Optimizing the urban–agricultural–ecological space in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is integral to China’s sustainable land development and protection. Based on land use data from 2000 to 2020, this study identified the urban-agricultural-ecological space in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It analyzed its changes and driving forces using the land use transfer matrix, the Dagum Gini coefficient, and GeoDetector. The results show that urban space has increased significantly over the past 20 years, agricultural space has decreased dramatically, and ecological space has remained stable. The transformation of agricultural space into urban space was the dominant type of space transformation, followed by a mutual transformation between agricultural and ecological spaces. Each transformation type exhibited significant spatial inequality within and between regions. Socioeconomic and natural conditions significantly impacted the spatial transformation, and all factors have an apparently interactive reinforcing effect. The research has enhanced the identification accuracy of urban–agricultural–ecological spaces, precisely illustrating the changes and driving forces of the land spatial pattern in the Yangtze River Economic Belt over the last two decades. It holds vital theoretical and practical implications for the optimization of China’s land spatial pattern.

The Wildland–Human Interface (WHI), where human infrastructure and activities meet or intermingle with wildland vegetation, represents a critical zone of human–environmental conflict. Here, we present the first global map to explicitly differentiate the WHI into its Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI) and Wildland–Agriculture Interface (WAI) components between 2000 and 2020, using a scale-adaptive HEALpix Quadtree algorithm. We show that the global WHI covered 4.87% of terrestrial area in 2020, with the WAI (4.68%) being significantly more extensive than the WUI (0.19%). Over the two decades, the global WUI area expanded dramatically by 59.76%, whereas the WAI area experienced a net decrease of 3.26%. This marginal net change in WAI masks high spatial turnover. Major losses of original WAI due to agricultural expansion were largely compensated by gains in new WAI elsewhere. Notably, 5.03% of the world’s key protected areas were affected by WHI encroachment over this period. Our analysis reveals that the type of WHI has distinctly shaped both wildfire regimes and biodiversity gradients. These findings underscore the critical need for establishing a global WHI monitoring network to mitigate rising threats to ecosystems and human security.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is a crucial driver of China’s economy, and its shoreline is a strategic, finite resource vital for ecological security, flood control, navigation, and socioeconomic development. However, intensive development has resulted in functional conflicts and ecological degradation, underscoring the need for accurate identification and suitability assessment of shoreline functions. Conventional methods, which predominantly rely on land use data and remote sensing imagery, are often limited in their ability to capture dynamic changes in large river systems. This study introduces an integrated framework combining macro-level “Three-Zone Space” (urban, agricultural, ecological) theory with micro-level Point of Interest (POI) data to rapidly identify shoreline functions along the Yichang section of the Yangtze River. We further developed a multi-criteria evaluation system incorporating ecological, production, developmental, and risk constraints, utilizing a combined AHP-Entropy weight method to assess suitability. The results reveal a clear upstream-downstream gradient: ecological functions dominate upstream, while agricultural and urban functions increase downstream. POI data enabled refined classification into five functional types, revealing that ecological conservation shorelines are extensively distributed upstream, port and urban development shorelines concentrate in downstream nodal zones, and agricultural production shorelines are widespread yet exhibit a spatial mismatch with suitability scores. The comprehensive evaluation identified high-suitability units, primarily in downstream urban cores with superior development conditions and lower risks, whereas low-suitability units are constrained by high geological hazards and poor infrastructure. These findings provide a scientific basis for differentiated shoreline management strategies. The proposed framework offers a transferable approach for the sustainable planning of major river corridors, offering insights applicable to similar contexts.

Previous research has shown that residents’ perceptions significantly influence their residential satisfaction. However, the internal relationships within these perceptions and their impact on satisfaction across different demographic groups remain underexplored. This study, guided by Maslow’s hierarchy and Homo-urbanicus, categorizes residents’ perceptions into four dimensions: safety, convenience, comfort, and aesthetics. Using multi-group structural equation modeling, an empirical investigation was conducted in Wuhan, China. The findings indicate that perceptions of safety, convenience, comfort, and aesthetics exert a chained mediating effect on satisfaction, with the impact pathway being safety → convenience → comfort → aesthetics → satisfaction. Both convenience and comfort also directly influence satisfaction. Notably, perception pathways vary among different demographic groups: women are more influenced by perceptions, younger individuals prioritize convenience and aesthetics, and older adults emphasize safety and comfort. This study highlights demographic differences in perception and satisfaction levels, offering insights into the hierarchical relationships among resident perceptions and their impact pathways on satisfaction. This research suggests enhancing residential satisfaction by optimizing these perceptions, particularly for vulnerable groups. Policy implications include improving human settlement elements at the residential area level, incorporating cultural and innovative elements, and expanding public participation in communities.

The land use dynamics of urban, agricultural, and ecological spaces are critical factors influencing land surface temperature (LST); however, the existing methods for describing the spatial carriers of land surface temperature evolution face issues such as granularity effects and projection sensitivity, which hinder effective comparisons across different regions and categories, thus limiting the progress of current research. This study introduces a quadtree-based spatial framework to achieve unified measurements of scale and fragmentation across Urban–Agricultural–Ecological spaces, with an empirical analysis of the Middle Yangtze River Region. Results show that between 2000 and 2020, urban and agricultural spaces expanded while ecological spaces declined, with all three types becoming increasingly fragmented. Urban agglomeration and expansion significantly elevated LST; agricultural spaces exerted relatively limited effects; and ecological fragmentation generated localized cooling but weakened core regulatory functions, ultimately leading to warming within ecological spaces themselves. This study proposes a robust method for spatial identification and fragmentation quantification, revealing the dual role of scale and morphology in regulating regional thermal environments and underscoring the importance of balanced Urban–Agricultural–Ecological configurations for climate-adaptive land use planning.