The political economy of informal settlements in post-socialist China: The case of chengzhongcun(s)

Informal settlements become an intriguing spatial dimension of urbanization in those countries which experience the systemic shift from socialism to neoliberal regimes. This paper takes chengzhongcun(s) (literally meaning ‘villages encircled by the city’ boundaries) as a case to explore the dynamics of informal settlements in post-socialist China that has certain distinctive features related to the legacy of socialist institutions and restructuring of urban space by various forces. The paper details the political and economic contexts, as well as the ways in which chengzhongcun(s) are transformed into functional but unregulated urban space. It also elucidates the policy approach towards formalizing chengzhongcun(s) and confrontation involving in government-led redevelopment. The analysis illustrates how spatial informality is shaped by the interaction of economic interests and political considerations in a post-socialist economy with retaining the rural-urban dualism of land ownership and the control of urban citizenship.     

Spatial plans and urban development trajectory in Kumasi,Ghana

This research uses empirical data to explore the link between spatial plans and ‘actual development’ occurring in Kumasi, Ghana. The research found that urban development is determined by both spatial plans and spontaneous informal development patterns (i.e. self-organisation). However, self-organisation is more widespread compared to spatially planned neighbourhoods. This phenomenon was expressed in a context of uncertainty created by weak institutional planning system which promote and reinforce haphazard development disregarding urban planning requirements. These findings provide a perspective on urban development that differs from that occurring in cities of developed countries, where planning institutions in consultation with urban residents determine the patterns of urban development. Unfortunately in Kumasi, self-organisation is not viewed as important in mainstream planning system. The paper concludes that more needs to be done in terms of understanding self-organisation processes, and the way they could be integrated into mainstream planning process to respond more fully to the urban development challenges in Kumasi.     

Making the countryside more like the countryside? Rural planning and metropolitan visions in post-quake Chengdu

In 2008, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck southwest China less than 100 km north of Chengdu, the booming capital of Sichuan Province. The city government undertook a massive reconstruction project in its rural hinterlands that was guided by existing policies to develop rural areas through coordinated urban and rural planning. Planners sought to avoid replicating urban settlements in rural areas by developing recognizably “pastoral” villages, an approach that is being widely echoed in the relatively new discipline of rural spatial planning in China. This paper argues that such design concessions evade the key feature of the new villages: the concentration of rural residents. The Chengdu government, though this symbolic and actual de-peopling of rural landscapes, has recast rural space as an environmental amenity and an abstract stock of arable land. Drawing on interviews, site visits, and policy and media documents, the paper analyzes the metropolitan plans that provided the framework for rural reconstruction in post-quake Chengdu, and connects these to a model village site in Chengdu’s rural periphery. The case illustrates the need to understand site-level village planning in the context of regional political economies of land, and highlights the new role that metropolitan governments are playing in rural development strategies.     

景观生态学在城市规划和管理中的应用

城市是典型的人工景观，空间结构上属于紧密汇聚型，功能上表现为高能流、高容量和文化上的多样性。城市景观生态研究包括城市空间结构与生态过程，城市景观风貌与城市生态建设，城市景观规划是其最直接的应用。首先论述了城市景观质量与价值评价，包括景观美学评价与景观视觉容量。城市空间结构和景观规划原则是该文论述的主题，包括城市空间布局、城市空间扩展的廊道效应以及城市绿地系统的空间结构分析；以上海和广州市的绿地系统为例进行了重点介绍，最后对于城乡交错带的景观变化进行分析，用景观格局及其动态来描述城乡交错带的城市化过程特点，介绍了上海和沈阳的典型研究。     

Quantify the landscape effect and environmental sustainability of rural region planning at town scale near metropolis

The urban fringe, which can be seen as a special form of regional ecosystem with a spatial transition from urban to rural areas, has strong heterogeneity and is a typical ecologically sensitive area. The expansion of cities and the landscape effect of the changes have attracted wide attention. The primary aim of this study is to obtain an understanding of the spatial patterns of landscape conversion and the corresponding environmental sustainability. With the help of GIS and Fragstats software, the changes of landscape patterns before and after town planning were compared in An-Ding town of Beijing, of which the sustainability was also revealed based on the ecological footprint using social and economic statistic data. The results showed that the landscape pattern changed greatly during its conversion from several villages to a small town and the landscape fragmentation increased due to road construction. Meanwhile, human disturbance increased with the constructed land extension. For the gap between the ecological footprint and the biological capacity, An-Ding town ran an ecological deficit at that period, which means it was unsustainable. However, the environmental sustainability decreased after planning due to the degraded green land and forest. The results suggested that ecological management should be strengthened during the town planning period.     

