On the basis of constructing a theoretical framework that data factor marketization empowers the development of regional new-quality productivity, and quasi-natural experiments based on the establishment of a data public trading platform, panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities are selected from 2011-2021, and its mechanism of action and regulation is analyzed based on the dual machine learning method. The results show that the construction of data factor marketization effectively empowers the development of regional new quality productivity. In terms of heterogeneity, data factor marketization significantly promotes the development of new-quality productivity in high science and education levels and first- and second-tier cities, while it has no significant driving effect in low science and education levels and cities below the third tier. In terms of the mechanism of action, data factor marketization drives the level of new quality productivity through the mechanisms of guiding market integration, optimizing factor allocation, and reconstructing innovation paradigms. In terms of the regulating mechanism, data factor marketization stimulates the data factor multiplier effect through channels such as industrial upgrading and transformation, digital talent gathering and foreign capital utilization level. Policy recommendations are then put forward to fully release the value of data factors and provide strong support for accelerating the formation of new quality productivity.

In recent years, “resilience” has gradually become a hot topic in urban research and policy practice at home and abroad. However, the study finds that there are objections to the construction model of urban resilience, and under the dual framework of “state-society”, they either tend to build a resilient order led by social self-organization, or emphasize the importance of good government governance, and some scholars propose that the construction of urban resilience needs to respect social and political differences. In order to better promote the construction of urban resilience in China at the current stage, based on comparative institutional analysis theory, through the comparison of multiple cases of representative cities around the world, it is found that the construction of urban resilience shows different characteristics under different institutional conditions, and the relationship between government and society is the core. China’s “national integration” urban resilience model is an inevitable result that adapts to our national conditions and institutional environment, but it also needs to absorb the useful experience of other countries’ urban resilience construction to build resilient cities with Chinese characteristics.

Based on Actor-Network Theory and employing a dynamic Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this study explores a mechanism and analytical framework for modern maritime city building and identifies the phases and pathways of that process. The findings show that,within the actor network of modern maritime city construction, the government occupies the central coordinating position.By setting phased “obligatory passage points,” it clarifies the common goals for all actors and, through translation mechanisms such as interest translation, enrolment and mobilization, aligns human actors (government, firms, research institutes) with non-human actors (ports, marine environments) into a dynamically linked organic network. The construction process generally exhibits the characteristic of goal-oriented multi-stage evolution. Pathway 1 is an “Economy & Finance—Science & Education—International Cooperation” configuration; Pathway 2 is a “Marine Industry—Science & Education—Environment-absent” configuration. Science and Education emerge as a necessary condition in both pathways, while Economy & Finance, International Cooperation, and Marine Industry serve as different supportive elements. Cities with different endowments display a clear pattern of pathway matching. Economically internationalized cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, leveraging their economic base and openness, predominantly rely on Path 1 and constitute the mainstream development model. Cities with strong marine-industry foundations—Qingdao, Fuzhou and Dalian—initially relied on Path 2 to achieve high construction levels.

In response to the policy trends and practical needs of mega-cities in preventing and mitigating disaster risks, this study employs John Holland’s Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory to investigate the generative mechanisms and governance practices of disaster resilience in mega-cities. Using a three-stage framework of self-construction, self-evaluation, and self-optimization, it analyzes how adaptive agents within cities develop disaster response mechanisms. Research reveals that mega-cities constitute complex systems formed by massive aggregations of urban adaptive agents, with their disaster resilience arising from the continuous optimization and emergent properties of micro-level agents' disaster response rules. Current governance models face challenges including amplified risk multiplier effects, macro-planning overlooking grassroots agency, and an overemphasis on "hard resilience" at the expense of "soft resilience". Thus, accelerating a shift toward adaptive agent-centered governance is essential to enhance comprehensive disaster resilience efficacy in mega-cities. Specific recommendations include: accelerating conceptual shifts to activate the proactive roles of micro-level agents, accelerating institutional innovation to establish dynamically evolving governance frameworks, and accelerating technological transformation to build multi-tiered, multi-agent collaborative systems.

