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Extensive international experience shows that only villages with sustainable transformation achieve rural revitalization, while those with intense but unsustainable or stagnant transformation struggle to revitalize. However, this cognition lacks robust quantitative substantiation. Therefore, we established a rural revitalization potential assessment framework based on the rural transformation degree and sustainability, employing the Penalty for a Bottleneck (PFB) method and Entropy Function to measure the rural transformation degree and sustainability of 460 villages in Lingbao City, Henan Province, China, from 2000 to 2021, thus evaluating rural revitalization potential. The Mann-Kendall (MK) test was conducted to detect rural transformation thresholds, further quantifying the spatial relationship between rural transformation degree and sustainability through bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis (BSA). Our findings resonate with the central place theory that villages near those at advanced stages of development struggle to transform sustainably. Additionally, with the optimization of rural population density, and land use structure, these villages demonstrated a discernible upward trajectory in transformation sustainability. Villages with the highest rural revitalization potential were predominantly distributed in the northern of the Yellow River terrace, while those in the southwestern mountainous areas lacked revitalization potential due to low transformation degree. Generally, villages at higher altitudes and steeper slopes exhibited lower rural transformation degree, sustainability, and revitalization potential. With 30 km as the critical point, rural revitalization potential decreased initially and then increased with distance from the county government seat. This study provides essential references for the rational allocation of rural transformation and revitalization resources and for optimizing rural development planning. • Assess rural revitalization potential by transformation degree and sustainability. • Quantify the relationship between rural transformation degree and sustainability. • Unsustainable transformation of villages near highly transformed villages. • Villages on the Yellow River terrace exhibit high rural revitalization potential. • Revitalization potential declines within 30 km of the county seat but rises beyond it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitioning to a more optimal land use morphology contributes to the sustainable use of land resources. Land use transition refers to the land use morphology changes from one to another, which should be portrayed from both correlated spatial morphology and functional morphology. However, the current studies have the problem of separating the land use spatial and functional transition, which causes the degree and the mechanism of the correlation between them to be still unclear. Taking Shaanxi Province as a case study, based on the land use data and socio-economic data, this study used the sustainability evaluation model of land use spatial transition, the multifunctional coupling coordination model of land use, and the grey correlation model to quantify the correlation between the land use spatial and functional transition. The results showed that the correlation between land use spatial and functional transition was high in Shaanxi Province during 1980–2018, and the change in correlation had an interdecadal cycle, which was embodied in the correlation reached extremely high when a positive land use functional transition occurred. The correlation between land use spatial transition and the change of land use ecological function was extremely high, and the correlation with both production and living function was high. The high correlation between the land use spatial and functional transition was essentially a strong driving force, bound by the vulnerability of land ecology and strengthened by the rapidly changing demands of production and living. It can drive the land use spatial morphology transition to another that can give full play to the multifunctionality of land use. The study established a quantitative analysis framework for the correlation between land use spatial and functional transition, which provided quantitative evidence for the regional land use transition theory and contributed to formulating rational land use policies to achieve regional sustainable development. • Proposed a new theory for identifying land use spatial transitions. • Quantitatively explored the relationship between land use spatial and functional transition. • Elucidated correlation mechanism between land use spatial and functional transition [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]