored, and existing metrics based on traditional indicators may overestimate rural digitalisation by aggregating data at broader administrative levels, thereby obscuring local variations and recent policy-driven effects. To address this, this paper first proposes a quantitative method based on big data from news articles as a new and high-precision data source to measure the digital development in rural China. Using text analysis of 110,000 related reports from mainstream media websites, we derived assessment scores for 334 prefecture-level administrative units across various rural areas of digital development. Furthermore, this paper proposed an analytical framework tailored to the rural context, integrating both technology adoption ability (including digital infrastructure, economic development level and science and education level), and technology adoption motivations (including agricultural importance and local government attention). The study reveals significant progress not only in coastal regions but also in inland and north-eastern China, indicating a more distributed and diversifies pattern across the country. The findings highlight that digital village development is mainly driven by regional science and technology resources and local government attention as a supplementary factor. These findings enrich the dialogue in digital geography and emphasize the need for place-based and targeted strategies to foster digital inclusion in rural regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103707"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-29DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103704
Zhongyi Nie , Chen Chen , Ke Wang , Zhen Wang
China's spatiotemporally compressed urbanization has caused rural areas to dramatically transition from productivism to multifunctionality, in a series of short cycles, through unconventional factor agglomeration. This provides valuable empirical evidence for global rural transformation theories. Nevertheless, despite a substantial body of research, there is still insufficient identification of the functional qualitative changes that underlie rural transformation at the village scale, which substantially weakens the interpretability of transformation dynamics. Furthermore, previous studies have yet to thoroughly investigate the spatial effects of rural transformation and its underpinning dynamics. To bridge these gaps, this study examines 825 administrative villages in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, utilizing data from 2008, 2016, 2020, and 2023. Using a methodology that combines the Penalty for Bottleneck method and local bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis, we construct a Rural Multifunctionality Index based on production-ecology-living functions, in order to systematically reveal the nonlinear characteristics, spatial effects, and geographically embedded mechanisms of rural transformation. The results demonstrate that the relationship between rural transformation and the multifunctionality index is not a straightforward linear one, but instead displays characteristics of a dynamic spiral ascent. Additionally, geographic conditions significantly influence the pattern of rural transformation: mountain villages, constrained by terrain and resources, face challenges in forming competitive industrial clusters, often leading to pseudo-optimization traps. On the other hand, villages situated in plains benefit from superior geographic conditions, enabling effective industrial chain synergies that drive sustained rural transformation. Lastly, the spatial dependence of rural transformation exhibits pronounced geographical heterogeneity. Villages located in low-altitude and low-slope areas are more likely to form cooperative–promotive spatial patterns that foster joint development within the region, whereas those in high-altitude and complex terrain areas tend to display siphoning–inhibitory patterns that suppress the transformation of neighboring villages. This study not only enriches the understanding of nonlinear dynamics and spatial heterogeneity in rural transformation at the village scale, but also provides new theoretical perspectives and policy implications for China and other Global South countries in addressing the complexities and challenges of rural transformation.
{"title":"Nonlinear transition under geographic embeddedness: Uncovering the changing spatial pattern and its underpinning dynamics of rural transformation at the village scale in China's developed region","authors":"Zhongyi Nie , Chen Chen , Ke Wang , Zhen Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103704","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103704","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>China's spatiotemporally compressed urbanization has caused rural areas to dramatically transition from productivism to multifunctionality, in a series of short cycles, through unconventional factor agglomeration. This provides valuable empirical evidence for global rural transformation theories. Nevertheless, despite a substantial body of research, there is still insufficient identification of the functional qualitative changes that underlie rural transformation at the village scale, which substantially weakens the interpretability of transformation dynamics. Furthermore, previous studies have yet to thoroughly investigate the spatial effects of rural transformation and its underpinning dynamics. To bridge these gaps, this study examines 825 administrative villages in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, utilizing data from 2008, 2016, 2020, and 2023. Using a methodology that combines the Penalty for Bottleneck method and local bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis, we construct a Rural Multifunctionality Index based on production-ecology-living functions, in order to systematically reveal the nonlinear characteristics, spatial effects, and geographically embedded mechanisms of rural transformation. The results demonstrate that the relationship between rural transformation and the multifunctionality index is not a straightforward linear one, but instead displays characteristics of a dynamic spiral ascent. Additionally, geographic conditions significantly influence the pattern of rural transformation: mountain villages, constrained by terrain and resources, face challenges in forming competitive industrial clusters, often leading to pseudo-optimization traps. On the other hand, villages situated in plains benefit from superior geographic conditions, enabling effective industrial chain synergies that drive sustained rural transformation. Lastly, the spatial dependence of rural transformation exhibits pronounced geographical heterogeneity. Villages located in low-altitude and low-slope areas are more likely to form cooperative–promotive spatial patterns that foster joint development within the region, whereas those in high-altitude and complex terrain areas tend to display siphoning–inhibitory patterns that suppress the transformation of neighboring villages. This study not only enriches the understanding of nonlinear dynamics and spatial heterogeneity in rural transformation at the village scale, but also provides new theoretical perspectives and policy implications for China and other Global South countries in addressing the complexities and challenges of rural transformation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103704"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-28DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103705
