Yangtze River Delta Research Articles

The relationship between FDI quality, new quality productivity forces, and economic resilience in China’s Yangtze River Delta region: insights from an empirical spatial Durbin model

In the context of increasing natural disasters, volatile geopolitical dynamics, and rising anti-globalization trends—particularly in the post-pandemic era—enhancing economic resilience has become crucial. This study investigates how FDI quality and new quality productivity forces influence economic resilience across 41 cities in China’s Yangtze River Delta (2009–2022). We establish measurement systems for FDI quality, new quality productivity forces, and economic resilience, conducting empirical analyses across temporal and spatial dimensions. Three main findings emerge: First, significant spatial disparities exist, with eastern/northern regions outperforming western/southern areas in all three dimensions. While new quality productivity forces and resilience show upward trends with fluctuations, FDI quality exhibits stagnation and regional imbalances. Second, temporal analysis reveals a U-shaped relationship where FDI quality affects both new quality productivity forces and resilience, with new quality productivity forces demonstrating significant mediation effects. Third, spatial econometric results show an inverted U-shaped spillover effect of FDI quality on neighboring regions’ resilience. These findings provide empirical evidence on the mechanisms through which external investments (FDI) and internal innovation capabilities (new quality productivity forces) jointly shape regional economic resilience, offering valuable insights for policymakers to address development disparities and enhance risk resistance capacities in the new era.

The Mechanism and Research Path of Digital Economy Empowering the Green Development of Reverse Logistics: An Empirical Analysis of the Yangtze River Delta Region

Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent global environmental regulations and the advancement of the dual carbon goals, the green transformation of reverse logistics has become a crucial topic for the sustainable development of a circular economy. This paper focuses on the intrinsic mechanism and practical path of how the digital economy empowers the green development of reverse logistics, using the Yangtze River Delta region as a case study. A theoretical framework of Digital EconomyGreen Technological InnovationGreen Reverse Logistics is constructed. Based on provincial panel data from 2011 to 2022, a comprehensive evaluation index system is systematically built, and benchmark regression models as well as mediation effect models are used to verify the transmission paths. The findings indicate that: (1) The digital economy significantly promotes the green development of reverse logistics through both direct transmission and indirectly driving the diffusion of green technological innovation; (2) Regional heterogeneity analysis shows that Shanghai has formed a growth pole due to its advantages in digital infrastructure and technological innovation, while provinces such as Anhui are characterized by low-efficiency lock-in due to limitations in technology absorption capacity and lack of policy coordination. These findings provide theoretical support for addressing the dilemma of the green premium in reverse logistics. It is suggested that efforts should be made to promote regional synergy and green transformation in the Yangtze River Delta through a tiered digital infrastructure network, cross-regional green technology alliances, differentiated carbon governance mechanisms, and integrated digital-market mechanisms.

The implementation of the "Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense Battle" has significantly reduced surface ozone pollution and its impacts on crop yields in China.

The implementation of the "Three-Year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky Defense Battle" has significantly reduced surface ozone pollution and its impacts on crop yields in China.

Quantitative attribution of spatio-temporal pattern of pm2.5 concentration based on geodetector and GWR model: Evidence from China's three major urban agglomerations.

Clarifying the spatio-temporal evolution of PM2.5 concentration law and its driving mechanism is crucial for the prevention and control of air pollution in urban agglomerations, also helping promote their high-quality development. Based on remote sensing and statistics of urban agglomerations in China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), and Pearl River Delta (PRD) from 2005 to 2020, the paper analyses the evolution characteristics of the pollution concentration pattern and identifies the influencing factors through spatial analysis method combining the geodetector and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. As the results show, during the study period: (1) Temporal Trends: annual PM2.5 concentrations exhibited significant declines, with BTH decreasing from 1004.71 μg/m3 (2006) to 528 μg/m3 (2020), YRD from 1434.81 μg/m3 (2008) to 621 μg/m3, and PRD from 405.02 μg/m3 (2007) to 292 μg/m3. The ranking remained YRD > BTH > PRD throughout the study period. (2) Spatial Heterogeneity: Spatial clustering (Moran's I: 0.286-0.729, p < 0.05) dominated all regions. BTH showed a "high-south" pattern (e.g., Xingtai: 78.3 μg/m3 vs. Qinhuangdao: 34.2 μg/m3), YRD displayed "high-northwest" characteristics (Hefei: 68.5 μg/m3 vs. Ningbo: 42.1 μg/m3), while PRD exhibited a west-east gradient (Foshan: 49.8 μg/m3 vs. Shenzhen: 25.6 μg/m3). (3) The evolution of PM2.5 concentration in three urban agglomerations is generally positive autocorrelative aggregative distribution, and aggregation types include "high-high", "low-low" and "high-low". (4) The measurement of geographical detector indicates the differentiation of PM2.5 concentration is affected by both natural geography and socio-economic factors, and the former ones have stronger driving forces. (5) The measurement of GWR model indicates temperature, precipitation, vegetation coverage, urban expansion, industrial structure, and energy efficiency are main influencing factors of PM2.5 concentration pattern, and the degree of influence of these factors is different.

