Revealing the spatial differences and convergence mechanism of urban land use efficiency (ULUE) under the background of regional integration is of great significance for exploring the coordinated promotion path of ULUE. We attempted to build a theoretical framework to interpret ULUE spatial convergence under the background of regional integration and build a ULUE “green” evaluation system under multi-objective constraints. Based on this, we employed the super efficiency slack-based model (SBM), exploratory spatial data analysis, and spatial convergence model incorporated into the spatial weight matrix to re-examine the true level, spatial differences, and convergence mechanism of ULUE in the Yangtze River Economic Zone from 2003 to 2019 on a city scale. The results show that: (1) during the investigation period, ULUE in the Yangtze River Economic Zone has obvious spatial disequilibrium and spatial correlation characteristics; (2) there are absolute β-space convergence and conditional β-space convergence of ULUE in the whole Yangtze River Economic Zone and its upstream, midstream, and downstream areas; (3) driven by government management, industrial development, and spatial error effects, the convergence time of ULUE in the whole Yangtze River Economic Zone and its upstream, midstream, and downstream areas is obviously shortened.

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This paper theoretically constructs the logical framework of urban agglomeration affecting urban land green use efficiency (ULGUE) and employs the super efficiency SBM model with undesired outputs to measure ULGUE based on the research object from 107 prefecture-level cities and above in the Yangtze River Economic Zone. Then, this paper uses the difference-in-differences method to test the impact of urban agglomeration on the ULGUE. The results show that: (1) urban agglomeration has a positive regulatory effect on the ULGUE, and this research conclusion is robust; (2) the promotion effect of urban agglomeration on the ULGUE has regional differences, showing the basic pattern of ordinary prefecture-level cities > regional central cities > provincial capital cities and medium cities > big cities > super large and megacities; (3) small and medium-sized cities should be encouraged to further agglomerate while moderately controlling the excessive agglomeration of super-large cities and megacities. Moreover, it is suggested to improve the level of regional agglomeration from the aspects of flexible use of market mechanisms and policy tools, innovative technology applications to achieve the effective integration of urban agglomeration, and ULGUE promotion.

The green transition of farmland use is a future trend in China’s modern agriculture and green development. However, its research framework, including its evaluation system, temporal-spatial distribution, and driving mechanisms, has not been established in the existent literature. With the 17 cities in Hubei Province as an example, we evaluated the green transition of farmland use and explore the characteristics and driving mechanisms of the temporal and spatial evolution from 2000–2019. The findings were as follows: First, the green transition of farmland use in Hubei Province is in infancy, but it has great potential. Second, the growth rate of the green transition of farmland use has noticeable regional differences in the east, central, and western areas of the province. Third, the three dimensions of spatial transition, functional transition, and model transition in the green transition of farmland use have significant spatial differences in coupling and coordination, and decoupling is becoming increasingly prominent. Based on the research findings, we put forward targeted countermeasures and suggestions.

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