Description of study areas and research methods
Jiangyin is located in China’s most dynamic region – the Yangtze
River Delta, the southern part of Jiangsu Province, 155 km to the
north of Shanghai (Fig. 1). It covers a total land area of 987.53 km2,
and its population was 2.01 million in 2012. Jiangyin is a countylevel
city, and it has continuously ranked number 1 among 100 top
counties in terms of economic strength since 2003