The study delves into the impact of urban digital transformation on enhancing government service effectiveness. It integrates digital ecosystems and dynamic capabilities theories to analyze data from 32 cities between 2018 and 2021. Utilizing dynamic qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), the findings reveal that the improvement of government service effectiveness is intricately linked to the synergistic interactions between technology, institutions, organizations, and the external environment. The research identifies that effective government services depend on strategies tailored to regional specifics. In the eastern regions, an emphasis on advancing technological innovation and policy experimentation is crucial, while in the central and western regions, a focus on strengthening institutional development and resource integration is recommended. Additionally, the study underscores the importance of a dual-driven approach, combining institutions and technology, for the modernization of government services. It also proposes strategies to enhance participatory democracy and activate digital intelligence potential in the western regions, providing valuable theoretical and practical insights for the digital transformation of cities and the optimization of government services.

To explore the latest advancements in urban resilience research, we propose a process-oriented conceptual framework and employ the PRISMA standardized systematic review method to analyze research themes and publication trends in leading international urban studies journals. Recent studies on urban resilience have primarily focused on four key urban subsystems: governance, material and energy flows, infrastructure and morphology, and socio-economic dynamics. Emerging research emphasizes diverse governance networks, urban metabolic cycles, sustainable infrastructure, and human-centered approaches. Looking ahead, future research should prioritize standardizing and locally adapting resilience assessment frameworks, integrating innovative data and methodologies, addressing the needs of vulnerable regions and marginalized groups, and aligning resilience-building efforts with the Sustainable Development Goals. Promoting global collaborative governance is also essential to advancing equitable, inclusive, and sustainable resilient cities.

Green finance policy is a market means of finance and capital in environmental economic policy, and it is also an important measure to achieve high-quality development of regional economy. Based on the panel data of 107 cities in the Yangtze River economic belt from 2007 to 2020, this paper systematically examines the influence effect, functional mechanism and heterogeneity of green finance policy on urban environmental governance efficiency by using econometric methods such as propensity score matching-double difference (PSM-DID) and panel quantile regression. The study found that the implementation of green finance policy has significantly improved the efficiency of urban environmental governance in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. This conclusion is still true after dynamic effect test, placebo test, changing sample matching method and other robust methods. The mechanism verification shows that the green finance policy improves the efficiency of urban environmental governance by alleviating resource misallocation, promoting green technology innovation, and optimizing industrial structure. Heterogeneity analysis shows that when the development level of urban green finance is higher, the regional comprehensive strength is stronger and the efficiency of environmental governance is lower, the effect of green finance policy on environmental governance efficiency is more significant.

This paper takes the economic synchronicity of “city pairs” as an entry point, and integrates a panel dataset spanning from 2008 to 2021, encompassing prefecture-level cities, micro-enterprises, and migrant populations. We employ a Difference-in-Differences (DID) model to analyze the impact of urban agglomerations on economic synchronicity and explore its underlying mechanisms based on theoretical analysis. The paper reveals that urban agglomerations exhibit a positive effect on urban economic synchronicity, and the conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis indicates that urban agglomerations primarily enhance economic synchronicity by synchronization of innovation,convergence of factor allocation, and expansion of virtual agglomeration. In further analysis, we take endogeneity issues into account, and revalidate the findings using population mobility data.

Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy has been implemented for ten years, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in easing the non-capital functions, “two wings” construction and transportation, ecology, industry and other key areas have achieved important results. Entering a new stage, while recognizing the achievements and boosting confidence, it is also necessary to face up to the problems and take on new responsibilities and new roles. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s proposal of “modernized metropolitan area” is a leap in the understanding of the rules of development of cities and urban agglomerations, which is an important guidance for further deepening the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. At present, we should take the construction of modernized capital metropolitan area as a breakthrough, focus on the key, difficult and painful problems in the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, carry out explorations, improve the conditions, achieve breakthroughs, and accumulate experiences, so as to effectively promote the strategy of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development in a practical way.

