Choreographing Ecological–Industrial Synergy in an Adaptive Spatial Governance Framework
Global land-use reconfiguration has caused ecosystem services and economic services to become intertwined and interactive in shared spaces, intensifying conflicts between development and the environment. Traditional incentive-based zoning approaches have proven inadequate for managing these trade-offs and conflicts. Based on social–ecological systems (SES) theory, this paper proposes the concept of Industry Space, which regards natural ecology, industrial activity, social needs, and governance structures as a coupled whole. We employ a source–flow–sink framework to explain the spatial diffusion and attenuation of services, revealing how synergies and trade-offs between ecological and economic services influence regional well-being. We further introduce the concept of supply–demand adaptation, emphasizing the dynamic balance between supply and demand to achieve long-term system resilience. To operationalize these ideas, we construct a theoretical framework for adaptive planning, advocating multi-level governance, stakeholder participation, and iterative adjustments to address cross-scale and uncertain socio-economic and environmental changes. This framework offers a novel perspective for integrating macro-level governance with micro-level planning and promoting synergy between industrial development and ecological conservation, providing a reference point for global sustainable transitions.
Authors
- B Yang
- C.C. Li
- Changgao Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7952-8673)
- Shi Xue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1648-5957)
- Xue Lü
- Yue Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0098-5359)
- Yi-Xiang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5246-5497)
- Qin Zhou
- J Huang
- Z Huang
- Zhou Fang
- Luyao Fang
Institutions
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Hohai University (CN)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (CN)
- Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Urban Sustainability
- Published
- 2026-06-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-026-00417-x
- Primary Topic
- Sustainable Industrial Ecology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences