Urbanization and land use transformation are typical characteristics of China in recent decades. Studying the effects of urban land use transitions (ULUT) on the economic spatial spillovers of central cities (ESSCC) can provide a reference for China to optimize cities’ land space layout and promote their coordinated development. Based on the direct and indirect effects of ULUT in central cities on the production factors and economic growth in other cities, this paper reveals the mechanisms underlying the influence of ULUT on ESSCC. Then, we usethe expanded geographical distance-weighted spatial Durbin model with the panel data of 152 Chinese urban agglomeration cities from 2003 to 2016 to empirically test it. The results show that, since 2003, the rate of urban land expansions, the level of urban land intensive use (ULIU), the degree of land marketization, and the urban land prices in China have increased substantially; and the proportionate supplies of industrial land, commercial land, and residential land have decreased. Moreover, ULUT between cities have significant spatial autocorrelations. The current ULUT have positive but small effects on ESSCC. Among them, ULIU has the greatest promotion effects on ESSCC. The impacts of ULUT on ESSCC vary greatly among urban agglomerations. The ULUT in central cities indirectly enhance the ESSCC, which mainly depend on the positive effects of ULUT on enterprise investment, infrastructure investment, labor and technological efficiency and the spatial spread effects of these production factors. This is the main intermediate mechanism by which the ULUT in central cities enhance the ESSCC. Continuing to strengthen ULIU, promote the improvement of land marketization, and establish and improve the coordination mechanism for the economic development of urban agglomerations will help to strengthen the ESSCC in urban agglomerations. The results provide evidence for how the Chinese government can enhance the ESSCC and promote the coordinated development of cities through ULUT under new urbanization.

Based on land use data from the Wuling Mountains area of Hunan Province for 2000, 2010, and 2020, we used tools such as frastats4.8 and ArcGIS10.8 to construct a model for assessing ecosystem service value and the ecological risk index. We divided the area into four regions based on ecosystem service value and ecological risk indicators, which served as the foundation for ecological zoning and a proposed strategy for an ecological security pattern that suits the ecology of the region. The results showed a general increase in both ecosystem service value and ecological risk in the study area from 2000 to 2020. The annual ecosystem service value exceeded CNY 300 × 10⁹, with forests providing more than 77% of this value, and the regulating services value accounted for 68% of the total value. The mean ecological risk indexes for the periods of 2000, 2010, and 2020 were 0.0384, 0.0383, and 0.0395, respectively. The sizes of the four zones within the study area remained relatively stable: the ecological barrier zone accounted for more than 53% over three years; the ecological improvement zone, approximately 32%; the ecological control zone comprised 8.62% of the total area in 2000, and this proportion rose to 9.56% in 2020. The ecological conservation zone had the smallest proportion of the total area among the four zones. Our research provides a comprehensive analytical framework for constructing ecological security patterns in other developing countries and offers a new perspective for regional ecological zoning management and conservation planning.

Lewis’ dual economic structure theory holds that differences in labour productivity affect urban‐rural integration development. Based on this theory, this paper analyses the spatial mechanism of labour productivity affecting the development of urban‐rural integration. A multidimensional index system is constructed to estimate the degree of urban‐rural integration development, and a spatial Durbin model is used to quantitatively analyse the spatial effect between the difference in labour productivity and the development of urban‐rural integration. The results show that there is a significant positive spatial agglomeration phenomenon in urban‐rural integration in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The convergence of labour productivity will not only promote local urban‐rural integration but also inhibit the urban‐rural integration development of other administrative divisions, but it can still play a positive role in promoting the urban–rural integration development of the whole region. Finally, based on the above research conclusions, this paper puts forward three policy suggestions: optimizing the human capital structure, promoting rural industrial integration, and exploring the land reform system.

As trade partners, China in East Asia and Ghana in Africa both play a major role in the China–Africa economic and trade cooperation and have strengthened their bilateral trade. The trade cooperation between China and Ghana has progressed, and there currently exists a large agricultural product trade between the two countries. China has become one of Ghana’s largest trading partners in recent decades, and bilateral cooperation has become stronger. This paper analyses the comparative advantage and complementarity of trade in agricultural products between China and Ghana in terms of twenty major agricultural products from 2016 to 2020, based on the revealed comparative advantage index, trade complementarity index, and their status quo. The results showed that the trade volume of China–Ghana agricultural products has continuously increased, and China is currently in a surplus state, but their total agriculture trade volume proportions had been decreasing. From the perspective of comparative advantage and complementarity, the results showed that the comparative advantage and complementarity coexist, but their comparative advantage is more obvious showing strong competitiveness. The result further shows that the comparative advantage of Ghana was stronger than that of China and the complementarity of China’s exports and Ghana’s imports of agricultural products has not been fully exploited; likewise, the complementarity of China’s imports and Ghana’s exports of agricultural products has not been fully exploited since 2018, and there is a large potential for further cooperation and development. Finally, based on the current situation and our analysis of agricultural trade between China and Ghana, suggestions were put forward to seek new and continuous development opportunities for agricultural trade cooperation between the two countries.

Based on the Wassily W. Leontief input–output model, this paper constructs an emergy input–output model of an agricultural eco-economic system based on emergy theory. This model overcomes three limitations of the traditional input–output model. First, the conversion rate of ecological energy is used to solve the problem posed by the fact that the material input–output table cannot be directly combined due to the different measurement units of different substances. Second, it transforms the research object from a pure economic system to an eco-economic system by adding resources and environmental factors. Third, this paper solves the problem posed by the fact that the value input–output model is greatly affected by inflation, and uses the model to analyze the input–output of Zoumajie town in Shuangfeng City, Hunan Province, China, by unifying dimension (solar energy value).