This paper develops an analytical framework based on the collaborative governance theory, consisting of “collaborative prerequisite-collaborative process-collaborative result.” Taking the W community in Shenzhen as the case, the paper analyzes the collaborative supply mechanisms of community home-based elderly care in mega-cities. The study shows that the collaborative prerequisites include shared interest among multi-stakeholders, the external environment created by administrative and resource support, and the intrinsic endowment shaped by social capital and trust. The studied community has formed top-down and bottom-up collaborative processes through government empowerment, enablement and cultivation by social organization, and appropriate incentive structure for the volunteers. The collaborative supply has aggregated forces, effectively promoting the construction of multi-level elderly care system and the cultivation of social capital in the community. However, there are still some problems in collaborative supply’s efficiency, stability, and sustainability. By focusing on the issue of elderly care in mega-cities, this paper enriches the application scenarios of collaborative governance theory and provides new insight in innovating elderly care and addressing urban aging challenges.

Based on the panel data of 30 provinces and cities (except Tibet Autonomous Region, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) from 2012 to 2021, an empirical study is conducted to investigate the carbon emission reduction effect of digital economy and its functioning mechanism. The results show that the digital economy and its sub-dimensions have significant carbon reduction effects, and the size of carbon reduction effects in the sub-dimensions is digital industrialization>infrastructure>industrial digitization>digital innovation. The upgrading of industrial structure has a mediating effect on carbon emission reduction in digital economy, and the upgrading of industrial structure also has a mediating effect on the indicators of each sub-dimension of digital economy. Government regulation plays a positive regulating role in the path of carbon emission reduction influenced by digital economy, which enhances the carbon emission reduction effect of digital economy. Therefore, promoting the development of the digital economy, improving infrastructure, strengthening the development of digital industrialization and industrial digitization, encouraging digital innovation, and promoting the upgrading of industrial structure, complemented by reasonable government regulation, is particularly important for curbing carbon emissions and achieving green low-carbon development and the “Dual-Carbon” goals.

Based on a systematic assessment of changes in external circumstances and their impact on Beijing, this article analyzes the key issues faced by Beijing in several key areas during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, including economic growth, technological innovation, population structure, and the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The article proposes strategies to enhance the diversity of economic growth drivers, improve the agglomeration capacity of resources in the plain areas and their contribution to overall economic growth, establish innovation alliances led by technology-driven enterprises, shift from population size regulation to the adjustment of population structure and distribution, deepen the integration of innovation and industrial chains in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces with the “Innovation Triangle” of Beijing-Tianjin-Xiong'an as the core.

The rapid development and widespread integration of digital technologies have profoundly changed the economic structure, becoming a key force in reshaping the national innovation landscape and empowering new productive forces. Based on the invention patent data for key digital technologies from 2014 to 2022 in China’s prefecture-level cities, this study classifies seven types of key digital technologies and quantitatively compares the digital technology integration capabilities of cities. It explores the process and mechanisms through which the integration of key digital technologies impacts technological breakthroughs in cities. The study finds that: firstly, eastern cities lead the country in digital technology integration capabilities, but in recent years, cities in the central and western regions (such as Wuhan, Chengdu, and Xi’an) have risen rapidly, breaking the previous pattern dominated by eastern cities, and the gap between regions has generally narrowed. Secondly, the degree of integration among digital technologies has deepened, with artificial intelligence playing a key role. Furthermore, the integration of digital and non-digital technologies (especially in the fields of chemistry and medicine) has significantly increased, with quantum information technology exhibiting the highest level of cross-disciplinary integration. Finally, the integration of all seven types of digital technologies has significantly promoted technological breakthroughs in cities, with the metaverse having the most pronounced effect. Mediation effect analysis shows that the integration of key digital technologies promotes technological breakthroughs in cities through knowledge related variety, unrelated variety.

World class urban agglomerations are the highest spatial form of urbanization in the context of globalization, with high control and influence over the world economy and politics. They have become the main force for major powers to cultivate core global competitiveness and lead future global development and social change. This article defines the concept of world-class urban agglomerations based on the global urban system, conducts conceptual analysis and comparison with related similar concepts, and provides definition criteria based on existing research results. A theoretical framework for China’s world-class urban agglomerations was proposed from the perspective of integrating flow space and spatial analysis. Based on the definition criteria, an international comparison was made between the three major urban agglomerations in China’s Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, and Beijing Tianjin Hebei region and the five world-class urban agglomerations in the world from both spatial and flow space perspectives. Relevant characteristic facts were sorted out, and relevant issues and challenges were clarified. On this basis, several discussions were conducted on the construction path of China’s world-class urban agglomerations.

