Trading systems are essential in promoting global food security. With the growing proportion of global food consumption obtained through international trade, the global food trade pattern has become increasingly complex over recent years. This study constructed a weighted global grain network using the trade data of 196 countries in 2000 and 2018 to explore the structure and evolution based on the complex network theory. We established that the global grain network was scale-free. There was significant heterogeneity among nodes, and the heterogeneity of the out-degree was greater than that of the in-degree. The global grain network has a significant core-periphery structure, with the United States, Japan, Mexico, Egypt, South Korea, and Colombia as the core countries. Thereafter, by applying the quadratic assignment procedure model to explore the driving factors of the global grain network, we established that geographical distance had a positive impact on the food trade patterns in 2000 and 2018. This differs from the classical gravity model theory. Furthermore, grain trade had significant “boundary effects”; economic gaps, resource endowment, and regional free trade agreements had a positive impact on the evolution of the grain trade network, whereas cultural similarity and political differences had a negative impact on the grain trade network pattern.

Research on regional residential buildings is an important means of exploring the natural climatic adaptability of buildings and the sustainable development of culture. It is also an important path of sustainable social development. However, current research methods for architectural space find it difficult to clarify the internal and external relations of space, and the function of architectural space to adapt to the regional climate and cultural heritage is difficult to quantitatively analyze and measure. This study constructs a new research method of architectural interiors/exteriors, takes the traditional residential buildings in Wu-style architecture in the Jinhua area as a case study, summarizes the types and characteristics of the interiors/exteriors of Wu-style architecture, and reveals the spatial construction rules of the internal and external types realizing environmental sustainability and traditional residences. The results show that: (1) the architecture of the Wu style has five typical types of interior/exterior, and the regional representation of its interior/exterior is affected by both the human and the natural environment; (2) influenced by traditional Confucian culture, the architecture of the Wu style shows a central axial secondary buckling type and an enclosed type of interior/exterior form, which has the value of the times to coordinate the relationship between people in today’s society; (3) in terms of ventilation, daylighting, and heat dissipation, Wu-style buildings flexibly use the slender gray space form and wide cornice for the internal and external space transition, which effectively improves the ecological efficiency of the buildings’ ventilation, lighting, heat dissipation, etc., and has important reference value for the development and utilization of traditional buildings and the architectural design of new dwellings. At present, this new research method for the internal and external spaces of buildings still has considerable potential and needs to be deepened and improved through further research.

Communities and villages are holistic organisms, representing a complete system formed by natural space and human activities. Since the concept of “future community” was put forward by the Drucker Foundation in the United States at the end of the 20th century, “future community” has expanded from the city to the countryside. Governments and scholars of various countries have started the practical and theoretical research into “future community”. Based on the theory of “village organism”, this paper constructs the structural model of the future countryside, and then constructs the health evaluation index system of the future countryside. This effectively makes up for the shortcomings of previous studies, and provides a new perspective and systematic analysis method for the study of community and village issues. Using entropy weight method and TOPSIS method, Jindong District was used as a case to conduct the quantitative evaluation of the development level of 46 administrative villages in the region. The results showed that: (1) the development level of the villages in the region was not high, and far from the requirements of future countryside, indicating that countryside revitalization has a long way to go; (2) within the region, competitive convergence occurs in the development process of all villages; (3) of the two major countryside systems in the future, the health level of the physical space system is higher than that of the social system, indicating that the local government pays more attention to the construction of the “external” image of the countryside and ignores the improvement of the “internal” function of the countryside society; (4) in the prospective construction of nine scenes of future countryside, an observable trend towards “grouping” differentiation emerges. This phenomenon underscores existing deficiencies in countryside construction, indicating that countryside areas still fail to realize the function of being “self-hematopoietic”. The determination and selection of sample indicators exhibit regional cultural disparities, permitting various regions to customize indicators with their specific contextual circumstances. Nevertheless, the universal approach of treating countryside areas as holistic entities remains essential in scholarly inquiry.

Traditional villages play a vital role in rural development by promoting the revitalization of China’s rural areas and the rejuvenation of national culture. This study examines 701 national traditional villages in Zhejiang Province, analyzing their spatial distribution using the nearest neighbor index, and kernel density analysis. Geographic detectors were employed to quantitatively identify the factors influencing spatial distribution and their interaction effects. Findings indicate: (1) Traditional villages in Zhejiang Province display unique spatial agglomeration characteristics described as “two cores and multiple points,” accompanied by notable ethnic differentiation. Predominantly, minority villages are situated in the mountainous regions of southwestern Zhejiang. (2) Elevation, per capita disposable income, social fixed asset investment, per capita GDP, are key factors driving the spatial differentiation of traditional villages in the region. (3) Cross detection reveals that the spatial distribution of traditional villages in Zhejiang Province has evolved through the combined influence of natural, economic, and social factors. This evolution encompasses periods characterized by natural environmental location and subsequent preservation amid socio-economic development. The study quantifies the impact of natural and economic factors on the distribution and preservation of traditional villages in China’s developed provinces, identifying the influence of residential income and social fixed asset investment on their retention patterns.