Provincial Cities Research Articles

Does the Opening of High-Speed Railway Improve High-Quality Economic Development in the Yangtze River Delta, China?

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) is the area with the densest high-speed railway (HSR) network in China, and it leads the high-quality economic development (HQED) in the country. HSR plays an important role in regional development. However, research on the impact of the HSR on HQED is notably limited. Theoretically, this study develops an analytical framework for the mechanism of the HSR’s influence on HQED. Empirically, it calculates the HQED index and then investigates the impact of the HSR on HQED and the regional discrepancies across cities in the YRD, based on data from 2011 to 2019 using the difference-in-differences model. The results show: (1) The mechanism lies in that the HSR improves urban accessibility, accelerates the flow of the production factors, and enhances the allocation efficiency of the input factors. (2) The distribution of the HQED level presents an obvious circular pattern, with Shanghai and Suzhou at the centre, showing the prominent principle of distance decay. (3) Both the regression model and the robustness tests show that the HSR significantly promotes HQED in the YRD. Additionally, the economic development, foreign capital spent, financial level, industry advancement, and living standard are conducive to HQED. (4) The results of the heterogeneity test reveal that the HSR has an obviously varied impact on HQED in cities depending on their size and location. The HSR has a significant promotional effect on HQED in cities with a large population and those far away from a provincial city.

Features and spatial effects of urban development and decline in resource-oriented cities: The case of Jilin, China.

Transforming resource-based cities into sustainable economic development is a great challenge for policy-makers in many countries. However, the economic-centered evaluation system tends to breed the undesirable view of "GDP only" or "brown growth" in the previous case studies which is inconsistent with the long-run and sustainable development of resource-based cities. To fill in this research gap, this paper takes Jilin province in northeast China as a case study to explore urban development problems faced by major resource-based cities during resource depletion. This research constructs a stratified indicator system and conducts an in-depth analysis of the features and spatial effects of urban decline. For this analysis, this paper jointly uses the methods of entropy-weighted TOPSIS, analytic hierarchical process (AHP), and spatial effect model based on a database from 2000 to 2019. The findings of this study show that the current transformation of resource-based cities in Jilin province is generally ineffective and difficult to maintain long-run and sustainable development due to its historical reasons and industrial development background. According to the results, the resource-based cities in Jilin province show an unstable development because of factors such as barriers to the physical renewal of resources, rigid industrial structure, insufficient backup resources, and institutional and policy constraints. Also, the transformation of these cities into sustainable economic development is still facing demographic, social, and ecological difficulties.

Alienation from medical care policy, medical care avoidance, and the role of sex and risk perception

BackgroundMedical care avoidance affects individuals’ health status. Previous studies on medical care avoidance have mainly focused on medical costs and people’s satisfaction with medical services. This study investigates whether an individual’s sense of policy alienation toward medical care policy (SPA-M) affects behavioral intention of medical care avoidance, and to what extent an intermediary variable—medical financial risk perception–mediates the relationship between SPA-M and medical care avoidance.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 434 people aged 35–59 years from Wuhu, a city in China’s Anhui province. A moderated mediation model was constructed to investigate the research question and sex (biological: male and female) was used as a moderating variable between SPA-M and medical financial risk perception.ResultsWe found that SPA-M significantly impacted medical care avoidance, and that medical financial risk perception played a complete mediating role in this relationship, while sex moderated the relationship between SPA-M and medical financial risk perception.ConclusionThis study contributes to the literature by enhancing our understanding of the factors that influence behavioral intention regarding medical care avoidance, deepening our understanding of the role of SPA-M in medical care policy, and expanding the role of sex differences in the analysis of the relationship between SPA-M, medical financial risk perception, and medical care avoidance, offering implications for public and community health.

