The process of urbanization inevitably affects the ecological environment. It is crucial to promote the coupled and coordinated development of new urbanization and ecological resilience. Based on the connotations and coupling coordination mechanisms of new urbanization and ecological resilience, this paper analyzed the spatial-temporal patterns and dynamic impact of new urbanization and ecological resilience in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2012 to 2021. Coupling coordination model, spatial auto-regression model, and PVAR model were applied. The results indicated that: (1) The levels of new urbanization and ecological resilience continued to grow. The weakness of new urbanization lied in population urbanization, while the shortcoming of ecological resilience lied in stress resilience. (2) The coordination development level was in the primary coordination stage and exhibited a stable and significant positive spatial correlation. High-high agglomeration areas were distributed in the Yangtze River Delta region, low-low agglomeration areas were distributed in the Yunnan-Guizhou region. (3) New urbanization and ecological resilience were mainly constrained by historical levels without bidirectional Granger causality, and their dynamic interaction effect was not significant. The development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt should consider resource and environmental carrying capacity, to enhance the weaknesses of new urbanization and complete the shortboard of ecological resilience. A coordinated interactive development mechanism between new urbanization and ecological resilience should be established.

Green growth efficiency is an important evaluation index to accurately judge and evaluate the performance of green transition. The article measured the green growth efficiency values of 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations from 2006 to 2021, by using the global Super-SBM-Undesirable model. The coefficient of variation, entropy value method, three-dimensional Kernel density and center of gravity model were adopted to analyze the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics and the center of gravity migration process. The BP neural network model was used to predict the future trend of green growth efficiency in 2022-2027. The results showed that: (1) During the study period, there was a significant increase in green growth efficiency across all cities in the study area. The overall green growth efficiency showed an overall upward trend year by year. There was a polarization phenomenon in the efficiency between cities and provinces, but the overall difference was gradually decreasing. The number of cities in the high green growth efficiency zones increased and the distribution became gradually dense. (2)Each city's efficiency value exhibited a noticeable upgrading trend. Spatially, high-efficiency areas of green growth demonstrated enhanced agglomeration patterns. This was observed as discrete distribution shifting from both eastern and western ends towards inward and peripheral regions, which ultimately formed multiple extensive zones characterized by high levels of green growth efficiency. (3) The center of gravity of green growth efficiency was roughly distributed in the central cities, and the efficiency difference between the eastern and western cities was larger than that between the southern and northern cities. The polarization of green growth efficiency between cities gradually weakened, and the migration distance of the center of green growth efficiency also decreased. (4) The forecast results showed that the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations would maintain a good level of green growth in the next six years. There existed room for improvement with a small annual growth rate. Finally, based on the regional characteristics of green growth efficiency, relevant suggestions were put forward to improve the green growth efficiency of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations.

Based on the panel data of 31 cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River from 2016 to 2021, an evaluation index system was constructed to measure the development level of logistics industry and commerce industry. A coupled coordination degree model was established to measure the coordinated development level of the two industries. Dagum Gini coefficient and nuclear density estimation method were used to analyze the spatial difference degree and dynamic evolution characteristics of the coordinated development level of the two industries. The findings were as follows: (1) The development level of the commercial and trade industries lagged behind that of the logistics industry, but the development levels of both were in a positive growth trend; (2) The coordination level of the two industries was not high and was at the stage of moderate imbalance. The coupling coordination degree was in the trend of positive growth, and the coordinated development level of the two industries showed the distribution pattern of Chang-Zhu-tan metropolitan area > Wuhan metropolitan area > Nanchang metropolitan area. (3) The degree of regional differentiation of the coordinated development level showed a decreasing trend. The main source of the spatial difference of the coordinated development level was at a super-variable density, followed by intra-regional difference, and the contribution rate of inter-regional difference. (4) The coordinated development levels of the urban agglomerations and the three metropolitan areas showed an upward trend. There was no obvious polarization in Nanchang metropolitan area and Wuhan metropolitan area, while Chang-Zhu-Tan Metropolitan area showed a double-peak phenomenon at the early stage and gradually changed into a single-peak. The internal polarization tended to weaken in general.

Clarifying the relationship between urban renewal and ecological resilience is a necessary condition for promoting the construction of ecological civilization and realizing green development. By constructing an index system of urban renewal and ecological resilience，and using models such as entropy weight method and responsiveness，this paper studied the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of urban renewal and ecological resilience in the Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration from 2010 to 2021. The response relationship between ecological resilience and urban renewal was further analyzed. The results showed that: (1) The comprehensive index of urban renewal and ecological resilience of the surrounding Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration showed an upward trend. (2) During the expansion of the high-index area of urban renewal and ecological resilience from Changsha to the surrounding cities，the low-index area continued to shrink and gradually evolved into a high-value area. (3) The response index of ecological resilience to urban renewal in the Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration generally showed a gradually decreasing trend.

