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With the advancement of China's economic and social development and urbanization, the scale of out-of-town migrant workers has been expanding. Following this, migrant worker children's education problem has become increasingly prominent and has gradually become a focus of education research. This paper reviews recent studies on migrant worker children's acceptance of compulsory education, and summarizes its existing education problems, aiming to provide direction and support for further promoting education equity and sustainable development of urban and rural education.

Territorial spatial planning involves fixability and flexibility in different driving factors related to control and development orientation, and they play an important role in regional sustainable development, especially in developing countries such as China. With rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, China has been impacted by conflicts between development and protection in territorial space. To integrate the contradictions among different territorial spatial planning measures, planners and scholars have started to focus on studies regarding fixability–flexibility relationships and integration. However, the relationship between and integration of fixability and flexibility in territorial spatial planning have yet to be clearly summarised. This paper explores an innovative research direction for the fixability–flexibility relations in territorial spatial planning from a new perspective, the Food–Energy–Water Nexus, which is a dynamic and comprehensive framework for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) studies. This paper covers the existing research on fixability and flexibility in territorial spatial planning. Moreover, after summarising the conflicts of fixability and flexibility, the dialectical relationship between and the integration of fixability and flexibility are researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of China's rapid urbanization, rural places are brought into urban areas, forming semi-urbanization. These semi-urbanized sites suggest a dual urban–rural structure in their form and management. With the slowing down of urbanization, the Chinese government adopted heritage tourism to boost the local economy. Local historic buildings and cultural resources were regenerated and restored in this process. This paper aims at examining the role of heritage tourism in blurring the boundary of rurality and urbanity, boosting local economy, and revitalizing the areas with cultural-led development. In this paper, we analyzed the Huangpu Ancient Village's regeneration process. We argue that the Huangpu Ancient Village integrates local historical and cultural resources to boost the local economy, simultaneously adopting urban renewal and rural revival strategies. This paper contributes to the body of literature addressing villages in urban areas, breaking the duality of urbanity and rurality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid industrialization and urbanization promote socioeconomic development, but also pose a certain threat to food and ecological security. Cultivated land green use efficiency (CLGUE) is an important indictor to comprehensively reflect the coordinated relationship between cultivated land utilization and ecological protection. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to explore CLGUE to guarantee efficient and sustainable utilization of cultivated land resources. This paper thus conducts an empirical investigation of 31 provinces in mainland China during 2000–2020, aiming to measure the CLGUE level using the Super-SBM model and explore its influencing factors based on panel regression model. The data, which were mainly derived from various statistical yearbooks, together with the reference dataset, were all accurate. The results show that the average CLGUE value in China exhibited a fluctuating upward development trend, with the highest efficiency value of 0.957 in 2020 and the lowest one of 0.853 in 2003. Northeastern China had the highest efficiency value, while Central China had the lowest efficiency value. The overall ranking of CLGUE in the four major regions from high to low is Northeastern, Eastern, Western, and Central China. Spatially, there are significant diversities in CLGUE across China, which means that differentiated measures need to be taken to improve the efficiency based on regional natural conditions and the socioeconomic level. The regression model indicated that the crop diversity index, GDP per capita, urbanization level, effective irrigation rate, and fiscal support for agriculture positively influenced the CLGUE, while the proportion of natural disaster area had a negative impact. The findings had important implications for improving the CLGUE and achieving sustainable agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrial economy, urban green space and land resources have been squeezed. The problem of urban ecological environment pollution is becoming increasingly serious. With the concept of sustainable development, green infrastructure construction can not only improve the adverse effects of human activities on the urban ecological environment, it can also deal with the relationship between survival and development, economy and the environment, society, and resources. This paper used different provinces and regions of China as an example to construct a multi-dimensional evaluation model. The multi-function green infrastructure was evaluated quantitatively from three dimensions: economy, society, and ecology. The