The impact of fireworks burning on air quality and their health effects in China during Spring Festivals of 2015–2022

Ambient monitoring online data of six criteria air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, O3 and CO) in 31 provincial capital cities in China during Spring Festivals from 2015 to 2022 were analyzed to estimate contributions of fireworks burning to PM2.5 and their health effects. It shows that daily average concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, and CO during Spring Festivals of 2015-2022 dropped remarkably by 36.5%, 48.9%, 70.6%, 29.7%, and 36.8%, respectively, while 8h O3 concentrations increased significantly by 21.6%. Average contributions of fireworks burning to PM2.5 during intensive fireworks burning periods from 2015 to 2022 were 44.8 ± 14.7 %, 56.2 ± 16.9 %, 50.1 ± 16.2 %, 46.0 ± 16.8 %, 44.3 ± 14.9 %, 33.2 ± 20.7 %, 44.5 ± 15.5 % and 35.2 ± 23.3 %, respectively. The total excess health risk (ERtotal) based on Chinese Ambient Air Quality Standards (CAAQS) and World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines, and health-risk based air quality index values (HAQI) were estimated. Annual average values of ERtotal based on the WHO standard were 1.5–4.7 times as many as those estimated by CAAQS standards and annual average values of HAQI based on CAAQS Grade Ⅰ standard were higher than those based on CAAQS Grade Ⅱ standard. Main health risk factors were different under different air quality standards. It is necessary to further improve air quality to protect human health during Spring Festivals in China in the future.

The imprint of urbanization on vegetation in the ecologically fragile area: A case study from China’s Loess Plateau

Rapid urbanization significantly affects vegetation growth in urban environments. Responses of vegetation to urbanization at high spatial resolutions and long temporal ranges are still unclear, especially in ecologically fragile areas. Here, we explored urbanization impacts on vegetation across China’s Loess Plateau (CLP) from 2000 to 2020 at a spatial resolution of 30 m. Urbanization and annual maximum Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in urban agglomerations, provincial capital cities, also the whole CLP experienced a rapid increase over this period; the annual maximum NDVI (NDVImax) in urban areas decreased before 2011 but increased afterward to reach its maximum value in 2018, and in non-urban areas, a significant increase was found between 2000 and 2020. NDVImax with significant reduction areas were mostly distributed in the urbanization area. A total of 97.56%, 53.66%, 80.49%, and 100% of all cities’ urban core, urbanization, urban, and non-urban areas, respectively, indicated an increase in NDVImax during 2000–2020. For 97.56% (40/41) of the cities in the CLP, the increases in NDVImax in the non-urban areas were stronger than the NDVImax increases detected in the urban areas of these cities. In general, the urban areas of most cities (29/41) in the CLP had positive NDVI trends of greater than 50%. The NDVImax generally decreased with increasing urbanization development intensity (UDI) in 2000 and 2020 in the CLP along with five urban agglomerations. These findings have important implications for understanding urbanization impacts on vegetation, urbanization management, and development in ecologically fragile areas.

Alternative Methods of Replacing Electric Batteries in Public Transport Vehicles

Current electric vehicle solutions offer the possibility of a fully electrified bus fleet, although due to financial constraints, most cities cannot afford it. Therefore, the possibility of battery replacement is a needed alternative to the electrification process of a city’s bus fleet. The aim of this study is to investigate the needs of cities and present the concept of battery replacement in an electric bus. The research was based on two groups of selected Polish cities: (1) up to 150,000 inhabitants, and (2) up to 1 million inhabitants. The research part includes an analysis of the means of transport in provincial cities in Poland, an analysis of the kilometers covered by the city fleet, the average distances covered by buses per day, and an estimate of the number of battery replacements. The concept is based on current technological solutions. The description of the concept includes the proposed battery and the technology used, the placement of the battery in the vehicle, and the replacement scheme. Research indicates that the concept can be used with existing technology but will be more justifiable for a larger city due to the higher fleet load. The paper shows the importance of researching bus electrification solutions and that modern solutions can improve existing urban networks in cities.

