Spatial Pattern and Process of Urbanization in Karst Area——A Case Study in Guiyang City

ObjectiveKarst area is one of ecological fragile regions in China, where the economic and social development is lagged heavily. In recent years, with the constant development of the west regions, economy and society are developed rapidly and urbanization speed is accelerated. This study aims to investigate the spatial pattern and process of urbanization in karst area of Guiyang City, which has important significance for land management and urban planning in karst area. MethodBased on RS and GIS technologies, TM satellite images in 1986, 1995 and 2000 and CBERS-01 satellite image in 2006 were adopted to obtain the data of urban land utilization in Guiyang City in the four years. The spatial pattern and process of urbanization in Guiyang City were investigated using urbanization proportion index （UPI）, urbanization intensity index （UII） and absolute expansion intensity （AEI）. ResultThe urbanization process in Guiyang City was significant, exhibiting polygon-urbanization, line-urbanization and point-urbanization. From the perspective of spatial pattern, the urbanization in Guiyang City displayed the cluster development; from the perspective of urbanization process, the urbanization speed in some secondary central areas was higher than that of central areas. ConclusionThe spatial pattern and process of urbanization in karst area were unique and were mainly influenced by terrain, transportation, economy, society and so on.

Model and Practice of Vertical Greening in Nanchang City

Vertical greening is a new model to broaden urban green space in Nanchang City. Baded on the narration of the concept of vertical greening, all kinds of ways to carry out the vertical greening in Nanchang, as well as the available patterns, were explored by combining with the natural climatic conditions in Nanchang City, and then the current commonly used vertical greening plant varieties as well as their application value were introduced, which provided a new way of thinking for urban greening of Nanchang City.

空城

在哪一天的哪一个午后，阿墨早已经忘了。但他记得那天的阳光很明朗，空气有一些湿润，风中糅杂着淡淡的合欢花的香味，南关厢的青石板路上荡漾着他的脚步声。南芙厢是这个城市最后的一条老街，仿佛公路上尚未被沥青覆盖住的小花一般，被钢筋水泥蚕食得畏缩于洛河畔的一角。

空城

当回忆里的主角已经离开那座城市后,那座城市对于这段回忆而言,便成了一座空城。而同一座城市对于不同的人,一定有着不同的意义。城市本质都一样,人们幸福与否取决于他们在那里遇到了什么样的人儿,发生了什么样的事儿。

The Empirical Analysis on the Dynamic Effect of Rural-urban Migration on the Consumption Growth of Residents in China——Based on Varying Parameter State-space Model

The research constructed varying parameter state-space model and per- formed estimation on dynamic relationship between urban-rural migration and aggre- gate consumption expenditure on basis of dual economic structure. The results showed that urban consumption growth made the most contribution to aggregate consumption growth, followed by urban-rural migration caused consumption. The role of rural consumption growth kept stable, but consumption caused by population growth was decreasing. Therefore, China consumption growth mainly relies on urban consumption expenditure and urban-rural migration.

A Theoretical Framework and Methodology for Urban Activity Spatial Structure in E-society: Empirical Evidence for Nanjing City, China

The existing researches on the influence of information and communication technology （ICT） are mainly focused on human activity, whilst with few efforts on urban space. In the e-society, the widespread adoption of 1CT devices not only affects almost every aspect of people＇s daily life and thereby reshapes the spatial development of regions and cities, but also generates a large amount of real-time activity data with location information. These georeferenced data, however, have relatively recently attracted attention from geographers. Adapted from Lynch＇s framework based on people＇s perceptions, this paper proposes a framework of urban spatial struc- ture based on people＇s actual activity, including five elements, namely activity path, activity node, central activity zone （CAZ）, activity district, and activity edge. In the empirical study, by using one week＇s check-in tweets （from February 25 to March 3 in 2013） collected in Nanjing City, the five elements are recognized and analyzed. Through the comparison between our results and urban spatial structure based on population （and land use）, we argue that ICT uses： 1） lead to polarize, rather than to smooth, the urban structural hierarchy, due to the dual role of distance; 2） enable a partial decoupling of activity and activity space node, which challenges our conventional under- standing of the role of home and the utility of travel; 3） blur the boundaries of activity districts and hence may play a positive role in enriching districts＇ functions, which should not be overlooked in the current urban transformation in China.

