Urbanization significantly influences vegetation dynamics with both direct and indirect effects. Direct impacts involve the conversion of natural or vegetated land into impervious surfaces, whereas indirect impacts result from urbanization-induced changes in the climate, environmental conditions, and human activities. This study quantifies these direct and indirect effects across 360 Chinese cities using spatial statistical analyses and a random forest model along urban-rural gradients. Our findings show that indirect urbanization fosters vegetation growth (36.2%) and enhances carbon sinks (24.2%), with stronger effects in urban centers that decrease toward rural areas. Furthermore, 52.5% of the study grids demonstrated positive synergies between vegetation growth and carbon sinks, primarily driven by indirect urbanization factors, with significant influences from climatic and anthropogenic variables. Notably, indirect urbanization offsets approximately 38.5% of the carbon losses caused by impervious surface conversion. These results underscore the complex interplay between vegetation dynamics and urbanization, offering valuable insights for sustainable urban planning.

Urbanization and greening reshape the surface thermal environment, with opposing thermal effects on urban sustainability and population health. Here, we integrate multidimensional analysis and LightGBM models to quantify how urbanization and greening alter surface temperature and thereby modulate surface urban heat island (SUHI) dynamics across 325 Chinese cities from 2000 to 2025. Our study reveals that urbanization-induced warming is consistently strongest in neighboring rural areas, whereas vegetation-driven cooling intensifies sharply in urban areas during summer. These opposing thermal effects exhibit clear seasonal and diurnal asymmetries, with the strongest responses occurring in summer and during the daytime. Climatic factors emerge as the dominant drivers of surface thermal variability across the urban-rural gradient. Urbanization-induced warming was the dominant contributor to the mean SUHI intensity of 0.39 degrees C, whereas urban greening represented a cooling contribution share of approximately 31.83% during summer. This contrast between persistent urbanization-induced warming and seasonally concentrated vegetation-driven cooling reveals the constrained timing and spatial dependence of effective biophysical mitigation. Our findings clarify the dual and asymmetric roles of urbanization and greening in urban thermal dynamics and provide quantitative benchmarks for differentiated, climate-resilient planning.

Against the backdrop of the pronounced tension between a growing caseload and limited judicial personnel, the element-based complaint has been regarded as an efficiency-enhancing instrument in the reform of case complexity diversion and has played a pivotal role in the development of smart courts. Taking courts in Ningxia as the research sample, this study investigates the application status and practical challenges of element-based complaints through questionnaire surveys, judicial interviews, and comparative data analysis. In response to the difficulties encountered during implementationincluding challenges faced by litigants in completing the forms, obstacles in lawyers' application, and operational issues within the courtsthis paper tentatively proposes a localized improvement scheme integrating "element-based complaints + artificial intelligence." The study seeks to explore a replicable path for optimizing the element-based complaint system in the central and western regions of China.

Rapid advances in generative AI have focused attention on the associated energy demand and carbon emissions. Existing studies on its impact on CO2 emissions rarely distinguish computing capacity supply from algorithm services at the city level. The present study explores AI expansion in 297 cities from 2012–2024 through the scale of regular and AI data centers, generative AI service filings and registrations, and domestic deep-synthesis service algorithm filings. Emissions data are combined with extended inter-city input–output tables to measure production-based and consumption-based CO2 emissions. We find that AI expansion does not necessarily increase urban carbon emissions. Rather, the environmental consequences vary across technological stages, carbon-accounting approaches, and city characteristics. The empirical results, based on Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood baseline regressions and staggered-adoption difference-in-differences estimates, show that AI expansion is significantly and negatively associated with city-level carbon emissions. The mechanism estimates are consistent with AI expansion being associated with lower production-based CO2 emissions through more digitalized production organization and higher green production efficiency, and with lower consumption-based CO2 emissions through a shift in final demand toward lower-carbon categories. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the carbon effects of AI expansion depend jointly on a city’s development stage, industrial structure, resource endowments, and role in the national computing-hub initiative. This paper extends the empirical framework for measuring AI expansion and accounting for carbon emissions, assesses the relationship between them, and presents evidence regarding the links among AI infrastructure, algorithm governance, and low-carbon urban transition. ​ ​