Formation of an unprecedented yellow snow episode in Xinjiang on December 1, 2018

On 1 December 2018, a heavy yellow snow fell in Urumqi (87°37′E, 43°47′N) — the largest city of northwest China's Xinjiang province, which was the first case that the yellow snow has been observed in winter. The air parcel trajectories obtained from Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model and the dust surface mass concentration from Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) were adopted to identify the potential sources and transport paths of pollutants responsible for this yellow snow episode. The meteorological situation and the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) forecast products have been utilized to analyze the supportive meteorological conditions. The results showed that the heavy snow in Urumqi was contaminated by the yellow dust originated in Karamay of Xinjiang province. The strong surface winds in Karamay lifted large amounts of dust into the atmosphere. Then the airborne dusts were transported to Urumqi rapidly by strong low-level winds, where precipitation in connection with the upper trough and the cold front lead to the yellow snow episode. This study can provide important scientific significance for predicting this kind of event (yellow snow).

Epidemiology of animal bite injuries in North of Fars province in Iran

Objective: To investigate the epidemiological situation of animal bites in Rostam city of Fars province. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Cases of animal bites registered in health centers of Rostam city of Fars province from the beginning of 2014 to 2020 were analyzed using the census method. The tool for collecting information was the portal of the Ministry of Health and the registration offices of people who were referred to the rabies center. Results: A total of 628 cases of animal bites registered in health centers of Rostam city of Fars province from the beginning of 2014 to 2020. The mean age of the injured was (31.3 ± 20.2) years. Of the total injured cases, 414 (65.9%) were male, and 491 (78.2%) lived in villages. Most of the cases were bitten by dogs (n=420, 66.8%) and the upper limb was involved in 280 (55.2%) cases. In addition, an increasing trend was observed in the incidence of animal bites from 2015 to 2020. Conclusions: The incidence of animal bites in Rostam City is high, and most of the cases occur in rural areas. Considering the injuries caused by animal bites, the risk of rabies transmission, and the high costs of vaccination and serum therapy, it is necessary to hold control, educational, and vaccination programs.

Beyond Rome: Brescia and the Difficult Heritage of Italian Fascism

Physical reminders of Fascist rule in Italy can be found in virtually every Italian town and city. To date, though, studies of how Italians have dealt with this ‘difficult heritage’ have focused overwhelmingly on Rome, where Fascism's copious remains are treated and admired as aesthetic objects, unmoored from their political–historical origins. Implied, assumed or articulated in these studies is the idea of Rome as an exemplar of the nation: that what is true of the capital is true of the country. In fact, the idea that Rome's approach to its Fascist heritage is representative of Italy's has yet to be properly tested. This article argues for the need to go ‘beyond Rome’ in order to gain a deeper, richer, and more nuanced understanding of the ways in which Italians have negotiated the difficult heritage of Fascism. Focusing on the provincial Lombard city of Brescia, the article reveals the complex interplay between time, place, use, memory, aesthetics, and politics in shaping how bresciani have negotiated three surviving ‘faces’ of Fascism: Marcello Piacentini's monumental piazza della Vittoria; Arturo Dazzi's colossal statue ‘L’Era Fascista’, popularly known as the ‘Bigio’; and Oscar Prati's monument-ossuary to the fallen of the Great War.

PENGARUH PENDAPATAN ASLI DAERAH DAN JUMLAH PENDUDUK TERHADAP PRODUK DOMESTIK REGIONAL BRUTO (PDRB) KABUPATEN DAN KOTA DI PROVINSI ACEH

This study aims to analyze the effect of regional original income and population on the gross regional domestic product of districts and cities in Aceh province. The data used in this research is secondary data. This research model uses panel data regression. The results of the study partially show that regional own-source income has a positive and significant effect on the GRDP of districts and cities in Aceh province. Total population has a positive and significant effect on the GRDP of districts and cities in Aceh province. Local Own Revenue and Population have a positive and significant effect on the GRDP of Regencies and Cities in Aceh Province.

A ZSG-DEA model with factor constraint cone-based decoupling analysis for household CO2 emissions: a case study on Sichuan province.