The regional development process: A critique and case study from northern Nigeria

The necessity of a spatial or regional component in development planning is recognized in both theory and practice. Spatial structure, the physical arrangement of development institutions, and spatial processes, patterns of activity, are integral parts of development planning and its results. The spatial component of development is critically reviewed in the cotext of regional growth theory, growth centre, or growth pole theory, and development viewed as an innovation process. Preliminary data from studies of regional development in northern Nigeria suggest that substantial growth leakages occur, and that the greatest regional impact of industrial development has been in the supply of foodstuffs to urban areas.     

Population movement studied at microscale: Experience and extrapolation

The context for this paper is the nature of generalization deriving from the study of particular cases of human behaviour. With specific reference to field research on population movement conducted amongst individuals, households, small groups, and village communities in third world societies, it challenges the convention that both generalization and extrapolation are based inevitably and exclusively on the number of cases or events subject to examination. An evaluation is made of the methodological aspects of four different studies of population mobility at microscale, undertaken between 1965 and 1977 in the Solomon Islands and northwest Thailand. On this basis, integrated field designs that incorporate a range of intersecting instruments are favoured for their technical flexibility and logical strength. With case studies of third world villages, market centres, and urban neighbourhoods, generalization and extrapolation is based on depth of understanding and the power of theoretical connections.     

Planning versus youth: Stamping out spatial unruliness in Harare

The paper examines the illegal occupation and use of urban spaces by Harare’s youth and the ensuing tussles with the repressive machinery of the local authority and the nation-state. It analyses efforts by planning to contain rampant spatial unruliness. The paper maps the patterns of official hostile responses to the illegal activities of the youth whose daily routines inevitably entail the disregard of the spatial planning framework as reflected in existing legal and regulatory controls. The analysis reveals the reliance by the urban planning and management system on the use of force and violence, a feat made possible by the mobilisation of the repressive state apparatus. The discussion argues that what comes out in the relationship between the order-imposing planning system and the regulation-flouting youth is a situation that can largely be comprehended by turning to the non-progressive side of planning.     

上海市杨浦区创建国土资源节约集约模范区的探索与实践

作为创建国土资源集约利用模范县（市）的试点单位,杨浦区在集约节约用地工作中充分结合自身区位特点,全面落实科学发展观要求,提升本区资源节约集约利用水平。杨浦区坚持规划先导,优化布局,积极开展地下空间开发和利用规划编制,提高土地使用效率;注重加强土地出让管理,完善土地供应全程监管、全域监管;加大盘活存量土地力度,依法处置闲置土地;构建指标评价体系,建立节约集约用地长效管理机制。在工作中探索建立了共同责任机制,明确各职能部门分工和职责,拓宽公众参与和监管渠道,加强与行业协会、规划设计院等部门的协调联动,形成推动节约集约用地的强大合力,确保节约集约用地的各项措施落实。     

Spatial form of urbanization,sustainability and fragmented landownership: the example of Ilan in Taiwan’s urbanization

As a part of the inevitable process of industrialization, urbanization and its associated spatial forms generally have a substantial effect on sustainability. This paper considers the spatial form and sustainability of urbanization by evaluating the interaction between land-use planning, urban regimes and the fragmented structure of land ownership. This paper conceptualizes the structure of landownership as an institution that affects the form of spatial development and thereby determines the spatial implications of urban sprawl on sustainability. With reference to the Ilan experience of urbanizing Taiwan, it shows that the development of spatial form and sustainability is the product of planning institution and urban regime mobilization, and it reflects the institutional impact of a fragmented landownership structure. The conclusion also discusses policy implications.     

Congruence between space preferences and sociodemographic structure in Barbados,West Indies: the use of cognitive studies in third world urban planning and development

This paper reviews the implications of a research project which sought to examine the congruence existing between patterns of sociodemographic structure and change, and the spatial perceptions of residents in Barbados, West Indies. Drawing on this empirical evidence, the pressing need for the development of soundly based and environmentally appropriate urban and regional development planning systems in developing countries is stressed, especially frameworks which explicitly recognise the need to harness the initiatives and aspirations of individuals via perception studies and other methods. The implications of the work are also assessed in relation to the current debate concerning the academic role and efficacy of behavioural and perception geography.     

