With increasing ecological damage caused by regional development, many countries seek to promote sustainable development through spatial regulation. This study treated China's development of National Key Ecological Functional Zones (NKEFZ) as a quasi–natural experiment, applying a time–varying difference–in–differences model to data from 148 water quality monitoring cross–section points of major river systems in China from 2004 to 2018. The results revealed that NKEFZ improved the mean of comprehensive water quality (CWQ) and individual water quality indicators of dissolved oxygen and ammonia nitrogen content index by restricting urbanization and increasing government investment. The mean value of CWQ was improved by about 0.22 grades, and the optimization effect of spatial regulation on average water quality was more prominent in coastal cities, cities with high–pollution levels, and large–sized cities. Nevertheless, the impact of NKEFZ on water quality exhibited a “Matthew effect”, in which NKEFZ were not effective in improving the bottom line standard of water quality in the pilot zones, as NKEFZ did not significantly improve the peak values of CWQ or individual pollutant indicator. In addition, an economic effect estimation indicated that NKEFZ significantly facilitated local economic growth and primary industry development and had a significantly negative impact on secondary industry growth and foreign investment. This study contributes new evidence for measuring the effect of the trans–regional spatial regulation, eliciting policy implications for improving ecological spatial regulation and incentive mechanisms, and promoting the sustainable development of the regional environment and economy.

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Education is critical to achieving the world’s sustainable development (SD). Assessment or measurement is a means to help an education system to accelerate integrating SD content. To have a perception of the gap in relation to the SD action goals, a basic understanding of current students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors (KAB) needs to be established. The study applied a survey to assess Chinses students’ knowingness, attitude and behavior regarding SD. Data were collected from students from all parts of China via an online survey tool, which consists of 887 primary-school students and 1661 secondary-school students. The results indicate a high level of KAB regarding SD among Chinese students, while this sustainability literacy is mainly embodied in the environmental dimension. In general, the results showed the better KAB of primary-school students than secondary-school students, while there was almost no difference between male and female students. Moreover, knowingness and attitude have significant and positive correlations with behaviors. These results constitute a general sketch of Chinese students’ sustainable knowledge, attitudes and behavior, which could be employed to monitor China’s efforts on education for sustainable development and also to foster curriculum developments and innovations in China.