This article expands the study of smart growth from urban space to urban–rural regions based on land use. It analyses smart land use in urban–rural regions. The study sets up an integrated measure indicator system of smart land use in urban–rural regions, which consisted of three subsystems: land amount controls, land form compactness, and land use efficiency. As a case study, the system was used to measure the smart land use in the Pukou District of Nanjing City, an area with intensive urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The results show that smart land use in the investigated area is increasing year by year, but it remains to be further improved. The integrated measure indicator system of smart land use in urban–rural regions is effective for measuring the level and status of regional smart land use.

With the rapid economic development and increased human activities, the soil heavy metal pollution has become a serious environmental problem in the world. This study investigated the heavy metal accumulation in soil and bioaccumulation in wheat in the Yangtze River Delta, particularly in Suzhou-Kunshan, to provide theoretical guidance for economic development and pollution control. Wheat plants were collected and divided into four parts: root, stem, leaf, and grain. The concentrations of eight heavy metals (Hg, As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn and Cd, As is a metalloid) in each wheat plant part were evaluated, and the accumulation and relationship of these heavy metals (HMs) were analyzed. Results indicated that the roots had the greatest accumulating capability among the four plant parts, also the roots are the main channel of heavy metal accumulation in wheat plant. The most and least accumulated HMs were Cd and Cr, respectively. Correlation analysis revealed a relationship between heavy metal concentration in the grains and other plant parts of wheat. However, no consistent pattern was found. This result could be attributed in part to the atmosphere-derived HMs in wheat; thus, outer contaminants and reactions might exist in the plants.

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