Research framework for integrated geography: Composite driving–system evolution–coupling mechanism–synergistic regulation
Amid ongoing global environmental change and the critical pursuit of sustainable development, human–environment systems are exhibiting increasingly complex dynamic evolutions and spatial relationships, underscoring an urgent need for innovative research frameworks. Integrated geography synthesizes p...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Geography and Sustainability |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666683925000604 |
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| author | Wenwu Zhao Zizhao Ni Caichun Yin Yanxu Liu Paulo Pereira |
| author_facet | Wenwu Zhao Zizhao Ni Caichun Yin Yanxu Liu Paulo Pereira |
| author_sort | Wenwu Zhao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Amid ongoing global environmental change and the critical pursuit of sustainable development, human–environment systems are exhibiting increasingly complex dynamic evolutions and spatial relationships, underscoring an urgent need for innovative research frameworks. Integrated geography synthesizes physical geography, human geography, and geographic information science, providing key frameworks for understanding complex human–environment systems. This editorial proposes an emerging research framework for integrated geography—“Composite driving–System evolution–Coupling mechanism–Synergistic regulation (CSCS)”—based on key issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, and social–ecological interactions, which have been highlighted in both recent critical literature on human–environment systems and UN assessment reports. The framework starts with diverse composite driving forces, extends to the evolution of human–environment system structures, processes, and functions that these drivers induce, explores couplings within human–environment systems, and calls for regulation aimed at sustainable development in synergies. Major research frontiers include understanding the cascading “evolution–coupling” effects of shocks; measuring system resilience, thresholds, and safe and just operating space boundaries; clarifying linkage mechanisms across scales; and achieving synergistic outcomes for multi-objective sustainability. This framework will help promote the interdisciplinary integration and development of integrated geography, and provide geographical solutions for the global sustainable development agenda. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-35ccd384f7064c9cb3e37e38acf901b2 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2666-6839 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geography and Sustainability |
| spelling | doaj-art-35ccd384f7064c9cb3e37e38acf901b22025-08-20T03:23:06ZengElsevierGeography and Sustainability2666-68392025-06-016310032110.1016/j.geosus.2025.100321Research framework for integrated geography: Composite driving–system evolution–coupling mechanism–synergistic regulationWenwu Zhao0Zizhao Ni1Caichun Yin2Yanxu Liu3Paulo Pereira4State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Disaster Risk Reduction, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Corresponding author.State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Disaster Risk Reduction, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Disaster Risk Reduction, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Disaster Risk Reduction, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, ChinaEnvironmental Management Center, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius 08303, LithuaniaAmid ongoing global environmental change and the critical pursuit of sustainable development, human–environment systems are exhibiting increasingly complex dynamic evolutions and spatial relationships, underscoring an urgent need for innovative research frameworks. Integrated geography synthesizes physical geography, human geography, and geographic information science, providing key frameworks for understanding complex human–environment systems. This editorial proposes an emerging research framework for integrated geography—“Composite driving–System evolution–Coupling mechanism–Synergistic regulation (CSCS)”—based on key issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, and social–ecological interactions, which have been highlighted in both recent critical literature on human–environment systems and UN assessment reports. The framework starts with diverse composite driving forces, extends to the evolution of human–environment system structures, processes, and functions that these drivers induce, explores couplings within human–environment systems, and calls for regulation aimed at sustainable development in synergies. Major research frontiers include understanding the cascading “evolution–coupling” effects of shocks; measuring system resilience, thresholds, and safe and just operating space boundaries; clarifying linkage mechanisms across scales; and achieving synergistic outcomes for multi-objective sustainability. This framework will help promote the interdisciplinary integration and development of integrated geography, and provide geographical solutions for the global sustainable development agenda.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666683925000604Integrated geographyDrivingEvolutionCouplingRegulationHuman–environment system |
| spellingShingle | Wenwu Zhao Zizhao Ni Caichun Yin Yanxu Liu Paulo Pereira Research framework for integrated geography: Composite driving–system evolution–coupling mechanism–synergistic regulation Geography and Sustainability Integrated geography Driving Evolution Coupling Regulation Human–environment system |
| title | Research framework for integrated geography: Composite driving–system evolution–coupling mechanism–synergistic regulation |
| title_full | Research framework for integrated geography: Composite driving–system evolution–coupling mechanism–synergistic regulation |
| title_fullStr | Research framework for integrated geography: Composite driving–system evolution–coupling mechanism–synergistic regulation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Research framework for integrated geography: Composite driving–system evolution–coupling mechanism–synergistic regulation |
| title_short | Research framework for integrated geography: Composite driving–system evolution–coupling mechanism–synergistic regulation |
| title_sort | research framework for integrated geography composite driving system evolution coupling mechanism synergistic regulation |
| topic | Integrated geography Driving Evolution Coupling Regulation Human–environment system |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666683925000604 |
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