China's Urbanization is Gaining Momentum

Alongside China’s rapid economic growth after the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy,urbanization has progressed fairly quickly. Since 1998 in particular the urbanization drive has been accelerating.What is the current status of China’s urbanization drive?In this article Cui Ruchun consults an enormous range of statistics to analyze China’s current urbanization level,urban economic development,infrastructure construction,environment construction, developments in science,technology and education,as well as the living standard of urban residents.

Spatio-temporal Evolution of Urban Expansion Based on a Novel Adjusted Index and GEE: A Case Study of Central Plains Urban Agglomeration, China

It is crucial to investigate the urban agglomerations spatio-temporal evolution patterns and driving factors for analyzing the urban spatial structure-functional division and promoting the coordinated development of urban agglomerations.In this study,a novel vegetation-building-nighttime light-adjusted index(VBNAI)was established for rapid and effective mapping of urban construction land(UCL)in Central Plains Urban Agglomeration(CPUA),China during 2000–2020 based on Google Earth Engine(GEE)platform.Compared with traditional indices,VBNAI can significantly decrease the blooming effect,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)saturation,and soil background of nighttime light data.In addition,the urban expansion indices and standard deviation ellipse model were synthetically adopted to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution pattern of urban expansion.The gravity model and the geographically weighted regression model were employed to determine the spatial interaction forces and drivers of urban expansion,respectively.The results showed that the VBNAI index has obvious advantages in efficiency and accuracy to extract UCL with the overall accuracy of more than 91%.The UCL of CPUA had increased by 4489.84 km2 during 2000–2020 with the gravity center moving towards southeast continuously.From 2000 to 2010,the urban expansion was in a‘center-hinterland’pattern which had benefit from the favorable effect of the traffic shaft belt.During 2010–2020,the urban network structure had basically established.Urban expansion had been influenced by a variety of socio-economic and demographic factors,and the impact degree varied from region to region.This study could provide scientific references for facilitating the intensive utilization of urban resources and optimizing the spatial development pattern of urban agglomeration.

Impacts of household income on beef at-home consumption:Evidence from urban China

Beef consumption in China has increased substantially from 5.0 million tons in 2000 to 7.7 million tons in 2019 thanks to rapid income growth,but still remains low compared to pork and poultry consumption.Improving the understanding about the impacts of household income on beef consumption in China is necessary to forecast future beef demand and inform the domestic beef industry,especially in the context of unprecedented expansion of middle income class in China.Based on survey data of 32878 urban households collected by the National Bureau of Statistics of China,we employed the inverse hyperbolic sine(IHS)double-hurdle model to estimate income elasticities of beef demand across different income groups and simulated possible trends of future beef consumption of Chinese urban residents.The empirical results showed that the unconditional income elasticities of beef consumption at home vary between 0.169 for the lowincome group and 0.671 for the high-income group.The simulated results indicated that beef consumption is expected to increase by 12.0 to 38.8%in 10 years and by 18.6 to 70.5%in 15 years under distinct income growth scenarios.Our findings provide practical insights for policy makers and other stakeholders about future beef demand,such as potential opportunities embedded in rising beef demand for domestic producers and world beef exporters as well as the urgency of improving the supply chain resilience of beef in China.

Consumers' perceptions on GM food safety in urban China

The debate about the safety of genetically modified （GM） food has attracted public attention in concurrence with the rapid development of agricultural biotechnology. This paper examines the consumers＇ perceptions on the safety of GM food in China. Based on a unique survey dataset, this study shows that consumers in urban China have significantly changed their perceptions on GM food safety. The percentage of consumers who perceived such food as unsafe for consumption increased by more than 30% in the 2002-2012 period. Approximately half of the consumers did not have an opinion on this issue. Major shifts have been occurred after 2010, likely because of the increasing influence of negative media reports on GM technology in recent years. Several individual and household＇s characteristics are shown to significantly affect consumers＇ perceptions on GM food safety, such as gender, education, food allergy experience and resident city size. The paper concludes with policy implications.

