Search Results (18)

The integration of digitalization with public tourism services has emerged as a new model for the development of the rural tourism public services. The Silk Road Economic Belt is a crucial area for the future development of the tourism industry. Exploring the coupling of the digitalization and the development trends of the rural tourism public services is significant for advancing rural tourism in this region. This study applies Complex Adaptive Systems theory and Synergy theory to the development of the digitization of rural tourism public services, clarifying the structure of the digitization of the rural tourism public service system. Based on this, a collaborative development evaluation system for the digitization of rural tourism public services is constructed, focusing on the Silk Road Economic Belt. By using the SMI-P evaluation model, ArcGIS spatial visualization, Gini coefficient, and kernel density methods, the collaborative development of the digitization of the rural tourism public service system was measured and analyzed in this paper. The findings reveal the following: (1) The collaborative development of the digitization of the rural tourism public service system in the Silk Road Economic Belt shows a gradual upward trend, yet the overall level of the collaboration is transitioning from a state of imbalance. (2) Compared to the Southwest, the Northwest exhibits a lower overall level of collaboration, with growing disparities in collaborative development indices among provinces, although there is a trend toward higher levels of aggregation. (3) The development of the rural tourism public services is trending toward a favorable state of multi-dimensional collaboration, characterized by significant regional features, including multi-polarization and unbalanced development. Finally, optimization paths for the digital development of the rural tourism public services were proposed in this study, which can provide guidance for improving the construction of the digitization of the rural tourism public service system and exploring clear development pathways. Full article

As a distinct species in the Tianshan Mountains (TS) of Central Asia (CA), Picea schrenkiana plays a significant role in water purification, soil and water conservation, and climate regulation. In the context of climate change, rapidly and accurately obtaining its spatial distribution has critical decision-making significance for maintaining ecological security in the arid area of CA and the sustainable development of the “Silk Road Economic Belt”. However, conventional methods are extremely challenging to accomplish the high-resolution mapping of Picea schrenkiana in the TS, which is characterized by a wide range (9.97 × 10⁵ km²) and complex terrain. The approach of geo-big data and cloud computing provides new opportunities to address this issue. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose an automatic extraction procedure for the spatial distribution of Picea schrenkiana based on Google Earth Engine and the Jeffries–Matusita (JM) distance, which considered three aspects: sample points, remote-sensing images, and classification features. The results showed that (1) after removing abnormal samples and selecting the summer image, the producer accuracy (PA) of Picea schrenkiana was improved by 2.95% and 0.24%–2.10%, respectively. (2) Both the separation obtained by the JM distance and the analysis results of eight schemes showed that spectral features and texture features played a key role in the mapping of Picea schrenkiana. (3) The JM distance can seize the classification features that are most conducive to the mapping of Picea schrenkiana, and effectively improve the classification accuracy. The PA and user accuracy of Picea schrenkiana were 96.74% and 96.96%, respectively. The overall accuracy was 91.93%, while the Kappa coefficient was 0.89. (4) The results show that Picea schrenkiana is concentrated in the middle TS and scattered in the remaining areas. In total, 85.7%, 66.4%, and 85.9% of Picea schrenkiana were distributed in the range of 1500–2700 m, 20–40°, and on shady slope and semi-shady slope, respectively. The automatic procedure adopted in this study provides a basis for the rapid and accurate mapping of the spatial distribution of coniferous forests in the complex terrain. Full article

