This paper traces the developmental trajectory of China’s planning practices in international contexts, systematically reviews the academic research landscape in related fields, and analyzes the framework of China’s statutory planning system. Through field investigations, it summarizes the practical characteristics and application of Chinese planning technical standards in Belt and Road Initiative partner countries, while identifying existing issues. The research establishes an evaluation indicator system to assess and categorize the suitability of Chinese planning approaches in these countries. Building on these findings, strategic recommendations are proposed for adapting and implementing Chinese planning methodologies in Belt and Road Initiative partner nations. These insights provide robust support for constructing a globalized Chinese planning technical system that aligns with international development needs.

This paper adopts the “Five Connectivity” framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), encompassing policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bonds, to develop an indicator system for evaluating the level of cooperation among BRI cities. It measures the cooperation and connectivity levels between domestic and international cities from both individual dimensions and a composite perspective. Furthermore, it employs a regression model to explore the local factors influencing international cities’ participation in BRI cooperation. By focusing on city cooperation networks, this paper evaluates and monitors the progress of BRI city partnerships, uncovers differences and dynamics across dimensions and regions, and aims to provide insights for cities worldwide to better engage in the joint development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The optimal allocation of spatial resources within China’s overseas industrial parks is crucial for high-quality development. This allocation fundamentally depends on realizing land development rights. As these parks localize further, sharing land development rights signifies the complex interplay between the host country’s institutions and the parks’ spatial development. A multi-case analysis of four of China’s national-level overseas industrial parks in Mekong River Basin countries identifies three key findings: (1) land development right sharing manifests as spatial allocation rights and spatial value-added benefit sharing; (2) its dynamics stem from negotiations between Chinese developers and host-country stakeholders, enabled by flexible local planning and park governance; (3) current challenges include limited adaptability of China’s planning technology and insufficient benefit-sharing depth. The study proposes country-, type-, and level-specific land development right sharing strategies to foster a stronger “community of interests” between overseas industrial parks and host nations.

The National Development Plan (NDP) holds the highest status within Ethiopia’s national planning framework. In this paper, we conduct a comparative analysis of Ethiopia’s five NDPs since the 2000s across four dimensions: policymaking context, development objectives and key areas, pillar strategies, and planning implementation mechanisms, to understand the macroscopic characteristics of their dynamic evolution. Based on text analysis, we further explore the evolution of urban and rural development policies in the five NDPs. The paper reveals that the five NDPs have comprehensively taken into account the development context and national aspirations of their respective times. The evolution of development goals mirrors the shifting focuses of socio-economic development across different periods. While the key areas maintain a degree of continuity, they also exhibit notable fluctuating traits. Furthermore, the pillar strategies have undergone a transformation, evolving from a purely domestic focus to both domestic and international dimensions. The implementation mechanisms have also seen continuous improvement. Regarding urban and rural development policies, the five NDPs have gradually shifted from emphasizing agriculture and rural areas while subordinating urban development, to enhancing the mutual adaptability and relevance of urban and rural policies. This paper contributes to an objective understanding of the dynamic evolution of Ethiopia’s NDPs and is conducive to expanding the space for dialogue and cooperation between China and Ethiopia and other African countries in the fields of development planning and governance.

Urban network resilience is the product of integrating urban network research and regional resilience studies. The introduction of the concept of urban network resilience has broadened the perspective and methodology of regional resilience research, becoming a hot topic in recent years. Reviewing the theoretical origins of urban network resilience reveals that the concept, as discussed by different scholars, can be subdivided into two types: “resilience from urban networks” and “resilience of urban networks”. The former refers to the ability of cities within a region to respond to disturbances through intercity complementarity and cooperative relationships supported by urban networks, while the latter refers to the ability of the urban networks’ inherent structural organization, representing regional spatial organization, to respond to disturbances. Based on analyzing the concept, connotations, and mechanisms of urban network resilience, an exploratory analytical framework for urban network resilience research is constructed from three aspects: determining key issues, selecting measurement methods, and proposing optimization strategies. This paper provides an overall framework for urban network resilience research, thereby offering a scientific basis for optimizing urban and regional spatial organization from the perspective of risk governance.

The Transit-oriented Development (TOD) concept was brought up by American urban planner Peter Calthorpe. This paper provides a comprehensive global perspective on the evolution of TOD theory and methodology, with a particular focus on its diverse application in developing countries. This paper adopts the methods of literature review and case analysis, first traces the origin and development of TOD theory, and analyzes the connotation of TOD from the initial improvement of material space to the multi-dimensional extension of economy, society and environment; Secondly, the analysis framework including cities, corridors, stations and other scales is established, the main problems, research methods and data of TOD focus at each scale are summarized, and the multi-scale changes of TOD in the methodology system are discussed; Finally, the application cases of typical developing countries are selected to illustrate how the multidimensional and multi-scale TOD theoretical system can be used as an effective policy tool to solve the unique problems of local urbanization, so as to further enrich and feed back the TOD theory from developed countries, and provide ideas for more developing countries to build sustainable TOD approaches.

Based on ecosystem services, the new urban-rural relationship is a theory and approach aimed at connecting urban and rural areas with the bond of ecosystem services, promoting urban-rural prosperity. This paper examines the concept and reviews the international research progress of the new urbanrural relationship. By analyzing literature from the past 20 years, it reveals that research has mainly focused on six aspects: apart from a few studies proposing or elaborating on the concept of the new urban-rural relationship, early academia primarily concentrated on the residents’ cognition and preference differences towards ecosystem services, striving to promote urban-rural community cooperation. Subsequently, efforts were made to quantify and evaluate ecosystem services along urban-rural gradients to clarify the supply-demand relationship of specific ecosystem services. Simultaneously, there have been rapid developments in designing ecosystem service products that connect urban and rural areas, and institutional and management studies involving multiple stakeholders, providing support for the market-based approach and sustainable governance of the new urban-rural relationship. In recent years, ecological planning and management of urban-rural transitional zones have become a new research focus aiming to promote the sharing and collaborative management of ecological resources between urban and rural areas. Future research should focus on the influence of urban-rural location conditions on the new urbanrural relationship, residents’ cognition and preferences in different socio-cultural backgrounds, sustainable business models for ecological products, common interests and trust relationships among stakeholders, and the balance between ecological construction in urban-rural transitional zones and economic development.

The multi-functionalization of agriculture is an important means of achieving the revitalization of rural industries. However, the limited social cohesion has hindered their widespread adoption and enhanced effectiveness. We construct a framework for social innovation in multifunctional agriculture through a review of literature and policies while analyzing the challenges faced by Chinese villages. Drawing from European cases, the social innovation experience is analyzed from three aspects: knowledge exchange pathways, community decision-making mechanisms, and technological support methods. Based on the European experience and the disparities between Europe and China, we identify three crucial implications: the evidence-based and market-oriented nature of knowledge exchange, the agency and institutionalization of community involvement, and the adaptability and collaboration in technological interventions.