A sustainable assessment framework for cross-regional ecological governance: Integrating socio-ecological system and complex network approaches

While assessing the sustainability of ecological governance is essential, effective assessment approaches remain limited. This study integrates social-ecological system (SES) theory with complex network analysis to build a new assessment framework, which uses multi-source data and social-ecological network analysis (SENA) to quantitatively assess the spatiotemporal interactions between stakeholders and ecological elements. Taking the cross-regional ecological space of the Shenzhen metropolitan area as a case study, the assessment reveals spatiotemporal differences in ecological governance while identifying gaps between governance outcomes and objectives. The results indicate that: i) Ecological spaces show a “core-periphery” structure, with increased fragmentation near boundaries; ii) Governance sustainability declined in shareability and compatibility due to poor information exchange and misaligned planning, but adaptability improved through leadership reforms; iii) Diagnostics reveal gaps in adaptability and compatibility for Shenzhen and Dongguan, alongside shareability and adaptability deficiencies for Shenzhen and Huizhou. Overall, a shift from under-governance to over-governance was observed. By unifying previously divided governance and ecological dimensions through SES theory, this framework further integrates complex network analysis to provide a multi-level method for assessing the sustainability of ecological governance, supporting turn planning schemes into practical action.