With the rapid development of globalization and information & communication technology (ICT), the unprecedented urban development has brought humankind into an era of “planetary urbanization”, and the parallel situation of mobility and instability is increasingly prominent (Lewis and Maslin, 2015; Dryzek, 2016; Steffen et al., 2018; Elmqvist et al., 2019; Ye and Liu, 2020). The massive movement of population, goods, and capital has exacerbated the risks of climate change, financial crisis, ecological deterioration, and epidemic diseases, across continents, countries, and regions (George et al., 2016; Keys et al., 2019; Naidoo and Fisher, 2020). These intertwined issues have triggered irreversible changes in the social, economic and ecological components of the modern world, thus creating common but differentiated challenges for the sustainable development of both urban and rural areas (Liu et al., 2007; Rockström, 2016).

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations offer an opportunity for deep global transformation that requires complementary actions by governments, civil society, and businesses (United Nations, 2015; Allen et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2021). Promoting the SDGs of urban and rural areas is crucial to the future of humankind and at the core of global urbanization. Rural-urban governance is suitable as an experimental process and guarantees the operationalization and monitoring of the SDGs (Rhodes, 1996; McPhearson et al., 2017). Advancing for the science and practice of rural-urban governance toward the targets of the SDGs becomes increasingly significant and urgent (Brenner, 2004; Pradhan et al., 2017; Sachs et al., 2019). The well-designed models and paths to achieve the SDGs will particularly contribute to the sustainable development, planning, and governance of cities and villages in the underdeveloped regions (O’Neill et al., 2017; Pickering, 2019).

Research on the transformative and innovative theory, practice, and policy of urban and rural governance toward SDG targets is the common interest of many disciplines, including geography. Supported by the Major Program of the National Social Science Foundation of China (NSSFC) entitled “Promoting the Integrated Development of Urban and Rural Areas through Multi-dimensional Institutional Reform” and the Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China entitled “A Strategic Study on Integrated Development of Geography and Governance under Four Orientations”, the guest editors planned and organized this special issue, which immediately received enthusiastic responses from the academic community. In particular, the editors of Journal of Geographical Sciences gave us tremendous support and invaluable advice. This reflects to a certain extent, the enthusiasm of geographers and other scholars to respond to major issues and their engagement in important practices of urban and rural governance, which also encourages us to continue promoting the exploration of urban and rural governance.

The special issue entitled “Urban and Rural Governance Toward Sustainable Development Goals” of the Journal of Geographical Sciences aims to enrich the knowledge on policies, strategies, and actions for achieving sustainable urban and rural development by bringing together the cutting-edge research on theories, methods, and empirical studies. It includes ten articles, spanning a variety of topics, from historical tracks, theoretical logics, current patterns, to practical paths of urban and rural governance. There are five articles on the macro-perspective of urban and rural governance toward the targets of SDGs. Fan et al. (2022) established a theoretical framework to support the coordinated development of urban and rural systems based on territorial function theory, and put forward approaches and policy suggestions for equilibrium development, which contributes to narrowing the development gap and promoting the coordinated development of urban and rural territories in China in the new era. Ye et al. (2022) analyzed the historical logics and geographical patterns of China’s rural-urban governance according to its temporal and spatial evolution, which helps promote rural-urban integration and sustainable development, especially at a time when rural-urban mobility challenges the traditional governance mode and thus drives its transformation. Zhang et al. (2022) analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution of county urbanization in China and its influencing factors by using census data. Their research findings can help strengthen the weak areas in the urbanization of the county and inform decision-making regarding the implementation of the new-type urbanization strategy. Xian and Chen (2022) analyzed the differences and spatial characteristics of population changes in China’s prefecture-level cities by employing mean-variance grading, Moran’s index, and the Theil index, providing scientific support for the joint promotion of nearby and faraway urbanization. Zuo et al. (2022) did a thorough review of the history, progress, challenges, and prospects based on decades of rocky desertification poverty (RDP) studies, contributing to the current understanding of RDP and the provision of theoretical support for the realization of rural revitalization in rocky desertification areas and other countries with China’s experience.

The remaining articles represent typical cases of urban and rural governance committed to sustainable development. Fu et al. (2022) investigated the spatial associations between transportation and economic networks by conducting bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis, which shed policy implications towards optimizing the spatial structure of Zhongyuan Urban-Rural Agglomeration and improving the regional coordination for sustainable development. Wu et al. (2022) analyzed the various patterns and their formation mechanism of rural social space quality and then proposed a governance model to effectively improve the quality of rural social space and provide a reference for rural revitalization. Tan and Zhou (2022) constructed an analytical framework for gentrified rural community development based on a diachronic field investigation, providing insights for gentrification and community development of rural areas from the institutional arrangements, gentrified rural community making, and gentrified rural community governance aspects. Zhang et al. (2022) measured the process of rural transition and then analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution, and the experience of this study help establish policies on sustainable development in rural spaces and achieving rural-urban co-governance. Wang et al. (2022) used the Chinese Family Panel Survey (CFPS) data, adopted the Alkire-Foster method and the improved multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) to calculate and compare the multi-dimensional poverty and its changes among 3009 rural households in China, offering new insights for the government to further consolidate the results of poverty alleviation and tackle persistent multi-dimensional poverty, while presenting China’s experience to other developing countries.

The increasingly complex and uncertain environment reminds us that it is time to rethink both urban and rural areas’ growth, efficiency, justice, and sustainability. SDG-oriented governance is a complex process considering multiple subjects, involving spatial and temporal scales, with both global and local characteristics. For a specific city, region, or country, it is necessary to consider both the deep historical background and the constantly changing external environment. Only by co-governance of the urban and rural areas can the high-quality and sustainable development be realized. It is also important to note that governance is an interdisciplinary field that is closely relevant to practice, and requires integrated efforts by geographers, sociologists, economists, management scientists, practitioners, and community members. Therefore, we advocate for strengthening the collaboration between various fields and further advancing the new development of sustainable urban and rural governance. These are not only research frontiers of urban and rural governance toward SDGs, but also the rights, responsibilities and obligations of a researcher as a citizen or resident. Urban-rural governance is a practical issue that concerns everyone, and everyone can participate in and contribute to it.