In recent years, small cities have experienced rapid development, and the living standards of their residents have increasingly approximated those of larger urban centers. Due to their smaller scale, these cities have inherent advantages in transitioning to sustainable development models. The post-pandemic era, characterized by job reductions in large cities and the economic appeal of lower living costs, has seen a migration flow from large to small cities. The Chinese government has traditionally emphasized urban growth. While recent policies have started to incorporate environmental considerations, there remains a limited focus on the well-being and living conditions of city inhabitants. This study aims to evaluate the sustainable urbanization of small cities from a life satisfaction perspective, emphasizing indicators closely related to residents’ well-being. Employing the Delphi method and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this research identifies persuasive evaluation metrics tailored to the unique contexts of small cities. This work addresses the research gap in sustainable development indicators at the small city level. By emphasizing the perspective of residents’ quality of life, it advocates for local governments to prioritize the well-being and experiences of their inhabitants.

Owing to the enhanced accessibility afforded by high-speed rail, the relationship between megacities and their neighboring cities has grown closer. Megacities exert a significant influence on the land use of neighboring cities. This study employs a spatial econometric model to investigate the direct impact and spatial spillover effects of high-speed rail on urban land values, based on urban panel data from China’s Yangtze River Delta region (2006-2020). The results revealed that shorter commuting times and improved frequency of service had a more substantial effect. Additionally, due to alterations in land values, there is a distinct preference tendency for urban land use attributes. Therefore, the city’s spatial organization has transformed, and its center of gravity has shifted as well. This study provides crucial theoretical justifications and empirical evidence to fill the gaps left by previous research on the effects of short-haul high-speed rail commuting on urban housing prices and land use. The study also offers valuable insights for strategic planning and implementation aimed at promoting urban development and urban agglomeration construction through HSR construction.

This paper explores the intersection of interpersonal communication theory and the living requirements of youth groups, guided by theories of interpersonal communication, communication and space, and resource sharing. By examining relevant case studies, it delves into the design of communication spaces in youth-oriented apartments. The study offers innovative concepts for public activity areas tailored to the needs of contemporary youth, aiming to address the problem of social isolation among young individuals.

In today’s commitment to achieving the goal of double carbon and advocating low-carbon life, the riverside greenway, as an important ecological public space in the urban center, plays an important role in improving the quality of life of residents, optimizing the urban transportation structure, restoring the water environment ecology, and further building a low-carbon city. Based on the post-occupancy evaluation of the built environment, this paper takes the Wuchang Greenway, Qingshan Greenway and Hongshan Greenway on the Yangtze River in Wuhan as the research objects, comprehensively evaluates the built environment of the three greenways from the aspects of user behavior characteristics and post-use satisfaction, compares and analyzes the advantages and shortcomings of the three greenways according to the evaluation results, and proposes some optimization strategies for the design of urban riverside greenways.

Cultural revitalization is a key factor in the sustainable development of the countryside and is included in the five-dimensional indicators of China’s rural revitalization strategy. Although established studies have examined the spatial dimension of rural cultural revitalization, the internal structure of spatial production and the logic of action are still not entirely clear. Based on an interview survey in villages in northern Henan, China, this paper conducts a qualitative study of the structured characteristics of rural cultural spatial production and the actor logic behind it using a grounded theory research method. The results show that the production of local cultural space, socio-cultural space, mass recreational space, and cultural industries space constitute a composite structured rural cultural space. Public power, intellectual elites, residents’ rights and industrial capital have demonstrated a “co-constructive” cooperative relationship This paper provides a theoretical and empirical basis for promoting rural cultural revitalization and sustainable development through the production of rural cultural space.