With the rapid advance of the new urbanization and rural revitalization strategy, urban-rural relationship is undergoing dramatic changes. Rural construction has made remarkable achievements, but still faces many problems. The practical dilemma of rural areas as weak link in the urban-rural regional system has not yet been effectively overcome. How to deal with the rural recession to realize the rural revitalization has become the focus of attention. Rural attraction is a potential ability or force of the rural regional system to attract population, industries, funds, information, technology and other resource elements to flow and gather. Enhancing rural attraction is an important path to cope with rural decline, enhance rural competitiveness, and achieve rural revitalization. It is a new perspective of rural revitalization geography. This paper took the rural attraction level of 28 township units in Liuyang as the research object, and used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the multi-dimensional factors influencing the spatial differentiation characteristics of rural attraction and the influencing paths. The results showed that: (1) the rural attraction in Liuyang presented relatively obvious space differentiation characteristics. Rural attraction level of central town near the provincial capital was relatively high, and other regional rural attraction levels were relatively low. (2) Among the six-dimensional influencing factors of rural attraction, the consistency level of industry-economy and facilities-perception factors were relatively high, but none of them constituted a necessary condition for affecting the level of rural attractiveness. This indicated that rural attraction was formed under the interaction of multiple influencing factors, and there were multiple combination forms and ways of action. (3) Seven configurations under the influence of six antecedent variables were detected to be the main driving mechanism for the formation of rural attraction. Among them, industry and economic, social and cultural, facilities and perception played key roles in the formation of rural attraction. Location advantage was also one of the core conditions for the formation of strong rural attraction. Policy and environmental factors played auxiliary roles in the formation of strong rural attraction.

To explore the routine of high-quality agricultural development, it is essential to enhance the effectiveness of agricultural water use and to accelerate the transition towards water-conserving agriculture. This study employed super-efficiency data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist index to assess and evaluate the agricultural water use efficiency (AWUE) in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) and the Yellow River Basin (YRB). Panel data from 19 provinces and regions covering 2011 to 2021 were collected. The Tobit regression model and Spatio -Temporal Geographic Weighted Regression model were employed to examine the disparities in the determinants of AWUE in the two regions. This study revealed that ：(1) the AWUE in the two regions had been  consistently improved. The AWUE of YRB was poor. Moreover, the AWUE of the downstream areas of the two regions was comparatively high. The majority of provinces and regions inside the YREB experienced an excess of agricultural wastewater, whereas the YRB had an excessive inflow of agricultural water. There was a significant overlap in the crop planting area indicators between the two main zones. (2) The AWUE in the two regions experienced a fluctuating upward trend. The average annual growth rate of the AWUE in the YREB was greater than that in the YRB. When considering the index decomposition structure, the YREB had a significantly greater technological development index compared to the YRB. However, the YRB demonstrated a higher technical efficiency index than the YREB. (3) Factors of per capita GDP, effective irrigation index, and the proportion of grain sown area had a notable influence on the AWUE in the YREB. On the other hand, the proportion of agricultural water use had the greatest impact on the AWUE in the YRB. The influencing degree demonstrated a region-dependent difference, i.e. the factors in the YREB had a much greater impact than in the YRB. Therefore, this study proposed corresponding policies to improve the AWUE in the YREB and the YRB.

Clarifying the vulnerability status of cropland use system is an effective way to respond to systemic crises. Taking the Huaihai Economic Zone as an example, this article constructed a set of assessment system of cropland use vulnerability under urbanization disturbance from three aspects: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability. This study revealed the spatio-temporal evolution of cropland use vulnerability at the county level from 2000 to 2018. The regional types were divided according to the characteristics of cropland use vulnerability, and targeted regulation strategies were proposed. The findings showed that: (1) The overall vulnerability of cropland use had shown a gradual growth trend, mainly due to the insufficient carrying capacity of the internal adaptability of cropland use for the cropland use exposure. (2) The spatial distribution of cropland use exposure had shifted from being dominated by low-value counties to being dominated by high-value counties; the spatial distribution of sensitivity and adaptability of cropland use had been dominated by low-value counties, while both had increased in most counties; Collectively, the spatial distribution of cropland use vulnerability showed the dominance of low-value counties and the spread of high-value counties. (3) Based on the structural characteristics of cropland use vulnerability, the Huaihai Economic Zone was classified into seven types of regions, and corresponding targeted strategies were proposed to alleviate the contradiction between urbanization and cropland protection and to promote the healthy and sustainable development of cropland use system.