Population Shrinkage in Resource-dependent Cities in China: Processes, Patterns and Drivers

Resource-dependent cities(RCs)are a vulnerable group of urban settlements that often face population shrinkage;however,population changes in RCs in China are not well understood.This study offers new insight into this matter through a robust analysis that features a longer time scale,a larger sample of RCs,and a finer unit of analysis.It finds new evidence that problems of population shrinkage in RCs are more serious than previous literature has suggested.Approximately 30%of the studied units have experienced either long-term or short-term population shrinkage,and many more are experiencing a slowing down of population growth.Problems are especially common among three types of RCs:the resource-depleted RCs,the forestry-based RCs,and RCs in Northeast China.These results underscore transition policy inadequacies in addressing population loss,and call for a more comprehensive and diversified population policy that tackles the multifaceted factors that contribute to population shrinkage,including lack of industrial support,maladjustment to market oriented reformation,poor urban environment and natural population decline.

Changes in Ecosystem Service of Soil Conservation Between 2000 and 2010 and Its Driving Factors in Southwestern China

Human activities significantly alter ecosystems and their services; however, quantifying the impact of human activities on ecosystems has been a great challenge in ecosystem management. We used the Universal Soil Loss Equation and county-level socioeconomic data to assess the changes in the ecosystem service of soil conservation between 2000 and 2010, and to analyze its spatial characteristics and driving factors in the southwestern China. The results showed that cropland in the southwestern China decreased by 3.74%, while urban land, forest, and grassland areas increased by 46.78%, 0.86%, and 1.12%, respectively. The soil conservation increased by 1.88 × 10^(11) kg, with deterioration only in some local areas. The improved and the degraded areas accounted for 6.41% and 2.44% of the total land area, respectively. Implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program and urbanization explained 57.80% and 23.90% of the variation in the soil conservation change, respectively, and were found to be the main factors enhancing soil conservation. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was one of the factors that led to the degradation of soil conservation. Furthermore, industrial adjustment, by increasing shares of Industry and Service and reducing those of Agriculture, has also promoted soil conservation. Our results quantitatively showed and emphasized the contributions to soil conservation improvement made by implementing ecological restoration programs and promoting urbanization. Consequently, these results provide basic information to improve our understanding of the effects of ecological restoration programs, and help guide future sustainable urban development and regional industrial restructuring.

Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

Income inequality in urban China has attracted growing attention from China’s urban researchers and policy makers. Whereas many studies have interrogated the pattern and process of the income gap in Chinese cities undergoing the institutional transformation from plan to market, relatively little is known about how such unequal distribution of income is related to China’s ongoing structural transformation toward a post-industrial economy. Drawing on a decomposition methodology based on the Theil index, this study aimed to address this lacuna through an empirical investigation of China’s urban wage inequality from a sectoral perspective. Our empirical study identified the low-wage manufacturing sector and the high-wage producer services sector as the two biggest contributors to urban wage inequality in China. Urban wage inequality within the producer services was found to be caused by the spatial concentration of a disproportionate number of high-paying jobs in a few developed, high-tier city-regions on the eastern coast. Our empirical findings have important implications for the formulation of policies to address the income inequality that plagues China’s continuing urbanization.

Using Impervious Surfaces to Detect Urban Expansion in Beijing of China in 2000s

The change of impervious surface area(ISA) can effectively reveal the gradual process of urbanization and act as a key index for monitoring urban expansion. Experiencing rapid growth of the built environment in the 2000 s, urban expansion of Beijing has not been fully characterized through ISA. In this study, Landsat TM images of Beijing in 2001 and 2009 were obtained, and the eight-year urban expansion process in Beijing was analyzed using the ISA extracted by means of the vegetation-imperious surface-soil(V-I-S) model. From the spatial variation in ISA, the ring structure of urban expansion in Beijing was significant during the study period, with decreasing urban density from the city center to the periphery. In the ring road analysis, the most dramatic changes of ISA were found between the fifth ring and the sixth ring. This area has experienced the most new residential development, and is currently the main source of urban expansion. The typical profile lines revealed the directional characteristics of urban expansion. The east-west profile was the most urbanized axes in Beijing, while ISA change in the east-north profile was more significant than in the other five profiles. Moreover, the transition matrix of ISA levels revealed an increase in urban density in the low density built areas; the Moran′s I index showed a clear expansion of the central urban area, which spread contiguously; and the standard deviational ellipse indicated the northeast was the dominant direction of urban expansion. These findings can provide important spatial control guidelines in the next round of national economic and social development planning, overall urban and rural planning, and land use planning.