Urbanization and greening reshape the surface thermal environment, with opposing thermal effects on urban sustainability and population health. Here, we integrate multidimensional analysis and LightGBM models to quantify how urbanization and greening alter surface temperature and thereby modulate surface urban heat island (SUHI) dynamics across 325 Chinese cities from 2000 to 2025. Our study reveals that urbanization-induced warming is consistently strongest in neighboring rural areas, whereas vegetation-driven cooling intensifies sharply in urban areas during summer. These opposing thermal effects exhibit clear seasonal and diurnal asymmetries, with the strongest responses occurring in summer and during the daytime. Climatic factors emerge as the dominant drivers of surface thermal variability across the urban-rural gradient. Urbanization-induced warming was the dominant contributor to the mean SUHI intensity of 0.39 °C, whereas urban greening represented a cooling contribution share of approximately 31.83% during summer. This contrast between persistent urbanization-induced warming and seasonally concentrated vegetation-driven cooling reveals the constrained timing and spatial dependence of effective biophysical mitigation. Our findings clarify the dual and asymmetric roles of urbanization and greening in urban thermal dynamics and provide quantitative benchmarks for differentiated, climate-resilient planning.

Striking a balance between green mountains and mountains of gold is a central issue of widespread concern. This paper constructs a simple theoretical model to propose the logical conditions under which a win–win outcome between environmental protection and economic development can be achieved, and uses the low-carbon pilot city policy as a quasi-natural experiment, tested with a difference-in-differences approach. The results show that the low-carbon pilot city policy significantly improves urban per capita GDP and air quality. Mechanism analysis indicates that advances in emission-reduction technologies, industrial restructuring, and fiscal transfers are key pathways through which low-carbon pilot cities realize synergy between environmental protection and economic development. The policy effects are heterogeneous, largely determined by the opportunity costs of ecological protection, the transformation costs of development patterns, and the compensatory effects of ecological fiscal transfers. In sum, the analysis in this paper helps cities identify the intersection between environmental protection and economic development and explore pathways toward green, high-quality growth.

Evaluating the regional ecological carrying capacity (ECC) is the key to promoting regional ecological civilization construction and high-quality development.However, the ECC is a dynamic and complex system with substantial regional differences.Therefore, it is necessary to consider the data and relationships of the regional economy, society, and resource environment according to local conditions.We have proposed a data-driven method to evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of regional ECC.Based on the application of economic, social, resource, and environmental data reflecting ECC, a regional ECC evaluation index system was constructed.The entropy weight TOPSIS model was applied to measure and evaluate the regional ECC and the three subsystems of economy, society, resources, and the environment.Their spatiotemporal evolution trends were analyzed, and targeted policy recommendations for data application have been proposed.This study examined the ECC in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2011 to 2020 to demonstrate the implementation of datadriven methods.The findings have verified the feasibility of the research method, providing theoretical and methodological support for the study and management of ECC.This has also provided a basis for the construction of a regional ecological civilization, sustainable development, prevention of ecological degradation, and formulation of environmental protection-related policies.

The issue of unused rural residential bases in China, particularly in areas like Xin’an Town, challenges efficient land use and rural revitalisation goals. Historical practices, including the inheritance of multiple home sites per household (“one household, many homes”) and inconsistent enforcement of policies like “one household, one residence,” have led to significant land idleness. Farmers’ limited awareness of collective land ownership laws also contributes to this inefficiency. This study combines field investigation, questionnaire surveys, and binary logistic regression analysis to identify key factors contributing to the unused rural residential bases. Field observation involved direct visits to the study area to gather qualitative insights into the socio-cultural factors influencing land use. Additionally, household surveys were conducted through interviews and questionnaires to collect quantitative data on family size, income levels, income sources, and policy awareness. The logistic regression model was then used to quantitatively assess these variables’ impact on unused rural residential bases. The analysis reveals that family size, income, and income sources are significant determinants of unused rural residential bases. Larger families tend to use land more actively, whereas higher-income households and those with non-agricultural income sources exhibit higher rates of idleness due to a greater tendency for urban migration. Policy awareness alone was found to be insufficient in incentivising effective land use. To reduce unused rural residential bases and promote efficient use, the study recommends (1) compulsory recovery and clearance of abandoned land; (2) financial incentives for releasing inherited unused land; (3) development of local industries to create jobs and reduce migration; and (4) stricter enforcement of land-use policies with enhanced community awareness efforts. These measures support the goals of Rural Revitalisation.

