Supermarkets and hypermarkets already dominate the markets of some larger cities, and their continued expansion from major cities into smaller cities is expected to further drive competition in the grocery retail sector. Of the various retail channels, hypermarkets are expected to have the most growth potential in the Chinese market and are benefitting from consumer trends toward convenience an...

Globalization and transport revolution, logistics integration, and the consequent expansion of port area and hinterland in the maritime industry have redefined the functional role of ports in supply chains and have generated a new pattern of freight distribution. This phenomenon again requires a new approach towards port development and related urban planning. Such changes have inevitably influ...

Urban expansion has become a widespread trend in developing countries. Road networks are an extremely important factor driving the expansion of urban land and require further study. To investigate the relationship between road networks and urban expansion, we selected Beijing, New York, London, and Chicago as study areas. First, we obtained urban land use vector data through image interpretatio...

Rapid urbanization has occurred in northwestern China, threatening the sustainability of its fragile dryland ecosystems. A lack of precise urban land-cover information has limited our understanding on the urbanization in the dryland. Here, we examined urban land-cover changes from 2000 to 2014 in 21 major cities that comprise over 50% of the developed land in arid China, using Landsat Enhanced ...

By shouldering the burden of a big chunk of global production, and giving Shelter to half of the world’s population, currently cities play an important role in national economies. Benefits of agglomeration in cities have played a major role in the process of economic development of different countries, however, the expansion of urbanization has produced some problems including environmental and...

Introduction The increasing population growth and the need for more agricultural products on the one hand, and on the other hand, the limitations of agricultural development are problems that human beings have always tried to solve. Due to the limited resources and inputs of production, it seems that further production growth is possible through advanced technologies. In fact, technology is so...