As an important energy base in China, Shanxi Province, in its economic development, has depended heavily on coal resources. However, enormous coal consumption produces a large amount of carbon dioxide and an aggravated ecological problem. In this paper, the super efficiency slack-based measure and data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model and Malmquist index were used to calculate the energy consumption and carbon emission efficiency of 11 prefecture-level cities in Shanxi in the period from 2000 to 2020. The results were as follows: (1) The primary form of energy consumption in Shanxi Province is the burning of coal, and the carbon emission efficiencies of the 11 prefecture-level cities are quite different. The technical efficiency, technological progress, and total factor productivity of Taiyuan and Shuozhou were found to be greater than 1 compared to other cities in Shanxi. (2) On the whole, although the carbon emission rate of Shanxi Province has slowed down, it still faces the problems of a large total emission base, high carbon emission intensity, and low efficiency of the unit carbon emission output. Industrial structure is the key factor restricting improvements in the efficiency of carbon emissions in Shanxi Province. (3) From the spatial and temporal evolution of the carbon emission efficiency in Shanxi Province, we can see that the carbon emission efficiency of the whole province gradually dispersed and improved from the central and northern regions to the southern regions during the period of 2000–2020. In order to achieve a low-carbon economy, Shanxi Province must optimize its industrial structure, accelerate research and development in low-carbon technologies, adjust the energy structure, and promote the construction of an energy supply system with clean low-carbon energy as the main source.

COVID-19 has caused more than 500 million infections and 6 million deaths. Due to a continuous shortage of medical resources, COVID-19 has raised alarm about medical and health resource allocation in China. A balanced spatial distribution of medical and health resources is a key livelihood issue in promoting the equalization of health services. This paper explores the spatial allocation equilibrium of two-tier medical and health resources and its influencing factors in Taiyuan. Using extracted POIs of medical and health resources of AMAP, we evaluated the spatial quantitative characteristics through the Health Resources Density Index, researched the spatial distribution pattern by kernel density analysis, hot spot analysis, and service area analysis, and identified the influencing factors of the spatial distribution equilibrium by the Geodetector model. The findings are as follows. The overall allocation level of medical and health resources in Taiyuan is low. There are tiered and regional differences; the response degree of primary care facilities to external factors is greater than that of hospitals; and the comprehensive influence of economic and topographic systems is crucial compared with other factors. Therefore, in order to promote the rational spatial distribution of medical and health resources in Taiyuan and to improve the construction of basic medical services within a 15 min radius, it is important to continuously improve the tiered healthcare system, uniformly deploy municipal medical and health resources, and increase the resource allocation to surrounding counties and remote mountainous areas. Future research should focus on collecting complete data, refining the research scale, analyzing qualitative differences, and proposing more accurate resource allocation strategies.

COVID-19 has killed millions of people worldwide. As a result, medical and health resources continue to be strained, posing a great threat to people’s safety and economic and social development. This paper built the index system of influencing factors of medical and health resources containing the economy, population and society, and then classified Taiyuan into three types of regions by cluster analysis. The Gini coefficient, Theil index and agglomeration degree were then used to analyze the spatial distribution of medical and health resources allocation, and its influencing factors were studied by grey relational analysis. It was found that the population allocation of medical and health resources in Taiyuan was better than area allocation. Population has the greatest influence on the allocation of medical and health resources, followed by society and the economy. The more developed the regional economy, the more diversified the main influencing factors, and the more adjustment and control choices of medical and health resources allocation. Suggestions for optimal allocation were put forward in order to fully utilize the limited medical and health resources, effectively respond to the epidemic needs, promote the sustainable development of resources, protect the health of residents, and improve social benefits.

As the main type of urban green space, city park made positive contributions to some key urban issues, including social inclusion, health, sustainability and urban renewal. With an outstanding feature of public welfare urban green infrastructure, usually constructed by the government, city park has important ecological, economic, social and cultural functions. The level of urban residents’ satisfaction is one of the important indicators to measure the construction and management level of a city park, to some extent, representing the city’s image and strength. Based on the questionnaire survey data of four city parks in the urban area of Linfen, this study finds that the accessibility is the most direct and important factor affecting the frequency of residents’ visit to parks, and the environment of city park has a significant impact on the recreationists’ satisfaction evaluation, at last puts forward some suggestions for the green and sustainable development of city parks.

Urban coordinated development is an important aspect of regional development. The high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin cannot be separated from the coordinated and sustainable development of its inner cities. However, the network connection and spatial structure of cities in the Yellow River Basin have not received sufficient attention. Therefore, this study considered 11 prefecture-level cities in Shanxi Province, an underdeveloped region in the Yellow River Basin, as case areas and selected data on traffic, migration, and information flow that can better represent the urban spatial network structure and depict the spatial connection between cities. Based on the flow intensity calculation, flow direction judgment, spatial structure index, and social network analysis, the spatial structural characteristics of Shanxi Province were comprehensively analyzed from the perspective of flow space. The results showed the following: (1) Cities in Shanxi Province present a development trend of “one core and multiple centers.” The strong connection concerns mostly Taiyuan and radiates outward and presents a Chinese character “大”—shaped spatial connection pattern. (2) Taiyuan is the first connecting city of most cities in Shanxi Province, and the element flows particularly towards the central city and geographical proximity. (3) The urban spatial pattern of Shanxi Province presents an obvious unipolar development trend, where the network structure is an “absence-type pyramid.” The imbalance of the urban network connection strength is prominent in Shanxi Province, which is strong and numerous in the south but opposite in the north. (4) The overall network element flow density is low, the network connection is weak, Taiyuan agglomeration and radiation are the strongest, and Changzhi centrality ranks second, but the gap between Changzhi and Taiyuan is wide, and the polarization phenomenon is serious. Future research should focus on the rapidly developing provincial capital city of Taiyuan, coordinating the steady development of the central Shanxi city cluster, and driving the common development of neighboring cities.