The spatial equality of urban public services and their accessibility are a crucial aspect of urban sustainability. However, there is currently a lack of a composite proxy that can effectively assess public service equality with fine granularity. To address this gap, we have developed a new indicator based on the concept of location dominance. This indicator accumulates access opportunities to public services with a time-weighted decay function at granular level. Our findings reveal that location dominance in Shijiazhuang follows a pronounced core–periphery pattern. Efficient travel modes can significantly enhance location dominance and increase spatial equality, aligning with people’s travel preferences. Additionally, we discovered an extremely strong linear correlation between three key urban development elements (i.e., nighttime lighting data, land use intensity, and population retention rate) and location dominance. The discussion of these findings confirms the validity of our method and the reliability of our results. Consequently, this method and its outputs can aid policymakers and urban planners in swiftly identifying subtle disparities in spatial accessibility for public services, thereby promoting urban equality and sustainability.

Water-related ecosystem services (WESs) are essential for sustainable development, particularly in regions experiencing rapid land use and cover change (LUCC) and climate change (CC). This study evaluates the spatial and temporal impacts, independent contributions, and trade-offs of LUCC and CC on WESs in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2000 to 2030. By integrating the BCC-CSM2-MR, InVEST, and PLUS models with dynamic trade-offs analysis, our findings indicate that water yield (WY) could increase by up to 53.65 % under the SSP585 climate with cropland protection scenario (CP585), and the upstream surge is significant. Additionally, water purification (WP) is projected to improve across the region, as evidenced by a 10.31 % reduction in phosphorus (P) export under SSP585 climate with ecological protection scenario (EP585), while upstream degrades in the urban expansion (UE) and CP scenarios. CC exerts a predominant positive influence (over 90 %) on WY, while LUCC significantly affect WP especially in the downstream. Overall dynamic trade-offs reveal lowest upstream and highest downstream trade-offs between WESs. Meanwhile the spatial synergy between WESs is expected to be most extensive under the SSP245 climate and EP scenario (EP245). These findings underscore the importance of integrated land and water management strategies to optimize WESs and support sustainable regional development amid future environmental changes. However, this study is limited by its use of annual average precipitation, which ignores seasonal dynamics, and by focusing on the separate effects of LUCC and CC without considering their combined effects. Future research should address these gaps.

Carbon neutrality has gained considerable attention globally, and the impact of environmental policy on businesses has been extensively studied. However, the mechanism through which environmental policy affects production efficiency within the enterprise remains unclear. The objectives of this paper are: 1. To analyze the effects of different environmental policies on the production efficiency of enterprises; 2. From the perspective of production process transformation, the mechanism of these policies affecting production efficiency is comprehensively examined. This paper adopts a novel approach, grounded in the Porter Hypothesis, to analyze the impact of environmental policy on enhancing firm-level production efficiency. Specifically, we utilized data from Chinese listed companies to examine the influence of environmental policy on total factor productivity and its underlying mechanisms. To explore the different impacts of environmental policies, we separate them into environmental regulatory policies and incentive environmental policies. Our results suggest that regulatory and incentive-based environmental policies can enhance firm-level production efficiency through three primary mechanisms: 1. Regulatory environmental policies promote green innovation, leading to cleaner production processes and improved efficiency.2. Incentive-based environmental policies and regulatory environmental policies encourage firms to invest in environmentally-friendly practices, resulting in cleaner production and increased efficiency.3. Both types of policies can stimulate fixed factor input and improve production efficiency through industrial upgrading. Furthermore, our analysis revealed interesting new findings regarding the heterogeneity of firm property rights and pollution levels. Finally, we propose policy recommendations to assist the government in achieving green economic development.

