Abstract:Compulsory education is an important aspect of the societal development. Meanwhile, education equality safeguards the effectiveness of education systems and is an important part of social equality. This study analyzes the inequality of compulsory education from the perspective of imbalanced spatial distribution. Unlike previous studies that have measured the spatial distribution of education simply based on the spatial position of primary and secondary schools, we explore spatial accessibility based on the shortest travel distance from residents to schools, and then analyze the inequality of compulsory education through the distribution of spatial accessibility. We use 2873 Chinese counties as statistical units, and perform a statistical and graphical analysis of their spatial accessibility using the Theil index and spatial autocorrelation analyses. To analyze the differences in the spatial accessibility distribution on the national and regional levels, we use three partitioned modes: the terrain partitioned mode, the economic development partitioned mode, and the province-level partitioned mode. We then analyze the spatial agglomeration characteristics and distribution patterns of compulsory education accessibility through global autocorrelation, local autocorrelation, and hot-spot and cold-spot analysis. The results demonstrate an obvious imbalance in the distribution of spatial accessibility to compulsory education at the national level. Accessibility and equality in eastern and central regions are significantly better than those in the western region; both are significantly better in coastal regions than in inland regions; and equality alone is better in the municipalities, such as Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing, than in other provinces and autonomous regions. The spatial pattern analysis shows significant global autocorrelation and obvious clusters. Counties in cold-spot areas (clusters of good spatial accessibility) are large in number but small in size. Cold-spot areas present a ring-shaped structure in space with Henan Province as the core. Counties in hot-spot areas (clusters of weak spatial accessibility) are not as numerous, but most are large in size; hot-spot areas are mainly in the northwest regions, characterized by complex terrain and severe economic difficulty. This study can provide significant information to aid policy making related to compulsory education sustainability in China and can facilitate research on the equality and sustainable development of compulsory education.

Ecological-living-production land (ELPL) is gaining an increasing attention of governors, planners and scholars to alleviate ecological deterioration on the premise of ensuring regional sustainable development in China. This paper has built an ecological-living-production land classification system (ELCS) by the reclassification method, and further analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics and evolution mechanism of ELPL from 2009 to 2014 with a case study of Hubei Province of Central China. The results show that (1) land with an ecological function held a dominant role in Hubei Province. Ecological land (EL) and production-eco land (PEL) covered the largest areas. The area of EL was the largest in Western Hubei Eco-cultural Tourism Circle (WHETC), and the area of PEL accounted for the largest proportion in Wuhan Urban Circle (WUC). (2) Land with an ecological function was decreasing continuously, while the land with living function expanded rapidly. Additionally, the intensity of ELPL changes in the WUC was higher than that in the WHETC. (3) The changes of ELPL threatened the food and ecological security and adversely affected the sustainable development. The factors of population growth and GDP increase were the main driving forces of ELPL change. The results of this study provide valuable information for planning decision makings (e.g., the ELPL spatial pattern optimization).

No abstract

Understanding the changes and coupling characteristics between rural population (RP) and rural residential land (RRL) provides a theoretical basis for sustainable rural land use. Based on the index of human–land coupling development, this study analyzed the spatial–temporal characteristics and coupling types of RRL and RP on the levels of China's national and prefectural cities by using the data of official land use survey and demographic statistics from 2009 to 2016. Results showed that (a) China's RP is declining at an average annual rate of 2.07%, and the RP in most cities decrease from −3.33% to −1.20%. (b) The area of RRL in China constantly increased at an average annual rate of 0.56% and that of most cities has also maintained growth, with only 11.76% of cities that declined. (c) The per capita RRL in China increased from 267.96 m2 in 2009 to 325.58 m2 in 2016. The relationship between the RRL and RP in China was uncoordinated with a coupling type of G (rapid decline in RP and increase in RRL). The coupling types of most cities were also the uncoordinated type of G, and only less than 10% of cities had a coordinated type (Types B, C, D, and E). The results indicated that the coupling relationship between RP and RRL in China is decoupled and has obvious spatial heterogeneity, which could provide scientific support for optimizing land resources and coordinating human–land relationship in China's rural areas.

