A Review on China's Urbanization Process Since 1980s

This paper analyzes the impact of economic reform conducted in both rural and urban areassince 1980s on the urban development and urbanization. By summing up the distinguishing characteristicsappeared in the process of urbanization, it is concluded that the macro control of the state to the urbandevelopment and urbanization should be furtherstrengthened.

New Urbanization Evolution System and Practices in Press Reports

China has witnessed decades of urbanization, its value, and the plight it is faced with, and development tendency have related and infl uenced social mechanism and system of China. Through adopting media analysis, this paper analyzed reports on "new urbanization" in quality newspapers, so as to provide references for introducing the role of "new urbanization" in the current social transformation, the game-playing relationship and interaction of different social power relation in discourse fi eld, role of social classes in "new urbanization", and their infl uence on the construction and development tendency.

Effects of Land Use Changes Across Different Urbanization Periods on Summer Rainfall in the Pearl River Delta Core Area

The Pearl River Delta(PRD)is one of the three urban agglomerations in China that have experienced rapid development.For this study,a core area of the PRD was identified,comprising the highly urbanized areas of Guangzhou,Foshan,Zhongshan,Zhuhai,Shenzhen,and Dongguan Cities.The expansion of these urban areas was tracked across three time periods—the year population urbanization rate exceeded 70%(2000),18 years before(1982),and 18 years after(2018).This study used the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model to explore summer rainfall changes across different urbanization periods in the PRD core area.The results show that urban land expansion mainly occurred in the post urbanization period.Rainfall changes acros s different urbanization periods were roughly consistent with previously observed spatial and temporal changes accompanying urban expansion in the PRD core area.Extreme rainfall mainly increased in the post urbanization period,shifting rainstorm center towards the PRD core area.Further causal analysis revealed that land use changes affected rainfall by altering thermodynamics and water vapor transfer.The urban expansion changed the surface energy balance,resulting in increased surface heating and heat island effects.The heat island effects thickened the planetary boundary layer and increased vertical wind speeds,which initiated dry island effects,thereby causing more water vapor transportation to the atmosphere.Consequently,rainstorms and extreme rainfall events have become concentrated in urban areas.

青藏高原城镇化发展的特殊思路与绿色发展路径

Urbanization of the Tibetan Plateau is a part of the strategies to strengthen China’s national security shield as well as to enhance its national ecological safety barrier and the“water tower”of Asia.It also plays an irreplaceable role in protecting one of the last unspoiled regions in the world,ensuring that the“third pole”achieves modernization in step with the rest of China,and improving the lives of all ethnic groups that live in“roof of the world.”This study discusses in detail the distinctive drivers,development path,development goals,development dynamic,and green development model and strategy of the new type of urbanization in the Tibetan Plateau,which differs markedly from the rest of China.This author asserts that urbanization of the Tibetan Plateau should involve low-intensity development,cultural transmission,protection of land and borders,conservation of water resources,small concentrations and wide dispersion of the population,social inclusivity,and improvements to the environment that benefit the people,driven by domestic investment,tourism,services,and paired assistance.The plans for the region’s future development are as follows.In terms of the protection of land and borders,the Tibetan Plateau will safeguard China’s national security with fast and stable development and ensure sufficient populations inhabit border and rural areas.By 2035,the permanent population of the plateau will be 16 million,and the level of urbanization will reach 52.5%,with stability in the middle stage of urbanization,thereby comprehensively improving the quality of urbanization.In terms of green development,it is necessary to improve the quality of ecological products and the capacity and level of ecological services,accentuate local features and folk customs,promote culture,and encourage people to tend livestock in rural areas and live in towns,thereby creating beautiful cities and towns in the Tibetan Plateau.In terms of the small concentrations and wide dispersion of the population,the overall urban pattern will be“three clusters,four belts,and multiple nodes.”The“three clusters”are the Xining,Lhasa,and Qaidam metropolitan areas;the“four belts”are along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway,the Sichuan-Tibet Railway,the Ancient Tang(China)-Tibet Road,and border areas;and“multiple nodes”refers to major urban nodes and border towns.In terms of ensuring connectivity,the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was completed ahead of schedule,national security lines are being strengthened,and new infrastructure and smart cities are being built.Additionally,the land system of border cities is being reformed,a special zone for experimental border land reform is being constructed,and border towns are being prioritized in national strategies and territorial space planning.

Prospects of eco-hydrological model for sponge city construction

Introduction:Understanding complex urban eco-hydrological processes through models is an important approach in sponge city construction.However,the research on this has not kept pace with the urgent need for sustainable development of urban water resources,which makes the current construction efficiencies unsatisfactory.Outcomes:This review highlights the importance of establishing a multi-scale urban distributed eco-hydrological model by analyzing the connotations of sponge city construction.Hydrological models that can be configured for sponge city construction were selected.Traditional models have limitations in coupling ecological and hydrological processes,multi-scale and landscape-based simulations,refined simulations,and computational efficiency.By contrast,cellular automaton has a discrete data structure in space,time,and states,is capable of bottom-up computing,and provides a new conceptual framework for simulating complex urban eco-hydrological processes.Discussion and Conclusion:Future model development may focus on the conduction of multi-scale simulation systems,the simulation of coupled urban eco-hydrological processes,the quantification of eco-hydrological responses to land cover composition,spatial configuration and low impact development practices,and improving simulation accuracy.