The long-term transformation of mono-industrial cities has become a critical issue in sustainable urban development, particularly where urban growth was initially shaped by state-led industrialization and strategic security concerns. This paper examines China’s Third Front Construction, a large-scale Cold War programme that relocated industrial and defence facilities to inland regions, through a paired comparison of Yuan’an and Xiaogan in Hubei Province. Focusing on Base 066 as a city-forming enterprise, the study combines archival research, local gazetteers, factory records, field investigation, historical satellite imagery, and urban morphological analysis to examine how policy shifts reshaped urban form, industrial layout, infrastructure, and public facilities. The findings show that Yuan’an developed as a dispersed, mountain-based industrial enclave structured by concealment, air defence requirements, and work unit organization, whereas Xiaogan evolved into a more compact and integrated urban industrial district after the relocation of Base 066. This transformation changed not only production space but also urban–rural relations, residential organization, and public service provision. The study demonstrates that Third Front cities should be understood as policy-produced urban systems whose later decline or integration reflects the changing relationship between security, industry, and urban sustainability. It further suggests that industrial heritage, adaptive reuse, and intercity memory networks can support the regeneration of former mono-industrial settlements.
Gao et al. (Tue,) studied this question.