Pixin Gong , Bo Zhang , Xiaoran Huang
Ensuring equitable access to meal assistance facilities (MAFs) is critical for supporting the daily nutritional needs of older adults, alleviating caregiving burdens, and fostering social equity in rapidly aging megacities. Despite substantial investments in community-based elderly care services in China, spatial mismatches and service inefficiencies persist, especially within dense urban cores. This study combines an enhanced Gaussian Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) approach with explainable Random Forest modeling and geographically weighted regression to provide a comprehensive, fine-scale analysis of meal-aid facility accessibility across 27,621 Shanghai neighborhoods. By integrating real-world road networks, age-specific mobility constraints, and high-resolution demographic and built environment data, we quantify pronounced spatial disparities, with central districts exhibiting unexpectedly poor accessibility relative to suburban areas. Our Random Forest model achieves strong predictive accuracy (R2 = 0.89) and reveals key nonlinear drivers: proximity to community-based elderly care resources such as day care centers exhibits consistent positive effects, while institutional care density and housing prices show complex, regionally variable associations. Spatial heterogeneity analysis uncovers substantial neighborhood-level variations in factor impacts, emphasizing the need for localized, context-aware interventions. These findings provide actionable insights for urban planners and policymakers to optimize meal assistance service allocation, enhance integrated elderly care ecosystems, and promote fairness in service provision for aging urban populations.
{"title":"Bridging the meal gap: Spatially-explicit machine learning insights for equitable elderly meal assistance facilities in Shanghai","authors":"Pixin Gong , Bo Zhang , Xiaoran Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103705","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103705","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Ensuring equitable access to meal assistance facilities (MAFs) is critical for supporting the daily nutritional needs of older adults, alleviating caregiving burdens, and fostering social equity in rapidly aging megacities. Despite substantial investments in community-based elderly care services in China, spatial mismatches and service inefficiencies persist, especially within dense urban cores. This study combines an enhanced Gaussian Two-Step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) approach with explainable Random Forest modeling and geographically weighted regression to provide a comprehensive, fine-scale analysis of meal-aid facility accessibility across 27,621 Shanghai neighborhoods. By integrating real-world road networks, age-specific mobility constraints, and high-resolution demographic and built environment data, we quantify pronounced spatial disparities, with central districts exhibiting unexpectedly poor accessibility relative to suburban areas. Our Random Forest model achieves strong predictive accuracy (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.89) and reveals key nonlinear drivers: proximity to community-based elderly care resources such as day care centers exhibits consistent positive effects, while institutional care density and housing prices show complex, regionally variable associations. Spatial heterogeneity analysis uncovers substantial neighborhood-level variations in factor impacts, emphasizing the need for localized, context-aware interventions. These findings provide actionable insights for urban planners and policymakers to optimize meal assistance service allocation, enhance integrated elderly care ecosystems, and promote fairness in service provision for aging urban populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103705"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-27DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103703
Xin Zheng , Zhaoping Yang , Yuxi Fan
Natural landscape aesthetics have long influenced tourist perception, yet the mechanisms underlying aesthetic appreciation remain poorly understood, constraining sustainable socio-economic and ecological development in critical areas, notably national parks. This study establishes a multi-dimensional framework for assessing the aesthetic quality of natural landscapes in national parks, employing methods such as content-based sentiment analysis, questionnaire surveys, Geo-Detector model, and structural equation modeling to quantify tourists’ perceived value, elucidate its spatial associations, and uncover its underlying effects on landscape aesthetics. The results show that: (1) The spatial pattern of landscape aesthetic quality shows higher values in the east and lower values in the west, with high-value areas primarily concentrated in the southeast regions characterized by uniqueness, diversity, and coordination. (2) Tourist perception exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity. High-perception areas are primarily located in the southeast regions characterized by distinctive landscape clusters, while the southern and eastern regions display secondary clusters. (3) Quantitative findings reveal that the uniqueness and diversity of natural landscapes are the primary driving factors influencing tourists’ perceptions, with the interaction between landscape uniqueness and other factors dominating the spatial pattern of tourists’ perceptions (maximum explanatory power = 0.80). Furthermore, tourism service facilities serve as a significant positive moderator of the relationship between landscape aesthetics and tourist perception. These results provide a scientific basis for advancing sustainable conservation and management of natural landscapes in national parks, as well as for improving public welfare benefits.