In the context of the global digitalization wave, the integration of digital economy and real economy has emerged as a vital engine for high-quality economic development and a critical pathway for promoting the green transformation of resource-based cities.Using panel data from 115 resource-based cities in China from 2013 to 2022, this paper employs a fixed-effects model to empirically examine the impact of the integration of digital economy and real economy on the green transformation of resource-based cities. Additionally, the TOE framework is introduced to analyze the underlying mechanisms. The study finds that the integration of digital economy and real economy significantly promotes the green transformation of resource-based cities. This impact manifests through technology-driven effects, organizational optimization effects, and environmental catalytic effects. Moreover, the impact of the integration of digital economy and real economy on green transformation exhibits significant heterogeneity, with a stronger promoting effect in declining cities, non-old industrial base cities, and non-environmentally focused cities, while the impact is not significant in growing cities. The conclusions of this study provide valuable insights for resource-based cities in overcoming the “resource curse” and achieving sustainable development.

Based on the multi-dimensional and multi-scale characteristics of technological innovation networks, this study constructs the technology cooperation and transfer networks of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) at both the bay area and national scales. It explores the structural characteristics and influencing factors of these networks. The findings reveal that the GBA’s technological innovation network exhibits a “dual-core, three-center, and multi-node” structure. At the bay area scale, technology cooperation is more closely interconnected, while at the national scale, technology transfer is more active and primarily focused on technology export. Multidimensional proximities among cities and disparities in economic and social development are critical factors influencing the GBA’s technological innovation network, although their impacts vary across scales and dimensions. Considering the functional levels and roles of cities within the innovation networks, this study proposes fostering an “olive-shaped” structure comprising “hub, center, potential, and edge” cities within the urban innovation function system. Furthermore, it discusses strategies to guide the innovation development of GBA cities, aiming to advance the construction of a regional collaborative innovation community.

Digital village construction has a crucial role in promoting the flow of urban-rural factors and narrowing the urban-rural digital divide, examining how it affects the convergence characteristics and change trends of the income gap between urban and rural residents is an important issue in promoting rural revitalization and common prosperity. The entropy method, coefficient of variation and panel threshold model are used to empirically analyze the panel data of 30 provinces (autonomous regions) in China since 1978, and explore the impact mechanism of digital village construction and other driving factors on the convergence of the income gap between urban and rural residents under the dual economic structure. The research results show that: taking 1994 and 2009 as nodes, the income gap between urban and rural residents in China has presented two “U” shaped fluctuation processes since 1978, and is now in a declining stage, whether a third “U” shaped fluctuation process will be formed in the future depends on whether it has convergence at this stage. At present, the income gap between urban and rural residents in China has significant δ and β convergence characteristics. Digital village countryside can improve the convergence speed of the income gap between urban and rural residents, and its impact has stage differences and regional heterogeneity. Economic growth, industrialization, urbanization, informatization and agricultural modernization are important factors affecting the convergence of the income gap between urban and rural residents.

Enhancing urban economic resilience is crucial for ensuring stable development, mitigating risks, and boosting comprehensive competitiveness. Focusing on intellectual property governance, this study utilizes panel data from 279 Chinese cities spanning from 2007 to 2021 and employs a Multi-period Difference-in-Differences Model to empirically examine the impact and underlying mechanisms of the implementation of National Intellectual Property Demonstration City Policy on urban economic resilience. The findings indicate that the implementation of the National Intellectual Property Demonstration City Policy has significantly enhanced the economic resilience of cities.Heterogeneity analysis shows that in cities with lower administrative levels, abundant resource endowments, and larger scales, the implementation of National Intellectual Property Demonstration City Policies has a more significant effect on improving economic resilience. Mechanism analysis shows that the implementation of National Intellectual Property Demonstration City Policies mainly enhances urban economic resilience through urban innovation effects, talent agglomeration effects, and economic vitality effects.

Since the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei become a national strategy in 2014, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has fully developed the advantages of education, science and technology, and talents, and has made remarkable progress and achievements in promoting the development of new quality productive forces. The core elements of new quality productive forces have accelerated agglomeration. The strategic industries and future industries have accelerated development. The green base of high-quality development has been further consolidated. A good environment has been built up for the development of new quality productive forces. In the future, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region should take the advantages of the integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation to explore the new ways and patterns of developing new quality productive forces as follows. According to the national needs and local capabilities, a national pilot area and demonstration area for the new quality productive forces should be created. Several world-class advanced manufacturing clusters should be jointly built by optimizing the strategic layout of new quality productive forces based on urban agglomerations and three metropolitan areas. A highland for the development of green productivity should be jointly built by accelerating industrial transformation and upgrading. New production relations should be explored as quickly as possible which are compatible with new quality productive forces by comprehensively deepening the reform of key areas. First demonstration and strong support should be provided in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region for the whole country to accelerate the development of new quality productive forces and to promote Chinese-style modernization.

