Yiping Liu

Agricultural production contributes to the increase in global carbon emissions. It is crucial to improve output and reduce carbon emissions in the context of agricultural modernization, for which improved carbon emission efficiency is key. However, the role of agricultural modernization in promoting agricultural carbon emission efficiency is not clear. Hence, the aim of this article is to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of agricultural modernization and agricultural carbon emission efficiency in China from 2000 to 2019 and to reveal the relationship between agricultural modernization and agricultural carbon emission efficiency. The results showed that (1) in China, the overall level of agricultural modernization has been steadily increasing, and the regional differences are widening, showing a spatial pattern characterized by a gradual decline from the eastern and central regions to the western region. (2) China’s agricultural carbon emission efficiency continues to grow but has not achieved a data envelopment analysis (DEA) effect, with the eastern and western regions having higher agricultural carbon efficiency than the central region. The regional differences first narrow and then expand. (3) Agricultural modernization significantly promotes agricultural carbon emission efficiency in both the province and the neighboring provinces, and the interprovincial spillover effect exceeds the direct effect within the province. A nonlinear correlation exists between agricultural modernization and agricultural carbon emission efficiency.

Cities in hilly arid areas of northwest China have generally experienced a low level of economic development; they also have unique natural characteristics such as climate, soil, terrain, environment, and surface cover. High quality ecological lands are those that provide humans and the environment with relatively high levels of ecological services including soil, water, and air purification, adsorbing pollutants, or providing water or nutrients needed by plants. In this study, ecological lands were classified as woodland, grassland, water area, and bare land. The present study constructed an ecological land model designed to evaluate the importance of such land from the perspective of ecological service function and ecological demand intensity. Results revealed that: (1) This model can help researchers to better analyze the structure and spatial characteristics of ecological land in cities and also meet the needs of ecological protection and urban management in highly urbanized areas. (2) In terms of ecological service function and ecological demand intensity, the most important ecological land is mostly distributed in densely populated and urbanized areas, and the spread of urbanization is conducive to the improvement of land ecological value for the arid hilly area of northwest China. (3) Among all types of ecological land, the water area had the highest ecological value in the study area, while the grassland had the most potential for improvement, as careful planning and use can allow grassland to function as an ecological barrier while providing good, aesthetically pleasing space for leisure activities for the general public. (4) Qilihe and Xigu districts have more generally important graded areas of forest, grassland, and bare land, although the current ecological value of these lands is limited, though they have great potential for ecological improvement.

Taking the main district in Lanzhou city of China as an example, the questionnaires were designed and distributed, and then the effects of five factors, i.e., behavioral attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, on the behavioral intention of dockless bike-sharing (DBS) use were empirically analyzed based on the integrated model of technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as well as the structural equation model. Results show that the five factors all impose significantly positive effects on the public’s behavioral intention of DBS use but differ in influencing degrees. Behavioral attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control can all directly affect the public’s behavioral intention of DBS use, with direct influence coefficients of 0.691, 0.257 and 0.198, while perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness impose indirectly effects on behavioral intention, with indirect influence coefficients of 0.372 and 0.396. Overall, behavioral attitude imposes the most significant effect, followed by perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and subjective norm, and finally perceived behavioral control. This indicates that the public’s behavioral intention of DBS use depends heavily on their behavioral attitude towards the shared bikes. In view of the limited open space of the main district in Lanzhou, the explosive growth of shared bikes, oversaturated arrangements, disordered competition, unclear and unscientific divisions of parking regions, and hindrance of traffic, this study proposes a lot of policy suggestions from the research results. A series of supporting service systems related to DBS should be formulated. The shared bikes with different characteristics should be launched for different age groups, gender groups and work groups. The corresponding feedback platform for realtime acquisition, organization, analysis and solution of data information, as well as the adequate platform feedback mechanism, should be established.