The construction of modern metropolitan areas has become an important support for highquality regional development. According to the differences in the development level of metropolitan areas, the 2018 China Metropolitan Area Development Report divides them into three development levels from low to high: cultivation, development, and maturity. Most of these metropolitan areas have relatively low development levels and are still in the cultivation stage, which urgently needs to be taken seriously by the academic community. In September 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the “Regulations on the Compilation of Land and Space Planning for Urban Circles”, providing important guidance on the definition of spatial scope, compilation content, compilation results, and management regulations for urban circles. Identifying the spatial scope of a metropolitan area is the basis for conducting relevant planning and empirical research on the metropolitan area, and also the key to ensuring the rational allocation of resources, infrastructure co construction and sharing, regional transportation integration, and coordinated socioeconomic development between the central city and surrounding towns. Xuzhou Metropolitan Area is one of the three major metropolitan areas in Jiangsu Province. It is located in the fringe area of the four provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and Anhui, and an important hub area of the “the Belt and Road”. It has the general characteristics of a nurturing metropolitan area (weak comprehensive competitiveness, central city radiation ability to be improved, etc.). At the same time, it is also one of the earliest urban agglomerations to carry out planning practice exploration nationwide, with its research object being typical of the development characteristics of nurturing urban agglomerations and representative of cross regional planning guidance. Therefore, based on a systematic review of the relevant concepts and delineation methods of urban agglomerations both domestically and internationally, this article first proposes the principles and ideas for delineating the spatial scope of urban agglomerations. It is believed that the delineation of urban agglomerations should follow the principles of central city radiation, qualitative and quantitative balance, complete administrative divisions, and highlighting regional characteristics. Then, using multi-source data and multiple methods to quantitatively overlay and calculate the spatial scope and layer structure of the Xuzhou metropolitan area from aspects such as transportation isochronous, spatial interaction, population density, and public facility density, etc. Then, qualitative verification was conducted from the perspectives of historical culture, industrial cooperation, and relevant planning to enhance the matching between the quantitative analysis results and the actual development. Finally, it was identified that the spatial scope of the Xuzhou metropolitan area includes 21 county/district units, with the core circle including Xuzhou City, Peixian County, Huaibei City, Tengzhou City, Xiao County, and Zaozhuang City, and the close circle including Pizhou City, SuiningCounty, Feng County, Suqian City In the urban areas of Suzhou and Xinyi, the opportunity circle includes Tancheng County, Yongcheng City, Dangshan County, Xiayi County, Lingbi County, Suixi County, Weishan County, Lanling County, and Si County. The identification results are similar to the main area of the existing planning scheme and have a more complete functional area, which has a certain degree of scientific and applicability. Through the analysis of the morphological characteristics of the circle structure and the main socioeconomic indicators, it is found that there is still a significant gap between the Xuzhou metropolitan area and the spatial pattern of networked connections, rational division of labor, and balanced development. Currently, the agglomeration capacity between the central city and the core circle is constantly increasing, and the polarization effect is greater than the diffusion effect in the development stage. Finally, by cultivating circle level transportation networks, it can improve the efficiency of resource flow in urban areas. It has proposed planning and guidance strategies to enhance the energy level of central cities and optimize the urban system structure of metropolitan areas. The main innovation of this article lies in the combination of the development characteristics of nurturing urban agglomerations, the combination of multidimensional quantitative superposition and qualitative auxiliary verification, which makes up for the shortcomings of urban agglomeration delineation research in terms of research objects, research methods, and research scales. The proposed principles and ideas for delineating the spatial scope of urban agglomerations have certain reference value for delineating the spatial scope of similar urban agglomerations in China. However, for different metropolitan areas, regional differences should be reflected in the selection of evaluation elements. With the upgrading of information technology and the reduction of data acquisition costs, multi-source data can be better applied to relevant research in urban areas in the future, further expanding the analytical dimension of spatial range identification in urban areas. In addition, as a complex giant system, the scope and boundaries of metropolitan areas will undergo dynamic changes with the advancement of urbanization, and appropriate adjustments need to be made based on the characteristics of stage development.