Since the expansion of university enrollment in 1999, Chinese higher education institutions have faced pressure for spatial expansion, leading to the establishment of new campuses across various regions. Concurrently, local governments have aimed to stimulate regional economic growth by attracting these new university campuses. This study employs a localized spatial difference-in-differences (Donuts DiD) method and a convolutional neural network-based counterfactual matching spatial Difference-in-Differences (CNN-Matching Donuts DiD) approach to analyze the impact of establishing “Double First-Class” university campuses on local economic growth from the perspective of location-oriented policies. The findings indicate that the establishment of new campuses has indeed promoted the growth of local economic activities.However, its effect on enhancing the commercial value of surrounding land and housing is relatively limited. The primary reasons are that, although the new campuses have stimulated local knowledge spillover activities, driven the transformation of local industrial structures, and facilitated the agglomeration of high-tech industries, the surrounding areas still lack adequate local commercial services and amenities, making it difficult to further amplify the positive externalities of the new campuses on a larger geographical scale. Additionally, the development model wherein local governments allocate substantial real estate land may also be a significant influencing factor. This research provides empirical support for promoting the coordinated and interactive development of future university campuses and urban regions in China.

The theory and practice of sub-provincial central cities originated in Hubei Province and subsequently spread nationwide. Based on a review of the theoretical and practical backgrounds and the promotion process of provincial sub-central cities, as well as an analysis of their development motivations, functional characteristics, and policy support mechanisms, this paper proposes policy recommendations for the development and expansion of provincial sub-central cities. Specifically, it suggests seizing opportunities, optimizing the layout of provincial sub-central cities, increasing policy support, granting them greater economic and social management powers, improving infrastructure and service functions, building a modern industrial system, and leveraging sub-central cities as the leaders to construct urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas, thereby enhancing their radiation capabilities and promoting the modernization of provincial governance systems and governance capacities.

The establishment of China cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone has played a positive role in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the promotion of industrial digital development, and a series of institutional innovations in the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone have brought important opportunities for the modernization of enterprises. Based on the data of China’s listed companies from 2011 to 2022, this paper uses a multi-period DID model to examines the impact of the approval of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone on the digital transformation of enterprises. It is found that the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone facilitates the digital transformation of enterprises, and is jointly promoted through three aspects: digital capacity building, market scale expansion and external digital environment construction. In terms of heterogeneity analysis, this facilitation mainly affects enterprises in growth and maturity periods, capital- and technology-intensive industries, and regions with high marketization levels, and to a greater extent for smaller-sized enterprises. In addition, the establishment of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone can also realize positive spillovers on the digital transformation of enterprises through the cohort effect.

A high-quality ecological environment has become an important goal of pollution reduction and emission reduction in the context of high-quality development. Based on the panel data of 286 cities in China from 2005 to 2020, this paper empirically tests the impact of ecological space scale and structure on improving air quality using ordinary panel models and spatial panel models. The study shows that the higher the ratio of urban ecological space to construction space, blue-green space to construction space, and blue-green space to urban space area, the more obvious the inhibitory effect on PM_2.5 concentration. The increase in the ratio of ecological space to construction space, and blue-green space to construction space has a more pronounced inhibitory effect in non-heating areas. The increase in the ratio of ecological space to construction space in high-pressure cities has the greatest negative impact on PM_2.5 concentration, followed by the relevant impact in C-level pressure cities, and the relevant impact in E-level pressure cities is not significant. The impact of the scale and structure of urban ecological space on urban air pollution control is influenced by strong spatial spillover effects. Based on this, we should optimize the scale and structure of urban ecological space, maintain urban ecological balance, strengthen the awareness of win-win cooperation in pollution prevention and control, and improve the level of collaborative governance of air pollution.

This study employs the establishment of the data managment agency as a quasi-natural experiment to construct a theoretical model illustrating how government data governance drives corporate green innovation. Using panel data from listed enterprises from 2010 to 2024 and applying a uble Machine Learning(DML) approach, we empirically find the results as following: Firstly, government data governance significantly enhances enterprise green innovation efficiency. Secondly, the green innovation promotion effect is more pronounced in highly digitalized enterprises, monopolistic industries, and central cities. Thirdly, government data governance improves green innovation efficiency through supporting digital technology R&D, optimizing digital management organizations, and enhancing the digital ecosystem. This study provides practical strategies for governments to manage data elements effectively and offers a theoretical basis for advancing corporate green transformation.