论新时代我国城市地下空间高质量开发和可持续利用

开发利用城市地下空间,开辟城镇化发展新资源,是解决城市病、改善城市生态环境、优化城市空间结构、提高城市韧性的重要途径。本文深入分析了新时代中国城市地下空间开发利用的现状,认为存在冒进式开发与总体供给不足、碎片化利用与协同规划缺位、被动式应对与科技支撑薄弱、无序化管理与法律法规匮乏等若干紧迫问题,明确了“立法为本、规划引领、调查先行、管理智能、科研支撑”的开发利用原则,提出了全面开展城市地下空间调查评价、尽快建立地下空间协同规划体系、加速构建地下空间智慧管理体系、超前布局地下空间科技发展战略、尽早健全城市地下空间法律法规等五个方面的具体对策建议,充分利用中国体制上的优势,集成国际城市地下空间开发利用先进的理念和技术,从而推动我国新时代城市地下空间产业快速发展、科技水平不断提高和地下空间体系日趋完善,在全球树立城市地下空间资源可持续开发利用的典范。     

Is there a step-wise migration in Nigeria?: A case study of the migrational histories of migrants in Lagos

The paper sets out to test whether or not the movement pattern of people in Nigeria is step-wise. It examines the spatial order in the country and the movement pattern of people. It then analysizes the survey data and tests for the validity of step-wise migration in the country. The findings show that step-wise migration cannot adequately describe all the patterns observed. The multistep moves of the people is an indication of the complexity of factors influencing human mobility behaviour. Moreover, the preponderance of circuitory movement pattern is an indication of the socio-cultural life of the people. The urban-urban movement pattern that was observed is used as a basis for advocating for the development of intermediate urban centres, in addition to the rural areas. This is seen as a way of alleviating the increasing convergence of people on Lagos.     

Advances in travel geometry and urban modelling

Urban travel geometry is a generalization of patterns of movement in cities and regions where route configuration and prevailing traffic speeds constrain or direct movement in distinctive and repeatable patterns. In this paper we use these properties to construct time surfaces on which distance equates to the time of travel in the urban plane. Such surfaces can be two- or three-dimensional and are useful in the study of urban structure, locational analysis, transport planning and traffic management. A particular niche addressed in this paper is non-conformal time surface transformations in which speed or the cost of travel is constrained according to co-ordinate directions. It is argued that such models may be more suited to gridded and orbital-radial cities than previously used conformal transformations. After explaining the rationale behind the approach, a mathematical basis is developed and several calibrated examples are provided based on regions in the UK. The paper concludes with some examples of potential applications, and an annex provides a detailed mathematical framework. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Urban poverty neighbourhoods: Typology and spatial concentration under China’s market transition, a case study of Nanjing

Since the transition of the economic system in the early 1990s, urban poverty has become a prominent social problem and attracted attention among Chinese officials and academics. However, there have been few studies on the spatiality of urban poverty. The purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial pattern of urban poverty in China and the mechanism of spatial concentration. Urban poverty has begun to concentrate in specific locations, mainly in three types of poverty neighbourhoods: inner-city dilapidated residence, degraded workers’ villages and rural migrants’ enclaves. We argue that the emergence of concentrated poverty is rooted in the state-led urban development and the socialist housing provision system. Based on fieldwork in typical poverty neighbourhoods in the city of Nanjing, the concentration of poverty is examined, and its creation mechanism is analysed. Further discussion indicates that poverty concentration in particular neighbourhoods is different from slums or ghettoes in advanced western economies.     

Urban development and urban geography in Romania: The contribution of Vintila Mihailescu

Urban development has been a dramatic consequence of modernisation in Romania over the last hundred years. Although there are some differences between the periods of capitalism and socialism — notably the socialist emphasis on the central planning of industrial growth rather than the development of a well-rounded urban society — the population resident in towns has increased inexorably from 2.08 million in 1912 (16.3% of the total population to the country) to 3.71 million (23.4%) in 1948 and 10.49 million (47.3%) in 1980. The scope of Romanian geography has plainly altered in response to the shift in the rural-urban balance, all the more so in view of the long-standing concentration of effort on domestic issues. The paper examines the relationship between urban development and urban geography during this century: urban geography has become an integral part of the discipline whereas in 1900 interest was negligible. The transition has not been entirely smooth but considerable coherence arises from the work of Vintila Mihailescu (1890–1978) : a complete geographer but one who always emphasised the importance of urban geography. Since his death new leaders have emerged to ensure a continued commitment to what is now a fundamental element of Romanian geography.     