study results showed that the multifunctional development level of green infrastructure varies among different regions in China due to regional location, economic development, and natural resources. The development mode of green infrastructure in North China, South China, and Northwest China has changed from multi-functional weak and basic coordination to strong and coordinated development. Therefore, the multi-dimensional analysis of green infrastructure is helpful for systematically studying and evaluating the functional value of green infrastructure. It can be used to investigate the development models of green infrastructure in different regions, formulate green infrastructure development strategies, and provide countermeasures and suggestions for relevant government departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s long-standing urban-rural dichotomy has led to a widening gap between urban and rural areas, posing a huge challenge to the sustainable development of Chinese society. This paper adopted the subjective-objective weighting method, coupled coordination degree model, and geographically weighted regression model to conduct urban-rural sustainable development research on 31 provincial administrative regions in China and discussed their spatial-temporal divergence and driving mechanisms during 2007–2018. The results showed that (1) the quality of both rural revitalization and new urbanization improved during the study period, and the gap between them showed a trend of increasing after fluctuations. Both of them had significant spatial and temporal divergence characteristics. (2) The urban-rural coupling coordination degree in China continued to increase during the study period and showed an overall pattern of “high in the east-west and low in the north and southwest”. The changes of relative development type indicated that new urbanization had far surpassed rural revitalization during the study period. (3) The coefficients of driving factors varied significantly in space, showing a hierarchical band distribution. Seven of the eight driving factors showed a strong positive correlation in the vast majority of regions. The results and suggestions of this research can further promote the organic combination of rural revitalization and new urbanization strategy, which is of great practical significance for narrowing the urban-rural gap and realizing sustainable urban-rural development. Likewise, it can be a reference for other developing countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban rainstorm waterlogging is one of the most important problems in urban development and a comprehensive embodiment of urban diseases. China is facing a severe risk of rainstorm waterlogging disasters, which is affecting sustainable development. Urban rainstorm waterlogging in China is caused by many factors, including natural factors and human factors, such as climate warming, unreasonable urban construction, inadequate upgrading of urban fortification standards, etc. Based on the analysis of the current strategies to deal with urban waterlogging around the world, including an increase in surface infiltration, and a reduction in runoff (and its various impacts), this paper holds that the connotation and goal of these measures are highly consistent with the construction of a sponge city in China. Based on the analysis of the problems, including construction of an urban rainwater recovery system, construction of urban rainwater storage facilities, and construction of data platforms faced by China's sponge city, this paper puts forward the guiding principles of promoting the construction of a sponge city. The guiding principles are to cooperate to deal with climate change and ecological civilization construction, to study the foreign experience, and to unite multiple subjects, integrate multiple elements, design multiple processes, form a joint force, and create an all-round response system to deal with urban rainstorm waterlogging. Then, this paper gives policy recommendations on how to deal with the urban rainstorm waterlogging disasters, which include improving the defense standards, encouraging social participation, popularizing the construction of sponge cities, perfecting the monitoring and early warning system, strengthening the scientific planning of cities, strengthening the ability of dealing with catastrophes in metropolitan areas, the overall planning of cross-regional responses, and enhancing the awareness of decision makers. Finally, this paper expounds the reference significance of urban rainstorm waterlogging control in China to the global audience. This paper explores the significance of comprehensively and scientifically understanding urban rainstorm waterlogging disasters, and provides support for long-term planning and high-quality construction of future safe cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid urbanization growth during the past decades which has highly promoted its affluence has induced various challenges for the countryside. The problem of rural decline of quite many villages which are suffering depopulation in turn challenges the urbanization sustainability in China. By way of in-depth historical and literature review, the paper finds distorted urban-rural relationship and the tendency of village decline owing to China's long time urban biased policy. By further investigating China's new-type urbanization strategy, the paper draws concerns about future rural development which is less mentioned in the plan. It calls for ruralization and actions to revitalize the countryside so as to be adapted to