Unraveling the Interaction and Synergies between Urban Agriculture and Urban-Rural Integration in China: A Case Study of Xi'an

Urban-rural linkage and synergies are important social and economic relations. Urban agriculture is an important driving force for urban-rural integration development, but the interaction and synergies mechanism between the two systems remain unclear. Taking Xi'an as a typical case, this study constructs an evaluation indicators system for urban agriculture and urban-rural integration development, quantitatively assesses the interaction between the two systems using grey relational analysis and coupling coordination models, and analyzes the potential mechanism based on the push-pull theory. This study confirms that urban-rural integration supports the development of urban agriculture and the function of urban agriculture contributes to urban-rural integration. In addition, the degree of coupling of the two systems is increasing. This study verifies both empirically and theoretically that urban agriculture is a key way to drive urban-rural integration development and enriches the body of knowledge of urban agriculture and urban-rural integration development.