Under economic globalization, synergy among cities has been actively promoted. Establishing inter–city networks and joint regional development could catalyze economic growth. The mode and pace of urban growth could be gauged by construction land expansion and human–land coordination. This study adopted the dynamic change, the center of gravity, and coordination analyses to comprehensively portray spatial patterns and changes amongst 13 oasis town groups in Xinjiang, China, from 2000 to 2018. The results identified that 2010 was the turning point of acceleration in construction land expansion, demonstrating notable spatial differentiations among town groups. Northern Xinjiang experienced faster urban growth than southern Xinjiang. The Urumqi–Changji–Shihezi (UCS) town group on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains constituted the crucial urban core with the fastest construction land expansion. Although the towns in southern Xinjiang were small and beset by inherent limitations in the early period, some town groups acquired new impetus and vitality and became the fastest–developing areas in Xinjiang in recent years. The growth was driven by China’s western development program, economic assistance, and Silk Road Economic Belt. Eastern Xinjiang had convenient transportation, but its small urban entities needed population supplementation to invigorate urban expansion. In the far north, the Altay and Tacheng–Emin (TE) town groups were situated too far from development cores. They lacked the collateral benefits of nearby strong–growth loci, resulting in sluggish growth. A north–south dual–hub strategy was proposed to spearhead the dissemination of urban growth by fostering core–periphery linkages pump–primed by improved road connections. Full article

With the widespread recognition and in-depth implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), especially in the context of global climate change, the ecological environment of Belt and Road Initiative regions might be confronted with pressures and challenges with rapid socioeconomic development. In response to those potential environmental challenges, China has put forward Green BRI and enriched the new Silk Road with more environmental connotations, aiming to reduce the conflict between economic development and eco-environmental protection. Currently, there is a lack of systematic and holistic research on eco-environmental issues in BRI regions. In addition, feasible solutions to enhance BRI’s contribution to the eco-environment remain insufficient. Having systematically reviewed the relevant literature on the eco-environment in BRI regions, we found that most regions along the BRI routes are in sensitive zones of climate and geological change, with fragile eco-environments and strong vulnerability to climate change, natural disasters and human activities. The main eco-environment status of the BRI regions is as follows: (1) The total water resources in BRI regions account for only 36% of the global total, with uneven distribution and complex spatial precipitation, posing higher pressure on water security. (2) Vegetation varies significantly from region to region. The vegetation in South Asia is the richest, with its mean annual NDVI exceeding 0.7. The NDVI in East Europe, Russia and South China are between 0.4 and 0.7, and that in Central Asia and West Asia are below 0.2. (3) The BRI regions are abundantly blessed with natural resources, with the total recoverable oil reserves, natural gas reserves and the total mining area reaching 66%, 65.5% and 42.31% of the world’s total, respectively, but severe overexploitation and overconsumption of those resources degrade their eco-environment. Accordingly, future research directions, such as target on integrated, interdisciplinary and coordinated studies on eco-environmental issues in BRI regions, are proposed in this paper to achieve optimization of BRI’s contribution to eco-environment protection in BRI regions. Full article

The impact of international trade and export-oriented policies on economic growth has been an important topic. Based on an evaluation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this study provides new evidence of the positive causal link between increasing openness and long-term economic growth. Specifically, this study evaluates the BRI’s impact on 18 key provinces in China, with a focus on total factor productivity (TFP). Utilizing a panel dataset of 284 prefectural-level cities from 2007 to 2018, we examine the causal relationship between the BRI and TFP in a difference-in-differences framework. We apply the five-pronged approach to the BRI to explore the impact mechanism and examine heterogeneity in the effect in terms of geographic location and local government efficiency. We find that the BRI significantly promotes TFP in key provinces; it increases TFP through unimpeded trade, infrastructure connectivity, technical efficiency, and technological progress. The BRI promotes TFP in key coastal provinces belonging to the Maritime Silk Road while having a relatively limited impact on the other key provinces belonging to the Silk Road Economic Belt. This study has policy implications for promoting the BRI in China. It recommends that the government collaborates with firms and financial institutions in the construction of infrastructure. Full article

