Human geography, taking man-land areal system as the research core, has been established as an applied interdiscipline, and served the requirement of national development. In order to promote the rapid development of human geography, the Professional Committee of Human Geography (PCHG) of the Geographical Society of China was formally established in July 1983 in Nanjing, China, and 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of its establishment. The 40 years have been 40 years of the revitalization of human geography, 40 years of its significant contribution to the country, and 40 years of vigorous development of PCHG. This paper systematically reviews and summarizes the academic exchanges and contributions to the construction of the discipline of human geography over the past 40 years since its establishment. It proposes that the work of PCHG in the new era should focus on summarizing and innovating the classical theories and methods of human geography. The PCHG advocates the joint organization of academic exchanges with other professional committees, and improves the work paradigm to serve the new strategy and new needs of national development. In the new stage of development, new development philosophy and new development paradigm, the PCHG promotes the development of human geography in China to cross a new stage, embark on a new journey, make a new voice, create a new splendor, and make new contributions.

Human Geography was founded in 1986 and is jointly sponsored by The Geographical Society of China and Xi'an International Studies University. On the occasion of the 200th issue of the journal, looking back on the history of the journal. With the support of the Geographical Society of China and the Human Geography Professional Committee, as well as the support of experts, authors, and readers, Human Geography has dared to lead the way and accumulate steadily and release forcefully. The 40-year journey of the journal has seen the collective wisdom of its editorial board, which includes scholars from around the world, and has helped it become a flagship journal in the field of geography in China and an influential academic journal with international reach. The characteristics of the articles are to grasp the trend of spatial justice thought and pay attention to the spatial shift of social and cultural values on the one hand, and to practice the national development strategy and display practical achievements on the other. The distribution of publishing institutions is widespread, forming an academic team of well-known scholars and new forces, as well as intergenerational continuity, driving the leaders to go international. Human Geography has made important contributions to the development and innovation of Human Geography. In the future, we will further focus on the hot spots and development frontiers of disciplines, guided by the ideology of adhering to orthodoxy and innovation, people-orientedness, and value adherence, we will deepen our research on the spatial structure value of articles and enhance the level of external spillover of human geography's theoretical orientation to interdisciplinary fields.

The theory of "Landscape Information Chain" and the structural analysis method of "Cell-ChainShape" provide theoretical and methodological support for the protection and utilization of traditional settlements. At present, multidisciplinary research has been formed on the cultural landscape gene excavation, value sorting and revitalization and utilization of traditional settlements. Landscape gene theory provides an innovative conceptual foundation and theoretical platform for the development of cultural geography, settlement geography, landscape architecture, historical geography and image design art. A systematic study of landscape genetic theory is extremely important and timely in this critical period of cross-fertilization and development of disciplines. The study shows that: 1) The cultural landscape gene theory is originated from the real demand of traditional settlement protection and development, the demand of cultural landscape innovation research, and the sociological application of the "gene" theory; 2) The theory of cultural landscape gene can be divided into three stages: Preliminary theory exploration (before 2003), theory molding and perfecting (2003-present), theory application and diffusion (2010-present); 3) Its application and diffusion have formed three main branches. 4) Although the theory of landscape genetics has been widely used, in the actual research process, there are some basic concepts of cognitive misunderstanding, cross-disciplinary "incompatible" and other issues.

With the deepening of the rural revitalization strategy, the rational and efficient layout of rural public services has become the key to improving the quality of rural development. This paper systematically reviews the development trajectory and major issues of rural public service layout and coordinated policies, and constructs a comprehensive analysis framework around theoretical foundations, research dimensions, key links, and practical explorations. The study finds that the layout of rural public services, as an important link connecting social development and the transformation of rural-urban relations, is undergoing a transformation from single spatial layout optimization to enhanced interaction between supply and demand subjects and multi-dimensional coordination for social fairness. Currently, the theoretical system and technical methods for cross-study of rural public services are still lacking in systematic construction and updates, and the optimization path for rural public services based on urban-rural integration and supply mode transformation is still insufficient. Based on this, this paper proposes research outlooks from four perspectives: comprehensive logical framework and technical routes, big data application and methods, coordination between urban and rural public services and linkage models and social benefits, aiming to enrich the research content of rural geography.