This study employed an input-output approach to measure household CO2 emissions (HCEs) in Sichuan province, China from 2010 to 2017. A ZSG-DEA model with a factor constraint cone was built, to allocate such emission allowances to provincial subordinate cities andinvestigate their spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Using Tapio decoupling analysis, this study furtherexamined the nexus between regional economic performance and HCEs. The results indicated that HCEs in Sichuanprovince initially increased and then decreased, peaking at 69.60 million tons in 2015. The structure of the HCEs changed from coal- to petroleum-dominated from 2010 to 2017. Indirect emissions from consumption-related sectors accounted for 60% of the total HCEs, including food, transportation, communication, and accommodation. The capital city of Chengdu, with the largest economic scale, overwhelmingly dominated the totalhousehold CO2 emissions, whereas Panzhihua, a heavy-industry-dominated city, had the highest HCEs per capita. The Tapio decoupling results suggested that seven cities, led by Chengdu, had strong decoupling statuses, indicating that these cities performed well in the trade-off between economic growth and HCEsreduction. These results indicated that HCEs had a head effect centered on cities with advanced urbanization, but there was a virtuous cycle between CO2 emissionsreduction and economic development. Given the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of HCEs, differentiated policymaking on emissions reduction is the key to facilitating green transformations.

Only daughters caring for their aging mothers in Ufa, Russia

Russia is not the only country in the world that relies heavily on informal caregiving, but what makes Russia unique is the number of single-parent one-child families. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition from state socialism to market capitalism, little has changed in terms of the social protection of older adults. Unaffordable home care services, low pensions, bifurcation of the formerly free healthcare into state and private sectors, the invisibility of people with disabilities, and the absence of quality nursing homes, have left adult children in Russia no choice but to bear the full burden of caregiving for their aging parents completely alone. Given the scarcity of research that examines informal caregiving in Russia in general and in provincial cities in particular, this study addresses this gap by centering on previously unheard voices of a unique group of women: only children of single mothers from Ufa, a metropolitan city in the Ural Mountains. Twenty middle-aged (M = 40.75, SD = 3.43), college-educated women participated in a two-hour, semi-structured interview. Inductive thematic analysis revealed three themes: incongruence with the microenvironment, aging in the “cement box,” and distrust of outsiders. The findings suggest material and cultural constraints that female caregivers face as they negotiate the mothers’ discordance with the microenvironment of Khrushchev-era apartments.

Demographic Factors Influencing Music Teachers’ Attitudes Toward World Music Teaching in China

This study aims to identify the demographic factors affecting Chinese music teachers’ attitudes toward world music teaching in China. Through electronic questionnaires issued online, a total of 1,368 participants completed A Survey of Music Teachers’ Attitudes Toward World Music Teaching, which includes demographic information and twenty Likert-type items. The results showed that two independent variables of “gender” and “whether teachers had received training in world music after entry” did not influence Chinese music teachers’ attitudes and practices in world music teaching. Furthermore, it could be speculated that the teachers, especially those who were 20-34 years old with a master’s degree/Ph.D. and 1-10 years of teaching experience, as well as good at Western instruments, studied world music courses, graduated from a comprehensive university, and with teaching places located in the provincial capital cities, leaned more toward ethnomusicological and multicultural consciousness in world music teaching.

Applied Techniques for Twitter Data Retrieval in an Urban Area: Insight for Trip Production Modeling

This paper presents methods of retrieving Twitter data, both streaming and archive data, using Application Programming Interfaces. Twitter data are a kind of Location Based Social Network Data that, nowadays, is emerging in transportation demand modeling. Data regarding the locations of trip makers represent the most crucial step in the modeling. No research article has specifically addressed this topic with an up-to-date method; hence, this paper aims to refresh methods for retrieving Twitter data that can capture relevant data. The method is unique as the data are gathered for trip production modeling in zonal urban areas. Python script programs were built for both data retrieving methods. The programs were run for streaming data from May 2020 to April 2021 and archive data from 2018. The data were collected within Serang City, which is the nearest provincial city to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. In order to gather streaming data with no loss, the program has been run with referencing on sub-district office coordinate locations. Retrieving the intended data produces 1,090,623 documents, of which 54,103 are geotagged data from 2495 users. The study concluded that streaming data produce more geolocation data, while historical data capture more Twitter user data with relatively very little geotagged data and greater textual data than the period covered in this research. Thus, both techniques of retrieving Twitter data for urban personal trip modeling are necessary. Obtaining sufficient data collection using data streaming retrieval resulted in the most effective data preprocessing. This research contributes to Location Based Social Network data mining knowledge, both geolocation and text mining, and is useful for insight into developing trip production modeling in passenger transportation demand modeling using Machine Learning. This study also aims to provide useful methods for transportation system researchers and data scientists in utilizing Location Based Social Network data.