Analysing the career flow of music professionals: a data-driven approach using big data

ABSTRACT This paper establishes the Yangtze River Delta education elite talent database of ‘music scholars’ including big data through the resume analysis method. We explore and construct the mobility quadrant index to analyse its social mobility process and influencing factors. Experiments show that the characteristics of the mobility quadrant are as follows: firstly, parallel flow is the main stage from the stage of doctoral graduation to initial job; secondly, downward flow is the main flow from the initial job to the election stage, and the parallel flowers prefer the ‘move to the city to advance to the school’; thirdly, the proportion of downward flow has decreased after being elected as a high-level scholar, but it is still the mainstream, and the parallel flow is dominated by the ‘double-identical’ type; fourthly, the flow path is ‘one-to-one’ non-flow type-based. Based on big data analysis, this paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the mobility and career development direction of music professionals, providing a new baseline for this field.

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Vegetation Net Primary Productivity (NPP) and Multiscale Responses of Driving Factors in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Against the backdrop of global climate change and rapid urbanization, understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics and driving mechanisms of vegetation net primary productivity (NPP) is critical for ensuring regional ecological security and achieving carbon neutrality goals. This study focuses on the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) and integrates multi-source remote sensing data with socioeconomic statistics. By combining interpretable machine learning (XGBoost-SHAP) with multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR), and incorporating Theil–Sen trend analysis and Mann–Kendall significance testing, we systematically analyze the spatiotemporal variations in NPP and its multiscale driving mechanisms from 2001 to 2020. The results reveal the following: (1) Total NPP in the YRDUA shows an increasing trend, with approximately 24.83% of the region experiencing a significant rise and only 2.75% showing a significant decline, indicating continuous improvement in regional ecological conditions. (2) Land use change resulted in a net NPP loss of 2.67 TgC, yet ecological restoration and advances in agricultural technology effectively mitigated negative impacts and became the main contributors to NPP growth. (3) The results from XGBoost and MGWR are complementary, highlighting the scale-dependent effects of driving factors—at the regional scale, natural factors such as elevation (DEM), precipitation (PRE), and vegetation cover (VFC) have positive impacts on NPP, while the human footprint (HF) generally exerts a negative effect. However, in certain areas, a dose–response effect is observed, in which moderate human intervention can enhance ecological functions. (4) The spatial heterogeneity of NPP is mainly driven by nonlinear interactions between natural and anthropogenic factors. Notably, the interaction between DEM and climatic variables exhibits threshold responses and a “spatial gradient–factor interaction” mechanism, where the same driver may have opposite effects under different geomorphic conditions. Therefore, a well-balanced combination of land use transformation and ecological conservation policies is crucial for enhancing regional ecological functions and NPP. These findings provide scientific support for ecological management and the formulation of sustainable development strategies in urban agglomerations.

Urban–rural integration of urban agglomerations in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt: spatiotemporal evolution and driving mechanism

As new progress has been made in urban–rural integration in recent years, the gap between urban and rural development in China has gradually narrowed. However, balancing urban–rural relations, especially accelerating rural development, remains a great challenge. Quantitative research on the level of urban–rural integrated development (URIDL) and its drivers is essential for establishing harmonious urban–rural relations. By utilizing a URIDL indicator system, vertical and horizontal scatter degree method and Geodetector methods, this study evaluates the URIDL in the three agglomerations in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2010 to 2019, and provides an in-depth exploration of their spatiotemporal evolution and its influencing factors. The results show that: (1) Overall, the URIDL has been on the rise from 2010 to 2019, but the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration (CYUA) is significantly lower than the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration (MRYRUA). (2) In terms of spatial distribution, the URIDL exhibits a clear clustering effect, with high value areas concentrated in the east (north) and low value areas concentrated in the west (south). (3) The study found that the interaction effects of factors such as the proportion of non-agricultural population to total population (X1), per capita arable land area (X3), and industrial structure (X6) are significant, surpassing the impact of single factors. In addition, the volatility of industrial structure (X6) reflects the impact of China’s economic transformation on URID. This study provides scientific guidance for the high-quality development of urban–rural integration in urban agglomerations. It also provides important theoretical and practical references for optimizing regional development layouts and promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural areas.