The jobs-housing spatial relationship is a classic topic in the field of urban geography and urban planning. Along with the evolution of urban development and the change of historical background, the jobshousing spatial relationship presents new characteristics and trends. On the basis of reviewing the process and internal mechanism of the jobs-housing separation, the ideas and connotations of theoretical models such as idyllic city, ideal city, new urbanism and smart growth proposed by scholars are sorted out in this study, and then the theoretical methods and relevant case studies of the measurement and evaluation of the jobshousing spatial relationship are further summarized from three aspects, namely, jobs-housing commuting, land use and job accessibility. After that, the internal mechanical differences in the formation of jobs-housing spatial relationship between Chinese and American cities from the aspects of urban spatial structure, ethnic group and occupation, motivation of jobs-housing separation, commuting mode and residential location choice were analyzed, and the development trend and research of jobs-housing spatial relationship of Chinese cities in the new era of information technology, rapid transportation, urban-rural integration, the development of metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations, and the completion of urbanization were prospected.

Clarifying the development of service geography in China and grasping the direction can help promote the resonance of service geography research with economic development and national strategies, which enhance the discipline's status. Based on geographic results of the National Natural Science Fund of China, this thesis systematically outlines the development of service geography in different stages, summarizes the development characteristics, and points out the innovative direction. The results indicate that the development of service geography in China has gone through the stages of exploration, initial formation, rapid development, as well as reform and innovation, gradually forming a comprehensive, multi-dimensional, and stereoscopic research system of service geography which is closely integrated with national and regional development needs. With expanding scope and content, together with increasingly diverse data and methods, service geography highlights interdisciplinary characteristics on practical, applied, and comprehensive. There are 5 innovative directions of service industry geography. First, it needs to research the construction of a new system for the service industry in accordance with the requirements of the times for building a modern industrial system. Second,according to the development layout of world centers, national centers and regional centers, it needs study the construction of comprehensive and three-dimensional spatial service network.Third, focusing on industrial integration and digital-reality integration, it does research on the convergence of productive service industry with modern agriculture and advanced manufacturing industry.Fourthly,closely following the development requirements of building a higher level of new open economic system, it should pay attention to high-level open development of the service industry. Fifth, in line with the development concept of sharing development which is beneficial to people, the spatial balance and co-ordination of supply and demand in public services and living services should be focused on.

The innovative development of urban agglomeration is a new proposition endowed by the era of knowledge economy, and the innovative network has become the core issue of urban agglomeration development research in the new era. Relevant research on urban agglomeration innovation network is sorted out from three aspects, as scale characteristics, process mechanism and collaborative path, and it is concluded that: In terms of scale characteristics, the multi-scale nature of innovation network nodes and network space requires that the network interaction at different spatial scales should be paid attention to in the interpretation of urban innovation. The adhesiveness and spatial dependence of knowledge spillover between cities are the important internal mechanism of which innovation networks center on the scale of urban agglomeration and ensuring smooth internal and external connectivity of networks is key to realize the innovation of urban agglomeration. In terms of process mechanism, the important influence of urban attributes and multidimensional proximity has been widely recognized, but there are few studies on the evolution mechanism of innovative networks from the perspective of urban geography, and the quantitative empirical evidence of relevant theories remains to be broken through. In terms of collaborative path, the realization of collaborative innovation in urban agglomerations requires the dual support of planning guidance and institutional arrangements. However, there is a lack of systematic research on the innovative interaction and connection effect between different urban agglomerations. How to use case study and empirical analysis to systematically analyze and quantify the patterns and effects of collaborative innovation in different urban agglomerations will become an important issue in the follow-up research.