Expansion of Urban Space and Land Use Control in the Process of Urbanization: an Overview

Urban expansion brought by the rapid progress of urbanization has caused many problems in China. It is a significant issue to evaluate the extent of urban expansion and to make appropriate controls over the sprawl of urban areas. With a comparative study of international experiences, this article analyzed the mechanism and consequences of urban expansion, reviewed the typical planning and financial policies adopted by other countries for controlling urban sprawl, and discussed the suitable densities of urban areas. The analysis results suggested that Chinese cities have no better choice but compact urban forms. To achieve the goal of compact development, intensive use of public transportation and high proportion of collective houses should be encouraged, and 60–100 m2 per capita is recommended as the reasonable range of urban density in large cities.

Waterfront Spatial Design from the Perspective of Sponge City

Due to environmental awareness, demand for watercourse landscape eco- function is growing domestically. However, flood control and drainage are the only focuses, and the rest functions of water course are slighted. Besides, cross-section biodiversity is falling and wetland self-cleaning capacity is impairing, resulting from river limitation on riverbed, making a straight river bend and revetment. So, water course has to be managed from ecology, economy, culture and social effect, to re- store natural river function and meet human demands. And to return to nature and people first would be the general principles.

FORMATION MECHANISM AND SPATIAL PATTERN OF URBAN AGGLOMERATION IN CENTRAL JILIN OF CHINA

Urban agglomeration is made up of cities with different sizes to be linked by traffic network in a given area, and it is an inevitable result when urbanization reaches a certain level. Taking urban agglomeration in central Jilin (UACJ) as an example, this article analyzes the formation mechanism and spatial pattern of urban agglomeration in the less-developed area. First, the dynamics of UACJ has been analyzed from the aspects of geographical condition, economic foundation, policy background, and traffic condition. Then the development process is divided into three stages-single city, city group and city cluster. Secondly, the central cities are identified from the aspects of city cen- trality, and the development axes are classified based on economic communication capacity. Finally, the urban agglo- meration is divided into five urban economic regions in order to establish the reasonable distribution of industries.

RESEARCH ON IMAGO SPACE OF VALLEY CITY——A Case Study of Lanzhou City

Currently domestic researches on urban imago space concentrate in a few cities that lie in the advanced region, such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, etc., but in so far as those cities that lie in the northwest inland region, the research of this aspect is still few. In order to supplement a special example to the urban imago space theory and to validate former theory, this article studied the Lanzhou urban imago space. During the course of researching, authors adopted some investigating methods, such as visiting on the spot, photograph identification method and sketch map identification method etc. Using investigated data, this paper made an elementary research on urban imago space of Lanzhou, which is a typical valley city in the western China. The result of study indicated that the urban imago space of Lanzhou takes Xiguan Cross as its center (Lanzhou involves four districts of Chengguan, Qilihe, Anning and Xigu). In the process of recognition of urban imago space, the Huanghe (Yellow) River and mountains beside the city are the dominant factors and the main nodes of cognition. So the urban imago space of Lanzhou is quite different from that of plain cities. Interviewee did well in the spatial structure map, which was made up of mountainous land, river and main trunk roads,the group structure took profound impression on people.

Characterization of Air Pollution in Urban Areas of Yangtze River Delta,China

The hallmark of development in the Yangtze River Delta(YRD) of East China has been sprawling urbanization. However, air pollution is a significant problem in these urban areas. In this paper, we investigated and analyzed the air pollution index(API) in four cities(Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Ningbo) in the YRD from 2001 to 2012. We attempted to empirically examine the relationship between meteorological factors and air quality in the urban areas of the YRD. According to the monitoring data, the API in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou slightly declined and that in Ningbo increased over the study period. We analyzed the inter-annual, seasonal, and monthly variations of API, from which we found that the air quality had different temporal changes in the four cities. It was indicated that air quality was poor in winter and spring and best in summer. Furthermore, different weather conditions affected air quality level. The wind direction was considered as an important and influential factor to air pollution, which has an impact on the accumulating or cleaning processes of pollutants. The air quality was influenced by the different wind directions that varied with seasons and cities.

