China’s express delivery industry has developed rapidly in the past decade, and the spatial distribution of express delivery outlets can reflect variations in regional development to a certain extent. Previous studies lacked point of interest (POI) data as the research object to analyze the limitations of express delivery outlets, and also lack a focus on the patterns that specifically occur in China. This study implemented spatial analysis methods such as nearest neighbor index, kernel density, and exploratory spatial data analysis to explore the spatial distribution patterns and characteristics of China’s express outlets, and used geographic detector factor detection to objectively analyze the factors that affect their distribution. The following are the main conclusions of this study: (1) in China, express delivery outlets are more abundant in the east and sparser in the west; (2) the local agglomeration of express outlets presents a concentric structure, and outlier clusters appeared in the northeast and central regions; (3) the distribution of the express outlets resulted from the combined action of multiple factors (e.g., population factors, etc.). Our study not only explores and analyzes the overall situation in China but also broadens the scope of express outlet research.

This paper presents an urban resilience evaluation index system and evaluation on the clustering of educational resources based on the data of 80 prefecture-level cities in China’s central region in 2012, 2016, and 2020. The results reveal a rising trend of urban resilience in the central region of China, with the provincial capital cities exhibiting the highest levels of resilience. Educational resources are clustered in urban areas of provincial capital cities and other prefectural-level cities. Furthermore, clustering of educational resources has a significant impact on urban resilience. Policy factors play a significant role in moderating the relationship between educational resource clustering and urban resilience in large cities; however, this moderating role is not significant in small cities. These findings have significant implications for the optimal allocation of educational resources, promotion of urban resilience, and advancement of social equity.

In the context of global climate change, the low-carbon city pilot policy has become an important strategy to promote green development. Based on the panel data from 257 prefecture-level and above cities in China, this study utilized the Super-Efficiency SBM (Slacks-Based Measure) to measure the land green use efficiency and analyzes the impact of the policy on adjacent non-pilot cities using a difference-in-differences model. The findings indicate that the implementation of low-carbon pilot policies can significantly improve the land green use efficiency in adjacent non-pilot cities, which can be primarily ascribed to the spillover effect and catfish effect. A heterogeneity analysis further revealed the positive effects of the policies in the eastern region and non-resource-based cities. This study provides valuable references for relevant legal provisions on environmental regulation and for continuously monitoring and evaluating the policy effects to achieve sustainable development goals.

Urban land use is characterized by pronounced externalities. In most developing countries, economic welfare considerations drive the changes in land use intensity, leading to the spatial reallocation of resources and thereby affecting the enhancement of urban welfare. This study combined multi-source data to construct a panel dataset of 284 prefectural-level and above cities in China from 2011 to 2022, and employed the spatial Durbin model, spatial heterogeneity model, and spatial mechanism model to systematically analyze the spatial spillover effects of urban land use intensity (ULUI) on urban welfare (Human Development Index, HDI), its heterogeneity, and the underlying influencing mechanisms. The study concluded that: (i) Both HDI and ULUI have shown certain improvement despite some distinct regional heterogeneity; (ii) ULUI significantly contributes to local urban welfare, yet exerts a negative spatial spillover effect on neighboring cities, and the effective boundary of this spillover effect is 400 km. (iii) Spatial spillover heterogeneity analysis revealed that the spillover effect of ULUI on HDI is negative for non-eastern and non-megacities, whereas it is positive for eastern and megacities, though the estimated coefficients are relatively small. (iv) In terms of the spatial influencing mechanism, industrial rationalization, industrial advancement, and economic agglomeration in the market dimension, as well as expenditure scaling, expenditure structuring, and public serviceability in the non-market dimension, are essential channels for ULUI to affect the HDI of both local and neighboring cities. The results indicate that the current “land-based” land use is not conducive to the enhancement of regional welfare, and there is an urgent need for better understanding the principles of factor allocation and agglomeration, establishing cross-regional synergistic mechanisms, and fully leveraging the comparative advantages of geographic conditions and scale effects across different cities, so as to improve the urban space welfare.

Whether rural public expenditure can be effectively absorbed and transformed into agricultural economic resilience at the local level is a critical issue affecting the long-term stable development of agriculture. From a cultural–geographical perspective, this study constructs a Rural Public Expenditure Absorption Capacity Index (ACI) encompassing three dimensions—geographical location, sociocultural structure, and institutional environment. Using panel data from 30 provinces in China covering the period 2011–2023, and employing a two-way fixed-effects model, a moderating effect model, and a Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) model, this study systematically investigates the effects and underlying mechanisms of rural public expenditure on agricultural economic resilience. The results indicate that: (1) rural public expenditure is significantly and positively associated with agricultural economic resilience, and this finding remains robust after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests; (2) the resilience effects of rural public expenditure exhibit significant regional and structural heterogeneity, with significant effects observed only in eastern China and major grain-consuming regions. Across different expenditure categories, all types of expenditure promote agricultural economic resilience except science and technology expenditure, which exhibits a negative effect; (3) the moderating effect of absorption capacity demonstrates clear structural heterogeneity. Specifically, a significant positive matching effect exists between medical and health expenditure and absorption capacity, whereas education expenditure exhibits a negative moderating relationship; and (4) the GTWR results further reveal significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity in the interaction effects between rural public expenditure and absorption capacity, displaying an overall dynamic evolution pattern characterized by “synergistic enhancement—regional differentiation.” From a cultural–geographical perspective, this study provides empirical evidence on the local embeddedness mechanisms through which rural public expenditure influences agricultural economic resilience. It also offers policy implications for optimizing the structure of rural public expenditure, improving local fiscal resource absorption capacity, and promoting the sustainable development of the agricultural economy.

Urban synergy can be assessed based on the development of a given city and the organization and development channels between cities. Using the entropy method, correction gravity model, and social network analysis, our study conducted a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the characteristics of urban network space in three northeast provinces in China. The region exhibited a “core city‐peripheral city‐marginal city” concentric pattern, with the most developed cities at the core. Nevertheless, our findings indicate that a collaborative development pattern is gradually forming. The three northeastern provinces and urban collaboration networks extended further to the north. Liaoning Province, most of Jilin Province, and most of Heilongjiang Province have gradually established a similar development relationship with other cities. The overall level of urban intermediary centers in the northeastern provinces is declining, and the direct contact between cities is becoming more apparent. These findings, in addition to agglomeration calculations, highlight the need for reorganizing the current collaborative urbanization structure in northeast China.