Based on the perspective of policy upgrading, this paper uses difference in difference model and triple differences model to analyze the impact of upgrading from national pilot policy on information for the people to “Internet+ Government Services” pilot policy on urban digital transformation by using the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The study finds that the former pilot policy can effectively promote the urban digital transformation in terms of government governance and people’s lives, but it does not have a significant effect on the digital economic industries, whereas the development of the above three important dimensions is realized after the policy upgrading. Heterogeneity tests show that the pre- and post-policy upgrade contribute to a sustained policy effect for peripheral cities and cities with medium-level public services, driving the urban digital transformation. The moderating effect indicates that resource allocation efficiency and opening up to the outside world have positive moderating effects on urban digital transformation both before and after the policy upgrading.

Urban real estate market differentiation requires vigilance against the risk of volatility propagation. Research methodology: Based on the network analysis perspective, we quantify the “ripple” effect of house price, report the characteristics of the network structure, and conduct empirical research on the effect of the old neighborhood renovation policy. The study finds that: urban house price trend guidance and volatility propagation modes are different, and there are significant differences in the mechanism paths and cluster distribution of the two; urban house price trend changes are characterized by economic and geographic clusters, with first-tier urban agglomerations playing a leading role in the overall situation; the house price volatility “ripple” network is segregated in terms of city levels, while there is close inter-regional connection, with the second-tier cities playing a leading role in the overall situation. The second-tier cities' house price fluctuation spreads the intermediary and net spillover influence significantly, the central and eastern regions are the net spillover region of the “ripple”, and the two-way cycle of house price fluctuation in the northeast and western regions is worth paying attention to. The renovation of old neighborhoods has an inhibiting effect on the risk of fluctuating house price spillover, and urban renewal at this stage helps consolidate the “firewall” of house price fluctuation propagation and strengthens the resilience of real estate market development.

The incentive structure of local governments can impact the adjustment patterns of basic public service expenditures by influencing attention allocation and motivation differentiation. From the perspective of governmental behavior logic and based on the theoretical framework of “incentive-attention-motivation-behavior,” this paper empirically studies the impact and mechanisms of population aging on the scale and structure of basic public service expenditures. The results indicate that population aging has a significant effect on both the scale and structure of basic public service expenditures, showing dual characteristics of “economic and fiscal type” and “public service type.” In response to aging, fiscal and tax incentives bias the adjustment of basic public service expenditures toward the “economic and fiscal type,” focusing on short-term effects. Promotion incentives give higher weight to “public service type” motivations, but these also tend to focus on short-term and visible outcomes. Further analysis reveals that higher levels of aging and attention promote the “economic and fiscal type” motivations towards enhancing long-term human capital, while “public service type” motivations evolve to meet the needs of youth housing, fertility, and elderly care. This results in the contraction of the scale of basic public service expenditures. Therefore, the article suggests refining local government assessment standards, coordinating the advancement of fiscal and tax system reforms, continuously optimizing the structure of basic public service expenditures, and fully tapping into the potential of the silver economy. Through effective institutional supply, it aims to break the “aging before preparedness” pattern, ensuring adequate and efficient provision of basic public services and promoting high-quality development in an aging society.