Population growth and its spatial distribution as factors in the deforestation of Nang Rong, Thailand

Frontiers constitute a major source of global land cover change hot spots, with forests and grasslands being converted into agricultural uses. As such, frontiers provide an opportunity to see how people manipulate the land and their lives in the context of social, cultural and environmental constraints. This paper examines frontier settlement and land cover change in Nang Rong district, Northeast Thailand for the last half century. It uses a Cellular Automata (CA) model to explore the land cover consequences of alternative patterns of settlement in a setting where people establish dwelling units in nucleated villages and work agricultural plots that surround villages. Forested land around the center of a village is converted into agricultural uses in an inverse relationship to the distance from the village center, but frequently modified by biophysical conditions. Land at the center of the village may be reforested after the village is established as a source of shade as well as fruit and other products. Model variation in land cover change is more sensitive to the spatial reach of village households than their temporal reach, suggesting the important role that technology plays in how villagers travel to their fields (walking versus motorized transit).     

景观空间结构分析在城市水系规划中的应用

作为城市重要的生态基础设施,河流与水系的功能正常发挥与否取决于其结构特征以及格局的完善程度,而水系规划对城市河流结构与水系格局的改善具有关键作用。运用景观生态学关于廊道与网络的分析方法,将河流与水系看作水景观元素中的廊道和网络,通过计算和比较水系规划前后河流廊道与水系网络的一些指标,反映河流结构和水系网络特征的变化情况,以此评价水系规划的科学性和合理性,揭示水系规划在改善城市河流廊道的空间结构和提高水系网络的连接度方面的景观生态学本质;并以太仓市水系规划为例进行了研究。结果表明,规划后全市水系网络的连结数与最大可能连结数之比(γ)和网络中实际环路数与最大可能出现环路的比值(α)指数值分别比现状提高了30%和119%,河流廊道的空间结构得到了明显改善。对四个水利片区的研究发现各区的γ和α值具有较为明显的空间差异,γ和α值表现为现状指标值越低、城市化影响越强烈的地区,规划后其值提高的幅度越大。     

Architects and planners approaches to urban form and design in the Toronto region: A comparative analysis

This study compares architectural and planning approaches to urban form and design within a North American context. It presents a critical assessment of the results of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a group of highly experienced architects, landscape architects, and planners from the Greater Toronto Region. Dialogues with practitioners revealed a growing intellectual divide in regard to understanding urban form and design issues. Planners portrayed the urban form as a product of social and economic forces or a backdrop for civic institutions, private development initiatives, and public action. Architects and landscape architects, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of built configurations and spatial relations in shaping economic, social, and cultural patterns. With such a polarized perspective of urban development processes, each group of practitioners proposed different and somewhat contradictory visions for the future of North American built forms. This study develops an understanding of theoretical and pragmatic concerns within design professions (architecture/landscape architecture) and social science professions (planning at large) that hamper the development of integrative urban design visions. It extends an interdisciplinary understanding of built environments and the forces that shape them and paves the way for more in-depth studies aimed at creating more integrative urban design theories and development strategies.     

Migration and urban survival strategies in Windhoek, Namibia

Based on recent research in Windhoek, this paper demonstrates that it is the well established and widespread social linkages that persist between rural and urban households that are central to the ability of poor urban households to survive. Whereas informal coping mechanisms that include borrowing, piecework and credit are pervasive in rural areas of Namibia, intra-urban sources of food are poorly developed, and outside of kinship circles, social networks within Windhoek are used sparingly, even in times of greatest need. In addition, urban agriculture plays a very limited role at present in urban food supply. The research demonstrates that urban households that are most vulnerable to hunger are those that have limited social connections to the rural areas, and must rely on intra-urban opportunities to get food (including borrowing, begging, piecework and crime). The most vulnerable are female- and male-headed households with no access to farm income and limited/irregular urban incomes. In contrast, those with active rural-urban linkages enjoy significant transfers of food from rural areas that offset hunger and vulnerability in the urban context. Urban-rural reciprocity is therefore not only a one-way movement of people and resources from the urban to the rural areas, but also a transfer of food from rural to urban households.