Context: Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) play a critical role in maintaining and improving human well-being in rapidly urbanizing landscapes. Few empirical studies, however, have comprehensively identified and revealed the interactions between urbanization, CES supply, CES demand, and subjective well-being (SWB). Objectives: The study aimed to understand human–ecosystem interactions from a bottom-up perspective through an analysis of residents’ perceived supply and demand of CESs and SWB at different urbanization levels. Methods: Questionnaire surveys including public participation GIS were adopted to obtain residents’ perceived provision of CESs, importance of CESs and SWB in a peri-urban area of Shanghai. Multiple statistical and spatial analyses were performed to uncover their relationships. Results: Residents identified cultural heritage and education as the highest supply of CES, whereas aesthetic and recreation were of the highest demand. Urbanization had a significant negative correlation with the supply of recreation, aesthetic, education and social interaction but had a significant positive correlation with the supply of cultural heritage. The demands of recreation and social interaction were significantly lower in areas with moderate urbanization level. In these areas, CESs were dominated by high supply–low demand and low-degree matches, whereas residents’ SWB was lower. Conclusions: The variations of the CES–SWB relationship in our study indicate the development trajectory of social–ecological systems in the context of urbanization. Thus, policies adapted to local conditions are needed to foster landscape sustainability in rapidly urbanizing areas.

New-type urbanization is a dynamic process composed of numerous elements and multiple subsystems. Coordination and coherence of various subsystems are critical for promoting urban-rural integration and regional synergistic development and will have a complicated impact on sustainable development in the trade-off between socioeconomic growth and environmental conservation. This paper theorized the interconnected and mutually influential coupling coordination relationship between population-land-economic urbanization (PLEU) and the mechanism by which this relationship affects urban carbon emissions. The Wavelet Neural Network (WNN), Coupling Coordination Degree model, and econometric model were used to reveal this relationship and mechanism. A total of 17 cities in Shandong Province, China, were used as study subjects for empirical examination. The results show that the level of PLEU in Shandong was significantly improved from 2007 to 2016, but the gap between cities tended to further expand. The 17 cities gradually got rid of the antagonistic disorder issue of the coupling coordination relationship of PLEU from 2007 to 2016, spatially showing the agglomeration characteristics with Qingdao and Jinan as the core, respectively. The influence of the coupling coordination degree of PLEU on urban carbon emissions presents an inverted, U-shaped characteristic, that is, the total urban carbon emissions will first increase and then decrease as the improvement of the coupling coordination relationship of PLEU. China’s new-type urbanization has provided an efficient solution to sustainable development, namely planning and designing at the highest strategic level to establish scientific goals. This new-type urbanization strategy could provide an effective alternative for other emerging countries worldwide, for addressing the challenges to sustainable development.