With the advances of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the geo-economic interactions between China and countries along the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road counties (MSRCs) continue to increase, and analyzing the geo-economic relations between China and the MSRCs is extremely important for a scientific understanding of bilateral geo-economic cooperation. Differently from the traditional logic of geo-economic competition and cooperation, we constructed a new framework based on the dominant factors of geo-economic relations and used an extreme random forest regression model to classify the geo-economic relation types between China and MSRCs from 2006 to 2017. The results show that the unbalanced development of investment and trade between China and MSRCs hindered the enhancement of the intensity of bilateral geo-economic linkage from 2006 to 2017. The “Matthew effect” of China’s geo-economic flow linkage with MSRCs is significant. There are obvious differences in the dominant factors affecting the types of geo-economic relations between China and MSRCs, and the distribution of the importance of the indices of the types of geo-economic relations in each country is disordered. Geopolitics, markets, and resources have played important roles in the geo-economic linkages between China and MSRCs. There are five types of geo-economic relations between China and the MSRCs: market-oriented type, resource-oriented type, market-resource-oriented type, market-geopolitics-oriented type, and resource-geopolitics-oriented type, of which the market-oriented type is the most important type of geo-economic relations. In the future, China should focus on regional powers along the Maritime Silk Road for bilateral geo-economic cooperation, actively promote the balanced development of bilateral geo-economic elements flows, strengthen geopolitical cooperation with MSRCs, and formulate cooperation plans according to the types of geo-economic relations. Full article

The countries along the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (MSRCs) are important geo-economic spaces for China. The implementation of the Belt and Road initiative is drawing a new geo-economic network of the Maritime Silk Road. Based on trade and investment flows, this study uses social network analysis to examine the characteristics and structure of trade and investment networks between China and the MSRCs. The results show that the MSRCs’ trade network is approximately an irregular quadrilateral, the node weighted degree distribution follows the law of long-tail distribution, and the trade network has shifted from the tripartite confrontation of China, Japan, and South Korea to China’s single-core dominance. The MSRCs’ trade group has changed greatly, and the trade cohesion of China, Japan, and South Korea is strong. The MSRCs’ investment network is not fully developed and the network connections are sparse. China, Japan, and Singapore are its core nodes. The weight degree of the MSRCs’ investment inflow network first increased and then decreased, and the weight degree of the MSRCs’ investment outflow network increased. The MSRCs’ investment network followed the “core-peripheral” structure. The cohesive subgroup of the investment inflow network did not have significant regional characteristics, and the cohesion of the core subgroups in the MSRCs’ investment outflow network was strong. To promote the development of geo-economic relations between China and the MSRCs, China should focus on regional powers, upgrade the investment network of MSRCs, and implement differentiated geo-economic cooperation strategies. Full article

The increasing competition in global scientific and technological innovation and the continuous promotion of the “Belt and Road initiatives” have created new opportunities for the improvement in innovation capabilities in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt but have also brought new challenges. This paper first starts from the market and government perspective and sorts out the formation mechanism of an innovation network. Subsequently, based on the development practice of the innovation network in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, we applied the grounded theory to reveal the development constraints of the innovation network in the core area and explore the corresponding network governance mechanism. Subsequently, we applied a survey study to test our conceptual model. We empirically found the innovation network structure governance and innovation relation governance impacting mechanism in a market-led and government guidance context. The study found that: first, the market-led environment and government guidance jointly impact the formation of an innovation network. Second, the network structure governance and network relation governance of the innovation network can address the development constraints faced by the current innovation network to a certain extent, thereby improving the firm’s innovation performance. Finally, it is found that both the market-led environment and government guidance play a positive role in regulating the impact of network structure governance and network relation governance on the firm’s innovation performance. The above conclusions expand the application scenarios of innovation network governance theory in underdeveloped areas and, at the same time, provide new theoretical knowledge increments for the formation mechanism of innovation networks and also provide corresponding theoretical guidance for the improvement of the firm’s innovation performance in the core area. Full article

