Does the Accessibility of Regional Internal and External Traffic Play the Same Role in Achieving Anti-Poverty Goals?

Traffic development can promote the flow of goods and people, which has long been widely considered to have a poverty reduction effect but, in fact, is not unbreakable. The development of traffic is similar to economic and social development, with internal and external characteristics, but few studies have explored the differences between the effects of their poverty reduction. Taking the land traffic of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone (CCEZ) as an example, this paper represents traffic accessibility at a county level by relying on the average internal and external travel times. Rural poverty was identified by the pentagon of livelihoods to measure the Multidimensional Development Index (MDI). Furthermore, a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model was used to explore the relationship and spatial differentiation characteristics between county traffic accessibility and poverty. The results show that the traffic accessibility of the counties in the CCEZ was quite different. The average internal travel time was between 0.16 and 7 h, and the average external travel time was between 4.2 and 10.6 h. The radiation gradient structure centered on Chengdu municipal districts and the Chongqing main urban area, and the accessibility level needed to be improved. Furthermore, the MDI values of each county in the CCEZ showed the structural characteristics of “large bottom and small top”; additionally, the higher the high-value group of MDI, the stronger the spatial aggregation and the more obvious the characteristics of regional differentiation. Finally, the relationship between traffic accessibility and poverty in counties cannot be generalized. The improvement of external traffic accessibility obviously helped to improve the poverty situation in the CCEZ; the improvement of internal traffic accessibility had a multidimensional impact, but it was mainly due to the occupation or spillover of livelihood capital in rural areas; counties accounting for 82.74% would even reduce the MDI and, thus, aggravate poverty.

Spatial Differentiation and Influencing Factors of Water Pollution-Intensive Industries in the Yellow River Basin, China

The structure adjustment and layout optimization of water pollution-intensive industries (WPIIs) are crucial to the health and sustainable development of the watershed life community. Based on micro-detailed data of Chinese industrial enterprises from 2003 to 2013, we analyzed and revealed the spatial differentiation characteristics and influencing factors of WPIIs in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) from 2003 to 2013 by constructing a water pollution-intensive index and integrating kernel density estimation and geographically weighted regression models from a watershed perspective. The results show that: (1) the scale of WPIIs in the YRB showed a growth trend from 2003 to 2013, and the output value increased from 442.5 billion yuan in 2003 to 6192.4 billion yuan in 2013, an increase of 13 times. (2) WPIIs are generally distributed in an east-west direction, and their spatial distribution is river-side, with intensive distribution in the downstream areas and important tributaries such as Fen River and Wei River. (3) WPIIs are generally clustered in high density downstream, but the spatial clustering characteristics of different industries varied significantly. The chemical industries, paper industries, etc. were mainly concentrated in downstream areas. Processing of food from agricultural products was distributed in the upper, middle and downstream areas. Resource-intensive industries such as coal and oil were concentrated in energy-rich midstream areas. (4) Natural resource endowment was the main factor affecting the distribution of WPIIs in the midstream and upstream areas of the basin, and technological innovation played a significant role in the distribution of downstream industries. The level of economic development and industrial historical foundation promoted the geographical concentration of industries. The scale of wastewater discharge and the proximity of rivers influenced the concentration of industries in the midstream and downstream.

Czasowa zmienność i przestrzenne zróżnicowanie ewapotranspiracji w zlewni nizinnej rzeki Łasicy

Accurate quantification of evapotranspiration is necessary for understanding the water cycle at a local scale. At catchment scale, evapotranspiration might be approximated using remote sensing data useful in spatialtemporal analyses. In this study, the long-term and seasonal variability of evapotranspiration in the Łasica River catchment in the years 2003–2020 was assessed on the basis of data acquired from the SSEBop project (Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance). Additionally, using the index of precipitation utilization (WWO), the degree of precipitation consumption for the water demands of plants was determined. The highest evapotranspiration occurs in forest areas, slightly lower in marshy belts covered with meadow vegetation, and the lowest in agricultural areas and anthropogenically transformed areas. The spatial differentiation of evapotranspiration is particularly marked during the growing season, from April to October. Mean annual evapotranspiration sum is 403 mm, of which 96% falls on the growing season. Extremely low annual ET sums occurred in 2015 (329 mm), 2019 (342 mm) and 2003 (384 mm), while particularly high – in 2010 (455 mm) and 2013 (447 mm). In dry years, WWO is even 71–77%, while in particularly wet years, WWO is much lower and amounts to 54–58%.

