The air quality in China, particularly the PM_2.5 (particles less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter) level, has become an increasing public concern because of its relation to health risks. The distribution of PM_2.5 concentrations has a close relationship with multiple geographic and socioeconomic factors, but the lack of reliable data has been the main obstacle to studying this topic. Based on the newly published Annual Average PM_2.5 gridded data, together with land use data, gridded population data and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, this paper explored the spatial-temporal characteristics of PM_2.5 concentrations and the factors impacting those concentrations in China for the years of 2001–2010. The contributions of urban areas, high population and economic development to PM_2.5 concentrations were analyzed using the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model. The results indicated that the spatial pattern of PM_2.5 concentrations in China remained stable during the period 2001–2010; high concentrations of PM_2.5 are mostly found in regions with high populations and rapid urban expansion, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in North China, East China (including the Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces) and Henan province. Increasing populations, local economic growth and urban expansion are the three main driving forces impacting PM_2.5 concentrations.

The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the optimization of territorial space development patterns as the primary measure of ecological civilization construction, and put forward the goal of “promoting intensive and efficient production space, livable and moderate living space, and beautiful (picturesque scenery) ecological space”. Through literature research and summing induction, this paper combs the research progress of the overall optimization of “Production–Living–Ecological” space (PLES) systematically. It is found that the existing work mainly focuses on the overall optimization of PLES from the perspectives of land-use quality, land-use suitability evaluation, resource and environmental carrying capacity, and comparative advantages. However, due to the lack of understanding of the scientific connotation of PLES, and the imperfect construction of quantitative identification methods and classification system, there are many problems in the technical approaches of the overall optimization of PLES, which remain to be clarified. In the future, the technological approach to the overall optimization of PLES should be guided by the vision of building a beautiful China, with the theory of a human–Earth coupling system as the core, and systematically build a theoretical system and technical framework to identify and optimize territorial space.

Production–living–ecological (PLE) space is the basic site of all human activities. The coordinated development of these three spaces is an important prerequisite for achieving sustainable development goals. However, a quantitative assessment of the overall coordination among these three spaces is limited in current research. This paper built an indicator system and a coupling coordination degree model to comprehensively assess the development status of PLE space in China. The statuses of 340 prefecture-level cities across the country from 2005 to 2015 were analyzed. The results showed that the national average first increased from 0.435 in 2005 to 0.452 in 2010 and then dropped to 0.445 in 2015. There was an obvious distribution line between slightly unbalanced cities and moderately balanced cities, close to the famous “Hu Huanyong Line.” Most provincial capital cities were between the slightly unbalanced class and barely balanced class. Only Fuzhou in Fujian Province exceeded the barely balanced class in 2015. This paper provides several references for other developing cities to achieve sustainable and coordinated development.

Objective: To explore the association between Particulate Matter (PM) _2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm) and lung cancer mortality rates and to estimate the potential risk of lung cancer mortality related to exposure to high PM _2.5 concentrations. Design: Geographically weighted regression was performed to evaluate the relation between PM _2.5 concentrations and lung cancer mortality for males, females and for both sexes combined, in 2008, based on newly available long-term data. Lung cancer fatalities from long-term exposure to PM _2.5 were calculated according to studies by Pope III et al and the WHO air quality guidelines (AQGs). Setting: 31 provinces in China. Results: PM _2.5 was associated with the lung cancer mortality of males, females and both sexes combined, in China, although there were exceptions in several regions, for males and females. The number of lung cancer fatalities calculated by the WHO AQGs ranged from 531 036 to 532 004, whereas the number calculated by the American Cancer Society (ACS) reached 614 860 after long-term (approximately 3–4 years) exposure to PM _2.5 concentrations since 2008. Conclusions: There is a positive correlation between PM _2.5 and lung cancer mortality rate, and the relationship between them varies across the entire country of China. The number of lung cancer fatalities estimated by ACS was closer to the actual data than those of the WHO AQGs. Therefore, the ACS estimate of increased risk of lung cancer mortality from long-term exposure to PM _2.5 might be more applicable for evaluating lung cancer fatalities in China than the WHO estimate.

Production–living–ecological space (PLES) is a recent research hotspot on land planning and regional sustainable development in China. Taking the Yangtze River Delta agglomerations as a case study, this paper establishes a spatial-conflict index to identify the PLES conflicts, and then builds a cellular-automaton (CA) Markov model to simulate the PLES pattern in 2030 and to evaluate the influence on PLES conflicts under two scenarios. Results showed that the ecological space (ES) and the living–productive space (LPS) of the Yangtze River Delta agglomerations showed a descending tendency in 2010–2015, whereas ecological–productive space (EPS) and productive–ecological space (PES) reflected a small increase. EPS and PES had squeezed ES and LPS with urbanization and industrial development in this region. Meanwhile, the spatial conflicts of PLES worsened during the period, with the average of the spatial-conflict index (SCI) shifting from 0.283 to 0.522, and seemed to gain momentum. On the basis of scenario analysis for 2030, it was concluded that the “ecological red line policy”, appropriate restriction of urban expansion, and ecological management of the bank of the Yangtze River are helpful in alleviating PLES conflicts, and contribute to spatial structure and harmonizing. The results of this study are expected to provide valuable implications for spatial planning and sustainable development in the Yangtze River delta agglomerations.