fig1

Figure 1. Absolute and synergistic governance across four subsystems at city and urban-agglomeration scales. (A) Comparison of city-level synergistic governance levels in 2011 and 2020. (B) Temporal evolution of subsystem-level absolute governance and overall synergistic governance across urban agglomerations. Score reflects the level of absolute and synergistic governance of an urban agglomeration across the four subsystems, calculated as the average of its constituent cities. A higher score indicates greater progress within that subsystem relative to other cities. The absolute governance levels are not directly comparable across different subsystems. The base map is from the Standard Map Service of the Ministry of Natural Resources of China (Approval No. GS(2019)1822), available at https://bzdt.ch.mnr.gov.cn/.