Eco-efficiency, as one of the evaluation tools for sustainable development performance, has been a widely discussed topic in academia for the past several decades. However, the existing research on eco-efficiency is rather homogeneous. Most of it is based on the construction of a system of indicators that includes ecological constraints to evaluate its overall eco-efficiency, but it treats the eco-economic system as a ‘black box’, ignoring the fact that it is actually composed of several sub-systems. In this paper, based on a two-stage resource-environment system perspective, we construct a Super-NEBM model considering undesirable outputs to measure urban ecological efficiency; a spatial Durbin model is then used to analyse its influencing factors. The results indicate that (1) China’s urban eco-efficiency levels are fluctuating, with a decreasing “east-central/northeast-west” trend. (2) The spatial heterogeneity of ecological efficiency levels in Chinese cities is obvious, with significant spatial agglomeration effects. (3) There are positive spatial spillover effects on the ecological efficiency of Chinese cities; economic development, industrial structure, financial development, population density, innovation capacity, infrastructure, marketisation and informatisation all have important direct effects on urban ecological efficiency; in addition, economic development, financial development, population density, marketisation, informatisation and foreign investment all have significant indirect effects of varying degrees.

In the face of increasing disturbance factors, resilience has become an important criterion for measuring the sustainable development of cities. Quantitatively describing the development process of urban resilience and identifying key areas and important dimensions of urban resilience are of scientific significance for understanding the evolutionary law of urban resilience, guiding regional risk prevention, and building an environment for urban resilience development. For this study, taking Nanchang City as a case study and dividing the natural water network groups, the resilience index system was constructed from scale, density, morphology, and function by drawing on the theory of landscape ecology on the basis of considering the internal relationship between urban development attributes and disturbance factors. On this basis, the study focuses on the evolution process and development differences of resilience in various dimensions from the water network groups and quantitatively describes the coordinated development status and adaptive phase characteristics of urban resilience. This study not only enriches the research scale and perspective of urban resilience but also provides specific spatial guidance for formulating resilient urban planning and promoting sustainable urban development.

The agricultural landscape patterns of fishing village have undergone visible transformations in recent decades. Scholars pay less attention to fishermen with diverse livelihoods. Therefore, it is necessary to sort out the changing characteristics of fishermen’ livelihoods and agricultural landscape patterns under different policy periods. We use in-depth interviews, remote sensing technology, and mathematical analysis to systematically study the changes in fishermen’s livelihoods and in agricultural landscape patterns in a typical fishing village. The results show that policy have profoundly affected fishermen’ livelihoods. Livelihood transformation have altered local land use practices, which had a direct impact on agricultural landscape patterns. The livelihood of fishermen has changed from diverse to single, and their cropping structure were gradually becoming simpler and more specialised. After grazing ban and comprehensive fishing ban, many fishermen migrated to towns and cities, it accelerated the loss of population in the fishing village, which caused the amount of abandoned land increasingly. Left-behind fishermen became rice farmers by contracting abandoned paddy fields. The expanses of abandoned land and bamboo woodland had increased, which caused agricultural landscape patterns gradually becoming fragmented, heterogeneous and complex.

As critical components of regional ecological networks, the protection and development of ecological corridors (ECs) are essential for enhancing ecosystem stability. To promote the effective protection of ECs, this study develops an integrated framework—comprising ecological corridor identification, land use simulation, and construction cost assessment—to evaluate the cost of EC construction in Nanchang under multiple future land-use scenarios. High-resolution, multi-temporal remote sensing data were used to simulate land-use patterns for 2035 under three scenarios—ecological protection (EP), natural development (ND), and urban expansion (UE)—with the PLUS model. ECs were extracted using the Minimum Cumulative Resistance (MCR) model, and construction costs were quantitatively estimated by overlaying simulated land-use maps with corridor networks while incorporating land adjustment and compensation standards. The results show that: (1) 23 ECs (564.01 km in length, 997.93 km² in area) were identified in Nanchang, with higher corridor density in the northern and southeastern regions. (2) By 2035, the overall land-use structure in Nanchang is projected to remain broadly similar across the three scenarios, though differences will exist in the magnitude of change for individual land-use categories. (3) Cropland dominates the EC landscape (>60%) across all scenarios, while construction land accounts for 6.95%, 7.71%, and 8.39% under the EP, ND, and UE scenarios, respectively. (4) Estimated construction costs are 233.707, 262.354, and 288.897 billion RMB yuan under the EP, ND, and UE scenarios, respectively. Significant spatial variation in costs is observed, and the EP scenario does not consistently yield the lowest costs across administrative units. Additionally, this study proposes a refined zoning strategy for corridor management in Nanchang. The findings offer valuable insights for urban ecological planning and provide a scientific basis for mitigating regional ecological risks while promoting sustainable development in urbanized regions.