{"title":"Spatial correlation mechanism between natural landscape aesthetic quality and tourist perception in Mount Wuyi national park, China","authors":"Xin Zheng , Zhaoping Yang , Yuxi Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103703","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103703","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Natural landscape aesthetics have long influenced tourist perception, yet the mechanisms underlying aesthetic appreciation remain poorly understood, constraining sustainable socio-economic and ecological development in critical areas, notably national parks. This study establishes a multi-dimensional framework for assessing the aesthetic quality of natural landscapes in national parks, employing methods such as content-based sentiment analysis, questionnaire surveys, Geo-Detector model, and structural equation modeling to quantify tourists’ perceived value, elucidate its spatial associations, and uncover its underlying effects on landscape aesthetics. The results show that: (1) The spatial pattern of landscape aesthetic quality shows higher values in the east and lower values in the west, with high-value areas primarily concentrated in the southeast regions characterized by uniqueness, diversity, and coordination. (2) Tourist perception exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity. High-perception areas are primarily located in the southeast regions characterized by distinctive landscape clusters, while the southern and eastern regions display secondary clusters. (3) Quantitative findings reveal that the uniqueness and diversity of natural landscapes are the primary driving factors influencing tourists’ perceptions, with the interaction between landscape uniqueness and other factors dominating the spatial pattern of tourists’ perceptions (maximum explanatory power = 0.80). Furthermore, tourism service facilities serve as a significant positive moderator of the relationship between landscape aesthetics and tourist perception. These results provide a scientific basis for advancing sustainable conservation and management of natural landscapes in national parks, as well as for improving public welfare benefits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103703"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-27DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103699
Tianyu Li , Pinyu Chen , Zhe Zhang , Chao Yuan , Xiang Kong
While metropolitan development zones have played a pivotal role in driving regional economic and social development, they have also triggered profound restructuring in adjacent rural areas. Although existing studies have extensively examined the socioeconomic impacts of development zone construction on rural regions, relatively little attention has been paid to the transformation of rural social space, and the assemblage processes and mechanisms remain insufficiently explored. Drawing on assemblage theory, this study constructs an analytical framework for rural social space assemblage. Taking Pengdu Village, located on the periphery of the Minhang Development Zone in Shanghai, China, as a typical case, this study integrates participant observation, in-depth interviews, and statistical analysis into the research design. The findings reveal a close interrelation between the generation of Pengdu Village's social space and the construction of the Minhang Development Zone, reflected in the assemblage process of territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization. The construction of the Minhang Development Zone has broken the social space structure of Pengdu Village formed during the traditional agricultural stage, prompting the social space of Pengdu Village to move from territorialization to deterritorialization. The transformation and development of the Minhang Development Zone and the implementation of a series of rural conservation practices have contributed to the reterritorialization of social space in Pengdu Village. The transformation of social relations within Pengdu Village reflects the dynamic process of generating its rural social space assemblage, accompanied by coding, decoding and recoding, and driven by the definition of rural external relations, the interaction of heterogeneous elements, and the production of desires, ultimately generating Pengdu Village's social space form. By introducing assemblage theory into rural social space studies, this research provides a novel perspective for understanding the generation of rural social space and offers more possibilities for exploring rural development pathways and models.