Dynamic change and evolutionary mechanism of city land leasing network—Taking the Yangtze River Delta region in China as an example

Mapping city networks has attracted scholarly attention in urban studies, while the relevant studies focusing on land elements are lacking. This study aims to address and fill this research gap by analyzing across-city land leasing relationships. Using Yangtze River Delta region (YRDR) in China as a case, we explore the dynamic change and evolutionary mechanism of city land leasing network based on urban land leasing data and temporal exponential random graph model (TERGM). The findings reveal that: 1) At the macro level, as the interconnections between cities in the YRDR grow stronger, the inter-city flow of land elements has become growingly convenient and accessible, there is a corresponding increase in the frequency of land use rights transfer between cities. This has led to the emergence of a more intricate and interconnected city land leasing network in the YRDR. 2) At the medium level, city land leasing network in the YRDR fosters land leasing communities within province boundary. Shanghai community is identified as the strongest community, which establish a compact relationship with a large number of cities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces. The province of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui have also foster communities with provincial capitals as the core, respectively. 3) At the individual level, Shanghai is the primary recipient city in terms of cross-city land leasing relationships, followed by provincial capital cities of Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei. 4) Significant effects, including endogenous structural effects, actor-relation effects, exogenous network effects, and time effects, could be found in the city land leasing network of the YRDR. The city land leasing network in the YRDR is influenced by endogenous structural factors such as popularity, transitivity, and connectivity. Cities with low economic development levels, strong land leasing intervention, high real estate development investment levels, and high land leasing prices are more likely to lease land to other cities. Cities with higher levels of economic development, higher levels of industrial structure upgrading, higher levels of real estate development investment, and higher land prices are more likely to lease land from other cities. Furthermore, cities within the same province or within Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations (YRDUR) are more likely to foster inter-city land leasing relationships, while the distance between cities negatively affects the establishment of inter-city land leasing relationships.

Description of geographical conditions and cities of Penza province 
 in the memoirs of prisoners of war of Napoleon’s army in the context of reflection of regional identity

Description of geographical conditions and cities of Penza province 
 in the memoirs of prisoners of war of Napoleon’s army in the context of reflection of regional identity

Policy Recommendations for Reducing Food Waste: An Analysis Based on a Survey of Urban and Rural Household Food Waste in Harbin, China

Food waste has become a pressing global issue in recent years. In China, the issue of food waste has become increasingly severe. As a provincial capital city, Harbin is also a major agricultural city in China with distinct urban and rural features. This paper uses Harbin as a case study to evaluate different strategies for preventing and reducing food waste based on these urban–rural differences. This research is based on official data on household food waste in urban and rural areas of Harbin, as well as data collected from 333 telephone surveys through stratified random sampling. Independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the survey data, followed by a review of existing food waste policies and strategies. Our findings show that Harbin has had a positive response in adhering to national anti-food waste policies. However, its implementation has not been effective. There is a continuous increase in food waste generation. Moreover, gender, level of education, and household annual income have a significant impact on residents’ food waste habits and there are significant differences between urban and rural areas in terms of “eating out” and “ordering food ingredients”. The average daily amount of food waste generated by urban households is 3216.31 g, which is 2.4 times that of rural households. There are also differences in the causes of food waste between urban and rural residents due to different diets and eating habits. As a result, feasible and effective policy recommendations have been proposed to reduce food waste in response to these urban–rural differences.

