URBAN REGIONAL STRUCTURES TRANSFORMATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: CASE STUDY OF NANJING MEGALOPOLIS

s: Since 1978, many changes have happened on the background of urban regional structure in China, such as the economy system restructuring, the social transforming including the population flow accelerating and social demand diversifying and individualizing, the political and economic systems reforms, the rise of the real estate market and the changing relationship between human and nature. From the macroscopic view, these changes make the national urban system to be a newer pattern with a widening gap among the cities in spite of the rising of the cities as a whole. At the same, the urban land use structures are changing with both the trends of intensification and diversification, and the trends of the regional diversification and the economic integration. Besides, urban structures with multiple centers are emerging in several metropolitan areas in China. These changes and trends mentioned above are confirmed by a case study of Nanjing City, a growing metropolitan area in east China. The case study also points out some problems in urban regional structure reforming, especially the poor social and ecological considerations. We should pay more attention to some ideas like balance of intensification and decentralization, development of suburban centers and a reasonable mixing of the functional activities to develop a sustainable urban regional structure.

STUDY ON GIS BASED PREDICTION SYSTEM FOR RADIO WAVE PROPAGATION IN URBAN REGION

In this letter, an integrated application of the prediction for radio wave propagation with the Geographic Information System (GIS) is presented and a real prediction system based on GIS is implemented.

Humble Opinions on the Relationship between the Percentage of Urban Residents in an Urban Region and the Economic Status in This Region in China

It is a fact that in U.S. the immigration between rural areas and city areas is free, but in China this type of immigration is restricted by HUKOU system (Hukou, namely the household registration system, was designed to control rural-urban in China). All of those national policies in city areas are much better than those in rural areas, so those corresponding differences bring about great discrepancy of the economic status (mainly including GDP per person and income per resident) between rural and city areas in the same urban region, especially in different urban re- gions because the percentage of urban residents in those urban regions is in-equable. The present paper mainly researches the topic of relationship between the percentage of urban residents and the economic status in an urban region in China, including the relationship between the economic and the political functions of a settlement in China during the process of urbanization.

Materializing the “Urban Region” Concept by Integrating Ecological Networks and Central Place Theory

This paper attempts to integrate urban development and ecological conservation by applying and syncretizing the “urban region” concept from landscape ecology and the “city-region” concept from socioeconomics. First, various concepts pertaining to regions are discussed and then, the integration of ecological conservation and urban development on a regional scale is introduced. Subsequently, the Greater Pearl River Delta, in China, is used as a case study area and landscape ecology’s “urban region” concept is applied to produce a landscape spatial arrangement framework for an urban region. This framework is achieved through the following steps: conceiving the study area as a region that consists of two urban regions, arranging ecological conservation landscapes by establishing a regional ecological network within the urban-region rings;and formulating an urban development strategy using central place theory. The resulting landscape spatial arrangement solution includes natural protection areas that cover half of the study area, several key strategic urbanizing locations, and suggestions for the strict protection of certain agricultural land-use areas. We believe that this framework facilitates a feasible exploration of land-use planning on a regional scale, although more in-depth studies are required to refine this approach.

Climate change and China’s mega urban regions

China’s mega urban regions are focal points of economic development and environmental concerns.This paper positions four mega urban regions(i.e.,the Yangtze River Delta,the Pearl River Delta,the Bohai Bay Area,and the South-eastern Fujian Province)along China’s coast into the national economy and elaborates their development challenges and planning innovations.Mega urban regions in China are spatial consequences of rapid economic transition.They deserve close scrutiny and demands for innovative planning responses in order to maintain their key role in driving economic growth but limiting their greenhouse gas emission.

Impact of Anthropogenic Heat Release on Regional Climate in Three Vast Urban Agglomerations in China

We simulated the impact of anthropogenic heat release （AHR） on the regional climate in three vast city agglomerations in China using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with nested high-resolution modeling.Based on energy consumption and high-quality land use data,we designed two scenarios to represent no-AHR and current-AHR conditions.By comparing the results of the two numerical experiments,changes of surface air temperature and precipitation due to AHR were quantified and analyzed.We concluded that AHR increases the temperature in these urbanized areas by about 0.5℃-1℃,and this increase is more pronounced in winter than in other seasons.The inclusion of AHR enhances the convergence of water vapor over urbanized areas.Together with the warming of the lower troposphere and the enhancement of ascending motions caused by AHR,the average convective available potential energy in urbanized areas is increased.Rainfall amounts in summer over urbanized areas are likely to increase and regional precipitation patterns to be altered to some extent.