{"title":"Rural social space assemblage at the edge of a metropolitan development zone: A case study of Pengdu Village, Shanghai","authors":"Tianyu Li , Pinyu Chen , Zhe Zhang , Chao Yuan , Xiang Kong","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103699","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103699","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While metropolitan development zones have played a pivotal role in driving regional economic and social development, they have also triggered profound restructuring in adjacent rural areas. Although existing studies have extensively examined the socioeconomic impacts of development zone construction on rural regions, relatively little attention has been paid to the transformation of rural social space, and the assemblage processes and mechanisms remain insufficiently explored. Drawing on assemblage theory, this study constructs an analytical framework for rural social space assemblage. Taking Pengdu Village, located on the periphery of the Minhang Development Zone in Shanghai, China, as a typical case, this study integrates participant observation, in-depth interviews, and statistical analysis into the research design. The findings reveal a close interrelation between the generation of Pengdu Village's social space and the construction of the Minhang Development Zone, reflected in the assemblage process of territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization. The construction of the Minhang Development Zone has broken the social space structure of Pengdu Village formed during the traditional agricultural stage, prompting the social space of Pengdu Village to move from territorialization to deterritorialization. The transformation and development of the Minhang Development Zone and the implementation of a series of rural conservation practices have contributed to the reterritorialization of social space in Pengdu Village. The transformation of social relations within Pengdu Village reflects the dynamic process of generating its rural social space assemblage, accompanied by coding, decoding and recoding, and driven by the definition of rural external relations, the interaction of heterogeneous elements, and the production of desires, ultimately generating Pengdu Village's social space form. By introducing assemblage theory into rural social space studies, this research provides a novel perspective for understanding the generation of rural social space and offers more possibilities for exploring rural development pathways and models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103699"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103680
Shiqing You , Zhen You , Zhiming Feng , Yanzhao Yang , Hui Shi
Transportation services and population mobility constitute a fundamental supply–demand system in society. Coordination assessments are essential for evaluating their balance to ensure that travel demand is met and resources are efficiently allocated. While extensive research has examined both the transportation service network (TSN) and the population mobility network (PMN), the coordination relationship between these two networks remains insufficiently understood, particularly in mega-urban agglomerations (MUAs) characterized by complex urban systems. To fill this knowledge gap, this study constructs the TSN and PMN of the Yangtze River Delta using large-scale flow data and evaluates their coordination from a network deviation perspective. Results show substantial deviations between the two networks in both flow intensity and structural characteristics. The PMN exhibits a more polarized intensity distribution than the TSN, along with a more pronounced polycentric structure and stronger radiation effects. Based on these deviations, intensity coordination and structural coordination are calculated, both exhibiting positive spatial autocorrelation, leading to the identification of four coordination patterns. Only 30.76 % of the cities lack adequate transportation services to meet intercity travel demand, while 61.54 % require structural optimization to improve service equity. To address the challenges associated with different coordination patterns, we propose targeted measures from both the population mobility and transportation service perspectives, including infrastructure development, vehicle scheduling, and mobility guidance. This study offers unique insights into the TSN-PMN coordination relationship from the perspective of network deviations, contributing to the improved resilience of transportation services in MUAs to better accommodate intercity human activities.
