Development of Sustainable Urban-Rural Integration:Dongtan Case Study

The environmental impact issues,such as global warming and expansion of the urban zone,seem more serious and have become the biggest defining challenges of the 21st century.Climate change can lead to water shortages,desertification,land degradation,air pollution,rising sea levels,accelerated deforestation,and exacerbated economic pressures.Global urban growth greatly impacts changes in sociability,humanity,and the environment of the Earth.The human presence,especially in cities,seriously affects resource use and waste disposal,and they are consuming natural resources faster than the planet can sustain during urbanization,changing how people live.China,with a population of 1.3 billion,has seen tens of millions of people living in the countryside migrate to cities,especially megacities,since the 1980s.As a result of its decision to industrialize and urbanize to boost the economy,China has become the world’s second-largest consumer of energy.In recent years,China’s government has quickly recognized the lessons of“limits to growth”and has taken action by initiating the construction process in Dongtan,Shanghai,China.They are making efforts to build urban-rural integration communities to promote sustainable development.Based on a literature review focusing on Dongtan,research questions are raised according to the research objective:(1)What are the challenges of sustainable development in urban-rural integration?(2)What practices has Dongtan implemented for sustainable development,or how is sustainable development being applied to Dongtan?(3)What are the social,political,environmental,and economic concerns regarding the sustainable development of Dongtan?The sustainable urban-rural integration concerns the ecological,economic,environmental,and psychological aspects of urban-rural integration design and management.The overall objective is to promote sustainable development in economic,social,ecological,and spatial dimensions.It will be a liveable,complete community that makes economic,environmental,and social sense locally while also contributing to national and global sustainable development.It will serve as a compelling model for how to build sustainable urban-rural integration worldwide.

Spatial pattern of urban-rural integration in China and the impact of geography

Urban-rural integration (URI) is a global challenge that is highly related to inequalities, poverty, economic growth, and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Existing research has evaluated the extent of URI and explored its influencing factors, but urban-rural linkages are seldom incorporated in evaluation systems, and geographical factors are rarely recognized as the influencing factors. We construct a URI framework including regional economy, rural development, urban-rural linkage, and urban-rural gap. Based on a dataset consisting of 1,669 counties in China in 2020, we reveal the spatial pattern of URI and find a high correlation between the spatial pattern of URI and the relief degree of land surface (RDLS). Using structural equation modeling, we discover that topography has direct ( − 0.18, p < 0.001) and indirect ( − 0.17, p < 0.001) effects on URI. The indirect negative effects are mediated through the infrastructure, and the combination of localized advantages and modern technical conditions could mitigate the negative impact of topography. Finally, we identify 742 counties as lagging regions in URI, which can be clustered into eight types. Our findings could facilitate policy designing for those countries striving for integrated and sustainable development of urban and rural areas.

A new approach towards the sustainability of urban-rural integration:The development strategy for central villages in the Abbasiya District of Iraq using GIS techniques

The development of rural areas usually has a positive impact on the urban-rural integration. This study explores an innovative approach to stimulate rural development by proposing qualified villages as central villages that can provide basic urban services for their residents and residents of neighboring villages. This approach can contribute to overcoming the various problems that rural areas faced at the social, economic, and environmental levels. It seeks to achieve spatial sustainability of rural areas, representing a new approach by integrating urban development methods to revitalize rural villages. The study analyzed 15 villages belonging to Abbasiya District of AL Kufa City in the Najaf Governorate of Iraq. Based on the GIS techniques and the analysis of urban service indicators(village population, percentage of urban building materials used in villages, distance between village and health centers, distance between village and main roads, nature of economic activity, distance between village and educational institutions, distance between village and drinking water sources, number of communication towers, and distance between village and urban administrative center), this study proposed that Abu Gharb and Albu Ghraib can served as central villages in Abbasiya District in the future. This study establishes a new rural spatial structure to achieve rural sustainable development, improves the development status of rural areas, and provides a theoretical basis for the government and relevant institutions to use urban service indicators, achieving rural sustainable development and formulating relevant development policies in Abbasiya District.

