Pub Date : 2025-10-04DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103799
Jingxian Wang , Yanyan Li , Min Yang
Effective poverty alleviation mechanisms are critical for equitable development. China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) strategy includes the Advanced Poverty Alleviation (APA) honor system, which rewards local governments and organizations for exemplary poverty reduction. This study compares income growth trajectories in APA-honored and non-honored impoverished counties during and after the TPA period, using a within-county and regionally differentiated framework. Empirical analysis shows that, although both types of counties exhibit similar overall income growth rates, APA-honored counties display urban-centric growth, with urban areas gaining disproportionately while rural income growth lags. These findings indicate that although APA honors represent better poverty alleviation achievements, they may obscure uneven urban–rural development within counties. We term this pattern “honor masking”. This concept highlights the importance of recalibrating policy to address intra-county inequalities and promote balanced regional development.
{"title":"Beneath the honor: Urban and rural income disparities in China’s poverty counties","authors":"Jingxian Wang , Yanyan Li , Min Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103799","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103799","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Effective poverty alleviation mechanisms are critical for equitable development. China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) strategy includes the Advanced Poverty Alleviation (APA) honor system, which rewards local governments and organizations for exemplary poverty reduction. This study compares income growth trajectories in APA-honored and non-honored impoverished counties during and after the TPA period, using a within-county and regionally differentiated framework. Empirical analysis shows that, although both types of counties exhibit similar overall income growth rates, APA-honored counties display urban-centric growth, with urban areas gaining disproportionately while rural income growth lags. These findings indicate that although APA honors represent better poverty alleviation achievements, they may obscure uneven urban–rural development within counties. We term this pattern “honor masking”. This concept highlights the importance of recalibrating policy to address intra-county inequalities and promote balanced regional development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103799"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145268796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The convergence of industries in cities is fundamental yet profound to urbanization. However, existing research on urban industry convergence lacks sufficient spatial inquiries and requires deeper investigation of its effect on urbanization. This study introduces the concept of "spatial synergy" as an enhanced synergy between converging industries in space. A spatial synergy evaluation model is developed and applied to the convergence of the cultural and tourism industries in Hangzhou, China, in 2012, 2017, and 2022. The research offers three main novelties. First, this study extends the conception of industry convergence from economic activities to spatial processes, introducing a spatiotemporal framework for its analysis. Second, the study reveals a positive correlation between spatial synergy and urbanization outcomes of industry convergence, such as vitality and economic performance, through the proposed evaluation model, thereby affirming model's effectiveness in understanding industry convergence. Third, this study elucidates the synergistic promotion of spatial and economic urbanization through spatial reshaping and economic growth facilitated by industry convergence. Fourth, the study shows that variation in industry factors mobility and the absence of value chains can lead to a disconnection between market and technology sectors, hinder coordination between spatial and economic urbanization, and ultimately result in unsustainable urbanization. These important findings reinforce the necessity of integrating industry convergence into urban spatial planning, advocate enhanced synergy among factors, and highlight the promote reconstruction of the value chain as essential for sustainable urbanization in Hangzhou and similar cities in China and beyond.
