Urban development boundaries are efficient tools for coordinating urban–rural relations and ensuring sustainable development. From 2000 to 2020, the expansion rate of the built-up area in cities and towns throughout China reached 177%, far exceeding the urban population growth rate of 96.5% in the same period. As this spatial expansion seems to continue, there is a need to intervene and control urban boundaries. We believe using the urban–rural integration perspective to set (or reset) and maintain urban development boundaries will help manage urban expansion more effectively than present methods. This research, therefore, develops an urban development boundary delineation method from a macroscopic view for China. A new model for defining boundaries was developed based on the four dimensions of urban–rural interaction: economic demand, environmental protection, urban carrying capacity, and urban development resistance. And an empirical study was conducted in Guiyang City as an example. The results show that the resultant urban boundary can provide a more comprehensive and realistic growth model than current methods, making it more applicable for controlling and fostering sustainable urban and rural development.

Understanding cultivated land use transition (CLUT) requires analytical frameworks capable of capturing the interconnected changes in production inputs, land use structure, and multifunctional outcomes. However, existing CLUT studies often rely on fragmented metrics that separately examine dominant or recessive transitions, limiting their ability to reveal the internal mechanisms of land use transition. Therefore, this study developed an integrated “factor-structure-function” analytical framework based on the theory of induced technological innovation. An evaluation system was constructed to operationalize the proposed framework, and Zhejiang Province—a rapidly urbanizing region in southeastern China, was selected as an empirical validation case to demonstrate its analytical value. The results showed that the integrated framework not only identified temporal and spatial patterns of CLUT, but also revealed internal trade-offs and synergies among factor substitution, structural reconfiguration, and functional transition that were not detectable using conventional CLUT metrics. In particular, the framework highlighted unique regional transition pathways driven by different modes of factor substitution. By connecting factor inputs, output structures, and land functions within the integrated framework, this study offers a practical tool for diagnosing CLUT and serves as a methodological guide for future CLUT research in rapidly urbanizing regions.