Although rapid urbanization and associated rural-to-urban migration has brought in enormous economic benefits in Chinese cities, one of the negative externalities include adverse effects upon the migrant workers’ mental health. The links between housing conditions and mental health are well-established in healthy city and community planning scholarship. Nonetheless, there has thusfar been no Chinese study deciphering the links between housing conditions and mental health accounting for macro-level community environments, and no study has previously examined the nature of the relationships in locals and migrants. To overcome this research gap, we hypothesized that housing conditions may have a direct and indirect effects upon mental which may be mediated by neighbourhood satisfaction. We tested this hypothesis with the help of a household survey of 368 adult participants in Nanxiang Town, Shanghai, employing a structural equation modeling approach. Our results point to the differential pathways via which housing conditions effect mental health in locals and migrants. For locals, housing conditions have direct effects on mental health, while as for migrants, housing conditions have indirect effects on mental health, mediated via neighborhood satisfaction. Our findings have significant policy implications on building an inclusive and harmonious society. Upstream-level community interventions in the form of sustainable planning and designing of migrant neighborhoods can promote sense of community, social capital and support, thereby improving mental health and overall mental capital of Chinese cities.

Under rapid urbanization, rural China has undergone a drastic transformation, especially in the metropolis. Revealing the evolution laws of rural settlements is critical for effectively providing references. Although many previous studies demonstrated the transformation laws of rural settlements from multiple scales, few focused on the spatial differentiation within the metropolis. This study constructed the spatial conversion intensity index, conversion structure significance index, and landscape metrics to investigate the spatial differentiation characteristics, classify the transformation patterns, and reveal driving mechanisms of rural settlements in the Pudong district at the township level. The results demonstrated a significant decrease in the size of settlements, and the values decreased from urban-rural fringe to exurban area. The conversion structure of settlements varied within urban-fringe, suburban, and exurban areas. The morphology of settlements became more regular and compact, but to a varying degree. Based on these findings, three transformation patterns were summarized: the rapid disappearance pattern, the physical decay pattern, and the orderly transformation pattern. Further analysis indicated that they were mainly caused by urban encroachment, limitation of geographic conditions, and planning policies separately. These conclusions reveal the spatial differentiation characteristics of rural settlements in the metropolis of developing countries and provide scientific guidance for sustainable rural development.

Urban agglomerations are increasingly becoming the primary regional units in global competition, characterized by the rapid expansion of impervious surface areas, which negatively impacts both society and the environment. This study quantifies the spatiotemporal expansion of these surfaces in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration and explores its driving factors using a Geographically Weighted Random Forest model. The results demonstrate a transition from “point expansion” to “infill development”, while also revealing a gradual southward shift in the developmental focus of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. Although expansion intensity has decreased, spatial clustering has intensified. Based on the expansion patterns of impervious surface areas, we propose a novel regional classification method, dividing the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration into three zones: “A-Development Decline Zone”, “B-Development Core Zone”, and “C-Development Ascendance Zone”. Socio-economic factors are the primary drivers of this expansion, followed by science and education, and then the ecological environment, while physical geography factors have the least impact. The study reveals differentiated regional development characteristics and further refines the sub-regions within the urban agglomeration, providing a new perspective for future regional coordinated development policies.

Under the spatial planning system, the spatial regulation of rural areas faces the basic requirements of "comprehensive coverage of regulation objects, refined regulation measures at each level, and regulation level corresponding to the administrative power". Since the reform and opening up, Shanghai has gradually developed from the "single administrative area" regulation of rural construction spaces to the "comprehensive regulation" of three types of rural spaces. The regulation system consisting of three levels has been formed, including village layout planning, suburb unit planning, and village design. Comprehensive coverage of regulation objects and refined regulation measures at each level have been realized. However, there are also problems such as the weak regulation of the ecological space, the need to improve the level of fine regulation andexcessive restrictions on regulation contents at the town level. Based on the analysis of Shanghai's successful experience and existing problems, the zoning, grading and classification strategy for the spatial regulation in entire rural administrative areas is proposed. Refine the regulation objects based on "spatial zoning-usage unit-plot polygon", define regulation tasks of all levels as per "structural regulation-usage regulation-element regulation"; formulate classified regulation measures according to "transmission of basic element level by level, classified overlying of additional elements".

1. Under the Japan’s Landscape Act, local governments, such as Landscape Administration Bodies, are designated as the primary administrative entities responsible for landscape management. They are ...