Water pollution exhibits distinct negative externalities, necessitating trans-regional collaborative governance among basin governments. However, few studies have examined the structural features of water pollution collaboration networks among local governments in China from a spatial analysis perspective. This study focuses on 27 central cities in the Yangtze River Delta, collecting 109 policy texts and evidence of cooperative actions on water pollution governance among these cities. By utilizing a combination of social network analysis and GIS spatial analysis, the research visualizes the results and delves into the overall structure and internal features of the network. The results indicate that the density of the water pollution cooperation network is 0.75, suggesting that a relatively stable and closely connected network for collaborative governance of water pollution has been formed. Furthermore, the water pollution cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta exhibits a typical “multi-center” network structure, with Shanghai–Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hangzhou as the core, forming three city clusters with tighter cooperation. Suzhou, Shanghai, and Jiaxing have the highest degree of centrality, which are 51, 46, and 44, respectively. The analysis of degree centrality reveals that cities with higher levels of economic development or those that serve as provincial capitals often play a leading role in the cooperation network. The study also observes that adjacent cities or local governments closer to the core cities are more likely to establish cooperative relationships; this phenomenon is not limited by provincial administrative boundaries.

Water environment collaborative governance is an important policy agenda during the Yangtze River Delta integration. Based on collaborative theory and policy value theory, this essay finds 144 water environment collaborative governance policies in the region from 2007 to 2022. It utilizes a policy collaborative model to discuss the water environment collaborative governance state at the regional and provincial levels in this region. Results show that 87.5% of water environment collaborative governance policies are enacted by local government in the region in this period, the main policy aims of which are water resource protection and wastewater pollution control. More policy attention will need to be paid to water environment restoration and off-office auditing of cadres. While administration policies and legal interventions are the main policy levers, economic policies and personal policies are relatively underused. Policy elements are significantly diversified at the provincial level in the region. In response to the findings above, this essay offers advice to improve water environment collaborative governance in the Yangtze River Delta region on four aspects: giving local governments full discretion in wastewater pollution treatment; giving full play of the water pollution control policies' value; adopting differentiated water pollution control policies; and strategies among the local government in the region, exerting policy stability.

China’s urbanization has always required the support of rural areas. By 2014, urban wastewater pollution had become a serious problem in China and this drew the public’s attention to the urban water environment. As a result, the government now requires a new type of urbanization, with simultaneous development of high-quality rural areas. Improving the economic, social and environmental influence of urban development on rural areas helps to improve urbanization and make rural areas more sustainable. This article focuses on a particular question: Have urban wastewater emissions affected the efficiency of agricultural water use? Using provincial panel data for 2004–2010, we analyze how the increase in the urban wastewater treatment ratio has changed China’s agricultural water productivity. The effect is shown to be prominent, irrespective of whether the urbanization ratio is high or low. This effect is most significant when the urbanization ratio is highest or when society pays more attention to urban environmental governance. The influence has regional heterogeneity and is also affected by various other policy settings. The results provide helpful guidance for cities as they focus on rural impacts as part of the new type of urbanization policies.

This paper investigates the mechanism of 'not in my backyard' (NIMBY) risk perception. The identification of the mechanism is a prerequisite to resolving NIMBY conflict from the perspective of social psychology rather than from a technical, economic and political perspective. Based on the concept model of NIMBY risk perception and by adopting the methods of factor analysis and multivariate regression, the research analyses collected data on NIMBY conflict cases of public rail transport in Shanghai. It reveals that NIMBY attitude and behaviour are the direct cause behind NIMBY conflict and NIMBY risk perception is its indirect cause. The empirical study also reveals that the factors of residents' value, decision-making procedures of the facility generating NIMBY conflicts, trust between resident and government and residents' knowledge of the facility causing the NIMBY conflicts, all have significant influences on the factors of residents' risk perceptions, NIMBY attitude and behaviour. It is necessary to focus on these factors and develop policy tools to improve the effectiveness of NIMBY conflict governance.