{"title":"On spatial synergy of market-driven industry convergence in cities: The case of Hangzhou, China","authors":"Qiyang Zheng , Fuhua Nian , Guoqiang Shen , Yiqiao Sun , Meichen Ding , Hao Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103801","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103801","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The convergence of industries in cities is fundamental yet profound to urbanization. However, existing research on urban industry convergence lacks sufficient spatial inquiries and requires deeper investigation of its effect on urbanization. This study introduces the concept of \"spatial synergy\" as an enhanced synergy between converging industries in space. A spatial synergy evaluation model is developed and applied to the convergence of the cultural and tourism industries in Hangzhou, China, in 2012, 2017, and 2022. The research offers three main novelties. First, this study extends the conception of industry convergence from economic activities to spatial processes, introducing a spatiotemporal framework for its analysis. Second, the study reveals a positive correlation between spatial synergy and urbanization outcomes of industry convergence, such as vitality and economic performance, through the proposed evaluation model, thereby affirming model's effectiveness in understanding industry convergence. Third, this study elucidates the synergistic promotion of spatial and economic urbanization through spatial reshaping and economic growth facilitated by industry convergence. Fourth, the study shows that variation in industry factors mobility and the absence of value chains can lead to a disconnection between market and technology sectors, hinder coordination between spatial and economic urbanization, and ultimately result in unsustainable urbanization. These important findings reinforce the necessity of integrating industry convergence into urban spatial planning, advocate enhanced synergy among factors, and highlight the promote reconstruction of the value chain as essential for sustainable urbanization in Hangzhou and similar cities in China and beyond.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103801"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145227614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-02DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103776
Yuchen Xie , Muyi Zhu , Fangqi Wang , Jiurui Zhao , Wanxiao Sun , Yuchen Qin , Hongsheng Zhang
Urban visual perception (UVP) plays a critical role in shaping residents' quality of life by influencing their emotional and cognitive responses to urban environments. While previous studies have analyzed UVP using street view imagery (SVI) but largely overlooked its spatiotemporal evolution and inequalities within walkable travel ranges. This study introduces a novel methodological framework using Hong Kong as a case study to analyze UVP changes from 2011 to 2021. We first identify static and dynamic UVP distributions, then explore spatial patterns across urban forms, housing types, and travel distances, and finally examine links between UVP changes and socioeconomic factors. The findings show that while Hong Kong's overall UVP levels remained stable, significant spatiotemporal disparities emerged. Public housing policies improved UVP for some disadvantaged groups, but low-income private housing areas in Old Town faced poorer visual environments with lower greenery levels. Socioeconomic factors, including education and income, significantly influenced UVP transitions, with elderly and ethnic minority populations experiencing greater environmental inequalities. This study offers micro-level insights into urban planning and renewal, providing a scientific foundation for promoting equitable urban development.
{"title":"Unveiling changes in urban visual perception inequality in high-density cities: Insights from housing types and travel distances using time-series street view imagery","authors":"Yuchen Xie , Muyi Zhu , Fangqi Wang , Jiurui Zhao , Wanxiao Sun , Yuchen Qin , Hongsheng Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103776","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103776","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban visual perception (UVP) plays a critical role in shaping residents' quality of life by influencing their emotional and cognitive responses to urban environments. While previous studies have analyzed UVP using street view imagery (SVI) but largely overlooked its spatiotemporal evolution and inequalities within walkable travel ranges. This study introduces a novel methodological framework using Hong Kong as a case study to analyze UVP changes from 2011 to 2021. We first identify static and dynamic UVP distributions, then explore spatial patterns across urban forms, housing types, and travel distances, and finally examine links between UVP changes and socioeconomic factors. The findings show that while Hong Kong's overall UVP levels remained stable, significant spatiotemporal disparities emerged. Public housing policies improved UVP for some disadvantaged groups, but low-income private housing areas in Old Town faced poorer visual environments with lower greenery levels. Socioeconomic factors, including education and income, significantly influenced UVP transitions, with elderly and ethnic minority populations experiencing greater environmental inequalities. This study offers micro-level insights into urban planning and renewal, providing a scientific foundation for promoting equitable urban development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103776"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145227613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-30DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103796
Haozhe Zhang , Yuhai Bao , Qiang Tang , Xiubin He , Jie Wei , Adrian L. Collins
Non-floodplain ponded waterbodies (NPWs) are key nodes in upland-stream hydrological continuums, playing essential roles in flood and drought mitigation and water quality improvement. The hydrological connectivity between NPWs and downstream water systems determines their ecological and hydrological function. Understanding NPW dynamics through the lens of hydrologic connectivity provides valuable insights for managing the resilience of water resources. However, this aspect has received limited attention in previous research. In the present study, NPWs in the upper Yangtze River Basin were identified using the Global Surface Water dataset. They were then classified into three hydrologic connectivity classes—shallow flow path NPWs (NPWSFP), mid-depth flow path NPWs (NPWMFP), and deep flow path NPWs (NPWDFP)—based on the depth of their flow paths to the nearest stream. Thereafter, the spatial distribution and changes of these waterbodies from 1990 to 2021 were analyzed. Further, the driving factors, including natural and human induced changes, were investigated across different hydrologic connectivity classes using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. NPWSFP and NPWMFP were primarily distributed in the Sichuan Basin, while NPWDFP were mainly concentrated in the Jinsha, Mintuo, and Wu River basins. Between 1990 and 2021, the total area covered by NPWs increased significantly, with notable growth in NPWSFP and NPWDFP. The area of NPWSFP increased primarily due to reservoir construction to meet increasing water demand. In contrast, the area of NPWDFP increased as a result of greater water replenishment driven by climate change. Climate change affected NPW dynamics indirectly through its influence on vegetation. Human activities also shaped NPW changes, mainly by altering vegetation and modifying local climate conditions. These findings offer insights for the targeted conservation and restoration of surface waterbodies.
