A series of negative effects of urban development have emerged owing to the imbalance of population, industry, and built-up land spatial agglomeration. This study proposes an integrated coupling coordination index system in sustainable urbanization evaluation based on population, industry, and built-up land, to evaluate the spatial-temporal evolution of coupling and coordination degree in Guangxi from 2005 to 2015. In addition, we adopted the exploratory spatial data analysis method to reveal the spatial pattern of coupling and coordination degree and its impact on sustainable urbanization. Finally, local indicator of spatial association (LISA) analysis was employed to identify the spatial heterogeneity of the coupling and coordination index values. The results, on the one hand, show that the coupling coordination degree of all counties increased yearly, but extremely slowly. The 88 counties in Guangxi are still in a low level of urbanization. On the other hand, a spatial agglomeration effect of urbanization levels is observed in this study. We found that the urbanization development is not independent. In other words, the urbanization level of each county will more or less be affected by its surrounding counties. In conclusion, in China, sustainable urbanization is closely related to the rational allocation of population, industry, and land resources. To promote the sustainable development of urbanization, it is necessary to strength the role of land use control and to rationally allocate these three elements in general.

Faced with problems such as unordered expansion, inefficient utilization, and the decay of old cities in the current urban development process, many scholars have considered introducing land use mix as a coping strategy. However, due to a lack of understanding of the evolution process and the theoretical connotation of land use mix, it fails to guide its role in practice. Therefore, this study summarizes the theoretical evolution of land use mix from four levels: ideological evolution, conceptual model, quantitative measurements, and influential factors and effects. It is found that after decades of evolution, although the land use mix theory initially formed a certain theoretical and methodological system, there are still some gaps or deficiencies that need to be filled or improved: (1) the theoretical framework lags behind the needs of practice; (2) in the process of evolution, the idea of modern land use mix has been given a deeper meaning; (3) the conceptual model still needs to be further improved; (4) the influencing mechanism is still unclear.

Investigating the characteristics and mechanisms of the spatial and temporal variations of commercial land prices and its major subdivisions has great theoretical and practical significance in the study of urban economy and its spatial refinement management. Unlike general commodity prices, land prices are influenced by geographical location and tend to fluctuate over time. However, most scholars have not explored the influence mechanism of commercial land prices in both time and space. To help bridge this gap, this study takes the sample commercial land prices in the main urban area of Hangzhou from 2006 to 2015 as the empirical research object and investigates the spatiotemporal evolution mechanism of urban commercial land prices through a comparative analysis of the multiple regression analysis (MRA) with ordinary least squares (OLS), the geographically weighted regression (GWR), the temporally weighted regression (TWR), and the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) models. Results indicate that the land prices of land for financial facilities (Commercial Land Category 1) and commercial-business land (Commercial Land Category 2) in Hangzhou show different spatial and temporal evolutions and are influenced by the common factors of residential land price level (PL), maturity of living services (EN), and plot ratio (FRO) in the district. Meanwhile the main difference between the two influencing factors is the significant difference in sensitivity to locational centrality and industrial structure. Furthermore, we find that the spatial and temporal evolution of commercial land prices has three main mechanism: location selection, point-axis evolution, and function-promoting. Our findings will provide guidelines for scientifically guiding the coordinated development of urban land price and industrial economy and realizing the fine management and allocation of urban spatial resources.

The question of how to implement spatial planning more effective is a fundamental but very difficult one and one that has been of great interest to both the academic and practical community. However, a comprehensive review of the conceptual models and methodological systems for evaluating spatial planning implementation, and the existing practical research results of various types of spatial planning implementation evaluation, are yet to be presented. The study systematically reviews the main research findings in the field of spatial planning implementation from four aspects: conceptual analysis, measurement methods, evaluation frameworks and evaluation methods. This study found three distinct evolutionary features of research in this field: (1) The evaluation concept changes from complete rationality to limited rationality; (2) research methodology changes from a simple closed system to a complex open system; (3) the research perspective shifts from the map to the main body of planning implementation behavior. It is suggested that an important part of future research lies in establishing a system for evaluating the effectiveness based on a single subject who is an actor in the planning implementation process. On this basis, the micro-influencing mechanisms of planning implementation effects will then be explored. Deepening the research to the individual level will help improve planning implementation’s effectiveness.

Water can carry or overturn a boat. Natural resources form the foundation of human survival and development. However, land use change caused by human urban civilization has damaged the natural environment and in turn threatened the continuation of human civilization. Accordingly, it is crucial to analyze the impacts of human activities on land use change and consequent dynamics of ecosystem service value (ESV). For the sustainable development of human beings, an investigation should be conducted to explore what type of land use behavior will be considerably beneficial to improve our relationship with the natural environment. This study analyzes the spatial–temporal dynamics of ESV of 148 counties in the Yangtze River Delta in China over three five-year periods (2000–2015) and examines the influence of socioeconomic forces and policy implications. Exploratory spatial data analysis and spatial regression were applied to facilitate the analysis. Results show that the averages of the ESV change ratios of the 148 counties in each of the aforementioned periods are −0.667%, −2.690%, and −4.668%, respectively. The number of counties that showed an ESV loss trend in the three periods are 72 (48.6%), 125 (84.4%), and 139 (93.9%), respectively. In terms of spatial pattern, ESV change demonstrates the spatial distribution characteristic of “high loss spreading from the northeast to the middle and west” with a tendency to strengthen spatial agglomeration. Results of the spatial regression analysis determine the overwhelming importance of population growth and economic advancement. The results also indicate that the development mode characterized by industrial structure, capital input, and technology upgrades can exert considerable influence on socioeconomic development, thereby affecting the change of ESV. Moreover, the constraints of policy substantially affect the changes of ESV from 2010 to 2015. Policy makers should consider the relationship between land use patterns and the ESV variation in different development stages to formulate appropriate measures, thereby reducing or preventing the loss of ecological service value and promoting sustainable development.