The process of urbanization is accompanied by complex and changeable risks, and it is urgent to strengthen the response and explore the effective mechanism and path of urban risk management modernization. On the basis of the traditional research based on the perspective of static events, more attention should be paid to the changes of risk content from the perspectives of "technology", "people" and "events", focusing on the characteristics of complex association, overall emergence, diffusion amplification, multiple superposition and uncertainty of urban risks, and constructing a front-loaded risk governance framework. It is necessary to give full play to the role of digital technology in empowering urban governance, strengthen digital risk research and judgment, improve digital risk prevention and control, improve intelligent decision-making and risk assessment, build an intelligent risk prevention and control coordination mechanism, improve digital risk supervision, and create a full-cycle urban risk governance system. Looking forward to the future, it is necessary to build a "warm" high-quality urban governance system, promote risk governance with a systematic concept, innovate the risk governance system, promote people-centered refined governance, and form a new pattern of risk governance with multiple co-governance.

The coordination of elderly care services is an important part of the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. From the perspective of matching supply and demand, this paper analyzes the achievements, problems, and development paths of the coordinated development of elderly care services in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The results of the research indicate that the coordination of elderly care services in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has been continuously strengthened, the level of coordination in medical and elderly care services has been continuously improved, the smart elderly care services have been accelerated, and the supply of elderly care services has been significantly increased. Further analysis reveals that, at present, the coordinated development of elderly care services of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei still faces problems such as the overall weak demand of living in different places, unmet demand for heterogeneous elderly care, unbalanced allocation of medical resources, and the ability of digital collaboration and policy synergy that needs to be improved. Therefore, it is recommended to establish a regional smart elderly care information system, deepen the coordination of medical and health services, build a diversified elderly care service supply system, and improve the elderly care service coordination mechanism, in order to make the regional elderly care service supply and demand accurately linked, and accelerate the building of a Chinese path to modernization oriented elderly care service coordination demonstration area of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

This study investigates the impact and underlying mechanisms of digital technology cooperation on urban economic resilience, which is of great significance for bridging the regional digital divide and enhancing economic resilience through the digital economy. Utilizing panel data from 279 cities in China spanning the period from 2007 to 2021, a comprehensive dataset of inter-city digital technology cooperation patents was constructed to reveal the impact and underlying mechanisms of digital technology cooperation on urban economic resilience. Research shows that digital technology cooperation significantly boosts urban economic resilience, which remains robust across various robustness checks. Mechanism analysis indicates that this cooperation enhances urban economic resilience through multiple pathways, including improving innovation quality, curbing resource misallocation, and enhancing human capital. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the positive impact of digital technology cooperation is more pronounced in eastern regions, urban agglomerations, and non-old industrial base cities. Additionally, cities with stronger intellectual property protection, greater high-skilled talent agglomeration, and more advanced digital infrastructure benefit more significantly from such cooperation.

Based on CLDS2016 and multilevel logit modeling, through the development of a situation-connection-participation analytical framework, findings reveal that community heterogeneity predominantly manifests in social rather than physical spaces. The higher levels of disadvantage concentration and hukou segregation within communities appear to facilitate increased participation opportunities, challenging Western assumptions that socioeconomic segregation inevitably results in political exclusion. Conversely, intra-community status heterogeneity and residential mobility exhibit inhibitory effects on participation. The study identifies neighboring connections as a significant mediating factor in the relationship between community heterogeneity and participation. Based on the above findings, policy recommendations are made to activate the potential of immigrants in disadvantaged communities to participate in governance, enhancing neighbor's social connection in mixed community, and speeding up the process of housing supports for rural-urban immigrants.

Cultural heritage, as a vital carrier of excellent traditional Chinese culture, readily awakens cultural identity within the public consciousness and facilitates the formation of cultural self-confidence. Taking the “Beijing Central Axis” as an example, this study establishes a concrete and detailed logical connection between the abstract concepts of cultural heritage and tourist value perception through a data-driven analysis of user-generated content and the application of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) machine learning methodology. It employs data, indicator systems, and theoretical relationships generated during the empirical research process to delve into the issues at hand. After data validation and analysis, it is found that Chinese tourists currently hold a high perception of the value of the Beijing Central Axis, which contributes to the enhancement of cultural self-confidence. However, five issues are identified that diminish tourists’ value perception of the Central Axis: inadequate universal design for all ages, insufficient provision of lean services, suboptimal viewing experiences, stringent event management, and partial loss of the Central Axis integrity. In response to these findings, targeted countermeasures and suggestions are proposed, offering new insights for the value excavation, conservation, development, and evaluation of cultural heritage.

