From fragments to system: Complex adaptive study on emergence mechanisms of green infrastructure networks

With accelerated urbanization and frequent extreme climate events, resilient city construction has become a critical global sustainable development issue. However, current green infrastructure construction exhibits fragmentation due to insufficient understanding of network emergence mechanisms, lacking theoretical frameworks to explain how resilience properties emerge from component interactions and evaluation methods to quantify network synergistic effects. Based on complex adaptive system theory and resilient city theory, this study constructs an integrated evaluation model, systematically evaluating green infrastructure network emergence performance in 11 cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The research confirms that green infrastructure networks possess significant emergence characteristics, validating the theoretical hypothesis that “overall effects exceed simple aggregation of individual effects.” the system rapid recovery promotion effect (SRRP), systemic risk chain reaction blocking capacity (SRCR), and regional ecological effect diffusion influence (REDI) constitute core driving elements of emergence effects. The Greater Bay Area's green infrastructure network emergence presents a “dual-core driven” advantage pattern and “eastern strong, western weak” spatial differentiation, with Hong Kong and Shenzhen leading due to mature planning systems and innovation-driven advantages. This research provides a new paradigm for complex adaptive system theory application in urban studies and offers scientific basis for regional collaborative development and differentiated policy formulation