This paper divides the Silk Road Economic Belt into four regions. Based on the economic characteristics of these regions, the authors construct a regional equilibrium gravity model with a multilateral resistance variable. The results of the theoretical analysis show that China’s three measures (trade liberalization, financial assistance, and technological assistance) will lead to different trade effects and welfare effects. This paper conducts numerical simulations to analyze these effects among regions under different circumstances, and the authors confirm that the simulation results are consistent with real trade changes. The main results are: (1) Trade liberalization can greatly increase China’s exports to the four major regions, and the welfare of all regions will also increase (Simulation 1). (2) Technological cooperation and assistance can continuously improve local production technology, which in turn leads to a slight decline in China’s exports to the four major regions, but in the long run, the welfare of all regions has improved (Simulation 2). (3) The financial assistance from international institutions will increase the regional trade and welfare linearly (Simulation 3). Finally, this paper draws some conclusions based on the numerical simulation results. Full article

In 2019, China proposed the New Western Land–Sea Corridor (NWLSC) to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between China and Southeast Asia. As an important province in western China, Gansu plays a crucial role in transportation and cultural exchange in the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB). Thus, how to develop the strategic passageway of Gansu Province becomes the research focus. In order to enhance the radiation effect of the NWLSC on the northwestern region and help Gansu Province expand its pattern of expanding, this paper firstly selects 16 core cities in this Corridor by using an accessibility method and an urban flow intensity method; then, analyzing the status of accessibility and the economic connection patterns between those cities; and lastly, obtaining conclusions that the accessibility of space layout is “corridor style”, the spatial distribution of urban flow intensity is balanced, and Gansu should actively participate in southbound gateway and gain the full advantages of the “golden passageway”. To sum up, this paper is innovative in terms of regional selection, research methods, and theoretical significance. Full article

The “Belt and Road” has developed from a Chinese initiative to an international consensus, and Silk Road cities are becoming a strategic step for its high-quality development. From the perspective of industrialization, the “Belt and Road” can be regarded as a “spillover” effect of the industrialization process in China. With the spatial shift of Chinese industries along the “Belt and Road” and their clustering in Silk Road cities, the development and change of industrial land in Silk Road cities has become a new area of concern for governments and scholars. In this paper, the driving mechanism of industrial land change in 129 cities along the Silk Road in China is empirically studied by the GeoDetector method. The findings include: first, the development and changes of industrial land in Silk Road cities are significantly spatially heterogeneous, and the “Belt and Road” reshapes the town system and economic geography along the route by virtue of the differentiated configuration and changes of industrial land, changing the social, political, landscape and spatial relations in cities on the line. Second, the driving forces of industrial land change in Silk Road cities under the influence of the “Belt and Road Initiative” are increasingly diversified and differentiated, with significant two-factor enhancement and non-linear enhancement interaction between two driving factors, and growing complexity of the driving mechanisms, requiring policy makers to design policies based on key factors, comprehensive factors and their interaction. Third, the environmental effect of industrial land change is highly complex. The industrial land quantity has a direct impact on the ecological state parameter and plays a decisive role in the quality of the ecological environment and its changes in Silk Road cities. However, changes in the industrial land affect the ecological state change indirectly, mainly interacting with it through the coupling of pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions, energy use, ecological planning and landscape design and policy interventions. Finally, this study provides a new framework and method for Silk Road scholars to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of land use and coverage in cities along the “Belt and Road” and their influence mechanisms, and provides a basis for the government to make decisions on industrial land supply and layout planning and spatial governance policy design, which is of great theoretical significance and practical value. Full article

The Belt and Road Initiative is the leading project in the regions along the ancient Silk Road. This aims to revive the New Silk Road (NSR) as a transnational space towards an era of new regional integration and globalization. Despite the potential economic effects on a global scale, local sustainability remains questionable. Building upon the central engagement in infrastructure improvements, this article aims to investigate the role of local sustainability in research along the New Silk Road. Starting with 597 scientific articles, this article conducts a systematic literature review on four levels of concretization to characterize the research field of the New Silk Road, and to develop in-depth insights systematically. The results reveal a research focus on economic growth, which is lacking in environmental considerations and especially the socio-cultural dimension of sustainability on a local scale. Future directions in local sustainability should therefore include local stakeholders to build a joint understanding of sustainability by recognizing the characteristics of regionalism upon which manifold local support of mega infrastructure can evolve. Given these findings, the New Silk Road emerges as a field of study that calls for interdisciplinary research on different spatial levels. Full article

