Metropolitan Housing Development in Urban Fringe Areas-A Case Study of Three Metropolitan Cities of South Africa: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane

Purpose:The metropolitan cities of Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane play an important role in the economy of the Gauteng province in South Africa.The region constitutes to 22.4 percent of the total population of South Africa and has a strong presence and contributes in areas of manufacturing sector,financial and business services,retail and wholesale trade,etc.The rapid urban population,increase in the informal settlements and socio-economic opportunities has resulted in considerable urban sprawl in and around the urban fringe areas of these metropolitan cities.The urban fringe areas of these metros often come under the influence of rapid urbanization process and pressures.Coupled with the economical and potential land dynamics and lack of priority of spatial development guidelines,these areas attract rapid and haphazard development from communities and developers.Research Design/Methodology:This research is based on a qualitative approach through a comprehensive literature review that included content analysis of key documents on housing sector such as IDPs(Integrated Development Plans),Municipal Annual Reports,Growth Development Strategies,and among other sectoral documents on housing sector.Some of the key priority issues considered in the housing sector included:eradication of housing backlogs,spatial restructuring of housing,provision of choice in terms of location,tenure and housing typology.Findings:The current paper discusses the approaches of metropolitan housing development processes in three metropolitan cities of South Africa from Gauteng region,namely:Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.The paper discusses the existing housing sectoral scenario along with the fringe areas in three cities with focus on:formal and informal settlements,housing segregation and the backlogs,current institutional arrangements,role of public private participation,and scope for alternate mechanisms.The paper concludes in discussion on sustainable development options for housing development in urban fringe areas.

Analyzing land use characteristics of rural settlements on the urban fringe of Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing, China

The objective of this paper is to analyze land use characteristics of rural settlements in urban fringe so as to provide references for optimizing the regional distribution of rural settlements, consolidating rural settlements, and coordinating urban-rural integrated development. The methods of spatial statistical analysis, buffer analysis, Ripley's K function, kernel density analysis based on GIS(Geographic Information System) were used to analyze the characteristics of scale, spatial differentiation and spatial patterns of the rural settlements in Liangjiang New Area in Chongqing Municipality of China. The fractal dimension formula was also developed to reflect fractal feature of the rural settlements. The results show that, the scale of rural settlements in Liangjang New Area takes on distinct characteristics of spatial differentiation along with changes in elevation, gradient, location, geohazards distribution, and the like. The fractal characteristic of rural settlements has obvious regional variations subject to the 6 factors of location in the Liangjiang New Area. Overall, the worse the terrain conditions are, the larger the fractal dimension values become. The better the locationconditions, the larger the fractal dimension values are. The spatial pattern in the township scale presents three kinds of distribution as being aggregated, uniform and random. In contract, the spatial pattern in the plaque scale displays a banding distribution from a general view with several aggregation zones centering on each town center. From the results, we can see that the characteristics of rural settlements in urban fringe are more complicated. For such kind of rural settlements in special regions, in the rural land consolidation more attention should be paid to improve the rural living environments and public services, as well as to promote the harmonious relationship between the urban and rural areas.

CHALLENGES AND CORRESPONDING POLICIES FOR CHINA'S URBAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Since the late 1970s, China'S economy has been growing very fast with an average rate of over 8 percent annually. Urbanization has become the indicator of economic and secial deveopment in China. Rapid growth of oromy in China pushed the process of urbanization. Since 1978, China's urban non-agricultural population has grown from under 113.4 million in 1977 to 176.09 million in 1993. The number of cities increased from 188 to 617 in 1994. With urban economic activities making up an increasing share of GDP, preductivity of urban economy will heavily influence economic growth. In eastern coastal area, because economy of larger scale and agglomeration has been made more productive, the forces contributing to urban growth bome stronger.The number of cities has increased from 78 to 247 since 1980. Urban population was over 90 million. The urbanization level reached 31.5 peed. Four megalopolises have been emerged, they are : the Shanghai -Nanjing-Hangzhou region, the Pearl River Delta region, the Beijing-Tianjin- Tangshan region and the Shenyang-Dalian region. According to statistics, the area of these four regions occupies about 2.6 perat of China's total territory, but their GDP has exceeded 35 percent of the country's total. However, the rapid urbanization also resulted in a series of problems on deveopment and environment.