Abstract:In the increasingly serious aging China, aged service is the provision of one of the most urgent and important public services to citizens, and private facilities has become an important service force with the aged service market opening in China. This study aims to explore the spatial variation in the accessibility of residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and compared the service capacity of public RACFs and private RACFs. It facilitates RACFs to be allocated rationally in the future and achieve the equalization of aged services. A village-level analysis of spatial access to public and private RACFs by the multi-catchment sizes Gaussian two-step floating catchment area (MCSG2SFCA) method was conducted through a case study in Wuhan City in Central China. The major results are as follows: (1) the accessibility of RACFs in urban areas is better than that in rural areas; (2) the public RACFs still dominate aged care services but the role of private RACFs is important as well; (3) in developed urban areas, the accessibility to private RACFs surpasses that of public ones, and the situation is opposite in rural areas; (4) the capacity of aged care services in Wuhan is not high, meanwhile there is remarkable regional disparity. The accessibility of RACFs in Wuhan is not satisfactory, and there is a significant gap between urban and rural areas. The private RACFs have significantly improved the urban capacity of aged care services, but the role in rural areas is still very weak.

Urban leisure venues proffer spatial carriers for citizens' leisure activities and their functions rely heavily on the spatial configuration, which have largely been ignored. The increasing needs for healthy leisure life and the availability of geospatial open data provide a rising opportunity to fill this gap. To examine the spatial distribution of leisure venues and explore its underlying dominating factors, we adopt geospatial analysis techniques-point pattern analysis and cluster analysis with multi-sources geospatial data in Wuhan, Central China. Results conclude interesting spatial discrepancy based on a three-level clustered pattern of 86,520 leisure venues. We find that (1) most clusters are in urban center along the Yangtze River with all 1st-level clusters and plentiful 2nd-level and 3rd-level clusters; (2) There are just sporadic clusters in suburban areas-no 1st-level, merely one 2nd-level and some few 3rd-level ones. Moreover, we demonstrate three underlying dominating factors (i.e., the policy, population and economy) and identify that (1) No systematic (spatial-relevant) leisure policy framework is formed; (2) Population density and commercial centers have positive correlation with the distribution of leisure venues. This study contributes to spatial-relevant leisure policy-making for facilitating healthy leisure life, optimizing leisure space, guiding people-oriented urbanization transition and promoting urban competence.

Predicting the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and trade-off/synergy relationships of ecosystem service value (ESV) under different policy scenarios is of great significance for realizing regional sustainable development. This study established a framework and used the geographical simulation and optimization systems-future land use simulation (GeoSOS-FLUS) model and bivariate local autocorrelation analysis to stimulate and predict the impact of land use change on the ESV of Anyang City from 1995 to 2025. We also explored the trade-offs and synergy among ecosystem services under three policy scenarios (natural evolution, cultivated land protection, and ecological protection) in 2025. Results show that (1) the land use change in Anyang from 1995 to 2025 was significant, and the degree of land use change under the cultivated land and ecological protection scenarios was more moderate than that under the natural evolution scenario; (2) The total ESV decreased between 1995 and 2015, amounting to losses of 1126 million yuan, and the decline from 2015 to 2025 under the natural evolution scenario was more significant than those under the cultivated land protection and ecological protection scenarios; and (3) an obvious synergy was observed between various ecosystem services in Anyang City under different scenarios in 2025, and the most significant synergy was observed under the natural evolution scenario. In terms of spatial distribution, the agglomeration of “high–high” synergy in the west and “low–low” synergy in the central region was significant. Local areas showed “high–low” and “low–high” trade-off relationships scattered between their built land and woodland or cultivated land. The proposed framework can provide certain scientific support for regulating land use and ecosystem services in rapidly urbanized areas.

Rapid urbanization in China has caused a large number of rural-to-urban migrants (RUMs) and rapid urban land expansion (ULE). Understanding the relationship between RUMs and ULE has important implications for urban sustainable development. This study explored the spatial patterns of RUMs and ULE in Hubei Province from 2009 to 2014, and analyzed the relationship between the two using a decoupling model. The results show that: (1) a large proportion of the rural population migrated to urban areas in Hubei Province from 2009 to 2014, and the distribution of RUMs was uneven: developed areas attracted more RUMs than undeveloped regions; (2) the urban land in Hubei Province increased rapidly from 2009 to 2014, and the urban land use in Hubei Province was extensive and inefficient; (3) the decoupling types between RUMs and ULE in Hubei Province were dominated by expansive negative and weak decoupling; (4) according to the changes in per capita urban land area and decoupling types, the coordination relationship between RUMs and ULE in Hubei Province was divided into eight types, and while the relationship between RUMs and ULE in most areas were coordinated and beneficial to urban land intensive use, the rest were uncoordinated. Finally, reasonable implications for urban sustainable development and new land use policy were put forward.