Rural-Urban Interaction in Terms of the Spatial Pattern and Local Development

Dear Colleagues,

Enhancing rural–urban interactions has been gradually recognised as an overarching strategy to guide spatial interventions towards more sustainable and inclusive development, as well as the fundamental path to achieve rural revitalization, by improving urban–rural synergies, including optimising the management of ecosystems and natural resources, conceiving and implementing long-term plans that promote both the inclusivity for local actors that aim to reduce social, economic, and territorial gaps, as well as the free flow and equal exchange of urban–rural factors. Whilst in the academic discourse, the reflection on new urban–rural relationships and the understanding of their interactions in a new stage of urbanization started long before the global and national strategies. Conceptually, the rural–urban interaction refers to the flows of people, capital, materials, information, and technology between urban and rural areas. In fact, such an interaction is a rather complicated process mainly attributed to the heterogeneous geographical environment, deep and lasting change of socioeconomic system, and complex interaction elements. In this process, rural and urban communities of different geographic conditions, natural resource endowments and social relationship, as well as people's values, attitudes, and institutions will make different responses, which finally lead to different evolution patterns and outcomes. During the process of rapid urbanization and industrialization, new changes have taken place in the divisions of industries and functions between urban and rural areas. Meanwhile, the development of technology and multi-dimensional local and global networks enable the spatial flows of developing factors and population mobilities in a much wider range and higher speed. This has also led to the spatial pattern of rural–urban interactions constantly changing, which promote local development transformation. As rural–urban interactions change in their patterns and contents, the evolution rules, spatial pattern, and influences of the rural–urban interaction remain unclear, which has made rural–urban interactions a subject of significant interest.

This Special Issue aims to present the latest advances in our understanding of the novel findings and perspectives of rural–urban interactions in terms of spatial pattern and local development. Papers may be empirical or theoretical, case studies, reviews, or commentaries.

The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Novel theories and perpectives on rural–urban interactions;
• Quantification and evaluation methods of rural–urban interactions;
• Network evolution characteristics and mechanism of rural–urban systems;
• Changing pattern of population mobilities and resource flows;
• Networked development of urban agglomeration and metropolitan;
• Land use transition accordance with rural–urban interactions;
• Integration of labour, industry, and leisure activity markets;
• Equalization of infrastructure and public services between rural and urban areas;
• Practices and policies promoting rural-urban integrated development;
• Rural transformation development and rural-urban interaction.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Jiaxing Cui
Dr. Rongjun Ao
Dr. Wensheng Zheng
Prof. Dr. Xuesong Kong
Dr. Zihao An
Guest Editors

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• rural–urban integration
• urban agglomeration network
• population flow network
• urban and rural transportation network
• urban-rural land transition
• innovation network
• rural revitalization