Exploration of Land-Use Change and Drivers In Qixia City Based on Multi-Temporal Landsat8 Remote Sensing Image

The research results on land use and cover change (LUCC) are constantly updated, which is of great significance to correctly handle the relationship between human activities and ecological environment. In this article, Landsat8 remote sensing images, DEM data and statistical yearbook data of Qixia city in Shandong province are selected in 2013, 2018 and 2021 to explore the changes in this city’s land use. Through supervised classification, land use dynamic degree (LUDD) and land use transfer matrix, LUCC has been analyzed, and through the CORREL and DEM slope analysis, the main driving force has been investigated. The results indicate that the area of orchards in Qixia city is showing an increasing trend and the area of farmland, water and residential land shows a decreasing trend. Single land use dynamic degree of industrial land is the largest. The main driving forces of the industrial land and the orchard area are the social economic factors, which are mainly manifested as the influence of the regional GDP, the gross product of primary and tertiary sectors as well as the gross value of agricultural produce. In addition, the population is what is causing changes in the amount of farmland and residential land, and the terrain slope also impact on the variation of land-use classification significantly.

Long-term satellite observations show continuous increase of vegetation growth enhancement in urban environment

Urbanization shows continuous expansion and development, ushering in the co-evolution of urban environments and vegetation over time. Recent remote sensing-based studies have discovered prevalent vegetation growth enhancement in urban environments. However, whether there is a temporal evolution of the growth enhancement remains unknown and unexplored. Here we expanded the existing framework for assessing the long-term impact of urbanization on vegetation greenness (enhanced vegetation index, EVI) using long time series of remote sensing images and applied it in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province in China. Results showed that vegetation growth experienced widespread enhancement from 2000 to 2017, and increased 1.8 times from 2000 to 2017, suggesting strong continuous adaptive capability of vegetation to urban conditions. Although the overall impact of urbanization was negative due to the replacement of vegetated surfaces, the growth enhancement nevertheless offset or compensated the direct loss of vegetated cover during urbanization in the magnitude of 28 % in 2000 to 44 % in 2017. Our study also revealed large spatial heterogeneity in vegetation growth response among various districts at different urbanization levels and found an emergent trend under the observed spatial heterogeneity toward an asymptotic maximum with urbanization, showing EVI converges to 0.22 in highly urbanized areas. We further found that the positive effect of urbanization on vegetation growth is a function of urbanization intensity and time, which implies that the effect of the urban environment on vegetation can be simulated and predicted, and can be verified in more cities in the future. Our study is the first to successfully quantify long-term spatial patterns on the co-evolution of urbanization and vegetation, providing a new understanding of the continuous adaptive responses of vegetation growth to urbanization and shedding light on predicting biological responses to future environmental change.

Government Spending Effect on HDI Indragiri Hilir: An ECM Approach

Indragiri Hilir Regency has the second lowest Human Development Index compared to the newly established regencies and cities in Riau province. However, Indragiri Hilir Regency has a relatively high allocation of development budget and per capita income compared to other regencies and cities. The objectives of the study were to determine whether the effect of the Indragiri Hilir government expenditure realization on the Human Development Index is cointegrated, to examine the long-term impact of expenditure realization on education, health, infrastructure, environmental, and social protection functions on the Human Development Index in Indragiri Hilir, and to analyze the short-term effects of environmental and social protection functions on the Human Development Index. The study employed the Error Correction Model (ECM) method, utilizing data from the period 2007 to 2021 obtained from the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance (DJPK) of the Indonesian Ministry of Finance for independent variables, while dependent variables were sourced from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). The study findings revealed that government spending has a cointegrated influence on the Development Index. Furthermore, it was observed that the realization of government spending on education, health, and infrastructure functions did not significantly affect the Human Development Index in the Indragiri Hilir regency. In contrast, the realization of government spending on environmental functions showed a significant positive correlation. Similarly, the realization of Indragiri Hilir's government spending on social protection functions had a significant negative correlation. Therefore, the government of Indragiri Hilir Regency should assess expenditure realization on education, health, and infrastructure functions and introduce innovative programs. Increased spending on social protection led to a reduction in the Human Development Index.