On the basis of comprehensively analyzing of international literature and journals related to urban frontier research, we screened the literature with urban as the theme in the SSCI issued literature library included in WOS from January 2018 to March 2024, used Citespace to realize the literature visualization and analysis, and further extracted the theme from top journals for review. The results show that: the visualization results clarify the research hotspots such as smart city and urban resilience, and the popular research methods such as machine learning, and show the current status of urban cutting-edge research from the chronological and country-specific dimensions; the review of literature in the top journals realizes the generalization and integration of the popular urban themes, which are summarized as the theoretical model of the urban economy, transportation,energy and urban operation, agglomeration and innovation, urban renewal and planning, greening and environmental ecology, attributes and city name cards,impact of sudden public health emergencies on cities and urban resilience, digital technology and smart cities, and further subdivided into each category. The results of the evaluation show that the international frontier urban research has been rapidly updated and expanded, the degree of integration between urban disciplines and other disciplines has been increasing, and the quantitative analysis has realized the improvement of comprehensiveness and technology, and the qualitative analysis has realized the improvement of rigor and comprehensiveness.Existing research presents characteristics such as the use of “new” approaches for “old” themes, the use of “integrated” approaches for “individual” themes, and the use of “ingenious” approaches for “innovative” themes.Based on the conclusions of the study, suggestions and prospects are put forward in terms of the selection of traditional urban topics, research methods and frontier exploration.

In the era of digital economy, enterprises are facing more fierce competition, and digital transformation has become an important choice for them to adapt to the development requirements of the times. Using the data of listed companies from 2012 to 2020 as a sample, this paper examines the impact of digital transformation on high-quality development and its heterogeneity among cities. The research results show that digital transformation can help improve the development quality of enterprises. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effects of digital transformation are more pronounced in cities with higher levels of digital infrastructure and human capital, as well as in cities with stronger intellectual property protection. The intermediary mechanism test shows that innovation ability plays an important role in the process of digital enabling high quality. The above conclusions mean that digital transformation is expected to become an important driving force supporting the high-quality development of China’s economy under the new development pattern. In the future, more investment should be made in hardware and software such as institutional environment and digital infrastructure to lay a solid foundation for the development of digital economy.

Chinese-style modernization is inherently a modernization of nationwide common prosperity. Achieving nationwide common prosperity constitutes an essential requirement of this development path. From the perspective of nationwide common prosperity, promoting high-quality development requires cultivating both a system of growth drivers and a system of regional growth poles. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period and beyond, policymakers could optimize the modern urban system, with urban agglomerations, metropolitan areas, and central cities as the primary components, to build a composite regional growth pole system. This requires both implementing multiple measures to fully leverage the growth pole function of key regions, and coordinating the relationship between key regional growth poles and other regional growth poles to ensure the latter also play their due role.

This study examines the impact of afforestation on per capita GDP, per capita disposable income of rural residents, PM_2.5 concentration, and sulfur dioxide emission intensity using panel data at the county level in the Beijing-Tianjin region from 2000 to 2018. The analysis is conducted within the policy framework of the Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm Source Control Project, utilizing fixed effects and difference-in-differences models. The findings reveal that afforestation in the Beijing-Tianjin region significantly enhances per capita GDP and per capita disposable income of rural residents, while reducing PM_2.5 concentration and sulfur dioxide emission intensity, indicating the feasibility of achieving economic development and environmental protection simultaneously. The robustness tests, which employ the Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm Source Control Project as a quasi-natural experiment, affirm this conclusion. Strong environmental policy measures can improve regional economy and environmental quality in the short term, but the long-term sustainability of their effects requires reinforcement. Moreover, the impact of strong environmental policy measures on per capita disposable income of rural residents exhibits an evident time lag.

Based on the conceptual connotation of interaction, reciprocity and purpose of value co-creation, the study demonstrates that its driving role is manifested in shaping value vision, promoting citizen participation and enriching practice paths, and then constructs a theoretical framework of “value-organization-technology”. The construction of digital government driven by value co-creation manifests the value mission of improving administrative efficiency, accurately matching needs, and enhancing social equity, transforming the internal, relational, and external environments of governmental organizations, and playing a role through the mechanisms of technological empowerment, technological empowerment, and technological empowerment of wisdom. Based on some Chinese practical cases, this study summarizes the intelligent, interactive, autonomous and collective practice models of digital government construction to achieve value co-creation, with a view to providing theoretical reference and action plans for the discussion of related issues.

