Track 1.4: Transitions at the Territorial Edge (Urban-rural synergies)

In an era defined by multiple crises and the pursuit of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly those concerning sustainable agriculture, rural income equity (SDG 10), and resilient infrastructure and innovation (SDG 9)—green technological innovation (GTI) is increasingly recognized as a pivotal driver for economic transformation and environmental stewardship. However, its complex, often nonlinear, impact on urban-rural income inequality, a persistent challenge to sustainable and equitable growth, remains inadequately understood, especially within the VUCA global landscape. Conventional linear models struggle to capture GTI's threshold effects and dynamic spatial characteristics, limiting effective long-term integrated spatial strategies for inclusive urban-rural prosperity. This study addresses the urgent need to align development strategies with the realities of rapid urbanization and regional interdependencies. Focusing on the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration—China’s most rapidly developing region—we investigate the nonlinear effects and spatial heterogeneity of GTI on urban-rural income inequality. The YRD presents a strategic microcosm for understanding how major investments in innovation can be balanced with inclusive, integrated planning to mitigate the impacts of rapid urbanization and foster a balanced urban-rural continuum. Employing an innovative interpretable machine learning hybrid model, integrating CatBoost with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and embedded spatial heterogeneity, this research analyzes multi-source data from 41 prefecture-level cities spanning 2011 to 2021. This approach goes beyond simple linear thinking, using data to understand how GTI interacts with socio-economic and spatial factors to affect income distribution, supporting smarter, more inclusive regional planning. Key findings reveal that while overall income inequality in the YRD has shown signs of easing, significant disparities persist, underscoring the enduring gaps between urban prosperity and rural livelihoods. GTI itself is on an upward trend, yet inter-city divergence in innovation capacity is widening, potentially exacerbating the “Matthew Effect” if not managed strategically. Crucially, the number of green patent applications per unit area (GPA)—reflecting regional innovation density applicable to agriculture and rural environmental management—emerges as the most influential feature. Its impact demonstrates a significant nonlinear threshold: GPA below 8.10 patents/km² tends to exacerbate inequality, while surpassing this threshold significantly alleviates it. This highlights how the scale of green innovation investment is critical for its benefits to diffuse equitably. Furthermore, a spatial lag variable, GPA-SL, indicates that when innovation density in neighboring regions exceeds 315.67 patents/km², its spillover effect shifts from negative to positive, aiding in the reduction of local income inequality, emphasizing the importance of inter-regional collaboration for mutually beneficial growth. Spatial heterogeneity zoning, based on the interplay between GTI levels and income inequality, identifies four distinct regional typologies within the YRD. Each type faces unique challenges and opportunities concerning technological adoption, agricultural modernization, and rural income enhancement. These typologies underscore the necessity for community-centered and place-based approaches, moving away from one-size-fits-all policies to foster resilient living and a higher quality of life across the urban-rural spectrum. The insights generated offer a critical evidence base for formulating differentiated regional development strategies. These strategies can leverage the connections between urban innovation hubs and rural peripheries, fostering mutually beneficial growth that enhances both urban vibrancy and rural prosperity. By understanding the nonlinear dynamics and spatial interdependencies, policymakers can better design interventions that ensure green technological advancements contribute to reducing inequalities and promoting sustainable agriculture, thereby aligning urban growth with the broader objectives of the SDGs in a world demanding resilience and equity. This research provides a pathway to rethink value creation, ensuring that the drive for innovation serves as a foundation for sustainable, inclusive, and equitable city-regions.