China's new-type urbanization plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correlation between urbanization and environmental pollution is a major focus of study in geography, environmental science, and economics. Particulate matter is the primary pollutant of air pollution and made up of heavy metal, organic carbon and aromatic hydrocarbon and complicated chemicals. PM 2.5 are fine particulate matter with diameters that are less than 2.5 μm. The aim of this study on the relationship between urbanization and PM 2.5 concentration is to achieve a win-win situation of both economic development and environmental protection, which is of great significance to sustainable development in China. This paper uses PM 2.5 remote sensing data and statistical yearbook data from 2000 to 2011 to build four panel data models within the urbanization-PM 2.5 concentration Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. The goal is to find out the correlations between PM 2.5 concentration and economic urbanization, population urbanization, and space urbanization. Furthermore, scenario simulations are set to predict when China will reach inflection point and achieve its target concentration. Results show that the relationship between economic urbanization and PM 2.5 concentration is an inverted N-shaped or inverted U-shaped curve. Most cities in East China have reached the second inflection point of inverted-N curve to step into the win-win stage while many cities in Middle China still need 10–15 years to arrive at the inflection point of the inverted-U curve. Therefore, China is under great pressure to prevent PM 2.5 pollution and pursue more targeted PM 2.5 -reduction policies for air quality improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative evaluation of the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between regional haze the disaster risk index (HRI) and urbanization development index level (UDI) is of great significance for the realization of regional sustainable development goals. Given the lack of the combination of remote sensing and statistical data to evaluate the CCD between two systems, the Chinese mainland's 31 provinces and autonomous regions were taken to evaluate their HRI and UDI by building index systems. Then, an entropy method and one improved coupling coordination model were used to calculate and analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of CCD between HRI and UDI during 2000–2020. The results showed that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the value of HRI in China showed a "W" type change trend with its value increased from 0.7041 in 2000 to 0.8859 in 2020, indicating that haze pollution level showed a fluctuating downward trend; (2) From 2000 to 2020, China's UDI values showed a gradual upward trend with its value increased from 0.1647 in 2000 to 0.4640 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 8.63%; (3) From 2000 to 2020, CCD values between HRI and UDI showed a fluctuating upward trend with its value increased from 0.5374 in 2000 to 0.7781 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 2.13%; the overall level of China's CCD had raised from low coordination to moderate coordination, and eastern coastal provinces had higher CCD values, while those of central and western provinces had lower CCD values; (4) HRI, UDI and CCD could be well fitted with the R2 of 0.9869. Specifically, UDI had a higher contribution to improving the CCD than the HRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 guide the important direction of high-quality urbanization in China's main grain-producing areas (MGPAs), and improving the quality of urbanization is also crucial to achieve the SDGs. China's MGPAs not only undertake the task of promoting urbanization but also of ensuring food security. The establishment of an index system based on SDGs can more effectively measure the urbanization quality of MGPAs. For the specific targets of the SDGs, this study established two sets of multidimensional indicator systems, whether including the goals of food and agriculture, and tracked the progress toward improving urbanization quality of China's MGPAs, including 128 prefecture-level cities, during 2010–2018. We found that the comprehensive urbanization quality and the index of economic efficiency, urbanization level, and environmental quality showed an upward trend with significant regional differences and spatial agglomeration distributions, but the level of agricultural development and urban–rural co-ordination have declined in recent years; the ranking and distribution of urbanization quality, including agricultural development, varied significantly, and the number of cities belonging to the good co-ordination mode decreased as some cities changed to a lower level; and urbanization that does not sacrifice the agricultural capabilities of MGPAs could improve urbanization quality and implement the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is best supported by intersectoral policies informed by a range of evidence and knowledge types (e.g. scientific and lay). Given China's rapid urbanisation, scale and global importance in climate mitigation, this study investigates how evidence is perceived and used to inform urban health and sustainability policies at central and local levels. Well-informed senior professionals in government/scientific agencies (12 in Beijing and 11 in Ningbo) were interviewed. A thematic analysis is presented using deductive and inductive coding. Government agency participants described formal remits and processes determining the scope and use of evidence by