Understanding the pattern and mechanism of spatial concentration of urban land use, population and economic activities: a case study in Wuhan, China

Quantifying the aggregation patterns of urban population, economic activities, and land use are essential for understanding compact development, but little is known about the difference among the distribution characteristics and how the built environment influences urban aggre-gation. In this study, five elements are collected in Wuhan, China, namely population density, floor area ratio, business POIs, road network and built-up area as the representative of urban population, economic activities and land use. An inverse S-shape function is employed to fit the elements’ macro distribution. An aggregation degree index is proposed to measure the aggregation level of urban elements. The kernel density estimation is used to identify the aggregation patterns. The spatial regression model is used to identify the built environment factors influencing the spatial distribution of urban elements. Results indicates that all urban elements decay outward from the city center in an inverse S-shape manner. The business Pointof- Interest (POI) density and population density are highly aggregated;floor area ratio and road density are moderately aggregated, whereas the built-up density is poorly aggregated. Three types of spatial aggregation patterns are identified: a point-shaped pattern, an axial pattern and a planar pattern. The spatial regression modeling shows that the built environment is associated with the distribution of the urban population, economic activities and land use. Destination accessibility factors, transit accessibility factors and land use diversity factors shape the distribution of the business POI density, floor area ratio and road density. Design factors are positively associated with population density, floor area ratio and built-up density. Future planning should consider the varying spatial concentration of urban population, economic activities and land use as well as their relationships with built environment attributes. Results of this study will provide a systematic understanding of aggregation of urban land use, popula-tion, and economic activities in megacities as well as some suggestions for planning and compact development.

The gelation rule of the polyol acetal derivatives in binary solvent mixtures

The gelation properties of polyol acetal derivatives including 2,4-（3,4-dichlorobenzylidene）-D-sorbitol（DCBS）, 1,3：2,4-di（3,4-dichlorobenzylidene）-D-sorbitol（DDCBS） and 1,3：2,5：4,6-tris（3,4-dichlorobenzylidene）-D-mannitol（TDCBM） in 35 single solvents and 39 binary solvent mixtures have been studied. FTIR and XRD results suggest that the self-assembly patterns of the gelator will not change in either the single solvent component or the corresponding solvent mixtures, but the critical gelation concentration（CGC）will be influenced. The results of SEM and rheology showed that the formation of true gels at saturated concentrations. Improving the heating temperature may promote the dissolving of gelators which are even insoluble at the temperature of the solvent boiling point and change the gelation behaviors. FloryHuggins parameter（x） was used to predict the gelation behavior of DCBS in the mixed solvents, and it is shown that the x values for the mixed solvents that can be gelled by DCBS are either greater or smaller than those for the selected good solvents.