{"title":"Spatiotemporal dynamics of non-floodplain ponded waterbodies in the upper Yangtze River Basin, China: A hydrological connectivity perspective","authors":"Haozhe Zhang , Yuhai Bao , Qiang Tang , Xiubin He , Jie Wei , Adrian L. Collins","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103796","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103796","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Non-floodplain ponded waterbodies (NPWs) are key nodes in upland-stream hydrological continuums, playing essential roles in flood and drought mitigation and water quality improvement. The hydrological connectivity between NPWs and downstream water systems determines their ecological and hydrological function. Understanding NPW dynamics through the lens of hydrologic connectivity provides valuable insights for managing the resilience of water resources. However, this aspect has received limited attention in previous research. In the present study, NPWs in the upper Yangtze River Basin were identified using the Global Surface Water dataset. They were then classified into three hydrologic connectivity classes—shallow flow path NPWs (NPW<sub>SFP</sub>), mid-depth flow path NPWs (NPW<sub>MFP</sub>), and deep flow path NPWs (NPW<sub>DFP</sub>)—based on the depth of their flow paths to the nearest stream. Thereafter, the spatial distribution and changes of these waterbodies from 1990 to 2021 were analyzed. Further, the driving factors, including natural and human induced changes, were investigated across different hydrologic connectivity classes using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. NPW<sub>SFP</sub> and NPW<sub>MFP</sub> were primarily distributed in the Sichuan Basin, while NPW<sub>DFP</sub> were mainly concentrated in the Jinsha, Mintuo, and Wu River basins. Between 1990 and 2021, the total area covered by NPWs increased significantly, with notable growth in NPW<sub>SFP</sub> and NPW<sub>DFP</sub>. The area of NPW<sub>SFP</sub> increased primarily due to reservoir construction to meet increasing water demand. In contrast, the area of NPW<sub>DFP</sub> increased as a result of greater water replenishment driven by climate change. Climate change affected NPW dynamics indirectly through its influence on vegetation. Human activities also shaped NPW changes, mainly by altering vegetation and modifying local climate conditions. These findings offer insights for the targeted conservation and restoration of surface waterbodies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103796"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145227615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the context of climate change and extreme weather events, community-based disaster management is critical for post-disaster recovery and resilience. On July 20, 2021, Zhengzhou experienced an extreme rainstorm event that triggered China's most catastrophic flood disaster in the past decade, causing significant casualties and economic losses. Taking Mihe Town, affected by the "7.20" rainstorm and flood disaster in Zhengzhou, as an example, we propose Qualitative Data Visualization (Q-Visualization), a mixed-methods approach that integrates Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS), qualitative analysis, and spatial analysis, to explore the potential of community-participatory methods to complement expert-led assessments. The results show that: (1) Community-participatory assessment exhibits subjective and interconnected characteristics. By incorporating emotional and spiritual losses, participatory assessment adds nuance to expert-led assessments that focus on material losses. (2) In terms of spatial distribution, community-participatory disaster loss reveals multi-scalar characteristics (spanning individual, household, and community levels) and is influenced by exposure types and residents' activities, manifesting combined centralised and dispersed spatial patterns. Participatory assessment can provide spatial nuance and implicit information about disaster loss based on the interpretation of expert-led assessment results. (3) The two assessments show fair agreement (weighted kappa = 0.23), demonstrating that neither alone fully captures disaster loss realities. Participatory assessment enables accuracy verification and parameter optimization for expert-led assessment, while their integration reveals community disaster-coping psychology and behaviour to develop targeted, resilience-focused mitigation policies.
