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As China increases its pace of urbanization, urban areas achieve rapid development by snatching resources from small towns that suffer persistent outflow of resources and anemic growth. Consequently, this trend is likely to destroy the foundation of urbanization and structural equilibrium of sustainable development. Based on the theory of complex adaptive systems (CAS), this paper held that the changes above were results of the small towns’ making adaptive adjustments to their internal structures according to external environments. To assess the fitness values of the small towns around major cities in China, this study analyzed Wuhan city and its peripheral towns from the ‘fitness’ perspective using the NK model. Meanwhile, the “space-function” coupled mode was introduced to analyze the development features of these small towns at different fitness levels. On this basis, spatial autocorrelation was employed to reveal the spatial patterns of the small towns around Wuhan according to their fitness values. Besides, the locally optimal paths of eight different types of combinations to evolve fitness were identified based on the NK computation results. The findings indicate positive correlations between the fitness values of small towns around major cities and the number of dominant factors. Apart from this, there exists a hierarchical clustering structure in the region of the major city which is bounded by urban growth boundary based on the fitness values of small towns. Also, spatial restructuring, the path to closer interaction with peripheral adaptive agents and effective resource integration in a greater scope, should be given priority to improve the adaptability of small towns. Additionally, the small towns should shift toward the function-oriented pattern that emphasizes specialization from the conventional centralized clustering structure to go with the tide of regional specialization and transformation in urban areas and realize their regional value.

Assessment of Small Towns’ Fitness around China’s Major Cities: A Case Study in Wuhan City