Thinking about Value Realization of Ecological Products under the Background of Urban-rural Integration in Chengdu“Western Control”Area

Chengdu's development strategy of“western control”has laid a solid ecological background for 8 western districts,cities and counties and cultivated good ecological resources.The integrated urban-rural development in the new era will realize the balanced development of urban and rural areas and give full play to the value of rural ecological resources through the“powerful combination”of urban and rural areas.To realize the urban-rural integration and high-quality rural development in Chengdu“western control”area,it is necessary to enhance the awareness of ecological resources and ecological products,and carry out unified planning of ecological infrastructure,ecological material products and ecological service products in the whole“western control”area.Meantime,ecological restoration must be carried out scientifically,and scene design for value transformation of ecological products should be implemented innovatively.

Conservation-minded Urban Green Space System Planning in the Urban-rural Integration

Environmental and ecological problems in the urban-rural integration were analyzed, characteristics of urban green space system introduced, such as excellent landscape eco-structure, distinctive historical and humanistic features, and diversified natural landscape resources, and also challenges pointed out. Evolution, overall spatial structure and conservation concept of conservation-minded urban green space system planning were elaborated, on the basis of which the evaluation system of conservation-minded urban green space system was studied, and it was proposed that mutual relationship between impact factors of compound value and qualitative evaluation factors should be taken into consideration as a whole in evaluating conservation effects of green space system. Quantitative evaluation indexes and qualitative evaluation measures were analyzed, an objective and precise evaluation system for the conservation-minded urban green space system was established by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis to improve ecological environment during the urbanization, and fully show planning concepts of conservation-minded green space system.

Review on Practical Models of Urban-Rural Integration in China

Urban-rural integration is important for urbanization and strengthening of urban and rural development in China. Since the third session of the 16th National Committee, the model is still at experimental stage, although with some progress. Hence, it is necessary to make a summary on some typical experience of urban-ru- ral integration, in order to provide references for further exploration.

Development Path of Urban-rural Integration

The urban and rural areas are regarded as two major components of the regional economic system. Only through joint balanced development of the two can we achieve overall economic optimization and social welfare maximization. But the great social division of labor has separated urban areas from rural areas,which casts the shadow of city-oriented theory on cooperative relations between urban and rural areas. Mutual separation between urban and rural settlements and independent development trigger off a range of social problems. We must undertake guidance through rational development path of urban-rural integration,to eliminate the phenomenon of urban-rural dual structure,and promote the sustainable development of population,resources and environment in urban and rural areas as soon as possible.

Restrictions and Countermeasures of Rural Vocational Education in Urban-rural Integration

Developing rural vocational education is of great significance to urban-rural integration: developing rural vocational education is helpful to cultivating new farmers for construction of new socialist countryside,favorable to improving farmers' ability of finding jobs and starting undertaking, and beneficial to transfer of rural surplus labor and acceleration of urbanization. Restrictions on development rural vocational education mainly include: low value cognition of society and social assessment of rural vocational education; out of balance of cost and expected return of rural vocational education; the quality of supply of rural vocational education failure to satisfy demand of socio-economic development; imperfect rural vocational education system. In view of these,following countermeasures and suggestions are put forward: strengthen propaganda and guidance to build environment of public opinion for rural vocational education; push forward rural vocational compulsory education system to lay social foundation for rural vocational education; reinforce policy support to assist in building rural vocational education system; improve education system to build overall framework of rural vocational education; perfect laws and regulations to establish system and norm for development of rural vocational education.

The Research of the Balanced Development of China's Urban-rural Spatial Integration Based on the Evolution of Regional Spatial Structure

The general law of regional spatial evolution is researched.In the process of the evolution of four stages,namely the early stage of traditional agriculture and industrialization,the middle stage of industrialization,the later stage of industrialization and post-industrialization,the types of space are homogenized space,polarized space,pole-axis space and integrated space respectively;the choosing of the spatial location is influenced by economy,society and environment,and the spatial structure extends along with three-dimensional space.Based on the fact that China's urban-rural spatial structure evolution develops rapidly,and the outstanding characteristics of dual structure becomes the main obstacle to urban-rural balanced development,the thesis poses the countermeasures of China's urban-rural spatial integrated balanced development.It points out that the healthy development of socio-economy is the external environment of realizing urban-rural spatial integration;the urban-rural coordinated planning is the prerequisite of realizing urban-rural spatial integration;fulfilling the governmental function is the key to realizing urban-rural spatial integration;promoting agricultural industrialization is the approach to realizing urban-rural spatial integration;perfecting social security system is the basis of realizing urban-rural spatial integration.

