Analysis and Modeling on the Spatial Structure of Urban Land Use: A Case of Jinan, China

Based on the data of urban land use obtained by remote sensing interpretation from aero images in 1986 and 2004, the spatial structure of Jinan is studied in this paper with the method of Geographic Information System (GIS). According to the proportion of land for residence, industry and commerce, the urban district can be distinguished into three rings. Compared with the traditional theory of the ring structure in Western coun- tries, they have many distinctive characteristics. The main func- tions of the inner ring include residence, business and banking, but the proportion of residential land (more than 50%) is considerably higher than that of the cities in Western countries. The land proportion for residence and industry in the intermediate ring is equal on the whole. The main land of the outside ring is for industrial use. From 1986 to 2004, great changes have taken place on the land proportion of different types of use. In the inner ring, the land for residential and industrial use has shrunk much while the land for commercial use has increased. In the intermediate ring, the changes of the three types of land use were not very much and the temporal variation was relatively stable. On the contrary, the structure in the outside ring varies acutely. Though most of it is also for industrial use, the proportion of residential land has in- creased much. The three rings can also be divided into several sectors respectively, according to the function of land use clusters. New trends and mechanisms of the changes of land use impacting the urban structure were proposed in the end of the paper.

Spatial coupling analysis of regional economic development and environmental pollution in China

Given the great number of studies focusing on the temporal interaction between economic and environmental subsystems, it is useful to perform a quantitative spatial as- sessment of these subsystems. In this paper, comprehensive assessment indicators for re- gional economic development and environmental pollution subsystems are constructed. Then the degree of coupling and coordination of the regional economy-environment system is calculated for 350 prefectural units in China. It is found that the economic development and environmental pollution in most prefectural units is still at a low level of coupling and coordi- nation. According to the coupling and coordination values, the Chinese territory can be di- vided into four types of area： economy-environment harmonious area, economy-environ- ment gearing area, economy-environment rivaling area and low coupling degree of econ- omy-environment area. Based on a structural analysis of the industrial sector in the four types of areas, there is a spatial relationship between the regional industrial sector structure and the coupling-coordination level. In the economy-environment harmonious area, the sectors of manufacturing of high-technology and high value-added products, such as com- munications, computer and electronic equipment, transport equipment and electrical ma- chinery, account for a large proportion of the value of local industrial output. The industrial value of the economy-environment gearing area is concentrated on the manufacturing of machinery and equipment, and. contains a few polluting sectors such as ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical manufacturing and electricity generation. The econ- omy-environment rivaling area is the type of area where polluting sectors concentrate, such as iron and steel, petrifaction, coal mining, building materials and electricity generation. In the low coupling degree of economy-environment area, its industry is concentrated on the pro- duction and processing of primary products.