Integrating functional zones and administrative regions is crucial to improving the national governance system and capacity, promoting high-quality regional economic development, and fostering new productive forces. Based on the quasi-administrative region theory, this study constructs an analytical framework encompassing“constituent elements-institutional deficiencies-problem manifestations-spatial functions-optimization and enhancement.” Using the Z New District of H City as a case study, the research examines the integration path between urban new districts and administrative regions. The findings indicate that the informal and flexible characteristics of urban new district components lead to institutional deficiencies, resulting in ambiguous legal status for governing entities, incomplete institutional functions, and difficulties in coordinating with local administrative regions. To ensure the effective realization of urban new district spatial functions, this study proposes reform recommendations from power scale, functional domains, and external coordination.

Promoting the development of cross-boundary commuter circle is the main way to speed up the construction of modern metropolitan area with megacities as the core. Taking the commuter circle around Beijing as an example, this paper analyzes the main obstacles existing in the development of cross-boundary commuter circle. The paper concludes that the development of cross-boundary commuting circle should explore the new management system, fiscal and tax sharing mechanism, decentralization mechanism, unified development mechanism and market-oriented operation mechanism under the moderate separation of economic zone and administrative region. The paper proposes to focus on the “five turns” of collaborative efforts. It includes shifting from “megacity reduction development” to “metropolitan area integration development”, from “administrative district economy” to “economic zone economy”, from “subway-led” to “suburban railway-led”, from “single-station development” of rail transit to “whole-area TOD comprehensive development”, from “heavy industry, heavy residence” to “heavy life and heavy service”. Solve the practical problems and institutional barriers that restrict the development of cross-border commuter circles, and expand the new development space of major capitals.

Starting from the interaction between the China-Europe Railway Express (CR Express) and the cities along the line, the study analyzes the positive effects of the CR Express on the high-quality development of the cities of Xi’an, Chongqing and Shijiazhuang from six aspects, including the scale of foreign trade, functional positioning, industrial structure, infrastructure, green and low carbon development, and city cooperation. The study proposes that as an important carrier of cross-border trade between Asia and Europe, CR Express has a positive effect in promoting the development of open economy in inland cities. As CR Express enters into large-scale operation, it is necessary to strengthen the coordination at the policy level, and further improve the mechanism in four aspects, namely, planning and guiding at the national level, regional cooperation and interconnection, industrial integration and upgrading, and international cooperation and exchange, to promote the development of open economy at a higher level in the cities in response to the problems in plannings, freight transport, operational efficiency, and Market-based operations.

The development direction of future city should shift from an environment-centered sustainable city to humanity-oriented LOHAS city, with the integration of “industry-city-people” serving as the necessary pathway toward LOHAS city. This study constructs a LOHAS city index, which emphasizes bottleneck constraints, along three dimensions: industrial promotion, population attraction, and the pursuit of comfort. The index is applied to evaluate the current status of LOHAS city construction in 252 domestic cities. The evaluation results reveal that significant disparities exist in LOHAS city construction levels, with approximately 70% of cities experiencing various bottleneck constraints. Based on the evaluation results, the 252 cities are categorized into five types: industry-urban integration, public service, emerging industry, lifestyle consumption, and lagging industry-urban integration. Furthermore, the lagging industry-urban integration type is subdivided into six subcategories: nascent industry-urban integration, public service deficiency, industrial development deficiency, commercial and industrial deficiency, combined industrial and public service deficiency, and industry-city-people deficiency. This study finds that economic development, population mobility, and the LOHAS city construction level interact with each other, and both the LOHAS city construction level and economic development jointly contribute to enhancing urban population attractiveness.

The integration of new quality of productive forces into urban ecological renewal is a robust response and proactive adaptation to the trends of urban intensification, high-quality development, and green innovation. Communities are the basic units of urban social life, and community ecological renewal is an important foundational domain for urban ecological renewal. Taking community ecological renewal as the research object, this study analyzes the development trends of community ecological renewal and the challenges in its integration with new quality of productive forces. Following the logic of “planning - renovation - governance - safeguarding,” and from an interdisciplinary perspective combining urban sociology, urban ecology, and urban planning, a systematic framework for community ecological renewal empowered by new quality of productive forces is constructed. This framework specifically includes a community low-carbon ecological renewal planning system, a community spatial adaptability renovation system, a community multi-stakeholder collaborative ecological renewal governance system, and a multi-dimensional safeguarding system for community ecological renewal.

