The imbalance between human activities and Earth's natural surface adversely affects the sustainability of the Earth system. From an understanding of the suitability of surface functions and potential ramifications of policy decisions, this study proposes a sustainable geographical pattern. It introduces a national‐to‐provincial downscaling approach to optimizing a national‐scale zoning scheme that covers 60%–80% of land development and protection functions in China and to creating a major function zoning model. Taking China as the case study area, the following function zones are identified: urbanization zones, food security zones, ecological security zones, and heritage protection zones. This study then proposes a three‐dimensional index system and algorithm, develops individual and integrated assessments for the major functions of the land grid, and produces national‐scale and provincial‐scale major function zoning schemes consisting of county‐level administrative cells, the first schemes to create a blueprint for a sustainable national land pattern in China through optimized convergence. In total, 5% of China's land area is covered by urbanized zones, 28% by food security zones, 55% by ecological security zones, and 12% by heritage protection zones. In the future, there will be 805 urbanization administrative units, 790 food security counties, 780 ecological security counties, and 8,151 heritage protection zones. The scheme created using the model developed in this study is 95% consistent with the final scheme implemented by China's central government, and it has a high degree of robustness and precision. It can serve as a reference for scientific research and decision‐making concerning sustainable development in developing countries.

In recent years, measures proposed to address urban flooding caused by extreme rainfall often demand substantial investment, restricting their broad implementation. This study quantitatively assessed the inundation situations of 138 capital cities under both normal and extreme rainfall conditions. Using machine learning techniques, we found that grey infrastructure—closely commensurate with a city’s economic development—dominates flood reduction during normal rainfall events. However, during extreme precipitation, as rainfall intensity rises, the marginal effectiveness of grey infrastructure declines markedly. In contrast, green infrastructure and topography—less commensurate with economic development—play increasingly critical roles in mitigating urban flooding. These findings suggest that economic development has a limited impact on urban flooding during extreme rainfall events. Rationally utilizing topography and enhancing green spaces provides a cost-effective nature-based solution, which is particularly important for urban planning in low- and middle-income countries undergoing rapid urbanization.

Resources and environment carrying capacity is central to not only regional sustainable development but also major function-oriented zoning. This paper presents an evaluation index system for resources and environment carrying capacity based on four aspects of carrying capacity (i.e., water resources, land resources, the environment, and ecosystems) by using a square deviation decision-making method, and on the basis of above effort evaluates the resources and environment carrying capacity across 31 provincial regions in China (not including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions of China). In addition, this paper evaluates the current state of socio-economic development, and analyzes the spatial distribution of resources and environment pressure. The results showed that distinct spatial differences in resources and environment carrying capacity and pressure across provincial regions. Resources and environment pressure is affected by both comprehensive resources and environment carrying capacity and socio-economic development. Regions subjected to lower degrees of resources and environment pressure will be restricted by resources and environmental problems through future courses of development owing to excessively low carrying capacities. By contrast, regions with higher comprehensive resources and environment carrying capacity will be subjected to excessively high levels of resources and environment pressure because of rapid socio-economic development. Both of resources and environment carrying capacity and pressure must therefore be considered in the allocation of country-binding targets to provincial regions.