Building a smart city is an important exploration of using a new generation of information technology to reshape urban development models and lead to high-quality economic development. Based on panel data of the prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2016, this paper examines the policy effects of building smart cities from the new perspective of the rising global value chain (GVC) and discusses the relevant mechanisms behind it. It is found that, firstly, the construction of smart cities helps to enhance the GVC status of Chinese cities, which occurs in the pilot year and shows the phenomenon of circular accumulation year by year. Secondly, the mechanism test shows that the construction of smart cities mainly releases the policy dividend through three ways: improving infrastructure construction, stimulating urban innovation, and optimizing human capital structure. Thirdly, the policy effect of building a smart city is unbalanced, and large and medium-sized cities, as well as central and western cities and general administrative cities, are more likely to release the advantages of backwardness.

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.

Against the backdrop of the restructuring of the global economic landscape, the promotion of blue economy co-operation has become an important force in promoting regional integration and development. Blue economy cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area and ASEAN countries has great potential and broad prospects. The thesis adopts gravity model and social network analysis to reveal the spatial correlation of blue economy cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area and ASEAN countries and its network structure, to analyse the marine industries with potential for cooperation and the pressure of transformation of the blue economy, and to explore the trend and path of cooperation between the Greater Bay Area and ASEAN in the field of blue economy. The study finds that the overall density of the blue economy network in the co-operation area is low, and more than two-thirds of the blue economy links still have large development potential; Thailand, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Indonesia are at the core of the blue economy network in the co-operation area, and are the ‘leaders’ in blue economy development in the co-operation area, while Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and Cambodia are at the centre of the co-operation network, The Philippines and Cambodia are at the periphery of the co-operation network and are the ‘followers’ of the regional blue economy co-operation; the network strength of the nodes in the co-operation area varies greatly, indicating that the blue economy co-operation in the region is in an unbalanced state, and the degree of integration needs to be strengthened; at the same time, the results of cohesive subgroup analysis show that perfecting the co-operation mechanism and building a co-operation Meanwhile, the results of cohesive subgroup analysis show that improving the cooperation mechanism and building a cooperation platform play an important role in promoting the blue economy cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area and ASEAN countries. Based on the above findings, the paper proposes policy recommendations to further develop the central role of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and promote the construction of the Greater Bay Area-ASEAN Blue Economy Partnership.

Measuring the spatial and temporal disparities in China’s regional economic development and identifying the underlying influencing factors are crucial for the precise implementation of regional coordinated development policies. Utilizing methods such as inequality index, Kernel density estimation, Markov transition probability matrix, and geographical variance decomposition, this study measures the economic development disparities across spatial units including prefecture-level cities, provincial regions, and seven major regions in China from 1997 to 2021. Furthermore, the research uses the spatial econometric models to analyze the mechanisms influencing regional economic development disparities. The study finds that economic development inequity in spatial units, including prefecture-level cities, provincial regions, and the seven major regions, show a trend of first rising and then declining. Kernel density graphs indicate that the economic development levels across spatial units are continuously increasing, but the evolution trends of the seven major regions are more complex and diverse compared to those of prefecture-level cities and provincial regions. There are significant changes in the rank order of per capita real GDP among prefecture-level cities and provincial regions, highlighting a competitive effect. The change in the proportion of geographical variance shows that the economic development inequality between prefecture-level cities is gradually exceeding the economic development inequality between provincial regions. The results of the spatial econometric model suggest that market economic reforms, fiscal decentralization, and the level of openness to the world are the key factors to influence regional economic development disparities. The conclusions of this study provide valuable insights for formulating precise regional development policies and narrowing regional economic development disparities.