The complex challenges of the VUCA era are driving the exploration of innovative development paths in the face of intensifying global climate change, in-depth geopolitical restructuring and systematic adjustment of regional economic structures. In this context, transboundary areas (TBAs) serve not only as a short-term strategic fulcrum for reshaping regional competitive advantages and achieving sustainable and equitable growth, but also as the long-term core support for building a new paradigm of regional development characterized by high resilience, strong synergy, and endogenous equity. Employing tools such as social network analysis, the Leiden community discovery algorithm, and landscape pattern indices, this paper proposes a method for identifying transboundary areas based on human mobility and community detection. It further establishes a framework for measuring functional synergy across multiple dimensions—ecology, industry, culture and tourism, innovation, and agriculture—and outlines a synergistic planning strategy for metropolitan TBAs based on their multi-dimensional functional positioning. The study finds the following: The transboundary flow of factors like population, scientific innovation, and industry has spurred the evolution of "co-located pilot areas" at borders, characterized by cooperative governance and integrated socio-economic development. This process has also led to the formation of transboundary areas with distinct, spatially recognizable characteristics. The spatial differentiation of population flow across the Wuhan City Circle's boundaries is pronounced, with an overall network density of 0.136 and a coefficient of variation of 0.63. The intensity of transboundary movement is significantly higher along the east-west axis than the north-south, creating an axial pattern of "strong east-west, weak north-south." The level of transboundary synergy among the 10 identified TBAs varies significantly. The ecological dimension is relatively balanced, with some TBAs showing distinct advantages. Synergy in industry and scientific innovation shows a converging pattern, yet is hindered by certain shortcomings. Finally, synergy in cultural tourism and agriculture exhibits localized strengths and unique advantages.

The urban fringe, constituting a critical transitional zone between urban built-up areas, rural regions, and the natural ecological environment, represents not only the primary frontier of urban spatial expansion but also the area where human-land conflicts manifest most acutely. Precise identification and scientific delineation of the urban fringe are essential prerequisites for mitigating these conflicts and ensuring sustainable urban development. Such research holds significant theoretical and practical importance for advancing China's urban-rural integration strategy and optimizing the national territorial spatial planning framework in the new era. Current methodologies for urban fringe determination often rely on single-dimensional indicators, lacking sufficient integration of the complex spatial characteristics inherent to transitional zones. Furthermore, the presence of distinctive land cover types, such as water bodies and green spaces, frequently leads to excessive fragmentation in identification results. This fragmentation impedes the accurate representation of the urban fringe's true spatial configuration. To address these limitations, this study establishes a multidimensional evaluation framework encompassing economic, demographic, social, and spatial morphological attributes. Leveraging multi-source heterogeneous data—including land cover remote sensing imagery, point of interest (POI) data, and population distribution datasets—and integrating deep learning algorithms, we propose an innovative identification methodology for the urban fringe. Employing Harbin City, China, as an empirical research area, the study yields the following findings: (1) The proposed methodology effectively defines transitional zones between built-up areas, rural settlements, and the natural environment. Identification results demonstrate a significant reduction in interference from distinctive land uses like water bodies and green spaces, effectively mitigating fragmentation issues; (2) Analysis of source data reveals the urban fringe exhibits dual characteristics of transitionality and spatial morphological complexity. The model, constructed based on these characteristics, provides a more accurate depiction of urban-rural spatial interactions and the spatial manifestations of human-land conflicts, yielding scientifically robust identification outcomes; (3) The urban fringe of Harbin City is spatially extensive. Influenced by the Songhua River, it predominantly exhibits a concentric spatial distribution pattern. Substantial potential remains for optimizing infrastructure development and enhancing ecological environment quality within this zone. This research confirms the efficacy and scientific validity of the proposed method for urban fringe identification. It offers a valuable reference for urban spatial governance and planning decision-making processes.

