Applied Geography最新文献

{"title":"Emerging megaregions and intensifying spatial polarization in South Korea: Evidence from nighttime light data (1992–2020)","authors":"Sangwan Lee ,&nbsp;Chisun Yoo ,&nbsp;Sugie Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103919","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103919","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the spatio-temporal evolution of spatial structure in South Korea, with the aim of understanding how spatial polarization and regional restructuring have unfolded over the past three decades. To achieve this, we apply Contour Tree Mapping and Emerging Hot Spot Analysis to Nighttime Light data. This study reveals three major findings. First, metropolitan areas such as Seoul and Busan continue to dominate the national urban hierarchy, demonstrating strong path-dependent development. Second, the expansion of cold-spot clusters in provinces including Gangwon-do and Jeollabuk-do highlights the growing marginalization of peripheral regions, signaling intensified spatial polarization. Third, a structural shift is underway as metropolitan areas increasingly conurbate, with corridors such as Seoul–Daejeon and Daegu–Busan forming megaregional configurations. This study contributes to offering empirical evidence of ongoing spatial transformation in South Korea and expands the theoretical discussion on spatial restructuring and regional development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103919"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quality of schools and inequalities in access: A socio-territorial analysis","authors":"Javier Rueda ,&nbsp;Filipe Moura ,&nbsp;Victor Cantillo","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103909","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103909","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the accessibility of high school students to public transportation and active modes, taking into account the quality of schools in the Barranquilla Metropolitan Area (BMA), Colombia, using the Balanced Float Catchment Area methodology with binary impedance functions. The study also utilizes Gini index values to assess the distribution of accessibility among the population and the Palma ratio to examine the inequalities between the wealthiest 10 % and the poorest 40 % of the population aged 12–17. A spatial analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between school quality and socioeconomic status. Results reveal notable spatial variations in school quality accessibility, emphasizing the prevalence of low-quality schools, particularly in zones characterized by concentrated poverty. The analysis highlights the concentration of higher-quality schools in zones inhabited by individuals of higher socioeconomic strata. Socioeconomic inequalities are evident, indicating that wealthier students have greater access to higher-quality schools. At the same time, low- and medium-income populations are more likely to attend schools of medium and low quality. The Palma ratio confirms pronounced socio-territorial inequalities, particularly for high-quality schools situated in high-income areas. The paper concludes by suggesting policies and actions to overcome the barriers to accessing high-quality education for low- and medium-income students.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103909"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146039335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of built environment in promoting physical and social activities among older adults: Insights from a machine learning approach","authors":"Yuneng Jiang ,&nbsp;Jia Guo ,&nbsp;Peiyao Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103904","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103904","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Enhancing physical and social recreational activities for the elderly can effectively achieve healthy aging. This study utilizes data from 1020 elderly people in Suzhou and employs a machine learning model to investigate the nonlinear effects of the built environment on physical and social activities for the elderly. Eleven built environment elements and twelve individual socio-demographic variables are selected as explained variables. The results indicate that street connectivity and road density are the two largest contributors to predicting active activities among all influences for physical and social recreational activities for the elderly. Street sky rate and street greening rate are two variables influence social activities of older adults. Accessibility of amenities such as supermarket and living facilities are positively correlated with both physical and social activity of older adults. Besides, income and mental health are two important social-demographic factors influencing the activities of older adults. Nonlinear or threshold effects are also confirmed for most built environment factors. The findings suggest that the built environment's influence on older adults' activity patterns exhibits threshold effects. In addition, age was found to play a limited moderating role in the relationship between the built environment and older adults' activities. The older the individual, the higher the demand for accessibility to community greenery and amenities. These results provide a rational reference for elder-friendly community planning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103904"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146038899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High-density urban forms amplify accelerating heat-ozone compound risks in China","authors":"Jingling Su,&nbsp;Gang Xu,&nbsp;Limin Jiao","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103924","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103924","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Compound heat and ozone pollution (HOC) events pose a severe health threat, yet the role of urban form in driving these joint extremes remains unclear at the national scale. Here, we analyze high-resolution data across 246 Chinese cities (2003–2022). We find that compound events have tripled in duration and increased in frequency (+4.0 days/decade), now comprising over 55% of all extreme heat days. Using the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) framework, we reveal that this risk is disproportionately concentrated in dense, high-rise urban centers, which also face the fastest acceleration of events, notably in North China (+10 days/decade). Our results show that while intense human activities amplify risk, higher vegetation coverage provides effective mitigation. This study validates climate resilient urban planning as a critical strategy to mitigate the accelerating threat of compound climate