Simulation Analysis on Spatial Pattern of Urban Population in Shenyang City,China in Late 20th Century

The spatial distribution of urban population can reflect significantly urban functions and development status. Shenyang, as a typical old industrial city in China, has experienced considerable changes in spatial distribution of population in the process of urban transformation, resulting in the change of urban spatial structure. Based on the sub-district data of Chinese national population censuses in 1982, 1990 and 2000, this study simulates the evolution pattern of spatial distribution of urban population in Shenyang City. Using statistical method and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), we found that the population distribution, on the whole, has presented a balanced and decentralized trend since the 1980s, which characterizes with Chinese suburbanization. Furthermore, based on the investigation of the pattern of population distribution, it is concluded that the negative exponential model fitted the distribution best, and population concentration in the inner suburb kept increasing gradually, meanwhile, the spatial structure of population distribution has presented a polycentric feature since the 1980s. The parameters of the model show that population in the urban core concentrate significantly all the time. The increase of population in the inner suburb influences the population distribution pattern more and more importantly, but the concentration intensity of population cores in inner suburb is still low.

Evolution of Jobs-housing Spatial Relationship in Beijing Metropolitan Area:A Job Accessibility Perspective

With the urban expansion and economic restructuring, the jobs-housing relationship has become an important issue in studies on urban spatial structure. This paper employed a job accessibility model, which is an evaluation instrument to measure the jobs-housing relationship in Beijing Metropolitan Area from a job accessibility perspective. The results indicate that the population in the central city is declining, whereas the population in the suburbs is consistently growing and forming new population centers. However, the distribution pattern of employment is still highly centralized. Job accessibility varies in different locations, but the inner-city areas(within the Third Ring road) have seen improved job accessibility over time while job accessibility in the suburbs(especially outside the Fourth Ring road) has decreased, and this has led it to become a primary area of residential and employment mismatch. At the same time, the new towns in the outer suburbs have not yet demonstrated great potential to attract more jobs. In addition we find that, to some extent, urban planning changes the jobs-housing relationship, but a polycentric urban spatial structure is not yet evident. The floating population and related housing policy also affect the jobs-housing relationship. We propose some measures to resolve the spatial mismatch as well as some future research directions.

Assessing the Sustainability of Underground Space Usage——A Toolkit for Testing Possible Urban Futures

A description of the future as it might be without forecasts, predictions and trend analysis can be referred to as a 'future scenario'. An abundance of scenarios literature exists in which numerous pictures have been painted of changed future worlds. However, upon closer inspection it becomes apparent that virtually all of this literature refers to changes occurring above ground, ignoring the inevitable consequences (or opportunities) for sustainable use of underground space, not least in densely populated urban areas, some of which may be underlain by complex geological conditions. This paper reports on the development (to date) of an 'Urban Futures' (UF) toolkit for sub-surface environments (including infrastructure and utilities) which, through use of 'key' questions 'sustainable' indicators and a 'contextual' narrative, allows for better definition and measured performance of underground space in the UK, both today and in the future. The toolkit explores possible uses for underground space within 4 plausible and well-cited future scenarios (i.e. New Sustainability Paradigm, Fortress World, Market Forces and Policy Reform). This forms part of a much larger generic toolkit which the UF research team are developing for exploring possible future scenarios over a range of UK urban regeneration case study areas.

Spatial Autocorrelation and Localization of Urban Development

A nonlinear analysis of urban evolution is made by using of spatial autocorrelation theory. A first-order nonlinear autoregression model based on Clark’s negative exponential model is proposed to show urban population density. The new method and model are applied to Hangzhou City, China, as an example. The average distance of population activities, the auto-correlation coefficient of urban population density, and the auto-regressive function values all show trends of gradual increase from 1964 to 2000, but there always is a sharp first-order cutoff in the partial auto- correlations. These results indicate that urban development is a process of localization. The discovery of urban locality is significant to improve the cellular-automata-based urban simulation of modeling spatial complexity.