System Dynamics-and its Use in Understanding Urban and Regional Development

System dynamics shows how the structure and policies in a system produce change through time. System dynamics deals with the internal processes that produce good and bad behavior in social, economic, and environmental systems. In a system dynamics study, one builds a computer model that acts out the behavior of the real system being represented. The computer model is then used to

Urban Spatial Expansion Characteristics in China’s Rapid Urbanization Region—A Case Study of SXC Region

Urban spatial expansion characteristics are the responses of urbanization acts on the geographical space. Analyzing the characteristics can reveal the process of urban expansion and mechanism which is one of useful methods to find out the sustainable land use strategy balancing development and protection. In this paper, two main methods have been deployed in analyzing the spatial expansion characteristics of rapid urbanization region. One is the expansion index method and the other is fractal dimension method. And the results show that town-level urban sprawl has increased in a non-linear way since 1985, and even the increments of the urban expansion intensity are fluctuated. Morphology transformation from scatter to concentration is common phenomenon in the process of urbanization in the towns. From the morphology point of view, downtowns are more homogenous than towns with less variation. The concentration is the leading development trend in downtowns. And the more distance from the downtown is, the more spatial pattern morphology will be observed. These characteristics indicate that macro-scale policies of economic development and land use management have great impacts on the formation and characteristics of spatial patterns of urban dynamic patterns.

Creation of Regional Characteristics for Urban Wetland Park

Concepts of regional characteristics and urban wetland park were introduced, contribution factors and creation principles of regional characteristics of urban wetland park analyzed. And the creation techniques were introduced from three perspectives: respecting regional natural environment and loci features, inheriting regional cultures and showing spirit of the place, applying materials and technology reasonably. Flowing Water Park in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Xiazhu Lake Wetland Park in Huzhou City, Jinghu National Urban Wetland Park in Shaoxing City, and Xixi Wetland in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, were taken for example to specify techniques of creating regional characteristics of urban wetland park.

Impact of Anthropogenic Aerosols on Summer Precipitation in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration in China:Regional Climate Modeling Using WRF-Chem

The WRF model with chemistry （WRF-Chem） was employed to simulate the impacts of anthropogenic aerosols on summer precipitation over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration in China. With the aid of a high-resolution gridded inventory of anthropogenic emissions of trace gases and aerosols, we conducted relatively long-term regional simulations, considering direct, semi-direct and indirect effects of the aerosols. Comparing the results of sensitivity experiments with and without emissions, it was found that anthropogenic aerosols tended to enhance summer precipitation over the metropolitan areas. Domain-averaged rainfall was increased throughout the day, except for the time around noon. Aerosols shifted the precipitation probability distribution from light or moderate to extreme rain. Further analysis showed that the anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing had a cooling effect at the land surface, but a warming effect in the atmosphere. However, enhanced convective strength and updrafts accompanied by water vapor increases and cyclone-like wind shear anomalies were found in the urban areas. These responses may originate from cloud microphysical effects of aerosols on convection, which were identified as the primary cause for the summer rainfall enhancement.

Characteristics of Regional Differentiation of Urbanization Development in Anhui Province

On the basis of connotation of urbanization,by using SPSS factor analysis and cluster analysis,we establish index system of urbanization development level and conduct quantitative analysis on development level of urbanization in 17 prefecture-level city of Anhui Province,in order to find out the differentiation pattern of regional space of urbanization development in Anhui Province based on these.The results show that Anhui's difference of urbanization gradient is prominent.Classification of three clusters shows that the pattern of status quo of urbanization development in Anhui Province is "dual-nucleus" and "two-stretches";classification of five clusters show that the pattern of status quo of urbanization development in Anhui Province is "one-core","one-strip" and "three-region".From five aspects,namely natural geography,transportation location,resources distribution,economic development and administrative system,we analyze the reason and influencing factors of differentiation of urbanization development in the region.The results of three clusters and five clusters show that there is great possibility that "dual-nucleus" changes into "individual-nucleus";"one-core" and "one-strip" may evolve into "one-group".We should foster the urban agglomeration in central Anhui;perfect structure system in the perspective of integration and fostering;strengthen infrastructure construction and regional coordination system;elevate comprehensive competitiveness and guide holistic development of regional economy;promote industrialization process and promote development level of urbanization.