Research on leading agricultural enterprises guiding farmers' participation in pre-production quality and safety control: evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Region of China

The leadership of agricultural enterprises in guiding farmers to participate in pre-production quality and safety control not only helps promote high-quality agricultural development and drives the industrialization process of agriculture, but also provides important support for achieving the goal of building a strong agricultural nation. The re-search employs a grounded theory approach to conduct a multi-case study, following the general logic of “Motivations-Behaviors-Outcomes.” Relevant data from case companies were extracted, analyzed, and coded to construct a theoretical interpretation, revealing the intrinsic mechanisms of agricultural leading enterprises in pre-production quality and safety control and identifying key influencing factors. Additionally, using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the study explores how five enterprise control behaviors—village-enterprise cooperation, integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, agricultural mechanization, agricultural digitalization, and agricultural technology promotion—collaborate to guide farmers' involvement in pre-production quality and safety control from a configurational perspective. The results indicate that agricultural leading enterprises guide farmers' participation in pre-production quality and safety control through organizational linkage mechanisms and new quality productive forces elements linkage mechanism, and based on this, six configurational paths are summarized, leading to the identification of three constructs: Industry Integration-driven, Digital Intelligence-driven, and Land Trusteeship-driven. This paper focuses on agricultural leading enterprises and farmers in the Yangtze River Delta region of China. The study does not limit itself to exploring the independent influence of enterprise-led actions in guiding farmers' participation in pre-production quality and safety control, but rather investigates how multiple factors work together to lead farmers' participation under various interacting elements.

Spatial characterization of periodic behaviors of ground PM2.5 concentration across the Yangtze River Delta and the North China Plain during 2014-2024: A new insight on driving processes of regional air pollution.

Spatial characterization of periodic behaviors of ground PM2.5 concentration across the Yangtze River Delta and the North China Plain during 2014-2024: A new insight on driving processes of regional air pollution.

Impact of the East Asian Stratospheric Intrusion on Lower Tropospheric Ozone in the Yangtze River Delta

Abstract Tropospheric ozone (O3) pollution has aroused increasing attention in past decades, especially in China, with escalating near‐surface O3 levels. Apart from photochemical reactions, stratospheric intrusion (SI) also contributes to tropospheric O3 pollution. In this study, a strong SI event that greatly influenced the near‐surface O3 pollution was identified in May 2023. To quantitatively analyze the contribution to surface O3 over the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), meteorological reanalysis data, in situ observations, and a regional meteorology‐chemistry coupled model were integrated. Our findings reveal that the severe O3 pollution observed over the YRD region cannot be solely attributed to photochemical processes. Noteworthily, a distinct signal of stratospheric air masses injecting into the troposphere was observed, indicating a more complex interplay between atmospheric chemical and physical processes. The clustering analysis of the backward trajectories shows that the O3‐rich air masses injected into the lower troposphere are primarily driven by westerly jets and downwelling behind the troughs accompanying the low‐pressure weather system at 46°N–60°N. The stratospheric O3‐rich air masses can be transported to the YRD region driven by the strong downwelling occurring with a high‐altitude wind field toward the south. Using the regional meteorology‐chemistry model Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF‐Chem) with real‐time input of the upper chemical boundary conditions, it is estimated that such regionally transported SI O3 contributed more than 12 ppb to surface O3 pollution over the YRD region.

A robust black carbon prediction model derived from observational datasets in the Yangtze River Delta region, China.

A robust black carbon prediction model derived from observational datasets in the Yangtze River Delta region, China.

Has the ecological civilization pilot zone policy improved the urban land green use efficiency?—A case study of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration

Abstract Urban land greening efficiency is an essential indicator for assessing the balance between regional ecological sustainability and economic development. This study evaluates urban land greening efficiency in China’s Yangtze River Delta region from 2007 to 2021 using a Slack-Based Measure (SBM) model that incorporates undesirable outputs. The empirical results indicate that the average urban land greening efficiency significantly increased from 0.345 in 2007 to 0.742 in 2021. Furthermore, the impact of the Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone (ECPZ) policy on urban land greening efficiency was assessed through a Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach. The findings demonstrate that the ECPZ policy contributed to an approximate 13% improvement in urban land greening efficiency. Additionally, an examination of underlying mechanisms reveals that the ECPZ policy enhances urban land greening efficiency primarily by stimulating green technological innovation and optimizing industrial structures in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Improving the economic efficiency of small and medium-sized cities in the Yangtze River delta: What role for borrowed size?

Improving the economic efficiency of small and medium-sized cities in the Yangtze River delta: What role for borrowed size?

