Reducing the effect of mankind’s activities on the climate and improving adaptability to global warming have become urgent matters. The carbon footprint (CF), derived from the concept of ecological footprint, has been used to assess the threat of climate change in recent years. As a “top to bottom” method, input–output analysis (IOA) has become a universally applicable CF assessment tool for tracing the carbon footprint embodied in economic activities. A wide range of CF studies from the perspective of the IOA model have been presented and have made great progress. It is crucial to have a better understanding of what the relevant research focuses on in this field, yet so far a systematic synopsis of the literature is missing. The purpose of this paper is to explore the knowledge structure and frontier trends in respect of the IOA model applied to CF research using scientometric visualization analysis. The main findings of this paper are as follows. (1) Published articles show a two-stage increase in the period 2008 to 2021, and present a complex academic network of countries, authors, and institutions in this important domain. (2) The classic studies are mainly divided into three categories: literature reviews, database application introduction, and CF accounting in different scales. (3) The research hotspots and trends show that the research scales tend to be more microscopic and applications of models tend to be more detailed. In addition, supply-chain analysis and driver-factor analysis will probably become the main research directions in the future.

Currently, the integrated development of agriculture and tourism is one of the most critical strategic measures in China. The rapid growth of agricultural tourism integration presents the typical characteristics of expanding regional differences. Exploring the impact of agricultural tourism integration on the growth of green total factor productivity in agriculture has important theoretical and practical significance. This study constructs a comprehensive index system for agricultural tourism integration, measuring the development level of agricultural tourism integration in 30 sample provinces from 2008 to 2018. Using the generalized system method of moments approach and Tobit model, the impact of agricultural tourism integration on agriculture was empirically tested, and the regulatory role of rural human capital was discussed. It was found that agricultural tourism integration contributes significantly to the improvement in green total factor productivity in agriculture, with rural mobility human capital, education human capital, and health human capital all playing a significant positive moderating role in this process. Finally, it is recommended that priority be given to agricultural tourism integration in the policy framework, promoting industrial chain upgrading, raising investment in rural infrastructure, and upgrading rural human capital levels to contribute the rural economic development.

Urban shrinkage has gradually become an issue of world-concerning social matter. As urbanization progresses, some Chinese cities are experiencing population loss and economic decline. Our study attempts to correct and integrate DMSP/OLS and NPP/VIIRS data to complete the identification and measurement of shrinking cities in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). We identified 36 shrinking cities and 644 shrinking counties on the municipal and county scales. Based on this approach, we established the average urban shrinkage intensity index and the urban shrinkage frequency index, attempting to find out the causes of shrinking cities for different shrinkage characteristics, city types and shrinkage frequencies. The results show that (1) the shrinking cities are mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, the midstream city cluster and the Chengdu–Chongqing economic circle. (2) Most shrinking cities have a moderate frequency of shrinking, dominated by low–low clusters. Resource-based, heavy industrial, small and medium-sized cities are more inclined to shrink. (3) The single economic structure, the difficulty of industrial transformation and the lack of linkage among county-level cities are possible reasons for the urban shrinkage in the YREB. Exploring the causes of urban shrinkage from a more micro perspective will be an inevitable task for sustainable development in YREB and even in China.