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.

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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

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article

Choreographing Ecological–Industrial Synergy in an Adaptive Spatial Governance Framework

B Yang, C.C. Li, Changgao Cheng, Shi Xue et al.
npj Urban Sustainability
Sustainable Industrial Ecology
article

Choreographing Ecological–Industrial Synergy in an Adaptive Spatial Governance Framework

B Yang, C.C. Li, Changgao Cheng, Shi Xue, Xue Lü, Yue Wang, Yi-Xiang Wang, Qin Zhou, J Huang, Z Huang, Zhou Fang, Luyao Fang
article en

Abstract

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.

npj Urban Sustainability
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)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Sustainable Industrial Ecology
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