{"title":"Complementing expertise: Q-visualization method for community-participatory flood loss assessment of Mihe Town, Zhengzhou, China","authors":"Xiao Feng, Zhenbin Zhao, Jian Zhang, Yangyang Li, Yuqian Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103792","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103792","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the context of climate change and extreme weather events, community-based disaster management is critical for post-disaster recovery and resilience. On July 20, 2021, Zhengzhou experienced an extreme rainstorm event that triggered China's most catastrophic flood disaster in the past decade, causing significant casualties and economic losses. Taking Mihe Town, affected by the \"7.20\" rainstorm and flood disaster in Zhengzhou, as an example, we propose Qualitative Data Visualization (Q-Visualization), a mixed-methods approach that integrates Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS), qualitative analysis, and spatial analysis, to explore the potential of community-participatory methods to complement expert-led assessments. The results show that: (1) Community-participatory assessment exhibits subjective and interconnected characteristics. By incorporating emotional and spiritual losses, participatory assessment adds nuance to expert-led assessments that focus on material losses. (2) In terms of spatial distribution, community-participatory disaster loss reveals multi-scalar characteristics (spanning individual, household, and community levels) and is influenced by exposure types and residents' activities, manifesting combined centralised and dispersed spatial patterns. Participatory assessment can provide spatial nuance and implicit information about disaster loss based on the interpretation of expert-led assessment results. (3) The two assessments show fair agreement (weighted kappa = 0.23), demonstrating that neither alone fully captures disaster loss realities. Participatory assessment enables accuracy verification and parameter optimization for expert-led assessment, while their integration reveals community disaster-coping psychology and behaviour to develop targeted, resilience-focused mitigation policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103792"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145227616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only triggered a global public health crisis but also exacerbated pre-existing urban vulnerabilities, particularly in economic vibrancy, exposing insufficiency in urban resilience to maintain essential functions, dynamism, and liveliness under large-scale disruptions. Despite growing attention to pandemic impacts, limited research has investigated urban vibrancy resilience through nonlinear and spatially explicit lenses. This study addresses this gap by developing a novel framework to quantify and characterize urban economic vibrancy resilience in Xiamen Island, China, during the COVID-19 outbreak. Leveraging geo-tagged life service review data, we evaluate economic vibrancy resilience of communities using seasonal-trend decomposition. A GeoXAI framework integrating random forest and GeoShapley is employed to unravel relationships between built environment and the resilience. The findings indicate that: (1) building form exhibits dominant effects on the resilience, followed by street centrality, and functional mixture, with transit accessibility serving as a supplementary factor; (2) the associations are generally nonlinear, with identifiable thresholds and effective ranges such as ground space index below 0.2; (3) the associations are spatially heterogeneous, with dominant influencing factors varying across locations. These insights advance theoretical understanding of urban vibrancy and resilience and enlighten pandemic-responsive urban planning and design.