EVOLVEMENT OF URBAN SPATIAL STRUCTURE AND MAIN DRIVES IN WUXI, CHINA

With the quick development of urbanization, urban expansion has been paid more and more attention to by researchers from westem countries and China. Here Wuxi City of China is selected as a case study. Located in the core-area of Changjiang （Yangtze） River Delta, as the sources of Chinese township enterprise, Wu culture, and national industry, Wuxi has experienced great change in the urban spatial structure, especially in the land use structure, and urban shape and scale. The ratio of industrial land was about one-third of the construction land in 2003. Residential and public infrastructure land had decreased a little from 1956 to 2003, but it remains to be the main construction land at present. Green land has increased at the highest speed due to the demand of sustainable development. After the reform and opening to the outside world, this kind of evolvement of urban spatial expansion is helpful for sustainable development. Economic development, transportation, and administrative planning are the main reasons for these changes. During different periods, the main drives are different. Economic development is the basic factor that influences urban expansion. Transportation influences urban evolvement in different times, but now the importance is not as great as 30 years ago, because administrative force plays an important function in urban planning of China and influences urban evolvement.

Urban and Rural Spatial Layout based on Taiji Interactive Balance of I Ching

Taiji is a traditional Chinese philosophy. The content is so diversified that can be applied to so many aspects. The research applied yin and yang, unity be- tween heaven and man to urban planning, and analyzed relationship between urban- rural spatial structure, from transport and material/energy exchange. With the prob- lems reviewed, measures are proposed to deal with the relationship between urban- rural areas in urbanization process.

Evaluation of Three-dimensional Urban Expansion: A Case Study of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China

With rapid urban development in China in the last two decades, the three-dimensional(3D) characteristic has been the main feature of urban morphology. However, the vast majority of researches of urban growth have focused on the planar area(two-dimensional(2D)) expansion. Few studies have been conducted from a 3D perspective. In this paper, the 3D urban expansion of the Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China from 2003 to 2012 was evaluated based on Geographical Information System(GIS) tools and high-resolution remote sensing images. Four indices, namely weighted average height of buildings, volume of buildings, 3D expansion intensity and 3D fractal dimension are used to quantify the 3D urban expansion. The weighted average height of buildings and the volume of buildings are used to illustrate the temporal change of the 3D urban morphology, while the other two indices are used to calculate the expansion intensity and the fractal dimension of the 3D urban morphology. The results show that the spatial distribution of the high-rise buildings in Yangzhou has significantly spread and the utilization of the 3D space of Yangzhou has become more efficient and intensive. The methods proposed in this paper laid a foundation for a wide range of study of 3D urban morphology changes.

Regional Structure and Spatial Morphology Characteristics of Oasis Urban Agglomeration in Arid Area——A Case of Urban Agglomeration in Northern Slope of Tianshan Mountains,Northwest China

It is great important to the health development of urban agglomeration to correctly understand the formation and development law of regional structure of urban agglomeration.Employing the analysis methods like fractal theory and quantitative statistics,coupling with the use of remote sensing images and other spatial data,this article discusses the urban agglomeration of oasis on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains in an arid area,and conducts the researches on its city scale,spatial distribution and individual form from 1990 to 2005.The result shows that it has loose hierarchical scale structure and polarization trend of population distribution while its hierarchical scale structure tends to mature.Under the influence of natural conditions,the spatial layout of urban agglomeration of oasis has macro characteristics that suggest cities distributed along oasis edges(dense or sparse),spatially expand along rivers,and cluster around traffic branches.The connectivity among the cities is high and shows an internal organization form of a banding distribution.The whole spatial shape of the internal structure of cities presents a "dumbbell" form,with mononuclear phenomenon receding and multi-nuclear appearing gradually.Individual cities spatially expand along rivers,portraying a long strip appearance.It indicates that the urban agglomeration of oasis shows regular and close structure but with a tendency to be complicated form and the loose structure.In the development of urban agglomeration,the authors recommend that the development of the city with good economic development conditions should be strengthened,and more attention be put into regional planning.

Urban Spatial Restructuring in Transitional Economy——Changing Land Use Pattern in Shanghai

For almost three decades, China has been undergoing significant transition from a planned economy to a market economy. Fast-paced economic growth and urbanization, interacting with market-oriented reforms in land re- sources allocation, have caused profound spatial restructuring of Chinese cities. This paper examines urban expansion and land use reconfiguration in Shanghai’s central city from 1979 to 2002, with a special focus on the effect of the adoption of the land-leasing system in 1988. The empirical research, which employs GIS-based spatial analysis tech- niques to explore land use data for multiple years, indicates fundamental changes in the spatial characteristics of urban development in Shanghai after this important land policy reform.