Spatiotemporal Variations and Regional Transport of Air Pollutants in Two Urban Agglomerations in Northeast China Plain

Characteristics of air pollution in Northeast China(NEC) received less research attention in the past comparing to other heavily polluted regions in China.Spatiotemporal variations of six criteria air pollutants(PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, O3 and CO) in Central Liaoning Urban Agglomeration(CLUA) and Harbin-Changchun Urban Agglomeration(HCUA) in NEC Plain were analyzed in this study based on three-year hourly observations of air pollutants and meteorological variables from 2015 to 2017.The results indicated that the annual mean concentrations of air pollutants are generally higher in the middle and southern regions in NEC Plain and lower in the northern region.Megacities such as Shenyang, Harbin and Changchun experience severe air pollution, with a three-year averaged air quality index(AQI) larger than 80, far exceeding the daily AQI standard at the first-level of 50 in China.The annual mean PM and SO2 concentrations decrease most significantly in NEC urban agglomerations from 2015 to 2017, followed by CO and NO2, while O3 shows a slight increasing trend.All the six pollutants exhibit obvious seasonal and diurnal variations, and these variations are dictated by local emission and meteorological conditions.PM2.5 and O3 concentrations in NEC urban agglomerations strongly depend on wind conditions.High O3 concentrations at different cities usually occur in presence of strong winds but are independent on wind direction(WD), while high PM2.5 is usually accompanied by weak winds and poor dispersion condition, and sometimes also occur when the northerly or southerly winds are strong.Regional transport of air pollutants between NEC urban agglomerations is common.A severe haze event on November 1–4, 2017 is examined to demonstrate the role of regional transport on pollution.

Approach to Delimiting Metropolitan Regions' Boundary and Grading Urban Hierarchy Within a Metropolitan Region——A Case Study of Shanghai Metropolitan Region

In metropolitan regions, the change in the strength of "flows" between a core city and surrounding cities re-flects the range of the core city's influence, while the gravity between core city and other cities reflects the strength of potential relation between them. This article firstly attempts to delimit the boundary of metropolitan regions with the two dimensions measure combining "flows" and gravitation. The former is measured through the flow of people be-tween the core city and surrounding cities, and the latter is measured through both population and gross domestic products (GDP) of the core city and surrounding cities. The hierarchy of the cities within a metropolitan region is classified in order to emphasize the roles of the cities belonging to the metropolitan regions, different from the general way through population scale and administrative level, and is typical in China. This paper uses the Shanghai metropolitan region as a research case, determining boundary of this metropolitan region clearly and classifying hierarchy of the cities within the region. The final results are significantly different to previous work, even overthrowing the traditional system of urban hierarchy partly. It is helpful to highlight the function of cities in organizing the regional economy, the level structure of metropolitan regions, and each city's relative importance in a metropolitan region, which can be taken as scientific basis for planning integrated regions or urban systems.

Urban Heat Island Effect over National Capital Region of India: A Study using the Temperature Trends

The local temperature is one of the major climatic elements to record the changes in the atmospheric environment brought about by industrialization, increasing population and massive urbanization. The present study deals with the annual and seasonal temperature trends and anomalies for maximum, minimum and mean temperatures of the four meteorological stations of the National Capital Region (NCR) of India namely Safdarjung, Palam, Gurgaon and Rohtak for the past few decades and their association with the development through urbanization processes. The annual mean maximum temperature did not show any specific trend;however a consistent increasing trend was seen in the annual mean minimum temperatures indicating an overall warming trend over the NCR especially after 1990. This warming trend is contrary to the cooling trend observed by earlier studies till 1980’s in various other cities of India including Delhi. However, the temperature trends in annual mean minimum temperatures reported in various countries (USA, Turkey, Italy, etc.) across the world showed warming trends to be associated to the urbanization process of the cities also. The current warming trends in temperature in the NCR Delhi based on the annual mean minimum temperatures have thus been supported by the trends in other parts of the world and could be utilized to infer the development process in this region. The urbanization pattern within Delhi is reflected by the trends of differences in annual mean minimum temperature of the two stations within the city namely Safdarjung and Palam. The significance of the warming trends of the annual minimum temperature for the urban heat island effect is also discussed.