{"title":"Assessing the coordination relationship between transportation services and population mobility in mega-urban agglomerations: A network deviation perspective","authors":"Shiqing You , Zhen You , Zhiming Feng , Yanzhao Yang , Hui Shi","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103680","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103680","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transportation services and population mobility constitute a fundamental supply–demand system in society. Coordination assessments are essential for evaluating their balance to ensure that travel demand is met and resources are efficiently allocated. While extensive research has examined both the transportation service network (TSN) and the population mobility network (PMN), the coordination relationship between these two networks remains insufficiently understood, particularly in mega-urban agglomerations (MUAs) characterized by complex urban systems. To fill this knowledge gap, this study constructs the TSN and PMN of the Yangtze River Delta using large-scale flow data and evaluates their coordination from a network deviation perspective. Results show substantial deviations between the two networks in both flow intensity and structural characteristics. The PMN exhibits a more polarized intensity distribution than the TSN, along with a more pronounced polycentric structure and stronger radiation effects. Based on these deviations, intensity coordination and structural coordination are calculated, both exhibiting positive spatial autocorrelation, leading to the identification of four coordination patterns. Only 30.76 % of the cities lack adequate transportation services to meet intercity travel demand, while 61.54 % require structural optimization to improve service equity. To address the challenges associated with different coordination patterns, we propose targeted measures from both the population mobility and transportation service perspectives, including infrastructure development, vehicle scheduling, and mobility guidance. This study offers unique insights into the TSN-PMN coordination relationship from the perspective of network deviations, contributing to the improved resilience of transportation services in MUAs to better accommodate intercity human activities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103680"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103691
Hualin Li , Shouhong Zhang , Yelong Zeng , Zihan Xu , Xiuchun Yang , Ye Liu
Given China's rapid urbanization and extensive ecological forestry projects, understanding trends in landscape ecological risk (LER) and its drivers is critical for territorial spatial planning and sustainable ecosystem management. However, current LER assessments have so far overlooked the impact and threshold effects of natural and social factors across multiple spatial scales. This study proposes a novel LER assessment method that integrates ecological resilience, revealing multiscale spatial-temporal changes in LER across China from 1990 to 2020. The relative importance, contributions, and threshold effects of drivers on LER at four scales were quantified using random forest models and restricted cubic spline regression. Results show that the proposed method effectively captures LER's spatial-temporal dynamics, highlighting high-risk zones in Northwest China and low-risk zones in Southeast China. From 1990 to 2020, LER in China exhibited an upward trend, with 46.43 % of areas showing significant increases at the grid scale. Our findings highlight pronounced scale dependence in LER assessment, emphasizing significant spatial heterogeneity and the need for selecting appropriate spatial units to ensure accurate evaluation. Precipitation and temperature primarily influence LER trends in Northwest China, whereas human activities are the primary drivers in Southeast China. Importantly, we identify significant non-linear effects of various drivers on LER and determine key thresholds for precipitation (694.62 mm), slope (6.68°), urbanization rate (0.05), and agricultural activity rate (33.19), which we use to delineate priority management areas (PMAs). Based on these insights, we propose spatial planning and management strategies tailored to different PMAs for supporting sustainable ecosystem development and enhancing human well-being.
{"title":"Multiscale landscape ecological risk response to natural and social factors in China: Thresholds identification","authors":"Hualin Li , Shouhong Zhang , Yelong Zeng , Zihan Xu , Xiuchun Yang , Ye Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103691","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103691","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given China's rapid urbanization and extensive ecological forestry projects, understanding trends in landscape ecological risk (LER) and its drivers is critical for territorial spatial planning and sustainable ecosystem management. However, current LER assessments have so far overlooked the impact and threshold effects of natural and social factors across multiple spatial scales. This study proposes a novel LER assessment method that integrates ecological resilience, revealing multiscale spatial-temporal changes in LER across China from 1990 to 2020. The relative importance, contributions, and threshold effects of drivers on LER at four scales were quantified using random forest models and restricted cubic spline regression. Results show that the proposed method effectively captures LER's spatial-temporal dynamics, highlighting high-risk zones in Northwest China and low-risk zones in Southeast China. From 1990 to 2020, LER in China exhibited an upward trend, with 46.43 % of areas showing significant increases at the grid scale. Our findings highlight pronounced scale dependence in LER assessment, emphasizing significant spatial heterogeneity and the need for selecting appropriate spatial units to ensure accurate evaluation. Precipitation and temperature primarily influence LER trends in Northwest China, whereas human activities are the primary drivers in Southeast China. Importantly, we identify significant non-linear effects of various drivers on LER and determine key thresholds for precipitation (694.62 mm), slope (6.68°), urbanization rate (0.05), and agricultural activity rate (33.19), which we use to delineate priority management areas (PMAs). Based on these insights, we propose spatial planning and management strategies tailored to different PMAs for supporting sustainable ecosystem development and enhancing human well-being.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103691"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-25DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103698
Qi Zheng , Jingke Hong , Bingsheng Liu , Xiangyang Tao , Jingya Jiang
Sustainable development embodies the principle of equity while placing an emphasis on addressing climate change. This paper treats the National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones policy as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the extent to which sustainable development can facilitate equity in carbon mitigation. Based on a sample of 179 prefectural-level cities from 2004 to 2017, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences model to examine the impact of the National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones on carbon emissions. The results show that the National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones significantly slowed the growth of carbon emissions and promoted intragenerational equity, as confirmed by extensive robustness tests. Furthermore, the study examines the heterogeneity of the impact and the underlying mediating mechanisms, and also analyzes the policy linkage effects. Finally, the impact of equitable mitigation tends to favor the pilot zones with higher initial carbon emission growth rates, thus achieving intergenerational equity. Understanding whether National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones can effectively facilitate equitable carbon mitigation is crucial for designing policies that balance economic development with environmental sustainability. This paper contributes to both the theoretical foundation and empirical evidence of the impact of establishing the National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones on equitable carbon emissions mitigation.