Community Differentiation and Ecological Influencing Factors along Environmental Gradients: Evidence from 1200 km Belt Transect across Inner Mongolia Grassland, China

In this work, we conducted a 1200 km belt transect for field survey in typical and meadow steppes across Inner Mongolia Plateau in 2018. The field investigation, laboratory soil analysis, and quantitative ecology methods were utilized to explore the differentiation characteristics of the plant community, and their relationships with ecological factors. The results showed that a total of 140 vascular plants within 108 quadrats mainly comprised of Asteraceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae, and Fabaceae. Two-way Indicator Species Analysis (TWINSPAN) revealed eight vegetation typologies: I: Stipa sareptana var. krylovii + Dysphania aristata, II: Stipa grandis + Leymus chinensis, III: Stipa sareptana var. krylovii + Leymus chinensis, IV: Stipa grandis + Cleistogenes squarrosa, V: Stipa grandis + Carex duriuscula, VI: Stipa baicalensis + Leymus chinensis, VII: Carex pediformis + Stipa baicalensis, VIII: Leymus chinensis + Elymus dahuricus. Detrend Correspondence Analysis (DCA) confirmed the above eight vegetation typologies and indicated a relatively small variation. Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that the spatial differentiation characteristics in the typical steppe were chiefly driven by precipitation, while the influencing factor in the meadow steppe was soil nutrients, followed by temperature and precipitation. The contrast between typical and meadow steppes revealed that the spatial distribution of typical steppe was influenced by precipitation, while the contribution of heat and water in the meadow steppe was equal. The conclusion revealed that the temperature and precipitation conditions coupled with soil nutrients shaped the spatial differentiation characteristics of temperate steppe vegetation in the Inner Mongolia grassland. Therefore, this study advanced our knowledge of the spatial patterns of temperate steppe along longitude and latitude gradients, providing scientific and theoretical guidance for the biodiversity conservation and sustainable ecosystem management of the Inner Mongolia grassland.

Economic-geographical assessment of the demographic situation and economic potential of the inter-capital Belarusian-Russian borderlands

Geographic research of the phenomenon of inter-capital space of the Belarusian-Russian border region is an actual research area problem for the socio-economic geography of Belarus and Russia. This is due to the objective need to develop mechanisms of overcoming the demographic and economic peripherality of the region and embedding regional economic systems of border regions into the system of local relations. The purpose of the research is to identify the current distinctive features of the demographic and economic development of the inter-capital space of the Belarusian-Russian border region with the establishment of its niche from the point of the central-peripheral approach. During the analysis of the demographic situation of the inter-capital space of the Belarusian-Russian borderlands, it was established that, generally, in 1999–2019, its main feature was peripherality with the three zones established – the central demographic periphery, the buffer demographic periphery and the demographic semi-periphery – with a predominance in the structure of the first zone. Geographically, the central periphery zone is formed mainly by the rural borderland areas. According to the results of the analysis of the industrial development level, it was discovered that the inter-capital space of the Belarusian-Russian borderlands is characterised by a high degree of spatial inequality due to the development of large industrial centers around the existing periphery. This research had established a spatial differentiation of the transportation accessibility (by the connectivity of administrative centers of the borderlands) and the productivity of road transportation. The economicgeographical analysis of the foreign trade had revealed the diversity of directions and intensity of foreign goods trade between the Belarusian-Russian borderlands, mainly expressed in the predominance of the export-oriented regions with the per capita foreign trade turnover estimated at up to 2000 US dollars.

Spatial Pattern of Underground Space Development in Major Cities in China: Evaluation and Analysis

Underground space development has gradually become an organic part of China’s urban development and construction. Comprehensively developing underground space scientifically and rationally to give full play to its comprehensive benefits is the main problem faced by China’s underground space development at this stage. This research starts with the measurement of the level of urban underground space (UUS) development. This paper constructs a UUS development level measurement indicator system, which is composed of Construction of UUS (D1), urban economic development indicators (D2), and urban population development indicators (D3), which has 12 secondary indicators, and then we use entropy-TOPSIS method to quantitatively evaluate the development level of underground public space in 39 prefecture-level cities and above in my country and analyze its spatial differentiation. The results show that the urban agglomeration has the characteristics of “high-high” cluster distribution with the development level of underground space. However, the overall level of underground space development in China’s major cities is not high and there are apparent differences in the level of UUS development. In terms of spatial distribution, the sustainable development level of cities in the eastern coastal regions of China is relatively high, with towns in the central and northeastern areas ranking second and western towns and northeastern cities ranking the lowest. At the same time, we found that there is a mismatch between the underground space development index and the economic population development index in the evaluation index. Finally, some suggestions are put forward to realize the balanced development of UUS development in our country.