Many high-tech clusters have become the main driver of urban innovation, among which the role of universities cannot be ignored. To explore how National University Science and Technology Parks (NUSTP) contribute to enhancing urban innovation, this paper examines the current status and mechanisms of the NUSTP policy in China. Drawing on macro-level data on NUSTP and related examples, this study finds that NUSTPs in China effectively strengthen urban innovation capacity. This is primarily achieved by accelerating university knowledge spillovers, fostering industry-university-research collaborations, optimizing the supply of innovation services and improving the efficiency of urban innovation factor allocation. However, NUSTPs still face challenges, including limited policy scope and insufficient efforts to convert university research outcomes into innovative productivity. Based on these findings, the paper offers policy recommendations in three areas: park development, incentive mechanisms for NUSTPs, and enhancing the functional roles of the parks.

Industrial carbon emissions constitute the primary source of urban carbon emissions in China, thus carbon reduction policies in the industrial sector hold significant strategic importance for cities to achieve green and low-carbon transformations. As a new digital low-carbon governance tool, “carbon account” is gradually being applied in various production and living scenarios. Quzhou City has innovative ely launched an industrial carbon account policy, becoming an important innovative measure in the industrial field's low-carbon governance nationwide. This paper delves into the operational mechanism of Quzhou's industrial carbon account policy and uses Difference-In-Differences Model to study the impact of Quzhou City's carbon account policy on industrial carbon emissions. The empirical study demonstrates t hat the implementation of the industrial carbon account policy has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon emissions of industrial enterprises in Quzhou. Finally, this paper proposes policy recommendations for the development of urban industrial carbon accounts, offering decision-making references for industrial carbon reduction nationwide.

As one of China’s fundamental governance mechanisms, the policy pilot system has been integrated into the broader national strategy for modernizing state governance. From the perspective of vertical-horizontal relations, this study takes the municipal-level social governance modernization pilot in Sichuan Province as an empirical case to reveal the logic and mechanisms of benchmark competition in local governance.The study finds that the municipal pilot program has shifted from the traditional “apply first, accept and award later”model to a new approach of “construct first, apply later.”Evaluation criteria now include not only the absolute performance improvements before and after policy implementation in each locality, but also comparative performance across peer jurisdictions,thereby forming a competitive framework to identify qualified pilot sites.The mechanism involves the following elements:The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission establishes institutional frameworks through benchmark-setting, incentive-driven competition, and relative ranking systems, while local governments achieve effective adoption and dynamic adaptation of central governance objectives through top-down mobilization,bottom-up coordination, and differentiated operational approaches.The concept of benchmark competition offers a novel theoretical lens for understanding the internal logic of China’s policy pilot system. It helps reduce information asymmetries between upper- and lower-level governments, mitigates the institutional fragmentation caused by vertical-horizontal divides, and contributes to the formation of localized governance experiences under therubric of “governing the city to govern the country.”

The Civilized City Evaluation policy plays a critical role in pollution control and energy conservation in China, significantly contributing to promoting green and low-carbon urban development. This study uses panel data from 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 1999 to 2021 and applies the difference-in-differences (DID) method to empirically analyze the environmental effects of the Civilized City Evaluation policy. The findings reveal that the policy significantly reduces industrial sulfur dioxide emission intensity and industrial wastewater discharge, enhancing urban pollution reduction and treatment levels through two main pathways: source prevention and end-of-pipe treatment. End-of-pipe treatment primarily operates through increased investment in pollution control and environmental infrastructure, while source prevention is achieved via three mechanisms: technological innovation effects, industrial structure effects, and human capital effects. Moreover, the policy’s effectiveness varies depending on city population size, coastal location, regional distribution, administrative status, and historical context.

Higher innovation factor allocation efficiency is an important driving force to promote the development of city clusters to high quality and internationalization. Introducing the flow space theory, based on the relevant data at the level of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei prefecture-level cities from 2017 to 2021, a fixed-effects model is constructed to explore and empirically test the mechanism of the impact of innovation factor allocation efficiency on the high-quality development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster. It is found that the improvement of innovation factor allocation efficiency can significantly promote the high-quality development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster, and this conclusion still holds after controlling for endogeneity and conducting robustness tests. The mechanism analysis finds that innovation factor allocation efficiency strengthens the impact on the high-quality development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster by promoting transportation flow, information flow, and commerce flow. Further research shows that innovation factor allocation efficiency significantly promotes various aspects of economic development, opening up to the outside world, green ecology and social well-being of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster. Accordingly, countermeasures are proposed to provide path references for the high-quality development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster.

The whole urban digital transformation is an important urban development strategy put forward by China, and it has certain practical significance to explore the value and the road of it. Through literature research and qualitative analysis methods, it can be found that urban digital transformation is an inevitable choice for digital technology to adapt to the urban development trend at home and abroad under the drive of accelerated innovation iteration, and also the necessary path to continuously build new urban competitive advantages for the needs of future urban development. It is suggested to build the path of digital transformation of the city from the three dimensions of utensils, system and spirit, prospectively layout digital technology innovation and urban digital infrastructure, improve the system system, and cast the city digital civilization with people.