{"title":"Exploring nonlinear and spatially varying relationships between built environment and the resilience of urban economic vibrancy under COVID-19","authors":"Longzhu Xiao , Minyi Wu , Qingqing Weng , Jixiang Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103794","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103794","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The COVID-19 pandemic has not only triggered a global public health crisis but also exacerbated pre-existing urban vulnerabilities, particularly in economic vibrancy, exposing insufficiency in urban resilience to maintain essential functions, dynamism, and liveliness under large-scale disruptions. Despite growing attention to pandemic impacts, limited research has investigated urban vibrancy resilience through nonlinear and spatially explicit lenses. This study addresses this gap by developing a novel framework to quantify and characterize urban economic vibrancy resilience in Xiamen Island, China, during the COVID-19 outbreak. Leveraging geo-tagged life service review data, we evaluate economic vibrancy resilience of communities using seasonal-trend decomposition. A GeoXAI framework integrating random forest and GeoShapley is employed to unravel relationships between built environment and the resilience. The findings indicate that: (1) building form exhibits dominant effects on the resilience, followed by street centrality, and functional mixture, with transit accessibility serving as a supplementary factor; (2) the associations are generally nonlinear, with identifiable thresholds and effective ranges such as ground space index below 0.2; (3) the associations are spatially heterogeneous, with dominant influencing factors varying across locations. These insights advance theoretical understanding of urban vibrancy and resilience and enlighten pandemic-responsive urban planning and design.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103794"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145227617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-27DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103797
Xian Li , Erfu Dai , Jun Yin , Lizhi Jia , Lin Zhao
Balancing socioeconomic progress with environmental conservation is a main challenge to sustainable development in less developed regions. To advance regional sustainable development, it is essential to understand the dynamics of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), identify synergies and trade-offs among them, and strive to enhance the former while reducing the latter. In this study, we selected 17 SDG indicators to establish an evaluation framework for measuring SDGs progress at the county level in Tibet from 2015 to 2022. Then Spearman correlation analysis was applied to explore the complex relationships among the SDGs. The results indicated that Tibet's sustainable development level showed a gradual upward trend overall from 2015 to 2022, while the scores were still low, with an average SDG score of 35.48 in 2022. The gap between SDG indicators was large, except SDG 13.2.2 (Carbon dioxide emissions), SDG 6.3.1 (Per capita annual quantity of waste-water discharged), and SDG 11.6.2 (Annual mean concentration of PM2.5), the rest of SDG indicators scored low. Counties with lower scores were primarily concentrated in the Qiangtang Plateau. In conjunction with the Moran's I, the spatial correlation among different counties weakened over time. The unevenness existed in sustainable development, and there were obvious differences among counties for the same SDG indicator. The interaction analysis showed that there were 23 synergies and 18 trade-offs among the 67 pairs of SDG indicators. From 2015 to 2022, the number of synergies increased from 14 to 20, and trade-offs from 11 to 18. This study provides a theoretical foundation for ecological civilization construction in Tibet and offers decision-making references for the sustainable development of economically underdeveloped regions with good ecological conditions.
{"title":"The dynamic changes and complex relationships of sustainable development goals in Tibet","authors":"Xian Li , Erfu Dai , Jun Yin , Lizhi Jia , Lin Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103797","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103797","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Balancing socioeconomic progress with environmental conservation is a main challenge to sustainable development in less developed regions. To advance regional sustainable development, it is essential to understand the dynamics of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), identify synergies and trade-offs among them, and strive to enhance the former while reducing the latter. In this study, we selected 17 SDG indicators to establish an evaluation framework for measuring SDGs progress at the county level in Tibet from 2015 to 2022. Then Spearman correlation analysis was applied to explore the complex relationships among the SDGs. The results indicated that Tibet's sustainable development level showed a gradual upward trend overall from 2015 to 2022, while the scores were still low, with an average SDG score of 35.48 in 2022. The gap between SDG indicators was large, except SDG 13.2.2 (Carbon dioxide emissions), SDG 6.3.1 (Per capita annual quantity of waste-water discharged), and SDG 11.6.2 (Annual mean concentration of PM<sub>2.5</sub>), the rest of SDG indicators scored low. Counties with lower scores were primarily concentrated in the Qiangtang Plateau. In conjunction with the Moran's <em>I</em>, the spatial correlation among different counties weakened over time. The unevenness existed in sustainable development, and there were obvious differences among counties for the same SDG indicator. The interaction analysis showed that there were 23 synergies and 18 trade-offs among the 67 pairs of SDG indicators. From 2015 to 2022, the number of synergies increased from 14 to 20, and trade-offs from 11 to 18. This study provides a theoretical foundation for ecological civilization construction in Tibet and offers decision-making references for the sustainable development of economically underdeveloped regions with good ecological conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103797"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-26DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103795
