中文摘要：

经济社会一体化加深了区域及城市之间的空间联系，短期内不可调整的行政区划无法灵活应对这一趋势。美国、加拿大、英国、日本等典型国家采用某类标准重组城市空间，形成不同类型的都市经济区，作为规划管理、政策实施及科学研究的空间尺度。系统总结这些先发国家重组城市空间的实践、方法和经验，分析中国依赖单一行政区划带来的一系列影响城市可持续发展的问题。得出中国超越城市行政边界、基于经济活动择机形成新的城市管理空间、提高城市规划适用性和城市统计科学性等政策启示。

英文摘要：

With increasing economic and social integration, spatial linkage among areas is becoming more and more evident. However, administrative divisions is rigid in the short term. Some highly urbanized countries such as USA, Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan, have reorganized their urban spaces and formed different types of ＂metropolitan economic areas＂. These new areas are based on economic activities, and are used as the basis for for city planning, management and scientific research. We systematically summarize practical experiences in these counties, and provide a new perspective to sustainable issues caused by rigid ad- ministrative divisions. We propose that urban spatial restructure beyond the admin- istrative boundary of cities should be put into practice at a proper time in China in order to help make effective city plans, enhance the reliability of urban statisti- cal data, as well as facilitate city management.