Alpine grasslands are a common feature on the extensive (2.6 million km²) Qinghai–Tibet plateau in western and southwestern China. These grasslands are characterized by their ability to thrive at high altitudes and in areas with short growing seasons and low humidity. Alpine steppe and alpine meadow are the principal plant Formations supporting a rich species mix of grass and forb species, many of them endemic. Alpine grasslands are the mainstay of pastoralism where yaks and hardy Tibetan sheep and Bactrian camels are the favored livestock in the cold arid region. It is not only their importance to local semi nomadic herders, but their role as headwaters of nine major rivers that provide water to more than one billion people in China and in neighboring countries in south and south-east Asia and beyond. Grasslands in this region were heavily utilized in recent decades and are facing accelerated land degradation. Government and herder responses, although quite different, are being implemented as climate change and the transition to the market economy proceeds apace. Problems and prospects for alpine grasslands and the management regimes being imposed (including sedentarization, resettlement and global warming are briefly discussed.

The rural-urban (peri-urban) interface zones are important places that generate demands for ecosystem goods and services (EG & S). Urban regions face transitions in land use that affect ecosystem services (EG & S) and thus human wellbeing. Especially in urban areas with high population densities (as in most of China) and high demand for EG & S, the future availability of such services must be considered in order to promote effective and sustainable decision making and prevent further ecosystem degradation. The challenge for local government planners and land managers is to find tools that allow relevant data to be collected and analyzed. Ideally, such tools should be able to give a rapid assessment, and not involve large teams of highly trained personnel or incur high costs. The paper reports on the development and trial of such a tool. The paper has three main parts. First, we present a brief overview of the current and developing situation in China, in relation to urbanization, population shifts and the creation of peri-urban areas (PUAs). Next, we build on insights from the literature and from discussions with village heads and county- and prefecture-level officials to develop an understanding of their needs for tools to help planning and land management within the constraints of the national policy. Lastly, a “template” was derived from our multi-method approach that provided a new technical tool for the rapid assessment of the value of EG & S in each of five land use categories. The tool embodies a way to address trade-offs between environmental, social and economic values in the transition zone between rural and urban areas. The tool was trialed in QinBei District in Guangxi Autonomous Region in south China and judged to be useful and adaptable to other rural–urban regions.

Cropland abandonment because of rural depopulation or policy interventions has become a key issue in Chinese mountainous areas. One such region is the Guangxi Karst Mountainous Area (GKMA), a zone where more than 59% of total land area is hilly and arable land of a commercially viable size is almost non-existent. The rugged terrain and land fragmentation in upland karst areas result in the scarcity of land suitable for cultivation. Although depopulation and declining agriculture since 2000 within the GKMA have led to vast areas of abandoned cropland, the spatiotemporal distribution that underlies this pattern as well as its causes remain little understood. Geomorphic features also bring about differences in the distribution of settlements. Settlements with different degrees of distribution are accompanied by spatial differences in cultivated land resources, which lead to differences in the sufficiency of cultivated land resources. In this paper we provide an overview of the magnitude of the problem of arable land loss. settlements and analyze the spatial distribution and the spatial agglomeration of the cultivated land.

Against the backdrop of a complex global economic landscape, foreign trade serves as a critical link integrating China’s marine economy with the global market, playing an indispensable role in advancing high-quality marine economic development in China and realizing the strategic goal of building a strong maritime nation. Utilizing panel data covering 11 coastal provinces and municipalities in China from 2013 to 2022, this research adopts a double machine learning approach to examine the effects and mechanisms through which the high-quality development of foreign trade (HQD) shapes high-quality marine economic development (THQ) in China. The empirical results demonstrate that (1) high-quality development of foreign trade significantly promotes high-quality marine economic development in China, with a 1-unit increase in the former corresponding to a 1.437-unit rise in the latter. This finding withstands multiple robustness checks. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that this promotion occurs through three channels: strengthening marine environmental regulation, enhancing marine labor productivity, and upgrading the marine industrial structure. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of high-quality foreign trade is stronger in China’s eastern marine economic region. Simultaneously, the trade development environment emerges as a key factor exerting a significantly positive influence on marine economic quality during China’s foreign trade advancement. The empirical findings propose the following optimization countermeasures for high-quality marine economic development: strengthening marine environmental regulation, enhancing marine labor productivity, and promoting the upgrading of the marine industrial structure.

Against the backdrop of accelerating global urbanization and intensifying ecological pressures, investigating the relationship between urbanization levels and ecological resilience in resource-based cities has become crucial for nations striving to achieve both sustainable development and ecological conservation. Utilizing panel data from 114 resource-based cities in China between 2010 and 2023, this study innovatively employs a composite nighttime light index to measure urbanization levels and constructs a comprehensive ecological resilience index using the entropy method. By applying a double machine learning model, this study thoroughly examines the impact, mechanisms, and heterogeneity of urbanization on ecological resilience in these cities. The findings reveal a gradual increase in ecological resilience among China’s resource-based cities, with the majority reaching high resilience levels by 2023. Spatial aggregation centers are identified in eastern China, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. Moreover, urbanization demonstrates a significant positive correlation with ecological resilience, a conclusion reinforced through robustness tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that industrial structure upgrading, green technology innovation, and energy efficiency improvement serve as key transmission channels. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that urbanization exerts a more pronounced effect on enhancing ecological resilience in regenerative resource-based cities as well as those located in eastern and central regions, while its impact is relatively weaker in declining resource-based cities and those in western and northeastern regions. Finally, this study proposes policy recommendations focusing on advancing industrial structure sophistication, constructing a green technology innovation ecosystem, implementing an energy efficiency enhancement initiative, deepening region-specific governance, and adopting targeted policy interventions. These findings provide theoretical support for precise policy formulation in resource-based cities and contribute to advancing academic understanding of the relationship between sustainable development and ecological resilience in such regions.