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 fringes are an important part of urban growth. In addition to formal land markets, a variety of informal land development methods make urban fringes the most dynamic and complicated areas. The analysis of land transfer and development systems in these areas opens a significant window to understanding the modern processes of urbanization and human and property rights in urban areas in China. This study uses Shanghai as a case study target and identifies specific modes of local land development and investigates how collective participants, government agencies, regulatory policies, and various actors are involved in land development and decision making. The in-depth analysis and case studies indicate that the variety of informal land markets in Shanghai reflects the inherent demands of the market for allocation of land resources within the constraints of the given system and against the given development background. However, conflicts between the mode of the market and the existing institutional constraints reflect the uncoordinated development of the land and the economic and social development around the urban fringe. The empirical results of this paper suggest that government administration should improve the land market system, strengthen the planning of control and guidance, rationalize the distribution of interests in land development, and strengthen the supervision of management of land development enterprises. Instead of fragmented aspects, this paper proposes a systematic analytical approach to understanding the informal land development in a city from an urban planning and land resource management perspective.

Science funding is vital for driving national innovation and technology development. China’s science funding supports a growing number of researchers, and they form collaboration networks through common project experience. However, existing studies lack focus on the impact of collaboration networks based on common project experience on research output due to data limitations. To address this gap, we analyzed a sample of 43,271 science funding projects approved by the National Natural Science Foundation of China from 2009 to 2014. Collaboration networks were constructed based on principal investigators’ common project experience, and the centrality indicator was used to assess their ability to utilize these networks. Our findings revealed that centrality had a significant positive impact on project papers, citations, and efficiency, thus highlighting the role of such collaboration networks in promoting research output. However, the promotional effect varied; centrality had a stronger impact when investigators had project experience or worked on natural science research but weaker when projects were affiliated with top research institutions or involved foreign team members. These collaboration networks enhanced research output through improved relationships and larger teams. Moreover, they had a more significant impact on promoting English output than Chinese. This paper offers essential insights for optimizing science funding management from the perspectives of project experience, scientific field, institutional level, and international composition.

Exploring the spatial variations and the impact of spatial and social factors on commuting behavior is vital to promote cities’ sustainable development and improve residents’ daily lives. Based on 2015 1% Population Sample Survey data in Shanghai, this study constructs an improved accessibility index to evaluate the jobs–housing spatial relationship and compares spatial variations and factors of commuting duration and commuting distance at the sub-district level by using spatial autocorrelation analysis, spatial lag model, and spatial error model. In terms of spatial variations, the median commuting distance and commuting duration are 6.32 km and 28.37 min, respectively. Both of them have significant spatial autocorrelation, and the latter is higher. The high–high agglomeration areas of commuting distance scatter between the outer ring road and the outer suburbs. The high–high agglomeration areas of commuting duration are mainly distributed between the middle and the outer ring roads. In terms of affecting factors, the impacts of social factors on the commuting level are more significant than spatial factors. Ignoring the former will overestimate the effects of the latter. Commuting distance is more significantly correlated with spatial factors, and job accessibility is the most critical factor, while commuting duration is more significantly associated with social factors, and education level is the essential factor. There is significant intra-urban heterogeneity and spatial autocorrelation of commuting distance and duration in the metropolis. Social factors are more influential than spatial factors on commuting behavior.

China’s distinct rural revitalization process has attracted global attention due to its impressive speed, massive scale, and policy interventions. A relatively limited amount of research has been conducted on how rural transition characteristics and policy mechanisms are interrelated at the micro level. To fill this research gap, following the main research thread of dividing rural development stages, revealing transition characteristics and exploring policy mechanisms, this paper utilizes a participatory rural appraisal, a landscape metrics analysis, and in-depth interviews to analyze the spatial transition laws of Dayu Village. First, the results show that the village experienced three stages from 1990 to 2020: strict homestead control, village relocation, and land consolidation. Second, the village exhibits multidimensional transition characteristics. With a reduced rural settlement area, regular patch formation, and a dense interior subdivision of rural houses, the land use layout changed from homogeneous to multiple nests. As the industrial structure became more diversified, the villagers’ livelihoods became more differentiated. Inflows of tourists and migrants changed the population structure, causing social relations to become defamiliarized. Moreover, mechanism research finds that policy can promote rural settlement transition by allocating land resources and regulating village behavior. The policy’s scope expanded from a single settlement to the whole village, optimizing external forces, with village behavior effects acting as an internal force. The degree of matching between policy formulation and villagers’ needs is the key to promoting the transition of rural settlements. This research deepens the understanding of the transition laws of suburban villages in megacities in developing countries at the micro scale and provides a reference for land policies in similar villages.