Zhiran Huang
Despite improvements in accessibility since the last century, wheelchair users continue to encounter challenges when using urban rail transit (URT), particularly due to the limited availability of wheelchair-accessible exits. Focusing on URT exits, this study aims to identify the factors influencing the provision of wheelchair-accessible exits and examine the resulting impacts on accessibility for wheelchair users. Five cities in the Greater Bay Area, China, including 749 URT stations and 3,360 exits, are included. The random forest model and the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method are employed to investigate the contribution of nine variables from both city and station levels. At the city level, the results indicate that both GDP per capita and the number of wheelchair users positively contributed to the availability of wheelchair-accessible exits. At the station level, population density surrounding the station demonstrated an inverse exponential correlation with SHAP values, indicating that stations in densely populated areas are less likely to provide wheelchair-accessible exits. Consequently, wheelchair users need to take considerable detours, averaging 74 %, to reach points of interest within the buffer areas of stations, with the greatest detour observed when accessing financial institutions. The policy and planning implications for achieving universal design are discussed.
{"title":"Investigating the availability of wheelchair-accessible exits of urban rail transit stations: an explainable machine learning approach","authors":"Zhiran Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103795","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103795","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite improvements in accessibility since the last century, wheelchair users continue to encounter challenges when using urban rail transit (URT), particularly due to the limited availability of wheelchair-accessible exits. Focusing on URT exits, this study aims to identify the factors influencing the provision of wheelchair-accessible exits and examine the resulting impacts on accessibility for wheelchair users. Five cities in the Greater Bay Area, China, including 749 URT stations and 3,360 exits, are included. The random forest model and the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method are employed to investigate the contribution of nine variables from both city and station levels. At the city level, the results indicate that both GDP per capita and the number of wheelchair users positively contributed to the availability of wheelchair-accessible exits. At the station level, population density surrounding the station demonstrated an inverse exponential correlation with SHAP values, indicating that stations in densely populated areas are less likely to provide wheelchair-accessible exits. Consequently, wheelchair users need to take considerable detours, averaging 74 %, to reach points of interest within the buffer areas of stations, with the greatest detour observed when accessing financial institutions. The policy and planning implications for achieving universal design are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103795"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-26DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103798
Feng Liu , Lunche Wang , Qian Cao , Jun Gao , Zixin Zhang , Jia Sun
Rapid urbanization has triggered changes in land use patterns, reshaping the surface energy balance and vegetation functions, and resulting in significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity in vegetation cooling effects. However, there is still a lack of systematic understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of the cooling effect driven by urban vegetation restoration and its climate adaptation mechanisms. This study quantified the spatiotemporal dynamic patterns of tree cooling efficiency (TCE) in 1113 global cities from 2000 to 2020 and revealed the interactive regulation and threshold effects of climate context and vegetation biophysical characteristics on TCE. The results show that approximately 68 % of the 1113 cities worldwide exhibit an increasing trend in tree cover, with an average cooling efficiency of 0.138 °C/%, resulting in an average cooling benefit of 1.586 °C. Affected by differences in vegetation characteristics and climate background, the temperature mitigation effects of trees in different cities vary significantly. TCE is higher in tropical arid urban environments, while the cooling benefits are more pronounced in temperate and cold urban areas. By revealing the spatiotemporal differences in urban tree cooling effects and their climate adaptability worldwide, this analysis emphasizes the dynamic nature of TCE and the importance of continuous monitoring for the effective formulation of regional climate-resilient greening strategies.
