In recent years, with the public paying more and more attention to the problem of air pollution, the impact of air quality on migration has gradually become a growing concern. However, in the current context of cities’ efforts to “attract talent” in China, research on the impact of air pollution on the flow or dwelling willingness of young talent is relatively limited. Based on the theory of planned behavior and from the perspective of subjective perception, this paper uses a regulated model to explore the impact mechanism of air pollution perception on young talent urban settlement intentions. Taking Hangzhou as a case, this study surveyed 987 individuals who were classified as young talent to explore the impact of air pollution perception on urban settlement intentions in China. The research shows that air pollution perception has a significant impact on young talent urban settlement intentions, and this impact is achieved through the intermediary effect of residential satisfaction. Place attachment of young talent to cities cannot significantly regulate the impact of air pollution perception on residential satisfaction, but it can significantly regulate the relationship between residential satisfaction and urban settlement intentions. That is to say, although place attachment cannot reduce the decline in residential satisfaction brought by air pollution perception, it can weaken the negative impact of air pollution perception on dwelling willingness through a decline in residential satisfaction. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between air quality and young talent settlement intentions.

Concentrated rural settlement (CRS) reconstruction was promoted as a sustainable rural reconstruction way after the Wenchuan earthquake in China. Despite the various benefits of CRS, haphazard CRS reconstruction presents risks to future sustainable development. However, such risks have been rarely investigated. Thus, this study examines the risk factors with eight CRS reconstruction cases after the Wenchuan earthquake. The existence and interactions of economic, social, environmental, and disaster relief risks are observed after reconstruction. A conceptual model is proposed for systematically interpreting the risks. Results obtained can help the local government judiciously consider the risk factors in order to achieve sustainable development when initiating rapid reconstruction.

Farmland transfer is an inevitable approach to solving farmland fragmentation and the resulting low productivity in China. Although the central government has formulated various guidelines on farmland transfer, the traditional transfer model faces high transaction cost and thus hinders transfer. With e-commerce development in China, an alternative Jutudi model of farmland transfer with e-commerce has occurred in China. Although transaction cost is an important perspective for understanding reforms, few studies have been conducted to explore whether the transaction cost of the Jutudi model would be reduced compared with the traditional model of farmland transfer and why the Jutudi model succeeds. This study introduces the operation mechanism of the Jutudi model of farmland transfer and the context of the pilot project in Jixi County, Anhui Province. Changes in transaction cost in terms of information search cost, negotiation and contracting process costs, and contract supervision and execution costs are analyzed in the Jutudi model. It is found that the productivity of transferred farmlands significantly improved using the Jutudi model in Jixi County. Transaction cost is generally lowered in the Jutudi model compared with the traditional one. How the changes in transaction cost contribute to farmland transfer is also explained. Potential problems and relevant recommendations have also been discussed to promote the Jutudi model.

With the reshuffle of the global industrial structure, some industrial parks in China are facing problems such as unclear industrial positioning, unclear agglomeration effect, and lack of impetus for independent innovation. It is urgent to seek a way of transformation and upgrading. The arrival of the era of big data also provides new opportunities for the transformation of China’s industrial parks. In this context, the model of “character towns” proposed by Zhejiang Province provides a new concept for breaking the bottleneck of industrial park transformation and also provides a platform and space for the application of data technology and digital governance in the era of big data. Based on the theory of creative destruction and self-organization, this paper holds that the essence of industrial park transformation under the concept of character towns is the self-organization process of creative destruction and high-quality reconstruction. After sorting out the development process of parks in China, this paper divides industrial parks into production-oriented parks, consumption-oriented parks, and trade-oriented parks according to the economic activities classified by classical economics. By constructing a six-stage creative destruction model, this paper analyzes the path selection of transformation and upgrading of three types of parks under the concept of character towns and proposes that industrial structure replacement for the production-oriented parks, upgrading the consumption structure for the consumption-oriented parks, and change of trade control points for the trade-oriented parks are the possible transformation paths for the three types of parks.