Chinese Geographical Science - Call for Papers: Digitalization, smart cities and the urban-rural development
Introduction：
The revolutionary development of digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IOT), Big Data, Cloud Computing and AI, gives impetus to digital transformation and construction of smart cities globally. It is evident that the rapid evolution of digital technologies has become a significant driving force to urban economic development and spatial reconstruction, as well as to current trend of globalization and urban-rural development. Over past years, China has made great progress in the fields of digitization and smart cities, which provide new dynamics to the High-quality Development (HQD), and the New Development Pattern (NDP), as well as the smart growth over national territory. It was also highlighted by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that China will enhance its strength in urban infrastructures and establishment of livable, resilient and smart cities. Under such guidance of national strategy, the development of new infrastructures, digital economy, smart life, smart governance and smart scenes have been greatly accelerated, which continuously promote the quality of places in urban-rural areas.
Driven by digital and AI technologies, the urban-rural economic structure and spatial layout have been constantly reshaped. On the one hand, the application of AI technologies in economy, everyday life, social services, infrastructures and governance, has re-casted urban-rural spatial structure and forms, giving rise to new modes of production and consumption, and further influencing the composition and utilization efficiency of urban-rural resources. On the other hand, the digital and intelligent transformation has re-shaped the way of circulation, allocation, and interactions between virtual and physical elements within urban-rural area, as well as the agglomeration and diffusion trend of spatial elements. This re-organization thus delivers great impacts on urban-rural innovation capacity, industrial structure and labor force, as well as on the target towards a green, low-carbon, innovative and coordinated development agenda.
Against the above backdrop, the current academia has conducted extensive research and made great achievement in the fields such as smart city planning, digitization and intelligence of new urban-rural space, intelligence and human behavior patterns, intelligence and regional coordination development, intelligent technologies and sustainable development with low-carbon emission, as well as social justice, inclusive growth, poverty reduction and planning innovation. The proposed special topic in Chinese Geographical Science aims to extend current contributions on digitalization, smart cities and urban-rural development, in order to enrich the academic exploration in the broad scope of geography, as well as to call for extensive theoretical discourses on construction of ‘digital China’ and ‘smart communities‘.
The potential contributions to this topic should focus on the theories and empirical studies of urban and rural development under the impact of digitization and intelligence, e.g., smart city and urban-rural spatial transformation, smart city and regional sustainable development, and other related subjects.
Potential topics:
(1) New theories, methods, and technologies in urban-rural spatial research driven by intelligent technologies.
(2) Digitalization, smart cities, and urban-rural sustainability related to green, low-carbon, innovative, collaborative development targets.
(3) Digitalization and the development of smart cities related to social employment, spatial justice, and spatial coordinated governance.
About the Sponsors
Feng ZHEN is the Vice Dean, Professor, and Ph.D. Supervisor at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University. He is a registered urban planner in China and also holds the role of Vice Dean at the Smart City Research Institute. Professor Feng Zhen is actively engaged in leading roles, including being the Director of the Jiangsu Province Smart City Planning and Digital Governance Engineering Research Center and the Chief Scientist at the Jiangsu Province Smart City Research Base. With an international perspective, Professor Feng Zhen has been a visiting scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States and Paris Télécom in France. His commitment to academic and professional excellence extends to his roles as a committee member of the National Expert Committee on Smart Cities by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China, director of Commission on Urban Geography, the Geographical Society of China, and Executive Director of the China Natural Resources Society. He has been at the forefront of research, leading key projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His prolific academic contributions include over 400 published articles. Throughout his career, he has focused on the interplay between intelligent technologies, human activities, and urban spatial dynamics. His research has significantly advanced the understanding of urban-regional relationships, the transformation of urban spatial structures, residents' activity spaces, and theoretical and methodological advancements in smart city planning.
mail: zhenfeng@nju.edu.cn
Guangliang XI is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University. He serves as the Deputy Secretary-General of Commission on Urban Geography and the committee member of the Commission on Behavioral Geography, the Geographical Society of China. Furthermore, he is a committee member of the Urban Big Data Special Committee of the China Urban Science Research Association. His research interests encompass Digitalization and Urban Regional Development, Urban Geography, and Territorial Spatial Planning. He has successfully led over 10 projects, including National Natural Science General Foundation of China. He has published over 70 research papers and authored three books. Recognizing his outstanding contributions, Dr. Xi has received notable awards, including the 2018 China Geographic Information Technology Progress Special Award, the 8th Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Award, etc. For inquiries regarding the call for papers for the special issue, please contact Dr. Guangliang XI at the following email address:
E-mail: xiguangliang@nju.edu.cn
Jinliao HE is a Research Professor at the School of Urban Development, East China Normal University. He is also honored with Zijiang Youth Scholar and distinguished research fellow at the Center for Modern Chinese City Studies. He has been focused on the topics on digital economy and creative industries, mobility of creative talents, urban governance and spatial planning. As the author or co-author to 5 books and more than 70 academic papers in both international and domestic journals, he was appointed as the editorship for several international journals like Modern Economy and Management, Urban and Regional Planning, The Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism etc., as well as the committee membership in several national academic associations, e.g., Academic Association of Chinese Urban Economy, China Society of Urban Studies, Research Network for Urban Creativity and Industrial Innovation. Meanwhile, he is the principal investigator (PI) for more than 10 research projects funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China and other research programs.
E-mail: jlhe@iud.ecnu.edu.cn
Important Dates
Manuscript submission deadline: August 31, 2024
Estimated publication time: Published online once accepted
Submission URL: http://egeoscien.neigae.ac.cn (this opens in a new tab)
Please select Digitalization, smart cities and the urban-rural development as the article type on submission