The aim of this study is to investigate the soil organic carbon (SOC) content and its influencing factors in citrus orchards in the Three Gorges Reservoir region, and to elucidate the mechanisms affecting SOC levels in the orchards. Leveraging actual measured data from 156 sample sites in the study area, this study considered potential variables affecting soil organic carbon content, such as topography, climate, and vegetation. The Random Forest (RF) model was employed to separately identify key factors that may influence the organic carbon content in three soil layers (0~10 cm, 10~20 cm, and 20~40 cm). Further, the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilized to explore the impact of key factors on soil organic carbon (SOC) content. The findings indicated: (1) Soil total nitrogen and annual average temperature were key factors affecting soil organic carbon, with their relative importance score gradually decreasing with an increase in soil layer depth. Specifically, the relative importance score of soil total nitrogen in the three soil layers were 35.96, 34.35, and 32.08, respectively, while those of annual average temperature were 7.68, 7.45, and 5.58, respectively.(2) A significant non-linear relationship existed between the key influencing factors and soil organic carbon, demonstrating a similar partial dependence pattern across all soil layers. (3) Soil total nitrogen had a significant positive effect on SOC across all observed soil layers (β=0.881 for 0~10 cm; β=0.829 for 10~20 cm; β=0.820 for 20~40 cm). The total effect of the annual average temperature on SOC was not significant, demonstrating a negative effect in shallower soil layers (β=-0.012 for 0~10 cm; β=-0.069 for 10~20 cm) and a positive effect in deeper layers (β=0.027 for 20~40 cm). Soil total nitrogen demonstrated the highest relative importance score and played a critical, and positive role in influencing soil organic carbon in citrus orchards, which highlighted the potential benefits of strategic nitrogen management to increase soil organic carbon storage.

To maintain the leading role in achieving the "double carbon" target in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), this paper conducted a study on the conflict of national land and spatial carbon sinks of 1 070 counties in the YREB. Land use data in 2020 and relevant socio-economic data such as the carbon emission coefficients of each category were collected. The ArcGIS and landscape ecological risk evaluation model was employed in this study. Measurement of carbon sinks and the spatial patterns under the perspectives of different scales was analyzed. Results showed that: (1) The overall structure of the spatial carbon sink conflict in the YREB was in an imbalance state. The ratios of the evaluation units were quantified as 2.71%, 20.19%, 35.23%, 29.91% and 11.96%, respectively, for stable and controllable, basically controllable, on the verge of being out of control, basically out of control and seriously out of control grades; (2) The territorial spatial carbon sink conflict was characterized by significant spatial agglomeration. The conflict cold spot was centrally distributed in the western direction of the YREB, Aba-Lijiang-Lincang-Xishuangbanna region and Shiyan-Chongqing-Shennongjia-Zhangjiajie region. Conflict hotspot areas were mainly within the cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and coastal areas in the lower reaches; (3) At the city scale, cities in a state of losing control were concentrated and contiguous, mainly within the urban circle of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, while cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River were mostly in a controllable state; (4) At the provincial scale, eastern provinces of the YREB, including Jiangsu, Shanghai, Anhui, and Zhejiang, were in a state of losing control, while western provinces including Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan were in a controllable state. The provinces at the verge of losing control, namely Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Chongqing, were located in the central part of the YREB, which connected the eastern and western regions and played an important role in spatial regulatory mechanisms.

Aiming at the achievement of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, cities are becoming the main battlefield for energy conservation and carbon reduction. Therefore, study of the impact of urban spatial element distribution and single center multi center structure on carbon emission efficiency is of very important practical significance. This article took 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta as the object. Firstly, based on the carbon emission data obtained from energy consumption calculations, the super efficiency SBM model was used to calculate the carbon emission efficiency of various cities. Then, the internal spatial structure of cities was measured based on nighttime light data. Finally, the impact, heterogeneity, and mechanism of the internal spatial structure of cities on carbon emission efficiency were analyzed using urban panel data from 2006 to 2019. Overall, the diffusion and development of cities towards multiple centers had a significant promoting effect on reducing carbon emissions and improving carbon emission performance. The impact of multiple centers on carbon emissions demonstrated a phased characteristic. As the urban form evolved from single center to multiple centers, carbon emissions first increased and then decreased, and carbon emission efficiency first suppressed and then improved. Heterogeneity analysis found that the carbon emission reduction effect of multiple centers was scale-dependent. Small cities were more conducive to carbon emission reduction through single center polarization development, while medium-sized and large cities had better carbon emission performance when developing towards multiple centers. The development of transportation facilities had a negative masking effect on the carbon emission reduction effect of multiple center cities, and the well-developed road transportation facilities in multi center cities increased the total carbon emissions; The development of cities towards multiple centers can optimize industrial structure, achieve improved production efficiency, energy conservation and emission reduction, and improve carbon emission efficiency.