DYNAMICS OF REGIONAL URBANIZATION IN FUJIAN COASTAL AREA

Since the economic reform in 1978, urban development in China has become much more rapid and the dynamic mechanisms of urbanization more diversified. The 'Bottom Up' strategy becomes as important as, or even more important than, the 'Top Down' strategy as the dynamic mechanisms of regional urbanization. On the basis of major theories of development economics and regional economics, this paper analyzes the major dynamic mechanisms of regional urbanization in coastal area of Fujian Province from 1978 to 1989, and describes quantitatively the territorial differentiation of regional urbanization process under two major dynamic mechanisms using principal componet analysis.

Regional Differences of China′s Urban Expansion from Late 20th to Early 21st Century Based on Remote Sensing Information

This study investigated the regional differences of China′s urban land expansion from the late 1980s to the year of 2008, based on the spatio-temporal analysis of CLCD (China′s land cover/land use database) datasets which were mainly produced from remote sensing imagery data. A newly defined urbanization level index (UI), based on urban land area, is proposed to describe Chinese urban expansion process at 1 kilometer, provincial, regional, and na-tional scales, together with the absolute urban expansion index (UEa) and the relative urbanization expansion index (UEr). The results indicate that the percentages of total land area occupied by urban in the late 1980s, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2008 were approximately 0.25%, 0.32%, 0.33%, 0.43% and 0.52% of China′s total land area, respectively. Between the late 1980s and 2008, the total urban expansion in the mainland of China was 2.645 × 104 km2, resulting in an annual urban expansion area of about 1322.7 km2/yr, with the UEr of 111.9%. This study also finds that there has been an obvious spatial gradient of urbanization ratio running from the east coast to the west inland, and the urbanization gaps among different regions have persisted over the past two decades. The study also reveals obvious temporal varia-tions of the urbanization rates. There was very little urban growth during the period of 1995-2000 due to the governmental policy factors.

City Design for Urban Gateway Area Based on Regional Culture: A Case Study of the Guangyuan Railway Station Area

The importance of urban portal has been improved, but the phenomenon of image convergence has become increasingly prominent. The urban design of urban portal area should analyze and refine the regional culture of landscape culture, life culture, architectural culture, historical culture and so on, and combine with the design contents such as functional orientation, spatial pattern, public space, architectural style and landscape environment.

Research on the Balanced Development of China's Urbanization and Industrialization in Eastern,Central,Western and Northeastern Regions

According to the relationship between urbanization development and industrialization development since the opening up and reform of China,the quantitative analysis of I/U and N/U is conducted.The results show that the overall level of China's urbanization lags behind that of the industrialization,and this phenomenon of lag tends to dwindle.In 2003,the relationship between China's urbanization and industrialization was most balanced,but after 2003,the phenomenon of urbanization lagging behind industrialization tends to distend gradually again;being that the development of urbanization is influenced by natural basis and policy,different regions have different cases.In the eastern and central region,the urbanization lags behind industrialization;in the northeastern region,the urbanization preponderate over industrialization;in the western region,the level of urbanization is not high,but it develops along with the industrialization in tandem.The regional difference of urbanization and industrialization requires that different should implement different policies.The eastern region still has great developmental space,and it should implement the strategy of urbanization as soon as possible;on the basis of expanding the current urban scale and improving quality,the central region should quicken the development of central cities;the western region should choose the path of concentrated-type urbanization;the three northeastern provinces should give priority to improving the quality of local industrialization vigorously and promoting the rapid upgrade of industrial structure,so as to propel the balanced development of urbanization and industrialization.

Impact of Climate Change on Urban Agglomerations in China’s Coastal Region

Climate change and urbanization issues are the two key factors that make humans liable to be affected by disasters, which are overlapped in urban agglomeration. The five big urban agglomerations of China with strong economic power are the important engines for national economic and social development. However, being in the sea-land mutual interaction belts with a vast hazard-bearing body, they are affected by sea-land compound disasters, and are liable to suffer heavy disaster losses with climate change. It is suggested that government departments concerned should fully recognize the impact of climate change on coastal urban agglomerations, propose strategies as soon as possible, and integrate the impact of climate change and adaptation countermeasures into the various kinds of social-economic development plans for coastal urban regions.