Spatial Differences of Coastal Urban Expansion in China from 1970s to 2013

As the ′economic engines′ of China,coastal cities have developed and expanded considerably since the 1970 s.In this study,information on the urban expansion process of Chinese coastal cities from the 1970 s to 2013 was retrieved.Through the analysis of stage characteristics,spatial expansion modes,influences on land use,centroid shifts,and spatial morphological evolutions,the spatial differences of coastal urban expansion were revealed.Results indicate that 1) the expansion stages of southern coastal cities are more complex than those of northern coastal cities,and the expansion ranges and speeds of the former are far higher than those of the latter;2) the spatial expansion of southern coastal cities mostly adopt a single mode,whereas northern coastal cities mostly adopt a mixed mode;3) significant spatial differences in the occupations of different land sources exist between the south and the north along the coastline;4) the centroid of coastal cities tends to migrate toward the coastline,and the centroid shift distances of southern coastal cities are clearly higher than those of northern coastal cities;and 5) the spatial morphology of southern coastal cities tends to be compact,whereas that of northern coastal cities tends to be loose.Policies have a powerful significance in terms of guiding urban expansion and its spatial differences in coastal cities.Urban expansion in coastal cities will encounter new opportunities and challenges under the guidance of new types of urbanization strategies.

Urban Redevelopment, Gentrification and Gentrifiers in Post-reform Inland China: A Case Study of Chengdu, China

Since its process evolved in recent years, the definition of gentrification has expanded to cover different forms of social upgrading, new spaces and new actors around the world. Studies on gentrification in Chinese cities began to take off in the 2000 s. However, they all mainly focused on the newly emerging global cities and there has been a lack of investigation on provincial cities. Furthermore, discussions on gentrifiers′ profiles and their motivations for housing choice are absent from literature on Chinese gentrification. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the relevance of the broad definition of gentrification in provincial Chinese cities through empirical research on urban redevelopment projects in Chengdu, and to examine the characteristics of gentrifiers(as new incoming residents) in it. The results show the rationality of gentrification processes as urban redevelopment in Chengdu, and reveal original outcomes on the corresponding gentrifiers′ profiles and the motivations behind their housing choice, which are different from the general features of gentrifiers in standard Western gentrification research.

Study on the Layout of Urban Planning in Rapid Urbanization Areas under the Background of Air Pollution

China＇s urbanization has been over the medium-term process,which has made great achievements,but also triggered a huge problem of air pollution. Air pollution has become a big problem after the water pollution in China,and a serious threat to people＇s life and health. Under the background of ＂ the construction of beautiful China＂ and rapid urbanization,how to build a beautiful home has become the focus of attention. Taking Shenyang as an example,the author contrastively analyses the spatial distribution of the main air pollutants（ PM10,PM2. 5,and SO2） and the present situation of land use,and thus finds out the rules between pollutants distribution and land use. Then combining the urban planning scheme and the rules obtained above,reasonable suggestions are proposed for the scheme to improve the air quality,and reduce or avoid air pollution,and providing the basis for the construction of a piece of blue sky. The conclusions are as follows： 1 air pollutants concentration above Light Oil Gas Making Factory in south vice city of Shenyang reaches the peak value,and industrial point source is the main air pollutants emission source; 2 pollutants concentration above greenbelt is the lowest; 3 the overall spatial structure of urban planning can insulate the industrial agglomeration areas to some extent; greenbelt planning covers 40%- 50% of the area with high concentration of air pollutants,and it is suggested to achieve full coverage; traffic planning can achieve shunt most of the pollutants in many regions,but it can also expand the scope of pollutants in some certain regions,in such regions,it should reduce the road density.

Minister Hou Jie on China's Housing Construction and Urban Development

At a reception held recently, Mr. Hou Jie, Minister of Construction, spoke about China’s housing construction and urban development. According to Mr. Hou Jie, the Chinese government always pays high attention to housing development, and has adopted many policies to speed up the construction of houses. Especially since 1979 when China introduced the policy of reform and opening, residential housing has developed rapidly and witnessed outstanding achievement. From 1979 to 1996, 13.8 billion square metres of residential

Survey of China's Urban Consumption

FromDecember1998toJune1999,theChinaMarketSupervisionundertheStateStatisticsBureauconductedsurveysontheconsumptiontrendsandlivesofChina'surbanresidentsamong5,000consumersin20cities,includingBeijing,Shanghai,Chengdu,Guangzhou,Wuhan,Naming,Qingdao,Dalia...