Based on a vulnerability assessment model, this paper constructs an evaluation index system for both food security and ecological security vulnerabilities. Using the entropy weight method, the study measures the levels of food security and ecological security in 31 provinces of China from 2003 to 2021 and applies a coupling coordination degree model to determine the vulnerability levels of the “food-ecology” dual security across different provinces. The paper employs the Dagum Gini coefficient and its decomposition to analyze regional differences and their sources in the “food-ecology” dual security vulnerability levels across the major grain-producing regions, major grain-consuming regions, and grain production-consumption balanced regions. Furthermore, the study discusses the dynamic development characteristics of the “food-ecology” dual security vulnerability levels in each province using kernel density estimation and spatial Markov chain analysis methods. It is found that from 2003 to 2021, the overall vulnerability levels of food security in the nation and in the three major regions showed a fluctuating downward trend. The overall Gini coefficient of the “food-ecology” dual security vulnerability levels showed a significant upward trend, indicating that the gap in vulnerability levels between provinces expanded during this period. The absolute differences in the “food-ecology” dual security vulnerability levels across the country and the three major regions increased from 2003 to 2021. The results of the Markov chain analysis show that provinces with high “food-ecology” dual security vulnerability exert a strong spatial influence on neighboring areas, causing the overall vulnerability levels in adjacent provinces to rise. This study concludes that during the study period, the “food-ecology” dual security vulnerability levels in the nation and the three major regions decreased, while the overall disparities tended to increase.

The role of digitalization and ecological approaches in fostering green technological innovation is a pivotal issue in the context of low-carbon development. By leveraging panel data from 278 prefecture-level cities in China over the period 2006 to 2019, this study quantifies energy-saving technological progress and employs a multi-period DID method to evaluate the impact of dual-pilot policies that integrate the smart cities and National Eco-industrial Park. The findings indicate that dual-pilot policies significantly surpass single-policy interventions in promoting energy efficiency innovations, with the underlying mechanism attributed to industrial co-agglomeration between manufacturing and producer/consumer services. Although firms in dual-pilot cities encounter heightened financing constraints, they demonstrate increased proactive adoption of environmental responsibilities. Moderating effect analysis further reveals that policy effectiveness is enhanced in regions characterized by strong policy incentives, stringent environmental regulations, and advanced financial infrastructure. The study concludes that enhancing corporate awareness of low-carbon practices and exploring integrated digital and ecological industrial development models represent effective strategies for achieving the “dual carbon” goals.

Public data security, as an important issue, plays a crucial role in the construction of resilient cities. Through theoretical deconstruction and comparative analysis, the limitations of the traditional defense-oriented governance model in responding to dynamic risks are revealed. The research results show that the current public data security field is facing multiple challenges such as the resilience paradox, ethical conflicts, and the responsibility dilemma of multi-center governance. It is imperative to enhance the governance efficiency of public data security. By critically reconstructing the cognitive paradigms of ecological resilience and engineering resilience, and taking the concept of data resilience as the core to build dynamic adaptation, elastic recovery, and collaborative integration mechanisms, the public data security protection system can be transformed from a “compliance-based” to a “resilience-based” approach, thereby ensuring the efficient circulation and value release of data under the premise of security, and providing solid support for the construction of resilient cities. The reconstruction of governance solutions should be based on a three-dimensional coordinated path of technology, institutions, and the rule of law: strengthening the resilience foundation, enhancing the resilience of infrastructure; improving resilience mechanisms, establishing a dynamic adaptation system; reinforcing resilience guarantees, and perfecting the legal operation system. Based on the research conclusions, it is suggested that legislation should be deepened and standardization level should be improved, collaborative drill and evaluation mechanisms should be established, innovative models should be explored, and public participation should be expanded, so as to promote the modernization of the urban public data security governance system and governance capacity.

Promoting the sustainable development of human settlements is an essential requirement for achieving economic growth, protecting biodiversity, and preserving cultural diversity in the northwest Yunnan region. This paper reviews the 1998 research process on sustainable human settlement planning in the area, which focused on ecological conservation and human settlement development. Utilizing an integrated and coherent research methodology, the study systematically analyzed key challenges faced by the region, including lagging regional development, ecological degradation, frequent natural disasters, loss of cultural diversity, insufficient infrastructure, and continuous decline in human settlement quality. It proposed that the region should coordinate ecological conservation with socio-economic development, promote step-by-step development of eco-tourism and cultural tourism, advance systematic development of urban and rural human settlements, and thereby drive high-quality regional growth. Action plans were formulated focusing on national park system development, infrastructure improvement, and county-level development pilot programs, with particular attention to the visionary planning of the “City of Shangri-La” in Zhongdian County (now Shangri-La City), Diqing Prefecture. Building on this foundation, the paper provides forward-looking perspectives on sustainable human settlement development in northwest Yunnan. Future recommendations emphasize continuing tourism optimization to establish the region as a “Healthy Living Destination,” strengthening transportation connectivity and cultural tourism industry development, and facilitating high-quality regional transformation.