As a critical pathway for megacities to decentralize core functions and achieve sustainable development, New Towns also serve as strategic planning initiatives by governments to address the challenges of the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) World. Since its first implementation in London, UK, the concept has evolved through distinct phases in cities such as Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; and Hong Kong, China. These phases reflect a transformation from functional separation (1940s–1960s), functional integration (1960s–1980s), balance between work and residence (1980s–2000s), to multi-functional development (2000–present). However, due to differences in urban scale and national cultural contexts, the concept of "New Town" in China has been redefined as "New City" in planning practices. Chinese New Towns are characterized by significantly larger planned populations—often approaching one million—which diverges from the original concept of New Towns. In Beijing's 2016 master plan, the term "New Town" was adopted to establish a novel hierarchical framework positioned between "New City" and rural areas. This plan proposed creating eight New Towns at varying distances from Beijing's central district, ranging from 20km to 60km, below five “new cities” hierarchy. This study focuses on Beijing's New Towns, investigating whether they constitute a new model for sustainable urban growth. From the perspective of government-market interactions, it examines how Beijing's New Town planning balances the capital's gravitational pull (siphon effect) with local development, whether the implementation achieves work-residence equilibrium and industrial synergy, and whether this hierarchical framework promotes regional balanced development. The research employs a multidimensional empirical framework, combining quantitative analyses using Baidu's population big data and enterprise census data (e.g., work-residence ratios and industrial interconnectivity metrics) with over 50 qualitative interviews with government officials and business representatives. The temporal scope covers the development trajectories of each New Town since the 2016 plan's implementation. Findings reveal significant imbalances in the development of Beijing's New Towns. Most areas remain constrained by the capital's strong siphon effect, leading to industrial and population outflows. Some peripherally located New Towns, originally designed with industrial parks, have failed to attract competitive industries, resulting in stagnation. A minority of New Towns have achieved preliminary work-residence balance through targeted industrial introduction. Throughout this process, governments have actively sought to attract new industries, yet top-down planning logic often conflicts with market-driven choices, causing certain New Towns to become "policy islands." While Beijing's New Town model demonstrates diverse approaches to urban-rural hierarchies, offering global insights into redefining metropolitan-rural relationships, it remains anchored to traditional planning paradigms. Reliance on policy incentives has limited the New Towns' ability to break free from scale-oriented development dependencies. To ensure long-term sustainability, the study emphasizes the need to strengthen regional coordination mechanisms and community-centric planning strategies. This research highlights both the potential and limitations of New Towns in addressing the complexities of megacity expansion in the 21st century.

Nowadays, China's urban-rural relations are shifting from a closed to an open system. The development trend of urban-rural integration and regional coordination is becoming increasingly prominent, and a new type of urban-rural functional relations is arising from the mutual flow of urban -rural elements. Our team has been involved in a series of projects of Shanghai's universities to help Yunnan Province since 2013. Shanghai is an international metropolis located in the east coast, while Yunlong County in Yunnan Province, which we are helping, is a small town located in the southwest mountainous area, forming a special cross-regional urban-rural relationship between the two. In 2019, we launched the “Dream Home” project in a poor village in Yunlong County. This is a rural community co-creation practice project with the participation of urban youth, rural children and villagers. We attempted to build a two-way empowerment platform for urban and rural talents by using the village community as a carrier and co-creation as a means. Over the past six years, we have provided hand-holding planning services to villages, and emphasized the simultaneous construction of physical space and internal dynamics. Every year, we organize urban youth to lead village children to think about and design their “dream homes” from the perspective of masters, and guide villagers to complete the construction in a low-cost and low-tech way, focusing on real-life propositions such as village elementary school and village entrance spaces. We found: First, children are the key point of the community. When we empower village children, we can mobilize villagers, and we need to recognize that village children are also the future owners of the village. Secondly, local technology is still full of value. We've done a lot of work here that combines traditional and new technologies, such as the "Yongan Heart" village meeting center，which won the Civic Building category of the Dezeen Awards in 2022. Thirdly, urban youth need to go to the countryside. They facilitate knowledge sharing and emotional connections between urban and rural areas, and return to cities with a new perspective on sustainable urban development. We hope that the flow of human elements between urban and rural areas will lead to the flow of material elements and then to the realization of regional collaborative development. We firmly believe that everyone, even children, can be a dreamer, a planner and a builder.