Based on the panel data of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2011 to 2020, using two-way fixed effects regression analysis, this paper empirically examined the impact and mechanism of the digital economy on the economic gap between central and peripheral cities. The results show that in the Yangtze River Delta region, the development of digital economy is conducive to narrowing the economic gap between central and peripheral cities. In this process, improving factor mismatch is an important path of action.The study shows that, overall, in the Yangtze River Delta, the development of the digital economy is conducive to narrowing the economic gap between central and peripheral cities. In this process, improving factor mismatch is an important path of action. The heterogeneity analysis results show that compared to cities with lower levels of industrial structure upgrading and human capital, the positive effect of digital economy on cities with higher levels of industrial structure upgrading and human capital is more significant. At the same time, the effect of digital economy on the pilot cities of “Broadband China” is significantly stronger than that of non-pilot cities. In addition, the results of the extended study show that the impact of digital economy on the economic gap between central and peripheral cities exhibits a significant inverted “U” shape. Further calculation of the inflection point shows that in the Yangtze River Delta, there are still some cities on the left side of the curve, with a lower level of digital economy development, which fails to positively reduce the economic gap between central and peripheral cities.Based on this, this study provides policy recommendations to strengthen the construction of digital infrastructure, continuously optimize the allocation mechanism of the factor market, actively promote the upgrading of industrial structure and improve the level of human capital.

The urbanization construction taking the county seat as an important carrier reconstructs the function orientation of the county seat in the urban system at the macro level, which is the directional adjustment of the new urbanization strategy and will change the development prospect of urbanization in China profoundly. Using the qualitative analysis method,public information and relevant literature as the main basis, and on the basis of systematically sorting out the positioning and evolution of the county seat and reviewing its carrier functions,this paper makes theoretical forecast to the trend of the future urbanization pattern, proposes a three-level gradient pattern of the connection between big cities, county seats and villages.The effective connection of the three-level gradientis beneficial not only to the construction of a more reasonable urban spatial structure system, but also to the promotion of efficient circulation and balanced distribution of various elements among“Big Cities-County Seats-Villages”, it is also conducive to the formation of a transitional and buffer social field and governance zone between big cities and villages,which is of great value to comprehensively improving the coverage and quality of urbanization civilization achievements.Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of the county seats by optimizing the concept of spatial planning, popularizing the urban lifestyle, building a modern industrial network chain, and improving the efficiency of social governance, so as to strengthen the three-level gradient pattern and fully release its structural potential to promote the quality of urbanization.

Public welfare venture capital is an innovative means to cultivate social organizations and an important part of realizing the modernization of government governance. This paper constructs a “Resource-Organization-Environment (ROE)” analysis framework and uses qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the influencing factors and driving models of urban venture capital for public welfare. The study found that the linkage and coupling of technical support, capital investment, operation platform, communication and learning, policy support and social collaboration formed 7 conditions to promote venture capital for the public, reflected in 4 types of venture capital driving models for the public. That is, Resource-Organization two-dimensional driving model, Organization-Environment two-dimensional driving model, Resource-Organization-Environment three-dimensional joint driving model and Resource-Environment two-dimensional driving model. Among them, capital investment is the core condition of multiple condition configuration. The research conclusions are helpful to clarify the influencing factors and driving models of venture philanthropy, provide references for understanding the driving models of differentiated venture philanthropy in cities, and promote the overall development of venture philanthropy.

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.

After ten years of implementing the Coordinated Development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region Strategy, significant progress has been made in relieving Beijing of functions non-essential to its role as China’s capital, upgrading the regional industrial structure, improving transportation integration, building of ecological construction and environmental protection, and budling the two wings of the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center and Xiong’an New Area. However, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region are still facing new challenges, such as a decreasing share in the national economy, the widening disparities within the region, and the need to optimize the regional spatial structure. Looking ahead to the new decade, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region should implement new policies in line with President Xi Jinping’s latest demands. The goal is to make the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region a pioneer and demonstration area for Chinese-style modernization. The region should strive to build a world-class urban agglomeration with the capital as its core that is economically developed, spatially optimized, closely connected, in harmony with people and nature, and with a sense of common prosperity.

