CC-BYYuan, QingMeng, JiuqiLeng, Hong2024-11-272024-11-272024978-94-64981-82-7https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/2194Game changer? Planning for just and sustainable urban regions, Paris, 8-12th July 2024In 2022, China experienced its first population decline in decades, leading to an increasingly common phenomenon of urban and rural shrinkage. Small towns, under the dual pressures of the suction effect from larger cities and rural revitalization policies, face elevated development risks. This paper proposes pathways to enhance the resilience of the social-ecological system of shrinking small towns through the territorial spatial planning. These pathways include enhancing buffering capacity both within and beyond urban development boundaries, strengthening self-organisation at all levels, and improving learning capacity through dynamic assessment and adjustment. The aim is to proactively mitigate the risks faced by shrinking small towns, improve residents' quality of life, and offer insights for China's high-quality urbanization development and governance. Keywords: shrinkage, small town, social-ecological system, resilience, territorial spatial planningEnglishopenAccessconferenceObject2928-2938