Power sector CO2 emissions (PSCE) are a key ecological pressure indicator, directly reflecting anthropogenic stress on the environment and influencing national carbon neutrality goals. This study constructs a multi-dimensional indicator framework to analyze PSCE across 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2020. We integrate the STIRPAT model, spatial LMDI decomposition, and K-means clustering to quantify emission drivers and identify regional patterns. Nine driving-factor indicators are employed, covering emission coefficients, fossil energy structure, thermal power efficiency, nuclear and renewable energy contributions, electricity supply–demand balance, electricity intensity, economic development, and population size. Results indicate that economic growth, electricity intensity, fossil fuel generation efficiency, and the share of thermal power are the main emission drivers. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is validated, suggesting emissions could decline as income rises if cleaner energy and efficiency measures are adopted. Spatial decomposition reveals significant regional disparities, influenced by factors such as population, development level, energy intensity, and renewable energy adoption. K-means clustering identifies five regional PSCE types, with provinces like Inner Mongolia and Shanxi showing high reduction potential. These findings emphasize the need for differentiated, region-specific mitigation strategies to support China’s dual carbon goals.

This study explores the factors driving CO2 emissions related to energy use in Fujian Province from 2000 to 2019, with an emphasis on long-term trends, short-term fluctuations, and spatial disparities. Utilizing annual data on CO2 emissions and various influencing factors from multiple cities within Fujian Province, we examine the factors driving long-term changes in CO2 emissions. To analyze short-term emission trajectories, we employ a temporal decomposition model, while spatial decomposition techniques are used to assess the variability in emission drivers across 9 prefecture-level cities over different years. Our findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between CO2 emissions and urbanization over the 20-year study period. Furthermore, short-term fluctuations indicate a gradual reduction in the impact of urbanization on the increase in CO2 emissions within the industrial, transportation, and household sectors in Fujian Province. Additionally, economic development, measured as per capita gross domestic product, is shown to significantly influence CO2 emissions. Efforts to reduce energy intensity, which refers to the amount of energy consumed per unit of economic output, in both the industrial and household sectors are identified as potential strategies for emission reduction. The variability in CO2 emissions among cities is primarily attributed to differences in energy intensity and population sizes. These insights are critical for formulating policies aimed at promoting low-carbon development, reducing carbon emissions, and enhancing sustainability throughout Fujian Province.

China ' s commitment to attaining carbon neutrality by 2060 has galvanized research into carbon sequestration, a critical approach for mitigating climate change. Despite the rapid urbanization observed since the turn of the millennium, a comprehensive analysis of how urbanization influences urban carbon storage throughout China remains elusive. Our investigation delves into the nuanced effects of urbanization on carbon storage, dissecting both the direct and indirect influences by considering urban -suburban gradients and varying degrees of urban intensity. We particularly scrutinize the roles of climatic and anthropogenic factors in mediating the indirect effects of urbanization on carbon storage. Our findings reveal that urbanization in China has precipitated a direct reduction in carbon storage by approximately 13.89 Tg of carbon (Tg C). Remarkably, urban sprawl has led to a diminution of vegetation carbon storage by 8.65 Tg C and a decrease in soil carbon storage by 5.24 Tg C, the latter resulting from the sequestration of impervious surfaces and the elimination of organic matter inputs following vegetation removal. Meanwhile, carbon storage in urban greenspaces has exhibited an increase of 6.90 Tg C and offsetting 49.70% of the carbon loss induced by direct urbanization effects. However, the indirect effects of urbanization predominantly diminish carbon storage in urban greenspaces by an average of 5.40%. The degree of urban vegetation management emerges as a pivotal factor influencing the indirect effects of urbanization on carbon storage. To bolster urban carbon storage, curbing urban sprawl and augmenting urban green spaces are imperative strategies. Insights from this study are instrumental in steering sustainable urban planning and advancing towards the goal of carbon neutrality.

