Trans-boundary areas are characterized by their geographical proximity and so as holding unique strategic value in terms of resource exchange, value sharing, functional collaboration, service co-governance, spatial synergy, and evolved structure. Trans-boundary areas thus offer a unique opportunity to explore a new type of research and practice on spatial planning. Transboundary areas reveal complex features (e.g., multi-scale integrations and different governance actors) so as to be governed through holistic thinking, soft planning and dynamic approach, complementing traditional approaches that focus on the core-and-periphery system. This paper focuses on spatial units, governance actors and their collaborative relationship, and analyses the definition, governance and planning of trans-boundary areas. Drawing insights from the European experience, this paper identifies that defining the institutional spatial units, advocating interactive spatial governance innovation, and exploring soft and dynamic spatial planning practice can provide enlightment to the spatial planning and governance of trans-boundary areas in China.

Spatial rescaling is arguably one of the most significant focuses in European planning. The increasingly transboundary nature of many spatial planning issues and development opportunities, particularly environmental issues, has led to changes in the spatial scales at which problems are solved and planning is implemented. Spatial rescaling often gives rise to a combination of changes, including shifts in powers to other layers of decisionmaking, the emergence of new geographical scales, the appearance of new actor constellations, and new forms of governance. This paper focuses on the environmental governance of the Baltic Sea region as the case study and examines the influence of the European transnational cooperation initiative on the spatial rescaling of the region. The research findings provide experience and lessons for China’s coordinated development and governance of crossborder regions.

The Southwest Delta of the Netherlands, standing at the confluence of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt rivers, is considered as a “laboratory” for cross-border governance,  because of its multiple tasks in flooding control, water supply and spatial planning and its complex transboundary status, both of which make its watershed management quite challenging. In recent years, as a specific policy zone of the Dutch National Delta Program, it has continued its explorations in cross-border governance, targeting at the ambitious goal of “becoming the world’s first climate-resilient region by 2050”. Adopting the idea of pluralistic governance and the perspectives of governance scenarios, governance tools and governance networks, this paper analyzes the shifts of this transboundary region’s governance scenarios and the corresponding adaptation of its discourses and decisions, and summarizes its latest expertise in the application of protocols and the construction of actor networks. Based on the Dutch experience of cross-border governance of climate change and water management and in view of China’s practice and theorization of cross-border governance, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: promoting “spatial image building” based on the understanding of complex governance scenarios; enhancing the regulative authority and long-term implementation of regional agreement tools; expanding the network governance and strengthening the translational capacity of actors.

The current pace of reshaping the global city-regional competition pattern has accelerated, and as China proposes to build a “dual circulation” national development pattern and a “national united market”, regional integration and promoting the formation of a complementary pattern of advantages have gained more urgent significance. Regional spaces such as metropolitan areas and urban agglomerations have become essential space unit. However, there are still significant institutional factors restricting regional  integration in China, which means the traditional administrative division system and localized management system can no longer meet the increasing needs of cross-border public affairs. The exploration of regional institutional space construction in New York metropolitan area and Tokyo Metropolitan Area has provided experience for China. This paper constructs the restriction mechanism of institutional distance on regional integration from three aspects of institutional space boundary, institutional space resources and institutional space scale. Based on the analysis framework, it analyzes the experience and shortcomings of the two metropolitan areas, including regional government structure, cooperation mode and regional spatial planning. Finally, combined with China’s governance system and development stage, for the problems such as insufficient institutional supply, weak non-governmental forces and mismatch of spatial planning in the current process of regional integration, it provides a possible solution to reduce the institutional distance effects from three parts: the extension and integration of institutional spatial boundary, the diversification of subjects in resource allocation and the supply of regional spatial planning.

Shrinking city, a new normal type of urban development, has been constantly emphasized for its importance in the area of research concerning urban development issues. Shrinkage-oriented planning has also been emphasized. However, the definition and classification of shrinking cities have been complicated yet independent. This not only affects the continuous in-depth related research, but also goes against the joint exploration of shrinking cities. From tracing the origin of shrinking city, this paper, on the one hand, finds the confusions of the definition to the shrinking city and the differences and misunderstandings existing in the Chinese interpretation of the shrinking city in the western context. On the other hand, it presents that the classifications of shrinking types have shown a diversified trend due to different research paths, especially in China, which has a special urban development background. Based on this, the authors reconsider the definition and significance of shrinking city from the perspective of planning, and put forward the research idea of “unique judgment standard + multiple type identification” and emphasize the logical relationship between them. In addition, we sort out a research framework for the shrinking types based on shrinking planning, which strengthens the guidance of shrinkage types in planning. Ultimately, it would promote local exploration while creating a joint research platform.

Under the targets of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, urban regeneration should not only pay attention to green and low-carbon, but also pay attention to sustainable development. Sustainable community construction is not only an important support to promote green urban renewal, but also the way to explore low-carbon urbanization. Emergy analysis, as an internationally recognized evaluation method, can comprehensively evaluate the behavior of research systems. This paper introduces the concept and method of emergy analysis into community regeneration, and takes 30 community units in Xueyuanlu Subdistrict of Beijing as the research object. Firstly, we draw emergy system diagram, construct index system, and then intuitively quantify the sustainable development level of community living environment. The results show that all communities are in the consumption stage of non renewable resources, and the capacity of carbon sequestration and oxygen release is limited. In addition, the environmental pressure of the community is large, and the sustainable level is not optimistic, which is not conducive to the effective development of community renewal. Through the in-depth analysis of the community emergy calculation results, it provides a theoretical basis and development ideas for the follow-up green regeneration.

The housing renovation work for the elderly in China is fast stepping into the “widely-practiced period”, but there are some problems to be solved, such as imperfect financial supporting policies, unsystematic implementation processes and insufficient accumulation of technical standards. It is urgent to learn from the experience of the developed countries. In this paper, seven typical countries, including Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the United States and Australia, are selected to systematically discuss the development history of housing renovation work for the elderly in each country. The laws and experience are summarized from three aspects: financial supporting policies, implementing processes, design standards and guidelines. Finally, it provides five inspirations for the development of housing renovation work for the elderly in China with considerations of its national conditions, which are enriching the financial support policy, encouraging the participation of market forces, standardizing the renovation application process, developing graded technical standards, and focusing on knowledge popularization and education.