extremes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103924"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effective allocation of government attention: A regional analysis of urban carbon reduction and SDGs collaborative governance in China","authors":"Huan Qin,&nbsp;Yi Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103913","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103913","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The effective allocation of government attention is crucial for advancing urban carbon reduction and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study analyzes 286 Chinese cities using machine learning and spatial econometric analysis. It examines how government attention allocation affects collaborative governance and its mechanisms. During 2021–2022, the launch of the carbon neutrality” led to increases in both collaborative attention intensity and the number of collaborative goals. However, the marginal effects of attention intensity diminish, suggesting trade-offs in balancing priorities. Regional differences appear: Western cities improved from weak to strong positive impacts by accelerating policy integration. Eastern cities, despite early advantages, now show weakening effects from saturated interactions. Central and northeastern cities display moderate or constrained impacts, limited by industrial inertia and resource dependence. Clustering of local governance effects reveals that regions differ in their configurations of collaborative attention. The northeast region has potential for agricultural green transition and industrial innovation governance, addressing SDG2, SDG8, and SDG9. It requires government-enterprise collaboration platforms and quantitative assessment systems. The eastern and central regions are shifting to an inclusive carbon reduction pathway (SDG1, SDG11, and SDG16), emphasizing benefit alignment and cost-sharing. The western region should shift focus from economic growth to social and environmental goals, strengthening policy learning and tool innovation for balanced governance. These regional pathways show a stage-specific adaptation mechanism, providing theoretical guidance for designing context-specific strategies for carbon reduction and multi-objective governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103913"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leveraging the adaptive cycle framework to unravel the dynamics and governance of cultivated land green use in China","authors":"Yizhi Hu,&nbsp;Wenxiong Wang,&nbsp;Zijun Liu,&nbsp;Yihao Meng,&nbsp;Haojie Li,&nbsp;Li Dai","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103892","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103892","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Exploring the dynamic evolution of the Cultivated Land Green Use System (CLGUS) is essential for advancing relationships between humans and nature and promoting agricultural sustainability. Based on complex adaptive system and adaptive cycle theories, this study constructs an analytical framework to investigate the spatio-temporal patterns, evolutionary stages, and driving mechanisms of the adaptive cycle evolution in China's CLGUS from 2000 to 2022, using spatial regression and nonlinear methods. Differentiated zoning strategies are further proposed. The results indicate that: (1) The adaptive cycle level of CLGUS in China increased steadily from 0.428 to 0.606, exhibiting temporal evolution patterns and spatial differentiation characteristics. Temporally, it alternated between “steady accumulation” and “stage-leap” phases, while spatially it displayed three-dimensional spatial dislocation and agglomeration trends. (2) The adaptive cycle evolution of CLGUS in China exhibited stage characteristics of dynamic transformation and spatial embedding. Cities in transitional stages, such as r-K and K-Ω, tended to cluster around regions in preceding stages, like r and K. (3) Driving factors showed significant spatio-temporal non-stationarity and nonlinear threshold effects. Relief amplitude, GDP per capita, and urbanization rate exhibited inverted U-shaped relationships with the adaptive cycle level, with critical thresholds shifting dynamically. (4) Based on key factor thresholds, four cultivated land green use zones were delineated: steady-state optimization zone, collaborative regulation zone, targeted breakthrough zone, and system enhancement zone. These findings provide decision-making references for establishing new regional frameworks for cultivated land protection and achieving sustainable use of cultivated land.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103892"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145941310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatiotemporal patterns and drivers of urban park visitation among residents and tourists: Insights from mobile phone big data","authors":"Chang Luo ,&nbsp;Yue Tan ,&nbsp;Yong Liu ,&nbsp;Songlin Sun ,&nbsp;Jingren Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103901","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103901","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban parks serve multiple purposes for both residents and visitors. However, most existing research relies on small-scale surveys or questionnaires, which cannot fully capture how these two groups use parks differently across space and time. This study addresses that gap by using large-scale mobile phone signaling data to examine how residents and tourists visit urban parks in Chongqing, China, and what drives those patterns. We first use spatial analysis to identify the spatiotemporal characteristics of park visitation. We then apply multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to assess the influence of park attributes, transit access, built environments, and social media exposure. The results show clear contrasts between the two groups. Residents tend to visit nearby parks frequently, especially on weekends, while tourists concentrate on a small number of highly “internet-famous” parks during holidays. Residents' visitation is shaped mainly by park accessibility and attributes, whereas tourists’ visitation is more strongly linked to social media visibility. In addition, the effects of factors such as distance to metro or bus stops and park size vary across locations for both groups. These findings underscore the importance of considering differences between user groups when planning and managing urban parks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103901"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145980470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From resource curse to resilience restructuring: How does the innovation ecosystems' organicity reshape industrial transformation in resource-based regions? A case study of China's π-shaped Curve