城乡经济一体化是指在平等的经济政策下，通过资源和要素的双向流动和优化配置，城乡边际回报趋于平等；城乡社会一体化是指确保公共服务（如就业、教育、医疗和基础设施）在城乡居民中同等重要；城乡生态一体化是通过城乡区域系统的综合协同管理，实现城乡高度融合、互补的状态。城乡空间一体化是指城乡系统在人流、物流、信息流等方面的互动和融合，是城乡一体化发展的载体和基础条件。

    随着城乡一体化战略的不断推进，城乡之间的因素发生了迅速的变化，从而逐步打破了城乡之间的界限、结构甚至作用机制[ 16], and the long-existing “dualistic order” has triggered the endogenous demand for “common (integrated) development”. Driven by urbanization and industrialization, urban-rural territorial systems tend to be more coordinated, and their functions and structures are becoming multi-dimensional. Scholars in ecology have concluded that urban-rural integration should achieve the elimination of the imbalance of ecological development between urban and rural areas, while scholars in geography have suggested that urban-rural integration should be a rational spatial connection between urban and rural systems. Other scholars have clarified the connotation of urban-rural integration in accordance with “flow space” and urban-rural equivalence theory and have argued that in the era of rapid development of information technology, conventional factors (e.g., land and population) break through the limitations of the field and exhibit dynamic and networked characteristics, thus affecting the mechanism of urban-rural factor flow [17、18 ]。_ 此外，按照城乡对等理论，城乡一体化发展的内涵凸显了城乡发展的“不同但平等”的本质。总之，城乡一体化发展应通过要素的双向流动和资源的有效配置，实现城乡区域系统经济、社会、生态领域的互动与融合，最终实现城乡对等的发展。上述过程也指异质二元结构向同质整体结构的转变，这对城乡一体化发展至关重要。

    在区域发展目标下，城乡一体化发展还应实现城乡地域体系经济-社会-生态效益的统一过程和城乡地域体系空间均衡发展的过程。 空间均衡城乡一体化发展模式能够更有效地解释城乡一体化发展的内在机制[ 22 ]。根据上述内涵解释，城乡要素双向流动和资源优化配置是实现城乡融合发展的重要前提。首先，相关研究发现，中国的城市化水平仍低于世界可比国家的平均水平[ 23]。二是随着城乡一体化发展水平的不断提高，越来越多的城市现代化要素被配置到农村体系中，表现为资本、技术等要素的净流入。第三，随着乡村振兴战略的实施，农村基本公共服务比重不断提高，表现为公共产品比重不断提高。通过城乡之间要素的流动和优化配置，随着城镇化的不断推进，农村人口在一定范围内趋于减少。通过城市多方面因素的输入和乡村振兴战略的实施，农村地域体系综合发展效率趋于提高，即农村地域体系人均开发效率不断提高，城乡地域体系空间、经济和社会布局优化。由此，城乡地域体系的人均发展效率最终趋于均等化，实现城乡一体化发展。