Based on the experience and facts of the reasonable degree of the size, density and intensity of the international megacities, the reasonable interval standards of people, space and ecology derived from the theory of human needs for a comfortable living environment, the urban size density and intensity interval standards derived from this, combined with the national conditions of China, such as large population and small construction land, to determine the reasonable interval of the size, density and intensity of high-quality development of China's megacities. To benchmark the development facts of China's megacities, find the problems of their size, density and intensity and their adverse effects on high-quality and healthy development, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions for building China's high-quality megacities.

Based on the matching data of land plot transactions from China Land Market Network and the data of Chin's listed A-share enterprises from 2005 to 2022, using two-way fixed-effect model, this paper empirically examines the impact mechanism of urban land resource allocation on the share of labor income of enterprises from the perspective of factor misallocation. The study finds that the allocation mode of local governments selling industrial land at low prices and restrictive transfer of commercial and residential land at high prices has caused the distortion of the land factor market and the misallocation of resources, and significantly reduces the share of labor income of enterprises. The mechanism analysis shows that the misallocation of land resources on the share of labor income of enterprises is mainly realized through the effect of industrial structure, the allocation of labor factors and the agglomeration effect. Further analysis shows that the misallocation of land resources not only crowds out the share of labor income of enterprises in local cities, but also may further aggravate the income distribution imbalance between cities. The implementation of exit audits of natural resource assets of local governments can help to alleviate the negative impact of land resources misallocation on the share of labor income of enterprises. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the inhibition effect of land resources misallocation on the share of labor income of enterprises is more significant in labor-intensive industries, eastern regions, and large cities of type II and above. The conclusions of this study can provide policy enlightenment for promoting the optimal allocation of urban construction land, increasing the share of labor income, and improving the income distribution pattern.

The digital governance platform, as an important carrier for bridging online and offline collaborative actions in the context of digital transformation, is an essential part of the Digital China initiative. As a significant measure to enhance the collaborative efficiency of social governance, the digital social governance platform focuses on “governance resource integration” and “governance goal coordination” as its key objectives. Through the study of the digital social governance platform in X City, it was found that by utilizing the digital platform for information aggregation and risk identification, the overall control of the governance scenario can be achieved. Additionally, through standardized information management and targeted task scheduling, dynamic collaboration of governance actions can be realized. Relying on digital technology and organizational arrangements, it enables relevant participants to have an online “virtual presence” and offline “network construction” structure within the governance field. These two elements together support the platform’s internal operational logic. However, due to the hindrance caused by the contradictions in the communication relationships during platform operations, the overall collaborative effect still has room for further improvement.

Under the binding constraints of the dual carbon goals (carbon peaking and carbon neutrality), the imperative to achieve coordinated economic-ecological development through innovation-driven strategies has emerged as a critical policy challenge. This study employs a reflective iteration methodology to construct a city-level economic complexity index, systematically investigating its impact on urban green development and underlying mechanisms. Key findings reveal: Enhanced economic complexity significantly promotes urban green economic development, with marginal effects exhibiting an increasing trend as complexity elevates. These results remain robust after addressing endogeneity through instrumental variable approaches, controlling policy interventions, and conducting multi-dimensional sensitivity analyses. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that the green effect of economic complexity originates from structural upgrading of urban innovation capacity, transmitted through a four-dimensional pathway: “innovation input intensification → output greening → value chain deepening → efficiency enhancement”, with effect intensity following a nonlinearly increasing pattern. Heterogeneity analysis identifies asymmetric marginal green effects across industrial sectors,and reveals stronger complexity-driven green upgrading effects in cities characterized by abundant venture capital, superior resource endowments, and intensive innovation-entrepreneurship policies. This research provides theoretical foundations and policy insights for optimizing urban innovation ecosystems, overcoming path dependence in green transition, and advancing high-quality development under the dual carbon paradigm.

随着城市化进程的加快,中国城市在硬件设施建设上取得了显著成就,但城市现代化管理、精细化管理和职能管理之间的协调,以及如何有效应用现代化手段、如何构建区域创新体系,这些问题仍在不断探索过程中。本文基于基础设施建设的合理性与资源利用效率方面,反思、探讨未来城市发展中的问题与挑战。