Strengthening urban–rural linkages (URLs) has been proposed by UN-Habitat within the framework of ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ to narrow down urban–rural differences via shaping new urban–rural relationships. Like URL, the aim of urban–rural integration (URI) has been promoted by the Chinese government since 2019 to address existing urban–rural divides. This concept underlines the ‘rural revitalisation’ strategy and emphasises a two-way flow of urban–rural development factors. Introducing and upgrading ‘appropriate’ rural industries is crucial to stimulate and facilitate the circulation of urban–rural development factors. This research studied three neighbouring villages, situated in urban–rural interface areas in Huangyan-Taizhou, China, each driven by different types of small industries supported by URI. It analyses the impact of small rural industries on the flow of development factors between urban and rural areas. The results showed that small-scale rural industries have been enhanced URL by decreasing urban–rural differences by creating new job opportunities to attract an in-flow population, increasing investments, and upgrading public services and infrastructure. Indigenous industries demonstrated lower profitability but exhibited greater resilience compared to industries linked to global production chains and rural tourism. Thus, this study demonstrates the imperative to carefully consider the opportunities and potential risks associated with pursuing strategies of URI through rural industry development. By providing empirical insights from URI projects in China, this study contributes to theoretical and policy dialogues concerning the concepts of both URL and URI by exploring the localization of SDGs. Furthermore, it offers valuable practical knowledge and experience for other global regions confronting similar challenges to urban and rural development.

Urban–rural integration (URI) has emerged as a crucial strategy to bridge urban and rural disparities and promote more sustained urbanisation paradigms in China and abroad. The urban–rural interface, where urban and rural spaces and daily activities are closely intertwined, reflects the complex and evolving dynamics of this integration, serves as a focal point for studying URI, and requires unique considerations in spatial planning. This study focuses on the scale of the county level and the basic spatial units for spatial planning practice in China to examine different types of urban–rural interfaces and their URI dynamics at a county level. By taking Linqu County as a case study region, land use data from Landsat remote sensing datasets were collected every 5 years from 2000 to 2020 to support the analysis of changes in the urban–rural interface. Three dimensions of land mixed-use features were employed, including the area and density, edge and shape, and aggregation and dispersion of the construction land in the region. When combined with the proportion of rural land use, the urban–rural interfaces were identified using the entropy method. This study then employed spatial analysis, the standard deviation ellipse method, and spatial autocorrelation to recognise URI dynamics, and three driving forces were identified and further analysed to support suggestions for county-level spatial planning. This research empirically enriches the understanding of the urban–rural interfaces and URI dynamics of Linqu, China. The methods and suggestions derived from the empirical study can offer potential solutions to promote URI in China and enhance urban–rural linkage in the global context to reach more sustained development.

Starting from Jane Jacobs’ critiques and largely promoted and emphasized by New Urbanism, land mixed use (LMU) has become prevalent worldwide. It is believed to be an efficient approach to shaping a higher level of vitality in the economy, equality in society, and quality in the environment. To reveal the differences of this effect at distinct spatial scales, this study selected the two most related outcomes of LMU—resident population distribution and changes—to investigate the LMU impacts. A novel framework is developed to quantify the interactive impact of pairwise LMU-related factors at multiple scales, and the geographical detector is applied to identify the relationship between resident population distribution/changes and LMU. Taking the Jiading District of Shanghai as a pilot case, the framework was applied and tested. The results showed LMU affected resident population distribution distinctively from 600 m to 3000 m grid scales. The grid scale of 1800 m, approximately ten blocks, is revealed to be the optimal scale for discussing LMU with the selected factors. Also, these factors play different roles at different spatial scales. Some factors strongly affect the resident population distribution only when working with other factors. The study emphasized the crucial role of scale in LMU and suggested an open framework to support the decision making and policy making in planning for a better performance of smart growth and sustainability via LMU. It can help researchers obtain the optimal scale for the LMU plans with different sets of factors and identify the key factors in various contexts. Thus, this framework also contributes to supporting other practices of land mixed use beyond our study region.

Detailed spatial planning serves as statutory guidance for regulating specific spatial functions, including public services, living conditions, and production spaces. It emphasizes meeting the comprehensive needs of the local population, making it crucial to understand the relationship between population distribution and the mix of various city functions, particularly in the era of urban regeneration. Therefore, this study utilized point-of-interest (POI) data representing land functions and population data to investigate these relationships via spatial analysis and Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR). Applied to the central urban area of Shanghai, the study reveals that the level of mixed land use and various functionalities affect population distribution at different adaptive scales. We also found a higher degree of functional mix does not always meet population needs. Although generally there is a positive correlation between functional mix and population distribution, they are not always closely bonded. The proposed method provides an efficient workflow for identifying the applicable scale of various functions to increase functional mix and attract the population, which can provide real-time evidence supporting detailed planning. Test results also reveal the less-considered space along the boundaries of administrative districts. We also found developing tools for detailed planning is an urgent need to facilitate cross-boundary cooperation and development, especially in the context of urban regeneration where they always are overlooked at the detailed planning level. By using open-sourced POI and population data, our proposed workflow can be easily applied to other cities or regions, enhancing their practical value for similar research contexts.

In recent years, awareness has grown of the vital importance of ecological systems, provoking increased research into how to improve their resilience. Here, one popular new technical/management solution is the creation of greenways along riversides. In practice, however, the practical outcomes of such greenways have sometimes been disappointing due to an excessive focus on technical solutions at the expense of a sufficient consideration of the social impact. This study intends to reflect on the problem by looking at the dynamics of land use for ecosystem functions at the macro scale as well as the relationship between the implementation of greenways and the local demand for diverse everyday activities, in particular, recreation opportunities, at the micro scale. Based on this, it aims to reveal practical solutions to bridge ecological usages and everyday needs that achieve better preservation and services of ecosystems. Taking the greenways along the Yongning River (YRG), which runs through the urban–rural areas and the urban–rural interface of Huangyan-Taizhou, as a case study, GIS analysis and anthropology approaches were applied. The results show that the YRG has systematically improved the riparian ecosystems by better connecting the eco-land use and preserving the waterfront. At the same time, its ability to fulfil the large potential for leisure and recreation services needs to improve. Residents living in different parts of the city had disparate requirements depending on their patterns of daily behaviour. We conclude that the successful implementation of greenways in cities should not only consider technological and nature-based solutions but also consider the socio-cultural background. The diversity of local needs regarding everyday activities and recreation will lead to an equivalent diversity in riparian landscape design.

Urban regeneration has become a central strategy in contemporary urban development, reshaping physical environments while simultaneously transforming social structures, networks, and patterns of access. Across diverse contexts, regeneration initiatives are frequently accompanied by uneven distributions of costs and benefits, often involving residential relocation and long-term changes in neighborhood composition. These dynamics have positioned gentrification as one of the most contested and closely scrutinized issues within debates on urban regeneration. Traditionally, gentrification has been approached predominantly as a negative process associated with displacement, exclusion, and socio-spatial polarization. However, as regeneration practices diversify across institutional, cultural, and governance contexts, this normative framing has increasingly been questioned. Drawing on a transnational roundtable discussion convened under the Humboldt Cities Network, this article brings together perspectives from Europe and China to re-examine gentrification as a context-dependent, multi-dimensional process rather than a uniform outcome of urban change. The roundtable contributions highlight both shared analytical foundations and substantial variation in how these mechanisms unfold across different land regimes, state capacities, and development trajectories. This article argues for a more differentiated and comparative understanding of gentrification, emphasizing its analytical value in identifying long-term transformations of urban social structure rather than serving as a universal normative label.