Area","authors":"Yifang Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103907","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103907","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Resilience restructuring offers a novel perspective for understanding industrial transformation in resource-based cities. Using China's Yellow River's π-shaped Curve Area (2010–2023) as a case study, this paper constructed a three-dimensional Quality-Structure-Function framework to analyze the organicity of regional innovation ecosystems (IEs), TOPSIS, order parameter modelling, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis were employed to deconstruct IE configurations and their pathways for restructuring industrial resilience. Findings revealed that IE organicity in the Curve Area exhibited a gradient differentiation characterized by provincial capitals as core nodes, growing resources-based cities as high-ground, and declining resources-based cities as collapsed zones. Industrial resilience evolved along three trajectories: fluctuating improvement, fluctuating reversal, and fluctuating decline. The pathways for innovation-driven resilience reconstruction included Quality-Function driven, Structure-Function compensatory, and full-element synergistic approaches. Among these, growing resource-based cities adopted Quality-Function driven pathways; mature resource-based cities relied on Functional output; declining resource-based cities were constrained by Quality-Function limitations; regenerative resource-based cities depended on three-dimensional coordination; hub cities required matched Functional output. This study thus proposed adaptive governance recommendations centered on aligning IE's organicity to promote resilience, offering a China informed approach for other resource-based cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103907"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146039394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Re-examining carbon source-sink differentiation and carbon compensation zoning in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region","authors":"Pengyan Zhang ,&nbsp;Jinbing Zhang ,&nbsp;Dan Yang ,&nbsp;Yu Liu ,&nbsp;Zhenyue Liu ,&nbsp;Zhuo Chen ,&nbsp;Xiangzheng Deng","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103917","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103917","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Regional carbon compensation faces the challenge of being more difficult to implement \"one policy for one area\" at the optimal scale, and current methods for monitoring of the spatial dimension of carbon effects are often imprecise. This study seeks to systematically reveal the spatiotemporal scale-dependent characteristics of land-use carbon sources and sinks in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 2000 to 2020, based on a multi-scale analysis framework. Furthermore, we aims to propose a spatial carbon compensation zoning scheme—designating payment, balance, and compensation zones—using a SOM-K-Means hybrid clustering model. This approach effectively enhances the robustness and geographical identification accuracy of the carbon compensation zoning results. We attempt to address these limitations by exploring new approaches based on land use data, carbon emission data and various ancillary data. Our findings reveal significant spatio-temporal heterogeneity in carbon sources and sinks during 2000–2020. Carbon sinks increased to 354.89 million tonnes, while carbon sources initially rose and then declined. Spatially, the south-central region exhibited an expanding carbon sink area, while the northern and southwestern boundaries play more of a carbon source role. The 18 × 18 km grid scale was identified as optimal for studying land use-related carbon sinks in the region. The land-use carbon compensation payment area is concentrated in the southern region, with its share decreasing over time. Conversely, the received area have expanded towards the northern mountains and other areas; while the balanced area have gradually contracted from the northwest to the south-central part of the region. These findings suggest that land use management has significant potential for optimizing carbon compensation. The proposed approach offers valuable insights for developing spatially optimized carbon compensation policies, promoting low-carbon land use, and facilitating the practical application of these policies at the regional level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103917"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamic differences in urban park accessibility across age groups: A case study of Shanghai, China","authors":"Chuanyao Li ,&nbsp;Zhukai He ,&nbsp;Junren Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103910","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.apgeog.2026.103910","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As an important component of urban green spaces, urban parks play an important role in building sustainable cities and offer numerous benefits to residents. Among these residents, the older population, as a vulnerable group, is more likely to suffer equity and environmental justice issues when accessing urban park services. Therefore, there is a need to examine how urban park accessibility has changed over time and whether the older population has gained more equal services during this process. Using the SD2SFCA method, this study analyses the dynamic changes in urban park walking accessibility for both the older population and the general population in Shanghai from 2016 to 2020, and quantifies the relative role of population, urban parks, and the transport network on accessibility changes. Moreover, the study examines the accessibility gap between these two groups and how that gap changes over time. Results show that during the study period, the spatial accessibility, absolute population shares of accessible residents, and horizontal equity of both groups continuously improved. However, in the suburbs, the accessibility gap between them is continuously widening. Over time, the older population in the suburbs faces increasing inequity in accessing urban park services. This accessibility gap forms a \"circular effect\", which becomes more obvious as the threshold increases. The study enriches existing research on urban park accessibility, provides empirical support for urban park planning in the context of population ageing, and contributes to the sustainable development of cities and the age-friendly city construction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48396,"journal":{"name":"Applied Geography","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 103910"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146090316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}