Construction of Urban-rural Integration Evaluation System in Nanchang City and Empirical Studies

Taking Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province for example, this paper took 17 sub-indexes from five fields, namely integration of space, population, society, economy and ecology to analyze the dynamic urban-rural integration of the city in the past decade, compared it with fruits of Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, and concluded that the future urban-rural integration of Nanchang should be carried out from the perspectives of optimization of industrial structure, population agglomeration, issues concerning "agriculture, rural areas and peasants", and environmental protection.

Research on the Coordinated Development of Rural Revitalization and Human-centered Urbanization Based on Urban-rural Integration

Although there are certain differences in the center of gravity between rural revitalization and human-centered urbanization,their connotations and goals require that both must be promoted in concert.Therefore,based on a deep understanding of the connotation of rural revitalization and human-centered urbanization,it is necessary to clarify the goals of the two through the two-way flow of elements between urban and rural areas,the urban-rural linkage of industries,to achieve coordinated promotion of rural revitalization and human-centered urbanization in China.

A Comparative Study of Development and Reform of Urban-Rural Integration in Chengdu and Chongqing Based on System Theory

Chengdu and Chongqing,as two core cities in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle,have always been in the front rank of development and reform of urban-rural integration in China.But due to different basic conditions,ideas and priorities are different in the two cities.This paper establishes an analysis framework based on system theory,conducts a systematic comparison on the development and reform of urban-rural integration in the two cities to achieve a comprehensive comparison study and finds out that:(a) Owing to different basic conditions,Chengdu and Chongqing have adopted different reform ideas and measures.Chengdu places more emphasis on systematic advancement,while Chongqing attaches more importance to key breakthroughs.(b) Chengdu’s high level shows that in the practice of urban-rural integration,independent policies and measures in local areas have limited effects.System efficiency can surpass the sum of local areas’ efficiencies only if a systematic method is adopted to comprehensively promote policies and measures for institutional innovations in various fields.

Study on the Modes and Strategies of Integrated Urban-Rural Construction

The connotation of urban-rural integration,its construction courses,construction modes in China and abroad are introduced in this study,the problems emerging from the urban-rural integration practices are analyzed,and strategies for the urban-rural integration in China are proposed.

Whether the digital economy will successfully encourage the integration of urban and rural development: A case study in China

The digital economy has become an important driver for stimulating economic growth.The digital economy has now widely penetrated the fields of economy and society,providing new opportunities for the develop‐ment of urban-rural integration.Based on panel data for 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020,this study constructed an index system for the integration of the digital economy and the development of urban-rural areas and conducted a systematic measurement analysis.Additionally,we used a two-step system of GMM estimation to analyze the impact of the digital economy on the development of urban-rural integra‐tion.The findings demonstrate the significant imbalance paradox of China’s digital economy development,which is shown in a gradient where the eastern region is higher than the center and the central region is higher than the west.Urban-rural integration levels in China fluctuate and display geographical variance,typically displaying high levels in the east and low levels in the west.Urban-rural integration is significantly encouraged by the digital economy,yet it varies in variability between different areas and dimensions.Addi‐tionally,rural human capital moderates the favorable effects of the digital economy on urban-rural integra‐tion.As a result,in order to achieve the integrated development of urban and rural areas,it is imperative to fully exploit the active role of the digital economy,better support the development of rural revitalization,bridge the“digital divide”between urban and rural development,and build a strong foundation for the for‐mation of a digital urban-rural integrated development pattern with urban and rural areas and common con‐struction and sharing.

Analysis of Landscape Patterns in the Urban-Rural Integrated Area Based on Moving Window: A Case Study of Sanshui District in Foshan City

The urban-rural integrated area in Sanshui District of Foshan City was selected for research, and the impact of landscape pattern around the No.269 provincial highway was analyzed based on the land-use data in 2014 using the spatial analysis in GIS and the moving window method. The results showed that:(1) within the scope of a 2 km-range buffer zone, with a low degree of heterogeneity, land for construction use and water area were the dominant land-use types, while with a high degree of fragmentation, cultivated land, wooded land, grassland, garden land, land for other farm uses, and land unused were scattered;(2) the 250-m square moving window could well detect the change characteristics of landscape pattern on both sides of the road;(3) the gradient analysis of landscape pattern in urban-rural integrated area, which was conducted with the aid of a 750-m transect on both sides of the road, indicated that there were significant differences between landscape indexes both in the urban-rural integrated area and on both sides of the road;(4) the road that had an obvious cutting and fragmentation impact on the landscape was an important factor leading to the increasing fragmentation and heterogeneity to regional landscapes.

Promoting Common Prosperity through Urban-Rural Integration: Practical Challenges, Institutional Logic, and Progressive Approaches for the Social Security System

Urban-rural integration serves as a pragmatic strategy for developing social security in China,while promoting common prosperity represents a value-driven choice.Moving from urban-rural integration toward promoting common prosperity,the social security system faces several practical challenges,including limited medical and healthcare resources,disparities in social insurance benefits,inadequacies in socialassistancelevels,and deficiencies in social welfare expenditures.To overcome these challenges,a gradual practical approach has been formed based on three institutional logics:the institutional integration logic for bridging the gap,the institutional adaptability logic for enhancing resilience,and the institutional enhancement logic for empowering prosperity.This approach involves a progression from management integration to institutional alignment and system integration.Promotion of common prosperity through urban-rural integration not only provides a practical perspective and realistic depiction of China's unique social security system but also encompasses the institutional civilization and value implications associated with the development of social security in China.

How to Draw on the Urban-rural Space Evolution Experience of Foreign Metropolis for Xi'an?

"Space" is the place where people take social and economic activities,as well as the carrier supporting any public life style and rights and acts.Urban and rural places are the two main parts that comprise the regional economic system,and only when they are developed harmoniously can the overall economic optimization and social welfare maximization come true.On basis of analyzing the experience and mechanism of urban and rural spaces of London,New York and Tokyo 3 typical international metropolitan area and learning from their development experience,the study has proposed development strategies for the integration of urban-rural space of Xi'an City according to its current development situation.

Methods of Land Management in the Construction of Urban and Rural Integration

With the rapid development of the social economy,the pace of urban-rural integration construction has been accelerating continuously.From the actual situation at this stage,it is necessary to maintain the sound relationship of coordination,interaction and mutual advance between the city and the village.In the process of building urban-rural integration,we should focus on strengthening the development of land management,so as to improve the rationality of land development and utilization,and maximize the value of land while protecting rural farmland resources.The author explores and analyzes the problems existing in the land management work in the urban-rural integration construction.An effective way is put forward to carry out land management work in urban and rural integration construction,which contributes to the improvement of the quality of land management work.

Can the integration between urban and rural areas be realized?A new theoretical analytical framework

Urban-rural integration is an advanced form resulting from the future evolution of urban-rural relationships.Nevertheless,little research has explored whether urban and rural areas can move from dual segmentation to integrated development from a theoretical or empirical perspective.Based on the research framework of welfare economics,which offers an appealing paradigm to frame the underlying game between cities and villages,this study clarifies the ideal state of urban-rural integration.It then proposes a series of basic assumptions,and constructs a corresponding objective function and its constraints.Moreover,it assesses the possibility of seeing the transmutation from division to integration between urban and rural areas with continuous socio-economic development.The authors argue that the ideal state of urban-rural integration should be a Pareto-driven optimal allocation of urban-rural resources and outputs,and the maximization of social welfare in the entire region.Based on a systematic demonstration using mathematical models,the study proposes that urban and rural areas can enter this ideal integrated development pattern when certain parameter conditions are met.In general,this study demonstrates the theoretical logic and scientific foundations of urban-rural integration,enriches theoretical studies about urban-rural relationships,and provides basic theoretical support for large developing countries to build a coordinated and orderly urban-rural community with a shared future.

The Mechanism and Empirical Testing of the Impact of Cultural and Tourism Integration on Common Prosperity

Achieving common prosperity is the essential requirement of Chinese modernization,and the integration of culture and tourism is of great significance as an important path to narrow the regional gap,and effectively“improve quality”and“increase income”.This study used the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019,and conducted empirical tests by using the panel fixed effects model and the mediation effects model.The results indicated that the integration of culture and tourism can significantly promote the realization of common prosperity.This integration can promote common prosperity by increasing the income and consumption level of urban and rural residents,the degree of equalization of basic public services and the capacity for sustainable development.Spatial analysis shows that there are regional differences in the promotion of common prosperity by cultural and tourism integration,which is particularly obvious in ethnic and non-ethnic areas.Finally,in response to the existing problems identified in the above analyses,countermeasure recommendations that align with the actual development are put forward.