To effectively improve the accuracy of short-term traffic flow prediction, an improved Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) method is proposed using the Mind Evolution Algorithm (MEA). Firstly, to address the issues of abnormal and missing traffic flow data, a Neighborhood Stacked Denoising AutoEncoder (NSDAE) is used for data repair. Then, the maximum Lyapunov exponent is used to determine the chaotic characteristics. Meanwhile, based on Bayesian estimation theory, the features of three-parameter sequences are fused in high-dimensional space using phase space reconstruction technique to obtain reconstructed multi-parameter fused traffic flow data. Finally, by taking advantage of the fact that MEA can divide the data into several subpopulations for optimal search separately, a prediction model based on MEA to improve LSTM is proposed. The results show that compared to the other two traditional data restoration methods, the NSDAE has higher accuracy, with the lowest average values of RMSE, MAE, and MAPE. Through the phase space reconstruction technique, the feature fusion of three parameters of traffic flow is realized in high-dimensional space, which makes up for the insufficiency of a single time-series data that cannot comprehensively levy the characteristics of traffic flow. The MEA-LSTM model outperforms the LSTM model in terms of prediction accuracy, computational efficiency, and generalization ability, and its RMSE, MEA, and MAPE are reduced by 24.3%, 28.9%, and 30.1%, respectively.

The urban shrinkage phenomenon is increasingly common. However, at the same time, it is accompanied by local growth within the region, and its complex impact mechanism still lacks in-depth research. This paper takes Daqing, a resource-based city, as an example and constructs a multi-dimensional urban growth/shrinkage type definition matrix. The random forest classification model is used to quantitatively analyze the relevant factors affecting the classification matrix by comparing different models. The results show that: (1) The growth/shrinkage of Daqing City leads to a concentric structure of intensive growth—expansion growth—expansion shrinkage—intensive shrinkage that gradually changes from the center to the periphery in space. (2) The random forest classification model can better explain the cause mechanism of urban growth/shrinkage. (3) The growth/shrinkage of resource-based cities in the transformation stage is mainly affected by economic factors, such as traffic accessibility and urban morphology related to the resource economy. This study provides an evaluation framework from qualitative to quantitative, providing useful references for research and planning policy formulation in related fields.

This study examines the energy-efficient transformation of Panoffs’ Mansion in Wuhan, integrating sustainability into urban renewal while preserving historical integrity. Through a qualitative methodology, the research employs field observations, literature reviews, and case studies. It explores how adaptive reuse of heritage structures can meet contemporary energy standards and urban demands, balancing preservation with modernization. This approach illuminates the potential of sustainable practices in revitalizing historical buildings, promoting a model for low-carbon urban development.

The protection of historical architectural heritage is the key research object of the ancient architecture industry, and the research on the partial construction of buildings is gradually deepening.Nowadays, the use of digital means to research and protect architectural heritage has become an important way for many scholars.However, there are many types of digital software on the market with complex functions, and common digital means include X-spectrum, Jingdiao JDP, point cloud data, 3D printing, etc.Based on the simple construction of dougong, this paper analyzes the method of digital technology module chain, and applies it to the field of architectural construction such as murals and sculptures.This digital technology module chain can not only study and analyze the construction of historical buildings, but also meet the needs of cultural relics preservation, industrial production, education and communication.Finally, it is expected that through the promotion of this digital technology module chain, the protection of historical architectural heritage and cultural communication will be promoted in a more optimized direction.

Industrial buildings are important production carriers in urban space, but they also have problems such as high production energy consumption, serious environmental pollution, and poor built interface, which have attracted much attention. Building environment optimization and energy structure adjustment have become the focus of industrial building research. In the context of the national carbon neutral policy, this paper studies the impact of industrial buildings on the urban environment, combines photovoltaic power generation technology, explores the integrated design strategy of CdTe generation glass and industrial building facades, and uses the southwest cement plant project in Lijiang, Yunnan as an example, a practical study was carried out, aiming to use industrial building facade resources to improve the aesthetics and functionality of the building facade at the urban interface of the park. Research shows that the strong plasticity of CdTe photovoltaic glass can not only provide necessary power energy for industrial buildings and optimize the building’s energy structure, but its color and material ductility can also improve the aesthetics of industrial building facades. This article provides certain reference and reference significance for subsequent related research.