Study on sustainable development of urban fringe in China

Based on the analyses of characteristics and functions of urban fringe of China, this paper discusses the guidelines and systematic framework for sustainable development of urban fringe, and puts forward relevant index system for evaluation.

Urban Open Space as a Place for Social and Physical Well-being:Narratives from two Different Urban Settings of Kathmandu,Nepal

Increasing population and densification of the cities lead to increasing land value by the high demand of land for housing and other infrastructure developments are the reasons that tend to decreasing open spaces in Kathmandu Valley in general,and Kathmandu Metropolitan City(KMC)in particular.Urban open space has been considered as a place that is accessible to all residents and is important in the urban context as such space provides an opportunity as a place for social interaction,networking,recreation,and various physical health exercises.However,different social and economic contexts of the society reflect different patterns of its uses.Two different urban settings(core urban areas having indigenous dominant population and fringe urban areas having migrants’dominant population)have been taken as a basis for analysis in this paper to look at how different urban societies use open spaces differently.Open spaces are not only important for maintaining urban greenery and beauty for the city but are valued for accumulating social capital and enhancing physical well-being to urban communities.These issues are analyzed through the interpretative research methodology by collecting the data through in-depth interviews,key informants’interviews,informal conversational interviews,and nonparticipatory observation from two different urban settings of KMC.

Location choice of Chinese urban fringe residents on employment, housing, and urban services： A case study of Nanjing

Urban fringe area is the most important space for city development. It inctudes several complicated elements, such as population, space, and management organization. On the basis of local population attributes in the city fringe area combined with people＇s movement characteristics in time and space, this article reclassifies basic public service facilities and discusses the relationship between facility layout and housing, employment, and commuter transportation. Through a questionnaire survey in Qiaobei District of the urban fringe area in Nanjing and on the basis of comparative analysis, we discuss the impact factor on the choice of housing, urban services, and the tolerance of commuting time. Our findings indicate mutual promoting and restricting connections among living, employment, and services. Workers＇ living situation determines their daily behavior, such as dining, shopping, and entertainment. Furthermore, different income levels have a great influence on residents＇ choices with regard to places to live and develop their careers.

A Study on the Protection of Urban Fringe Habitat Units from the Perspective of the Actor-Network Theory

Being an important part of a region’s ecological space,the habitat units on the urban fringe continuously provide multiple services for the city and its residents and guarantee the ecological security of the local territory.Mainly composed of farmlands,secondary woodlands,ditches and ponds,etc.,they are typical semi-natural habitat which is subject to the influences of both the human society and the natural environment.As they involve multiple stakeholders and concern complex ownerships,top-down measures are difficult to be implemented,as presented by the Not-In-MyBackyard(NIMBY)phenomenon against protected areas.Based on the Actor-Network Theory,this paper clarifies the intrinsic relationship between the maintenance of urban fringe habitat units and the relevant social elements.Through the case study on Yilan’s practice of protecting and utilizing agricultural and forestry resources in Taiwan,China,the paper explores the community supported management and control strategies for the purposes of enhancing the protection of habitat units and promoting the effectiveness of regional services,which are implemented through the steps of implementing such translation methods as Obligatory Passage Point setting and benefit granting,recruiting and mobilizing relevant actors to form a network,and realizing the substantial protection of habitat units.

可持续食物供给导向的城市边缘区农林用地规划与空间管控研究

Commercial agricultural production, which has altered the global distribution of farmland, garden plot, and woodland, cuts links between cities and their neighboring production land, as well as links between production land and the environment, affecting the quality of food supply and inducing ecological crisis. Closely related to urban-rural public welfare and regional ecological security, sustainable food supply, which is featured by various types, local production, and short-chain transportation, is an effective way to address the negative impact of commercial agriculture. This paper clarifies the important role of agricultural and forest land in urban fringe areas through analyzing the functional connotation and spatial bases of sustainable food supply, and proposes a planning strategy for systematic land protection and efficient spatial management in accordance with the current situation of food supply and compound demands in urban areas. Specifically, it consists of: identifying the land and the support space with potential for diversified food production;establishing an agriculture and forestry support network system and integrating it into regional landscape ecological network;guiding the low impact utilization of production units by following the natural process and resource characteristics;enhancing land protection efficiency based on supporting links.