Integrated development in urban and rural areas has led to a new form of urban–rural interdependence, which promotes rural territorial functional evolution and land use changes. Rural land use transition, showing the synchronous development between cities and villages, is an important window through which to observe integrated development in urban and rural areas. We focus on uncovering the association between rural land use transition and urban–rural integration development (URID), put forward a dynamic relationship assumption between rural land use transformation and URID stages based on the transmission mechanism of urban–rural linkages, and undertake empirical analysis using the panel regression model with the data of county-level administrative units in Shandong Province, China. The results show that rural land use transition has maintained a close association with URID, and that the changes in cultivated land, forest land, and surface-water area are highly related to URID. There are different leading urban–rural linkages in rural areas around big-sized cities, mid-sized cities, and small-sized cities, which determine whether rural areas are in different URID stages of high, medium, or low levels. Further, rural areas can take different actions to promote URID at different stages through strengthening or introducing urban–rural linkages driven by economies of scale and deepening urbanization. This provides a reference for developing countries to formulate rural land use policies on achieving the goal of URID.

Rural industrial integration land has emerged with the rise of new industries in rural China, exhibiting spatial distribution patterns distinct from traditional industrial land. However, research on this land use remains limited. This paper offers an exploratory definition of rural industrial integration land, takes three typical villages in Qingdao, Shandong Province as examples, establishes a model for measuring the diversity, complexity, and compatibility of land for industrial integration development based on the Hill numbers diversity measurement model, the information entropy index, and the mixedness index (WVMDI_i) to explore the spatial layout characteristics of rural industrial integration land, and introduces the grey relational model to analyze its driving mechanism. The findings reveal that: (1) Rural industrial integration land is marked by structural diversity, multifunctionality, and compatibility in use. (2) From 2015 to 2023, the land’s diversity, complexity, and compatibility increased. The spatial layout characteristics of rural industrial integration land in the three villages, which integrates its diversity, complexity, and compatibility, increased from 1.3842, 1.5786, and 1.2127 to 1.8500, 1.9123, and 2.0224. (3) Between 2015 and 2019, key factors influencing spatial distribution included resource endowment, industrial foundation, and socioeconomic conditions. From 2019 to 2023, the most significant factors shifted to industrial foundation, farmers’ demand, and regional policies. Understanding the spatial distribution of rural industrial integration land is essential for guiding rural industrial spatial planning and promoting rural industrial revitalization.

Rural settlements are the carrier of farmers’ life and rural industries. This paper introduces symbiosis theory to construct an analytical framework for the symbiosis between production land and living land in rural settlements, taking three villages in Shanxi, China as examples (secondary industry-led: Tian Village, tourism-led: Shuiyukou Village, multi-industry integration: Jiling Village). The results show that: (1) From 2010 to 2020, the compatibility and coupling coordination degree between production land and living land in Tian Village increased; the compatibility degree between production land and living land in Shuiyukou Village decreased slightly, and the coupling coordination increased significantly. In Jiling Village, the compatibility between production land and living land decreased, and the coupling coordination showed an increasing trend. (2) From 2010 to 2020, the degree of symbiosis between production land and living land in the three Villages both showed an increasing trend, and the growth of symbiosis degree was mainly caused by the growth of coupling coordination. (3) In 2010–2015 and 2015–2020, the symbiotic growth between production land and living land in Tian Village was driven by farmers’ demand and social economy, respectively. The dominant driving factor for Shuiyukou Village in these two periods was resource endowment. Jiling Village was driven by social economy and regional policies, respectively. This work can provide scientific support for the practical adjustment of land use structure and the reconstruction of rural settlements in China.