different tiers of government. Academic evidence was influential when commissioned by government departments. Public opinion and economic priorities were two factors that also influenced the use or weight of evidence in policymaking. This study shows that scientific evidence produced or commissioned by government was routinely used to inform urban health and sustainability policy. Extensive and routine data collection is regularly used to inform cyclical policy processes, which improves adaptive capacity. This study contributes to knowledge on the 'cultures of evidence use'. Environmental governance can be further improved through increased data-sharing and use of diverse knowledge types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This econometric study contributes to the ongoing debate about the costs and benefits of urban form by employing interdisciplinary means-urban planning, econometrics and public administration--to explore the relationship between urban form and urban public services expenditure. In China, particularly, rapid urbanization is accompanied by an increase of urban public services expenditure and a difference in efficiency, which undermines the promotion of urban public service development. The Chinese government has paid great attention to urban sustainable development and promoting urban public services performance; however, until recently there has been a lack of empirical studies exploring the relationship between urban public services expenditure and urban form. Thus, the present research aims to analyze this issue by using relevant indicators based on an econometric model. The results provide a promising basis for improving urban public services expenditure efficiency. Based on the urban area interpreted by remote sensing data and geographic information system, two urban form metrics, the compactness ratio and the elongation ratio, are selected and quantified to describe urban compactness and urban sprawl accurately. Panel data analyses are performed using a cross-sectional dataset of the 30 cities for the years 2007, 2010 and 2013 to assess the likelihood of association between indicators of urban form and urban public services expenditure, while controlling for other determinants, such as educational level, income per capita, degree of industrialization, and unemployment rate. The results indicate that urban elongation is positively correlated to per capita urban public services expenditure and urban compactness is insignificantly correlated to it. Thus, it is recommended that policymakers consider the relationship between urban form and public services expenditure as part of urban planning and on-going strategies to promote public service efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authenticity and reliability of urbanization levels measured by different indicators in China have not reached a consensus, which may impede our understanding of the process of urbanization and its impacts on the environment. The objective of this study was to describe a reliable method of estimating urbanization level based on the Operational Line-scan System (OLS) on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) nighttime light data and to analyze the dynamics of urbanization levels in China from 1992 to 2012. We calculated the comprehensive urbanization level at the national, provincial, and county scales using a compounded night light index (CNLI) and compared the change rate of CNLI with those of the other two conventional urbanization level indicators, proportion of the nonagricultural population and proportion of built-up area. Our results showed that CNLI derived from the DMSP/OLS data set provided a relatively reliable and accurate measure of the comprehensive urbanization level in China. During the last two decades, China has experienced continued and rapid urbanization with large regional variations. The CNLI increased 3.12 times, from 1.72 x 10-3 to 7.09 x 10-3. The annual increases of CNLI in eastern provinces were much faster than those in western provinces. In addition, we found that the rates of change in these three indicators were consistent for most provinces with the exception of the four municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing) and a few eastern coastal provinces (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong). Because the imbalance among population growth, urban expansion and socioeconomic development may affect cities' sustainable development, we should pay more attention to these regions with large disparities between different indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China launched a new urbanisation programme for the period of 2014-2020. The new urbanisation programme will produce positive impacts on China's social and economic development through focusing on integrated urban and rural development, creating city clusters and promoting sustainable urban development. However, the new urbanisation programme may also bring some new social and economic problems, like widening the gap in urban development between different regions in China, leading to the formation of a new urban poor class, based on the current design and implementation. To minimise the negative effect, we suggest to better deal with the relationships between market and government and between economic and social development in the process of urbanisation. We argue that the key is to allow the market to determine the flows of capital, land and people in the process of urbanisation so as to achieve a sustainable development of China's urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]