County-Level Spatial Governance Model in China with a Coupling Relationship of Administrative and Functional Areas.

County-level administrative divisions and main functional areas are two basic governance systems that act concurrently on county-level geographical units. The administrative division governance focuses on local administration and regular social services, while the main functional area governance focuses on differentiated territorial space development. This paper summarizes the emerging trends and requirements of countylevel spatial governance in China and analyzes the coupling relationship of county-level administrative divisions and main functional areas. Then, the paper proposes to develop an interactive mechanism for the two systems, with administrative divisions focusing on local administration and social governance, and main functional areas focusing on strength complementation and differentiated development. In addition, it puts forward a new county-level spatial governance model featuring a coupling relationship of administrative and functional systems that is well matched with the coordination mechanism. It may provide a reference for improving administrative divisions, the main functional area policy system, and their dynamic adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]