In the context of rapid urbanization and the reshaping of global resource patterns, resource-dependent regions are facing severe transformation challenges. These areas have long relied on primary industries such as coal and minerals, leading to a single-layered economic structure. Once resource exhaustion occurs, the development path collapses, triggering population outmigration, redundant infrastructure, service withdrawal, and widespread land vacancy—resulting in a self-reinforcing cycle of dependency, depletion, and decline. In this context, reconstructing territorial functions has become a key regional planning agenda. While numerous studies have proposed resilience strategies for resource-depleted areas, most focus on industrial upgrading within urban cores, largely overlooking the potential of rural areas, leading to persistent urban–rural disparities. To address this gap, we take “rural centralities” as our strategic entry point for rebuilding regional resilience in resource-depleted areas. Rural centralities refer to small towns or rural nodes that function as intermediate hubs within the urban–rural continuum. They concentrate economic functions, basic public services, and administrative capacity, and typically serve dual roles: upward, by supporting weakened urban cores as fallback economic hubs; and downward, by delivering essential services and resources to surrounding villages. Therefore, we regard rural centralities as strategic anchors for regional integration, and focus on how to leverage their development potential through enhanced internal coordination. This study proposes a “rural centrality cluster model” to activate resource-depleted areas. By identifying rural centralities and clustering them based on spatial and functional connectivity, the model transforms fragmented rural centralities into organized, networked, and functionally differentiated clusters. Specifically, we apply this model to Huludao, a typical resource-depleted region in China with 90 towns, through four steps: The first step is to identify rural centralities. We construct a centrality index combining population, infrastructure, and economic indicators to evaluate development potential, and then define high-centrality towns as “rural centralities.” The second step is to cluster rural centralities. We use a three-step approach: natural break analysis for cluster boundary delineation, gravity models for measuring inter-connectivity, and K-means clustering for functional classification. As a result, 15 clusters are identified, each consisting of leading and supporting nodes with varying levels of internal connectivity. These clusters are further categorized into three types—industrial-oriented, public service-oriented, and tourism-oriented—based on dominant functional characteristics. The third step is to develop spatial strategies tailored to each cluster type, enabling targeted planning interventions. We proposed supporting policy tools such as governance platforms to guide the integrated development of clustered rural centralities. This study makes three key contributions for rebuilding resillience in resource-dependent regions: First, the study reframes rural centralities as key agents in regional resilience. It shifts the focus from urban-centered development to networked rural coordination, which addresses a major blind spot in existing planning approaches. Second, this study introduces a method that not only defines rural cluster boundaries but also clarifies internal functional roles. By identifying hierarchical structures, it enables planners to distinguish between core and peripheral nodes—providing a clearer basis for service allocation, infrastructure siting, and functional coordination. Third, the study links cluster typologies to differentiated development strategies. By classifying rural clusters into industrial, service, and tourism types, it enables context-specific interventions that support industrial upgrading and spatial integration. In doing so, it addresses the challenge of one-size-fits-all rural policy in resource-depleted regions.