City afforestation serves as a robust strategy for thermal mitigation. Employing multisource satellite data, we explored the impact of vegetation cover on temperature dynamics across urban and rural sectors in Chinese cities. Our analysis reveals that a 1% increase in vegetation coverage corresponds to a reduction in surface temperature by 0.099°C to 0.102°C in urban environments. However, the cooling effect diminishes from urban to rural areas, where increased vegetation occasionally results in warming. Further, the temperature reduction tends to stabilize at higher vegetation levels, as demonstrated in grid-based evaluations. Significantly, variations in urban population density substantially modulate these cooling effects. Over the period 2000–2020, afforestation increased vegetation coverage by 4.35% in urban areas, which led to cooling in 67.43% of the analyzed cities, with an average surface temperature decline of 0.58°C. Additionally, our findings document a notable attenuation of the urban heat island (UHI) effect over time, with an average decrease of 0.56 ± 0.35°C. This reduction primarily results from the thermoregulatory effects of changes in vegetation coverage, which cool urban areas and may warm rural ones. Our study underscores the critical role of afforestation in urban climate management and its efficacy in attenuating urban heat waves and UHI effects.

The effect of the place-based policies on sustainable development has received substantial attention in economic research. In China, the industrial transformation and upgrading exemplary zone policy is a prominent example of such policies, as it targets old industrial and resource-based cities. The paper provides an early assessment of the policy’s capability to reduce carbon emissions. Specifically, we use data from old industrial and resource-based cities for the period of 2012–2019 and apply the difference-in-differences method to examine the policy’s influence on total carbon emissions and intensity. The results show that the policy can effectively reduce carbon emissions through reducing energy consumption, promoting urban green innovation and tertiary industry agglomeration. Compared to resource-based cities, cities with a low level of economic development and central, western cities, this impact is more notable in old industrial cities, cities with a high level of economic development and eastern cities. Additional analysis reveals that the policy has beneficial spatial radiation impacts on the nearby cities as well. In the meanwhile, the strategy may have a synergy effect on reducing carbon emissions and pollution. The results of this study may have an impact on how nations implement place-based policies and reduce carbon emissions.

Power system flexibility resources (PSFR) are conducive to the construction of new power system and the early realization of the “Dual Carbon” goal in China. Although the development of PSFR is accelerating in China, it is still remains challenging to meet the demands of the energy transition due to various barriers that hinder it. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as a typical region, plays a crucial role in the development of PSFR. Thus, this paper constructs an objective research framework to effectively analysis barriers and promotes the development of PSFR in the region. Firstly, based on the analysis of the current situation of PSF, 15 barriers affecting its development are identified. Then, the barrier identification framework is constructed to study the prominence of the above barriers and their transmission pathways. The results show that five barriers are considered critical to developing PSFR in the region. Accordingly, this paper proposes recommendations to alleviate or eliminate the critical barriers, thus promoting the development of PSFR.

A detailed investigation of the nexus between economic growth and energy use is imperative for formulating sustainable development policies. In this study, we examine panel cointegration and causality relations among economic growth, energy use, capital stock, and labor in 30 Chinese provinces between 2000–2019. We con-duct a comprehensive empirical analysis based on panel modeling and a neoclassical production function. The findings of the second-generation panel unit root and co-integration tests reveal that these variables have long-term co-integration linkages. We then perform a panel cointegration estimation using the fully modified ordi-nary least squares technique and find that total energy consumption, electricity consumption, capital stock, and labor significantly influence economic growth at the national and regional levels in China. Moreover, the outcomes of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test indicate the existence of a two-way causal nexus between economic output and total energy consumption at the national level, but only a causal link from GDP to total energy use in the eastern and central regions. Conversely, a causality from total energy use to economic out-put is identified in the western region. Finally, we provide policy implications for the sustainable development of both energy and the economy at the national and regional levels.

本文以人教版高中地理选择性必修3《资源、环境与国家安全》中的"全球气候变化与国家安全"为例,将"双碳"目标设为学习目标,并基于UbD理论进行逆向教学设计,通过该设计探索在高中地理教学中融入"双碳"目标的具体途径.本文旨在为地理教师提供一种新的教学设计思路,以促进教师更好地理解"双碳"目标,在教学中培养学生的环保意识和行动力.