Against the tasks and requirements outlined in the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Promoting High-Quality Urban Development regarding the optimization of a modern urban system, China's urban system still faces several shortcomings, manifested as follows: excessive scale and insufficient radiation-driven capacity of megacities and large cities; small scale of small cities and significant "siphon effect" from large citiesi; substantial room for improvement in specialized division of labor and collaboration among cities; long way to go in integrated public service provision and environmental governance; lack of inter-city governance coordination as a bottleneck in building a modern urban system; incomplete spatial organization of the urban system. The optimization direction of the urban system should focus on promoting scale coordination, functional complementarity, governance synergy, and efficient spatial organization among cities. Scale coordination serves as the foundation, underpinned by functional complementarity, and both rely on synergistic governance mechanisms as a prerequisite. The efficient operation of the urban system also requires orderly spatial organization as a support. In terms of optimization measures, a multi-pronged approach should be adopted:enhance the carrying capacity of megacities and large cities through comprehensive policies; boost the radiation-driven capacity of large cities through innovation-driven development;develop small and medium-sized cities in a tailored manner based on local conditions; deepen functional specialization and promote inter-city division of labor and collaboration; innovate governance systems to provide institutional safeguards for modern urban system development; improve the governance scale to enhance spatial efficiency of resource allocation.

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 transformation and use of existing national railway resources to develop suburban railway is an effective means to solve the problem of over-concentration of population and functions in megacities, leading the optimization of urban spatial layout, and promoting the construction of the “1-hour commuting circle”. Taking the construction of Beijing commuter circle as an example, this paper puts forward the framework model of suburban railway leading the construction of “1-hour commuting circle” in megacities from four aspects: spatial layout, traffic support, function guidance and mechanism guarantee. This paper proposes to construct a new spatial structure of “rail commuting corridor + self-supporting urban circle” to form a “center-periphery” circle layout with reasonable gradient. It will make up for the short board of suburban railway commuting and support the fast commuting demand of commuting demand; promote high-end service functions landing in the commuting circle to avoid simplistic industrial function undertaking; and explore the reform of the appropriate separation of economic zones and administrative regions, solving the core issues of “how to manage, build, divide, and develop” in the commuting circle.

This paper uses data from 158 shrinking cities in China from 2010 to 2023 to explore the fit between the two and their causal mechanisms. Research has shown that: The overall adaptability relationship is poor, and the adaptation level is mainly characterized by extreme and relatively poor adaptation. The ranking of regional levels from high to low is in the central, eastern, northeastern, and western regions. In terms of temporal changes, except for the central region, all other regions show a downward trend. In terms of spatial distribution, it has strong agglomeration characteristics and is highly unsuitable for dense distribution in Northeast, North, Northwest, Southwest, and Shandong Hunan provinces, while more suitable cities are mainly distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The types of adaptation can be divided into four categories: tapping potential development, intensive expansion, inefficient expansion, and extensive expansion. In terms of causes, due to the influence of natural resources and location endowment, economic foundation and industrial structure, management system and policy factors, urban shrinkage generates high fiscal expenditure rigidity and maintenance pressure, low investment return rate, and weak fiscal revenue caused by declining domestic demand, resulting in an imbalance between local fiscal revenue and expenditure, and the failure to form a good matching relationship between local government debt and economic development in shrinking cities.

Under the pressure of multiple sources of shocks and perturbations, both domestic and international, promoting the resilient evolution of the innovation system is a critical step in responding to environmental changes. Employing the ideology of systemic evolution, this study dissects the multidimensional characteristics of innovation system resilience, elucidates the evolutionary process of the innovation system from the perspective of resilience, and analyzes the influence mechanism of digital infrastructure construction on the manufacturing innovation system resilience. Meanwhile, an empirical verification is conducted based on the matched data between urban levels in China and manufacturing listed companies from 2011 to 2021. The results show that diversity, network, dynamics, and evolution are the four-dimensional characteristics of the resilience of the innovation system. The evolutionary process of the innovation system follows the sequence “resisting shocks-absorbing turbulence-recovering functions- innovating paths”. There is a positive influence of digital infrastructure construction on the resilience of the manufacturing innovation system, and the positive effect is more pronounced in urban agglomeration cities than in non-urban agglomeration cities, and is also more evident in high-technology manufacturing than in low-technology manufacturing. The main transmission path is through fueling digital transformation and diluting the efficiency of resource allocation.

