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Earth Observation (EO) data is a critical information source for mapping and monitoring water resources over large inaccessible regions where hydrological in-situ networks are sparse. In this paper, we present a simple yet robust method for fusing optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for mapping surface water dynamics over mainland China. This method uses a multivariate logistic regression model to estimate monthly surface water extent over a four-year period (2017 to 2020) from the combined usages of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 imagery. Multi-seasonal high-resolution images from the Chinese Gaofen satellites are used as a reference for an independent validation showing a high degree of agreement (overall accuracy 94%) across a diversity of climatic and physiographic regions demonstrating potential scalability beyond China. Through inter-comparison with similar global scale products, this paper further shows how this new mapping technique provides improved spatio-temporal characterization of inland water bodies, and for better capturing smaller water bodies (< 0.81 ha in size). The relevance of the results is discussed, and we find this new enhanced monitoring approach has the potential to advance the use of Earth observation for water resource management, planning and reporting.

We investigated the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and new enterprise performance by introducing entrepreneurial perseverance and entrepreneurial competence as mediating mechanisms. Our sample comprised 228 new enterprise owners in Wuhan, Chengdu, and Zhengzhou, in China. The results of our empirical analysis show that entrepreneurial passion had a positive impact on new enterprise performance, and that entrepreneurial perseverance mediated this relationship. In addition, entrepreneurial competence had a positive mediating effect in the relationship between entrepreneurial perseverance and new enterprise performance, and partially mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and new enterprise performance. That is, the stronger is an entrepreneur's competence, the stronger is the mediating effect of entrepreneurial perseverance on the performance of their new enterprise. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of why encouraging and inspiring entrepreneurs is crucial to their success.

Public health-care facilities are essential to all communities, and their location has long been an important issue in urban planning. With the steady growth of Shenzhen’s population, the government needs to decide where health-care facilities should be located to improve the equity of accessibility, and further more to raise the residential needs and satisfaction for the entire population. As a large immigrate city, Shenzhen is a complex socio-ecological system which make it hard to find the best solution that meets all of the objectives. In this article, we establish a multi-objective model to examine the problem of where health-care facilities should be located to improve accessibility for the entire population and decrease the cost of building new facilities. In particular, the model accounts for the different requirements of varying age groups. We used data from Shenzhen and two heuristic algorithms to create the model. The strategy proposed here can be adopted in urban planning and help policymakers reach better decisions.

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