Exploring the correlation between urban-rural integration and "double carbon" is of great significance for promoting the construction of ecological civilization and achieving high-quality regional development. Taking the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as the research object, this study used the coupling coordination degree model, the trend surface method and the geographic detector to study the spatio-temporal evolution and influencing factors of coupling coordination between urban-rural integration and carbon emission from 2010 to 2019. The results showed that: (1) The overall level of urban-rural integration was on the rise, but the average value was low and the regional differences were obvious. (2) The overall carbon emission intensity showed a downward trend, with narrowing regional differences, but with an existence of imbalance. (3) The coupling coordination degree between urban-rural integration level and carbon emission intensity showed a fluctuating upward trend. The type of coupling coordination evolved from reluctant coordination to intermediate coordination, indicating a development towards environmentally friendly urban agglomeration. The changes in coupling coordination degree of various cities could be divided into four types: rapidly rising central cities, radiantly rising peripheral cities, steadily rising node cities, and slowly rising marginal cities. In particular, marginal cities had much room for further improvement. The spatial distribution of coupling coordination degree showed the characteristics of "low in the middle and high at both ends in the east-west direction, and high in the south and low in the north in the north-south direction". (4) Non-agricultural employment ratio, land urbanization, urban-rural spatial circulation media, per capita GDP and urban-rural population density ratio were the core factors influencing the coupling coordination degree. Finally, suggestions were put forward in building a coordinated development model with green and low-carbon characteristics, strengthening the leading role of provincial capital cities, and enhancing the development momentum of small and medium-sized cities.

As a new type of pollutant, microplastics have attracted serious concern and extensive research worldwide. To gain insights into the characteristics of microplastic pollution in sediments in Shiwuli River, microplastics were detected by optical microscope, and the composition and surface morphology of microplastics were analyzed by Fourier Infrared Spectrometer, Scanning Electron Microscope, and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy. The results showed that the pollution degree of microplastics in the sediments was below the medium level. From the upper to lower reach, the abundance of microplastics in sediments decreased first and then increased. The microplastics in the upper and middle reach sediments were mainly fragments and fiber shapes, and accounted for 85 % and 87 % of total microplastics in 0.5~3 mm size, respectively. However, in sediments in the lower reach, fragments and films were the main proportion shapes. Microplastics in 0~0.5 mm and 0.5~3 mm size accounted for 56 % and 43 % of total microplastics, respectively. The main microplastic components were polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS). PET was the most proportion of the four components in sediment microplastics from the upper and middle river reaches. These four components were shown to be more uniform in sediment microplastics in the lower river reach. The surface of sediment microplastic was rough, porous and convex, and Si, Fe, Ca, Al etc. were detected on the microplastic surface. Moreover, the fibrous microplastic surface showed the most serious breakage and diverse morphology, and more types of metal elements were detected on the fibrous microplastic surface. The abundance, morphology, particle size and components of microplastics in sediments in different river reaches basically reflected the hydrological conditions and pollution sources in different river reaches. These results provided basic data and scientific reference for the prevention and control of microplastics pollution in Shiwuli River. 

Well-facilitated capital farmland construction is a key measure to consolidate and improve the sustainable food production capacity and to ensure national food security. Based on panel data from 31 provinces from 2001 to 2019, this paper used the "quasi-natural experiment" to conduct impacts of well-facilitated capital farmland construction policies. By constructing continuous double and multiple difference models, this paper identified the single and coupling effects of land empowerment, facility empowerment, and capital empowerment on sustainable food production capacity and explored the impact mechanism and heterogeneity. The results showed that (1) land empowerment, facility empowerment, and capital empowerment significantly improved the sustainable production capacity of food, and the results were still significant after considering possible endogeneity and excluding policy interference factors; (2) The coupling effect of land empowerment, facility empowerment, and capital empowerment was significantly better than the single effect, which was found to potentially increase the sustainable food production capacity by 158.5%; (3) The impact of land empowerment, facility empowerment, and capital empowerment on the sustainable production capacity of grain varied in terms of high standard farmland construction level and geographical location; (4) Land empowerment and facility empowerment enhanced the efficiency of resource allocation and promoted sustainable food production capacity, however,  financial empowerment failed to pass the significance tests. The government should promote and improve the mechanism for constructing well-facilitated capital farmland, revitalize well-facilitated capital farmland, and ensure sustainable food production.