{"title":"Quantifying the cooling benefits driven by global urban tree cover restoration","authors":"Feng Liu , Lunche Wang , Qian Cao , Jun Gao , Zixin Zhang , Jia Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103798","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103798","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rapid urbanization has triggered changes in land use patterns, reshaping the surface energy balance and vegetation functions, and resulting in significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity in vegetation cooling effects. However, there is still a lack of systematic understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of the cooling effect driven by urban vegetation restoration and its climate adaptation mechanisms. This study quantified the spatiotemporal dynamic patterns of tree cooling efficiency (TCE) in 1113 global cities from 2000 to 2020 and revealed the interactive regulation and threshold effects of climate context and vegetation biophysical characteristics on TCE. The results show that approximately 68 % of the 1113 cities worldwide exhibit an increasing trend in tree cover, with an average cooling efficiency of 0.138 °C/%, resulting in an average cooling benefit of 1.586 °C. Affected by differences in vegetation characteristics and climate background, the temperature mitigation effects of trees in different cities vary significantly. TCE is higher in tropical arid urban environments, while the cooling benefits are more pronounced in temperate and cold urban areas. By revealing the spatiotemporal differences in urban tree cooling effects and their climate adaptability worldwide, this analysis emphasizes the dynamic nature of TCE and the importance of continuous monitoring for the effective formulation of regional climate-resilient greening strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103798"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-24DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103779
Tamilwai J. Kolowa , Matthias Weigand , Ines Standfuß , Sebastian Klüsener , Nik Lomax , Hannes Taubenböck
Understanding population shifts along urban-rural gradients is crucial for informed decision-making in sustainable spatial planning. Empirical accounts of urbanization and suburbanization rely on classification choices, typically derived from administrative units. Recently, novel classification approaches based on remote sensing and high-resolution population data have gained relevance. This trend, driven by methodological advancements, raises the question of whether these new approaches yield similar or different results in comparative analyses along urban-rural gradients. Our paper explores how classification choices affect assessments of population trends along the urban-rural gradient at both the national and subnational regional scales. We contrast three urban gradient classifications to analyze population change in 50 German metropolitan regions from 2011 to 2022. Results indicate that, at the national scale, observed trends in urban, suburban, and peri-urban areas are consistent across all classifications. For Germany, we find that urban areas have registered higher growth rates than suburban and peri-urban areas across all classifications. However, at the regional scale, observed trends partially depend on classification choices, suggesting that regional findings are particularly sensitive to the chosen classification scheme. The methodological framework presented here can also be applied to other geographical contexts for which similar data are available.
{"title":"Is Germany experiencing urban or suburban growth? Contrasting long-standing and novel urban gradient classifications","authors":"Tamilwai J. Kolowa , Matthias Weigand , Ines Standfuß , Sebastian Klüsener , Nik Lomax , Hannes Taubenböck","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103779","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103779","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding population shifts along urban-rural gradients is crucial for informed decision-making in sustainable spatial planning. Empirical accounts of urbanization and suburbanization rely on classification choices, typically derived from administrative units. Recently, novel classification approaches based on remote sensing and high-resolution population data have gained relevance. This trend, driven by methodological advancements, raises the question of whether these new approaches yield similar or different results in comparative analyses along urban-rural gradients. Our paper explores how classification choices affect assessments of population trends along the urban-rural gradient at both the national and subnational regional scales. We contrast three urban gradient classifications to analyze population change in 50 German metropolitan regions from 2011 to 2022. Results indicate that, at the national scale, observed trends in urban, suburban, and peri-urban areas are consistent across all classifications. For Germany, we find that urban areas have registered higher growth rates than suburban and peri-urban areas across all classifications. However, at the regional scale, observed trends partially depend on classification choices, suggesting that regional findings are particularly sensitive to the chosen classification scheme. The methodological framework presented here can also be applied to other geographical contexts for which similar data are available.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"185 ","pages":"Article 103779"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145159642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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