{"title":"Fostering equity in carbon emission mitigation through national sustainable development pilot zones: Evidence from China","authors":"Qi Zheng , Jingke Hong , Bingsheng Liu , Xiangyang Tao , Jingya Jiang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103698","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103698","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sustainable development embodies the principle of equity while placing an emphasis on addressing climate change. This paper treats the National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones policy as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the extent to which sustainable development can facilitate equity in carbon mitigation. Based on a sample of 179 prefectural-level cities from 2004 to 2017, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences model to examine the impact of the National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones on carbon emissions. The results show that the National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones significantly slowed the growth of carbon emissions and promoted intragenerational equity, as confirmed by extensive robustness tests. Furthermore, the study examines the heterogeneity of the impact and the underlying mediating mechanisms, and also analyzes the policy linkage effects. Finally, the impact of equitable mitigation tends to favor the pilot zones with higher initial carbon emission growth rates, thus achieving intergenerational equity. Understanding whether National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones can effectively facilitate equitable carbon mitigation is crucial for designing policies that balance economic development with environmental sustainability. This paper contributes to both the theoretical foundation and empirical evidence of the impact of establishing the National Sustainable Development Pilot Zones on equitable carbon emissions mitigation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103698"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Global epidemics have attracted increasing public attention, primarily due to intensified human interactions driven by urbanization and globalization. However, the spread of epidemics across different geographical scales exhibits a secretive progression, leading to a mismatch with the dynamics of public attention. The characteristics and patterns of this desynchrony remain unclear. This gap limits effective support for the shift from isolated urban management to regional coordinated control and multi-level governance. In this study, we construct a public attention process-oriented regionalization model to identify regions with similar public attention dynamics to COVID-19 in mainland China, using Baidu search data. In addition, the Derivative Dynamic Time Warping (DDTW) approach is employed to quantify the desynchrony between public attention and epidemic development across different geographical scales, including the national, regional, and city levels. The results show that in most cities, public attention was disproportionately focused during the early and late stages of the epidemic, forming a phased mismatch with epidemic development characterized by a "positive–negative–positive" deviation. During recurrent urban epidemics, public attention dynamics exhibit a clear wave-like progression desynchrony with epidemic development at both regional and national scales, indicating attention fatigue. The findings provide valuable insights for understanding public attention dynamics and guiding responsive urban control measures toward sustainable development.
{"title":"Desynchrony of public attention dynamics for epidemic development across different geographical scales in the online era","authors":"Nuozhou Shen , Xiaoxiao Wang , Haiping Zhang , Liyang Xiong , Guo'An Tang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103697","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103697","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global epidemics have attracted increasing public attention, primarily due to intensified human interactions driven by urbanization and globalization. However, the spread of epidemics across different geographical scales exhibits a secretive progression, leading to a mismatch with the dynamics of public attention. The characteristics and patterns of this desynchrony remain unclear. This gap limits effective support for the shift from isolated urban management to regional coordinated control and multi-level governance. In this study, we construct a public attention process-oriented regionalization model to identify regions with similar public attention dynamics to COVID-19 in mainland China, using Baidu search data. In addition, the Derivative Dynamic Time Warping (DDTW) approach is employed to quantify the desynchrony between public attention and epidemic development across different geographical scales, including the national, regional, and city levels. The results show that in most cities, public attention was disproportionately focused during the early and late stages of the epidemic, forming a phased mismatch with epidemic development characterized by a \"positive–negative–positive\" deviation. During recurrent urban epidemics, public attention dynamics exhibit a clear wave-like progression desynchrony with epidemic development at both regional and national scales, indicating attention fatigue. The findings provide valuable insights for understanding public attention dynamics and guiding responsive urban control measures toward sustainable development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"168 ","pages":"Article 103697"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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