Agricultural ecological efficiency is an important indicator of sustainable agricultural development. Major grain-producing areas are an important support for guaranteeing food security. Promoting the improvement of agricultural ecological efficiency in major food-producing areas is one of the important ways to achieve sustainable agricultural development. This paper measured the temporal evolution of agricultural ecological efficiency in China's major grain-producing regions from 2012~2021 by using the super-efficient SBM model, taking into account the non-desired outputs from the perspective of the three major river basins. The Theil index was used to reveal the spatial differentiation characteristics of agricultural ecological efficiency in the main grain producing areas. On this basis, the dominant influencing factors and their interactions affecting the spatial-temporal evolution of agricultural ecological efficiency were identified, with the help of geographical detector model. The results showed: (1) The agricultural ecological efficiency in the main grain producing areas showed a fluctuating upward trend, with an average annual growth rate of 1.05%, however, it did not reach an effective state during the study period. The three major basins showed an imbalance state, with obvious hierarchical features: Songhua River Basin > Yangtze River Basin > Yellow River Basin; (2) The spatial differentiation of agricultural ecological efficiency was significant, but the overall difference was at a decreasing trend. The spatial differences among the three major river basins mainly originated from within the region, among which the Yangtze River Basin had the largest difference and contribution rate, followed by the Yellow River Basin and the Songhua River Basin. (3)The dominant drivers of agricultural ecological efficiency were  urbanization rate, farmers' income level, precipitation. The influence of dominant driving factors on agricultural ecological efficiency showed a feature of territoriality and difference. The spatial and temporal evolution of agricultural ecological efficiency was driven by the multi-dimensional comprehensive effects of social and economic development, agricultural resource endowment and natural ecological environment. The interactive detection was mainly based on nonlinear enhancement, supplemented by double enhancement. Finally, based on the research outcome, the countermeasures to further improve the agricultural ecological efficiency of the three major basins were proposed.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt plays a "major role" in supporting and serving Chinese path to modernization. High-quality of integrated agricultural development is the core content of promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt urban agglomeration. Based on the evaluation of the agricultural high-quality and integrated development index of the Yangtze River Economic Belt urban agglomeration from 2014 to 2021, using the entropy method and the relative price method, this study explored the coupling relationship and influencing factors, using the Dagum Gini coefficient, the coupling coordination degree model and Tobit model. The results showed that: (1) the level of high-quality agricultural development and the degree of agricultural integration were  not high, and the coupling relationship between the two was weak, which was regarded as at the  stage of imbalance; (2) The level of urbanization, economic development, agricultural contribution, and agricultural planting structure were the key obstacles that affected the coupling relationship; (3) The coupling relationship between high-quality agricultural development and agricultural integration demonstrated regional heterogeneity, with small regional differences.

It is of great practical significance to empirically examine the neighborhood effect in farm households' farmland quality protection behavior and to analyze the moderating role of environmental awareness in farmers' neighborhood effect. This paper aimed to improve farmland protection policies and to guarantee national food security. This paper employed methods that were based on the mechanism analysis. The baseline data from the China Land Economy Survey 2020 conducted in Jiangsu Province were used to empirically test the research hypotheses. The results showed that: (1) There was a significant neighbourhood effect in the farm household's farmland quality protection behaviour. For every 10% increase in the neighbour's per mu fertilizer application, the farm household's per mu fertilizer application would increase by 7.05%, and for every 10% increase in the neighbour's per mu pesticide application cost, the farm household's per mu pesticide application cost would increase by 7.45%. (2) Neighbourhood effects were group heterogeneous in farm households' cropland quality protection behaviours, and neighbourhood effects had a significant positive impact on the cropland quality protection behaviours of low-income and smaller landholding farm households. (3) In the neighbourhood effect of arable land quality protection behaviour, farmers' environmental protection awareness played an important moderating role, and farmers' stronger environmental protection awareness had a significant positive effect on the neighbourhood effect of arable land quality protection behaviour. Based on this, the state should target high-income farmers and large-scale land operators in villages and actively guided them to reduce the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. It was also important to lead them through the demonstration of the neighborhood effect, which in turn led to the adoption of arable land quality protection behaviors by other groups of farmers. In addition, the environmental awareness of farmers should also be raised further, which in turn would be helpful in enhancing the neighborhood effect of cropland quality protection.