Central Asia is a vital link in the huge Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that follows much of the ancient Silk Road routes in this region. Other than the economic expansion and trade benefits associated with this complex infrastructure system, little is known about the many of the exogenous issues and direct environmental and socioeconomic impacts surrounding the BRI in Central Asia. This opinion paper takes a sharper look at some of these externalities and potential effects through a sustainability lens. Major environmental concerns focus on the proliferation of spur roads that will develop off upgraded or new Belt Roads to promote exploitation of natural resources. Steep, high-elevation landscapes in the Pamirs and Tien Shan pose problems for road location and construction, and the history of road building in less formidable terrain in Yunnan, China is unsustainable, leading to epic landslide and gully erosion, which degrade river systems. Furthermore, many socioeconomic issues may arise like debt dependencies of poor countries, spread of communicable diseases into remote communities, depletion of mineral resources, and implicit compliance with pro-China policies. While some of the poorer post-Soviet nations can reap short-term benefits from BRI plans, it is urged that they assess the long-term sustainability of BRI development and play an active role in determining the conditions for implementation. Full article

Desertification control and scientific evaluation of desert ecosystem sustainability are important issues for countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt. Fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) is used as a quantitative indicator to describe the vegetation coverage of desert ecosystems. Although satellite remote sensing technology has been widely used to retrieve FVC at the regional and global scale, the authenticity evaluation of the inversion results has been flawed. To gain insight into the composition, structure and changes of desert vegetation, it is important to assess the accuracy of FVC and explore the relationship between FVC and meteorological factors. Therefore, we adopted unmanned aerial vehicle remote sensing (UAVRS) technology to verify the inversion results and analyse the practicability of MODIS-NDVI (where NDVI = normalized difference vegetation index) products in desert areas. To provide a new method for the estimation of vegetation coverage in the natural state, the relationships between vegetation coverage and four meteorological factors, namely, land surface temperature, temperature, precipitation and evaporation were analysed. The results showed that using the original MODIS-NDVI data product with a spatial resolution of 250 m to invert vegetation coverage is practical in desert areas (coefficient of determination (R²) = 0.83, root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.052, normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) = 42.94%, mean absolute error (MAE) = 0.007) but underestimates vegetation coverage in the study area. MODIS-NDVI data products are different from the real NDVI in the study area. Correcting MODIS-NDVI data products can effectively improve the accuracy of the inversion. When extracting vegetation coverage in this area, the scale has little effect on the results. There is a significant correlation between precipitation, evaporation and FVC in the area, but the interaction of temperature and land surface temperature with precipitation and evaporation also has a considerable impact on FVC, and evaporation has a substantial impact on FVC values inverted from MODIS-NDVI data (FVC_M), When exploring the relationship between vegetation coverage and meteorological elements, if vegetation coverage is retrieved from MODIS-NDVI data products or MODIS-NDVI data, when considering temperature and precipitation, the effect of evaporation should also be considered. In addition, meteorological factors can be used to predict FVC (R² = 0.7364, RMSE = 0.0623), which provides a new method for estimating FVC in areas with less manual intervention. Full article

Achieving transport connectivity is a priority in China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”. In order to further understand the impact of railway infrastructure on city-level economic expansion, we set cities with high-speed rail as the treatment group and those without high-speed rail as the control group, and a difference-in-differences (DID) technique was used to estimate the growth impact and heterogeneity of high-speed rail opening on the economic growth of cities along the New Silk Road Economic Belt. The main results are as follows: First, economic growth in cities with operational high-speed rail lines was significantly higher than those without high-speed rail. Second, the impact of high-speed rail on economic growth exhibited distinct heterogeneity. Large cities tend to have a stronger siphoning effect, resulting in more pronounced impact of high-speed rail opening on urban economic growth. Third, cities with higher marketization levels and higher government efficiency were shown to have stronger economic growth effect. Full article