© 2015 Elsevier B.V.It is important understanding urbanization where residents outside of the area come into the urbanized region. Urbanized area is the one facing more environmental problems because of intensive population density amplifying more damage to the environment. This paper targets China's rapid urbanization and discusses research and policy needs in the field of sustainable urbanization. We discuss research needs for metabolism studies for sustainability of cities, major driving forces in the context of urbanization, and knowledge integration through stakeholder engagement.