Increased VOC reactivity forcing ozone pollution in the Yangtze River Delta region, China: Evidence from an eight-year observation at an urban site and implications for future control strategies.

Increased VOC reactivity forcing ozone pollution in the Yangtze River Delta region, China: Evidence from an eight-year observation at an urban site and implications for future control strategies.

Identification and simulation of ecological zoning in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) urban agglomeration based on Ecological Service Value (ESV)–Landscape Ecological Risk (LER)

Identification and simulation of ecological zoning in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) urban agglomeration based on Ecological Service Value (ESV)–Landscape Ecological Risk (LER)

Health risks of ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons based on the prediction of their gas-phase concentrations in the central Yangtze River Delta, China: Regional and time-resolved variability.

Health risks of ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons based on the prediction of their gas-phase concentrations in the central Yangtze River Delta, China: Regional and time-resolved variability.

Research on the Spatial Correlation Pattern of Sustainable Development of Cities in the Yangtze River Delta Region of China, Based on the Dynamic Coupling Perspective of “Ecology-Economy”

Focusing on the dynamic change process of urban ecology and economy, this paper explores the spatial correlation pattern of cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region for sustainable development from 2012 to 2023 based on the coupled coordination model, gravitational model, and social network analysis (SNA). First, the sustainable development level of the city shows a certain upward trend in the time dimension. In the spatial dimension, there is significant regional differentiation, which roughly shows the development characteristics of gradual increase from the interior to the coast. Second, cities with lower-level sustainable development and higher-level sustainable development always maintain their own stability, but being adjacent to a city with lower-level sustainable development increases the probability of an improvement. Third, cities that play an important role in driving the level of spatial correlation for sustainable development are mainly concentrated in the central and eastern parts of the YRD, with Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hangzhou being the most important radiation centers in the pattern of spatial correlation. Fourth, the affiliation system of sustainable development gradually changes from the double core system of Shanghai–Suzhou to the triple core system of Shanghai–Suzhou–Hangzhou to drive and lead the development of the subordinate cities. Fifth, the spatial network can be categorized into four plates: benefit, overflow, bilateral spillover, and broker, with obvious linkage effects between plates.

Evaluation of freight restructure to reduce carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Delta: A crisis-resolution model

Evaluation of freight restructure to reduce carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Delta: A crisis-resolution model

TyG-BMI as a superior predictor of MAFLD and pre-MAFLD in Chinese adults: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundMetabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), a highly prevalent global liver disorder, requires early diagnosis and treatment to delay progression, yet lacks simple diagnostic tools. We aimed to evaluate the validity of the triglyceride-glucose index (TyG) and its related indexes in predicting MAFLD and pre-MAFLD among Chinese individuals.MethodsThis cross-sectional study enrolled 9,627 Chinese participants (mean age 46.53 ± 11.87 years; 62.1% males) categorized into three groups based on MAFLD diagnostic criteria. Baseline characteristics were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests. To evaluate independent associations, we performed logistic regression analyses of anthropometric markers and TyG-related indexes with MAFLD status. Furthermore, the dose-response relationship between the TyG and related indexes and MAFLD risk was examined using restricted cubic splines (RCS). Finally, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis quantified the predictive performance of each index for MAFLD and pre-MAFLD.ResultsMean blood pressure, anthropometric indicators, and median TyG index and related parameters were significantly higher in the MAFLD group compared to the non-MAFLD group (p <.001). The pre-MAFLD group exhibited intermediate metabolic values between the non-MAFLD and MAFLD groups. Logistic regression analyses revealed anthropometric indicators, TyG index and related indicators were independent risk factors for MAFLD, adjusted for age, gender, blood pressure, blood glucose, and liver function markers. RCS analyses showed a nonlinear positive association between TyG index and related indexes and MAFLD risk (p for nonlinear <.0001). TyG-BMI demonstrated the highest area under the curve (AUC) for both MAFLD (0.874, 95%CI 0.867–0.881) and pre-MAFLD (0.823, 95%CI 0.810–0.836), with optimal cutoffs of 217.41 and 202.54, respectively.ConclusionsTyG-related indices, particularly TyG-BMI, showed superior discriminative ability for MAFLD and pre-MAFLD compared to traditional anthropometric measures in this Yangtze River Delta population, demonstrating an S-shaped dose-response relationship with MAFLD risk. These findings support TyG-BMI as a potential first-line screening tool.

Construction of Carbon Functional Zone in the Demonstration Zone of Green and Integrated Ecological Development of the Yangtze River Delta Based on Carbon Density Correction

Construction of Carbon Functional Zone in the Demonstration Zone of Green and Integrated Ecological Development of the Yangtze River Delta Based on Carbon Density Correction