Social and economic factors relate to the prevention and control of infectious diseases. The purpose of this paper was to assess the distribution of COVID-19 morbidity rate in association with social and economic factors and discuss the implications for urban development that help to control infectious diseases. This study was a cross-sectional study. In this study, social and economic factors were classified into three dimensions: built environment, economic activities, and public service status. The method applied in this study was the spatial regression analysis. In the 13 districts in Wuhan, the spatial regression analysis was applied. The results showed that: 1) increasing population density, construction land area proportion, value-added of tertiary industry per unit of land area, total retail sales of consumer goods per unit of land area, public green space density, aged population density were associated with an increased COVID-19 morbidity rate due to the positive characteristics of estimated coefficients of these variables. 2) increasing average building scale, GDP per unit of land area, and hospital density were associated with a decreased COVID-19 morbidity rate due to the negative characteristics of estimated coefficients of these variables. It was concluded that it is possible to control infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, by adjusting social and economic factors. We should guide urban development to improve human health.

Urban sprawl presents a serious challenge for sustainable urban land use. Urban planning attempts to guarantee sustainable urban development and proper use of land resources. However, a large gap usually exists between planning and actual development. This paper aims to analyze the evolutionary characteristics of urban form and the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban planning from 1964 to 2013, using the case of Hangzhou, China. We proposed a framework that included remote sensing, landscape metrics, and control effectiveness indexes. The results indicated that urban planning failed to perform effectively in Hangzhou, reflected by the uncontrolled urban sprawl during all the planning periods. The low effectiveness of planning was resulted from multiple factors, including historical economic events that made expansion unexpected, functional orientation of planning which drove fragmented suburbanization, the ineffective methods for forecasting population and land use, and the influences by the market forces. The findings deepen the understanding of the impacts of urban planning, and provide references for making rational urban management decisions and sustainable urban land management.

Urban fragmentation affects sustainability through multiple impacts on economic, social, and environmental cost. Characterizing the dynamics of urban fragmentation in relation to economic transition should provide implications for sustainability. However, rather few efforts have been made in this issue. Using the case of Shanghai (China), this paper quantifies urban fragmentation in relation to economic transition. In particular, urban fragmentation is quantified by a time-series of remotely sensed images and a set of landscape metrics; and economic transition is described by a set of indicators from three aspects (globalization, decentralization, and marketization). Results show that urban fragmentation presents an increasing linear trend. Multivariate regression identifies positive linear correlation between urban fragmentation and economic transition. More specifically, the relative influence is different for the three components of economic transition. The relative influence of decentralization is stronger than that of globalization and marketization. The joint influences of decentralization and globalization are the strongest for urban fragmentation. The demonstrated methodology can be applicable to other places after making suitable adjustment of the economic transition indicators and fragmentation metrics.

Developing countries generally face the problem of sustainable agricultural production during the process of agricultural modernization. Farmland trusteeship is an emerging mode of sustainable agricultural production and has played an important role in China. At present, the Chinese government has taken it as a pilot mode, but its effect also depends on the extensive participation of peasants. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and structural equation model (SEM) method, the paper analyzed peasants’ participation intention, behavior, drivers, and the influence of policy support on peasants’ participation behavior, using survey data of Jiangsu province and peasants’ participation variables. The results suggest that: (1) The behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control variables of peasants’ participation in farmland trusteeship have a significant direct impact on peasants’ willingness to participate, and these three factors indirectly influence peasants’ participation behavior by influencing peasants’ intention; (2) perceptual behavioral control variables such as the size of farmland trusteeship organization had no significant influence on peasants’ participation behaviors; (3) government policy support has a direct and significant impact on peasants’ participation behaviors. These findings not only generate broad direct implications for Chinese policymakers to improve peasants’ participation for sustainable agricultural production, but also provide lessons for other developing countries for agricultural modernization.

Producer service industries are an important feature in the current development of a metropolis. Researchers from different countries are increasingly concerned about location changes and the motives of producer service sectors in cities. Given the rapid development of producer service sectors in developing countries, this study examines changes in the distribution of producer service sectors over the past decade and factors influencing them in a case study using the city of Hangzhou in China. Results show that Hangzhou’s producer service sector is still mainly concentrated in the central business district (CBD). However, a distinct trend of diffusion to suburban areas was observed, which formed several secondary clusters on the periphery of the city. Locations of the CBD, sub-centers, and professional clusters of producer service sectors established by the government are the most important factors that affect the spatial distribution of producer service sectors. The main influencing factors for the spatial evolution of producer service sectors are: (1) the high development cost and residential suburbanization of the central areas of the city promote the development of producer service sectors toward the periphery; (2) city planning has guided the clustering of producer service sectors on the city’s CBD and secondary city centers; (3) city renewal has provided personalized and diversified development space for producer service sectors; (4) incentive policies introduced by the government, such as rentals, and taxes have enhanced the orderly aggregation of producer service sectors.