Miyun, a total area of 2,229.45 sq.km, located in northeastern Beijing, occupies a uniquely strategic position as a critical ecological zone and an emerging urban-rural interface. At its heart lies the Miyun Reservoir, Beijing’s largest surface water source, surrounded predominantly by mountainous and forested terrain comprising more than 79% of the district. Miyun also faces increasing urbanization pressures for residential expansion, industrial development, and eco-tourism. It offers a compelling case of how master planning can be leveraged to secure sustainable, inclusive, and resilient urban growth. Recognizing the complexity and sensitivity of these dynamics, the Miyun District Territorial Spatial Plan was initiated through a multi-level governance framework in 2016. Under the leadership of Miyun’s Planning and Natural Resources Bureau, the planning process embraced extensive collaboration with Beijing municipal departments, professional planning institutes, local township authorities, community stakeholders, and ecological specialists. This approach effectively harmonized top-down strategic priorities with bottom-up local knowledge, ensuring that future development in Miyun balances ecological integrity with sustainable urban–rural growth. This Plan exemplifies how strategic spatial planning, when guided by multi-level governance and rooted in both ecological and socio-economic realities, can foster an integrated model of sustainable urban–rural development. By balancing large-scale urban expansion with ecological preservation and inclusive rural revitalization, the plan safeguards critical ecosystem services while promoting resilient, equitable, and livable growth. Its successful implementation is vital not only for Beijing but for sustainable city-region planning across China and beyond. During the formulation of the Miyun District Territorial Spatial Plan, one of the most pressing challenges identified was the risk of uncoordinated urban expansion and sprawl, driven by enhanced transportation links such as high-speed rail and expressways connecting Miyun more closely with central Beijing. The potential for rapid, speculative development threatened to encroach upon ecologically sensitive zones, particularly near the Miyun Reservoir and surrounding forests. In response, the plan strategically defined clear urban growth boundaries, enforced stringent zoning regulations, and consolidated future urban development within select, compact nodes designed around mixed-use, livable urban forms integrated with green infrastructure networks. Moreover, the plan proactively addressed the historical disparities and connectivity gaps between urban and rural areas. Significant investments were directed towards improved physical connectivity, exemplified by upgrades to rural road networks, and the expansion of digital infrastructure. These interventions dramatically enhanced rural residents' access to essential urban services, markets, employment, and education opportunities, fostering greater regional integration. The vulnerability of Miyun’s ecological core, particularly the reservoir watershed, emerged as another pressing issue. The Territorial Spatial Plan implemented stringent ecological redlines to restrict development in sensitive areas rigorously. It also prioritized large-scale ecological restoration efforts, such as reforestation, watershed stabilization, and pollution mitigation measures, safeguarding the reservoir’s long-term sustainability. Parallelly, the plan addressed socio-economic challenges facing rural communities, notably economic stagnation, limited agricultural productivity, and demographic decline. Through targeted support for eco-tourism, organic and specialty agriculture, and the establishment of community-run cooperatives, the plan revitalized rural livelihoods, boosted local economies, and strengthened community resilience. In essence, the Miyun District Territorial Spatial Plan stands as a strategic and innovative model for harmonizing large-scale urbanization with ecological stewardship and rural revitalization. By systematically addressing urban growth pressures, ecological vulnerabilities, rural economic challenges, and regional connectivity, the plan exemplifies integrated sustainable development principles applicable beyond Beijing, offering valuable insights for sustainable city-region planning across China and globally.

This study examines cross-border urban collaboration zones emerging under China's metropolitan integration policy, proposing an innovative methodology integrating multi-source big data and spatial analysis techniques to address sustainable development challenges in city-regions during the VUCA world. Taking the Wuhan-Xianning cross-border collaboration in central China as a case study, the research combines mobile signaling data, enterprise location data, land use data and other multidimensional datasets to establish: 1) a four-dimensional boundary identification model assessing spatial connectivity, functional complementarity, ecological sensitivity and infrastructure sharing; and 2) a functional evaluation system based on potential indicators, judgment matrices and advantage indices. The methodology successfully delineates a 384.8 km² Wuhan-Xianning cooperation zone, quantitatively revealing spatial inequalities including 47% differential in land use growth and 3.2-fold variations in population density gradients.The study identifies significant development potential in ecological landscape functions, technological innovation functions, and healthcare-wellness functions. Based on these findings, it proposes an "Ecological-Innovation-Service" triple helix spatial development model, offering innovative solutions for inclusive development and resilience enhancement in metropolitan fringe areas. The model's core value lies in achieving density-appropriate, functionally-mixed sustainable development goals and establishing a dynamic equilibrium between natural systems and urban growth.The research outcomes have been directly applied in formulating the "Wuhan-Xianning Integrated Development Plan," providing operational spatial governance tools for SDGs localization while contributing China-specific technical pathways and planning methods integrating multi-source data fusion with spatial equity and ecological wisdom to global city-region governance. The study holds significant theoretical and practical implications for promoting sustainable and equitable urban-rural growth.