In order to better guide the low-carbon development of different types of shrinking cities and supplement the existing carbon emission research gaps. The entropy method, GTWR model and other methods are utilized to explore the role of the shrinkage characterization factors of different types of shrinking cities in influencing the carbon emissions from land use and the differences in the influences, the main conclusions obtained are as follows. First,the diversion of built-up land is the main source of carbon emissions from land use in shrinking cities, and the reduction of forest land and grassland increases the pressure of carbon emissions. Secondly, carbon emissions of different types of shrinking cities show different patterns, among which resource-dependent and comprehensive cities declined after reaching the peak in 2010 and re-entered the growth state in 2015; carbon emissions of siphoning and location-constrained cities show a continuous growth trend. Finally, the significant shrinkage characterization factors of cities are also the main driving factors affecting urban carbon emissions, and the shrinkage phenomenon has changed from population to multi-dimensional contraction with the development of time, while the influence of the driving factor of carbon emissions in shrinking cities has shifted from the population dimension to the economic and investment dimensions.

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.

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.

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.

Under the dual development goals of environmental protection and economic growth, it is of more practical significance to study the impact of digital economy on carbon emission efficiency. Through the analysis of 279 cities in China from 2011 to 2019, it was found that the development of the digital economy can significantly improve urban carbon emission efficiency, and a decentralized or multi-center urban spatial structure is also conducive to the improvement of carbon emission efficiency. Moreover, the urban multi-center structure helps the digital economy to play its role in improving carbon emission efficiency. From the heterogeneity analysis of urban geographical location, resource endowment conditions, and industrial policy support, the results show that in the eastern or southern regions, non resource-based cities, and pilot cities of “big data”, urban multi-center structure can help the digital economy play its role in improving carbon emission efficiency. Based on the findings of the study, policy recommendations were proposed.

Based on the theories of urban resilience and digital economy, the authors construct the mechanism model of digital economy influencing urban resilience. Using panel data from 2011-2020 of 107 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the authors empirically test the relationship between digital economy and urban resilience. The results show that the digital economy has a positive impact on urban resilience; In the process of digital economy affecting urban resilience, the advanced industrial structure and industrial innovation ability play an intermediary role; The digital economy has a positive spatial spillover effect on urban resilience. This research extends the application of urban resilience theory and digital economy theory from the relationship between digital economy and urban resilience, reveals the influence mechanism of digital economy on the urban resilience, and provides a theoretical basis for promoting the urban resilience through development of digital economy at the urban level.

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.

Based on the carbon emission inventory of Chinese cities, this paper uses the visualization method to describe the temporal and spatial characteristics of the carbon emission intensity (CEI) in resource-based cities. Additionally, this paper employs the Bi-Dimensional Decomposition of the Variation Coefficient and QAP methods to comprehensively investigate the bi-dimensional structure and driving factors of regional differences in CEI. The results show that: Firstly, the CEI of resource-based cities significantly declined, exhibiting a “cumulative effect” of CEI reduction. Among them, the CEI of declining cities ranks first,but its reduction is significantly higher than that of other cities. The CEI of growing, mature and regenerating cities decreases in turn. Secondly, the CEI of resource-based cities exhibited significant spatial heterogeneity, which evolved dynamically over time. From the regional perspective, intra-regional differences were the main source of spatial differences in CEI of resource-based cities. From the carbon source perspective, the spatial differences of industrial CEI were the main driving force behind the overall differences and changing trends. From the bi-dimensional structure of regions and carbon sources, intra-regional differences of industrial CEI in growing and mature cities have gradually become the most significant contributor to overall differences. Finally, the positive effects of differences in industrial structure, environmental regulation, financial development, and land urbanization on CEI differences decreased sequentially. Moreover, the contribution and impact of each driving factor on CEI differences exhibited regional heterogeneity.