<p>Under the rural revitalization strategy, traditional rural development models are increasingly less aligned with the practical needs of the current stage. So optimizing rural transformation models is essential to promote rural revitalization and urban-rural integration development. This study constructs a theoretical framework of rural transformation based on ESE (Economic centrality - Space agglomeration - Environment livability), with an empirical focus on villages in the Wujin District of China. It uses the combination weighting method and gravity model to quantitatively measure village suitability and centrality. Results show that Wujin’ village suitability weakens from the north to the south: highly-suitable villages are mainly located around the urban core area, moderately suitable ones cluster on the periphery, and over 50% (low suitability) are in the southern part of the district. Central villages account for 33% of the study area, with sub-central villages scattered nearby. Based on the combination of suitability and centrality, the development of villages is reclassified into four models: urban intensive construction, agglomeration enhancement, retention optimization, and intensification reduction. Therefore, different corresponding optimization paths, based on different village development models, are proposed to promote rural transformation and urban-rural integration.</p>