Industrial restructuring is widely considered an important force in regional economic growth and sustainable development. With increased globalization and economic transition, a dramatic industrial restructuring has been taking place in China. Applying geographically weighted shift-share model (GW-SSM) and geographically and temporally weighted regression model (GTWR), we analyze (re)location dynamics and determinants of the manufacturing industry in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 1999 to 2013, with particular attention to the implications of economic transition and institutional restructuring. We find that high-tech and capital-intensive manufacturing industries agglomerated in coastal cities, while labor-intensive and resource-based sectors have become spatially more dispersed to peripheral areas. We also find that the development of service and high-tech industries, rising labor costs, and more strict environmental regulations have facilitated the geographic dispersion of labor- and pollution-intensive industries. Moreover, regions with advantages in intermediate goods, preferential policies, and urbanization economies are attractive to capital- and technology-intensive manufacturing industries. Our research suggests that development policies should be tailored to specific regions to promote local production and innovative networks and make manufacturing industries more competitive.

Understanding the interactions between the human sphere and the natural sphere in key places and regions of the world is crucial for promoting sustainability science and achieving sustainable development. As one of the emerging global city-regions in China and the Global South, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) plays an increasingly nonnegligible role in the globalized economy and telecoupling social-ecological systems (SESs). Considering the well-known importance and representativeness, the YRD has been regarded as an appropriate experimental site of integrated research on geographical and sustainability science at the subnational scale. This paper tries to establish theoretical and practical linkages between regional integration and sustainable development at the subnational scale based on the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the Chinese contexts, and a literature review of relevant researches. We argue that future research should pay more attention to the interdisciplinary, transregional, and multi-scale attributes of issues related to regional integrated and sustainable development in the YRD. The following research agendas, such as linking SDGs to regional integrative development, analyzing the sustainability of regional SESs, assessing the integrated region at the subnational scale, investigating the YRD at different geographical scales, exploring applicable governance structures and institutions, as well as applying multi-source data and interdisciplinary methodologies, call for more scholarly attention. We hope that this paper could be an initial motion to expand and enrich relevant research.

Urban spatial structure is a critical component of urban planning and development, and among the different urban spatial structure strategies, ‘polycentric mega-city region (PMR)’ has recently received great research and public policy interest in China. However, there is a lack of systematic understanding on the spatiality of PMR from a pluralistic perspective. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the spatiality of PMR in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) using city-level data on gross domestic product (GDP), population share, and urban income growth for the period 2000–2013. The results reveal that economically, the YRDUA is experiencing greater polycentricity, but in terms of social welfare, the region manifests growing monocentricity. We further find that the triple transition framework (marketization, urbanization, and decentralization) can greatly explain the observed patterns. Although the economic goals are accomplished with better spatial linkages and early economic development policies, inequality in spatial distribution of public services and the continuing legacy of central planning remain barriers for the YRDUA to emerge as a successful PMR. The results of this research offer meaningful insights on the impact of polycentric policies in the YRDUA and support policymakers in the implementation of appropriate urban spatial development strategies.