The spatial configuration of innovation networks in China

China is rising and gradually developing into an innovation-oriented economy. This transition is fueled by public and private investment in education and by increasing inputs into science and technology. Little attention, however, has been paid to the great differences in China-specific context peculiarity. Hence, the paper assesses Chinese innovation networks using a comprehensive analytical model that includes network configuration, regional environment, government interference and firm attributes. The empirical analysis examines China’s machinery manufacturing industry to test the determinants of the spatial character of Chinese innovation networks based on questionnaire surveys and illustrative cases. Our study finds that Chinese innovation networks are affected not only by innovation resource endowments and firm attributes, but also by government interference and regional culture. Regarding the influence of regional culture, the typical Northern culture with the importance of guanxi plays an important role in the process of searching for partners and makes the innovation network and interpersonal network interwoven. Firms’ ownership and innovation ability are the two essential variables to determine whether any of the regional elements are of significance.     

The role of NGOs in public and private land development: The case of Dhaka city

Through a series of case studies, this paper discusses the three stakeholders in land development for housing in Dhaka city: the public and private sectors, and NGOs. In a scenario in which urban planning merely serves to the fulfil formal requirements and benefit certain groups, in which the public sector is an accomplice to the private sector, and where NGOs have their own private interests; urban planning in the public interest is interlocked with private interests. NGOs are important tertiary stakeholders in planning and service provision. While they vary in their types and objectives, environment NGOs in particular often find themselves in an antagonistic position concerning public and private land development. However, the interventions to the public and private sectors placed by the NGOs can provide a platform for future negotiation and participation in policy formulation.     

贵州乌蒙山毕节市七星关区资源环境承载能力评价

西南岩溶地区是中国重要的生态敏感区,生态地质环境较脆弱,在该类地区探索资源与环境的协调发展,是促进区域可持续发展之路。以乌蒙山集中连片扶贫区中的毕节市七星关区为评价试点,查明了区域地质资源环境现状,探索构建了适用于乌蒙山典型地区的地质资源环境承载能力评价指标体系。评价发现:①七星关区地质资源承载能力总体较强,但空间分布不均;②该地区水土环境承载能力总体较高,但七星关区城区、鸭池镇、清水铺镇等局部地区存在一定的水土环境污染,导致水土环境承载能力较低;③区域地质安全承载能力以中等-较强为主,城区近郊的朱昌和小项地区地质安全承载能力强,是进行城市规划和工程建设的有利地区。评价结果可为区域国土空间规划及"三区三线"划定提供地质依据。     

House types and their spatial patterns in Singapore

Four major groups of residential houses coexist in Singapore. They are: (a) bungalows, semi-detached and terrace houses; (b) public flats; (c) private flats; (c) shophouses; and (d) attap and zinc-roofed houses. Each group of houses has its own features and specific locations. The share of each group of houses in the total housing stock as well as in a census unit varies with time. The aim of this paper is three-fold. Firstly, it gives an overview of the house types, their features, growth and spatial spread; secondly, it examines the spatial patterns of housing as in 1980; and finally, it outlines the future trends of housing development. The present composition and the spatial pattern of housing in Singapore are very much a result of government planning since 1960. Having solved the problem of housing, the Singapore government now aims at improving the quality of public housing which presently accomodates some 88% of the total population of 2.7 million to a level close to that of the private housing.     

上海经营性土地储备制度及机制完善

土地储备是政府为筹集城市建设资金和加强宏观调控,主动进行的制度创新。上海土地储备制度在探索实践中完成了从＂市场主导＂模式向＂政府主导、市场运作＂模式的过渡,而全市开展的土地储备规划和计划编制则在引领城市发展、规范土地市场运作、提升土地调控能力方面发挥了重要作用。为加强土地储备制度落实,需在政策、资金、计划、市场、规划等方面进一步完善工作机制。     

Investment and regional development in Post-Mao China

This paper investigates China's changing investment systems, investment patterns and their impact on regional development. It reveals that the reforms have brought profound changes to Mao's investment system and investment allocation. Investment decentralization has given localities considerable autonomy and incentives in economic development. Budgetary investment has declined dramatically while enterprise funds, bank loans and foreign investment have increased significantly in China. An increasing amount of these new sources of fixed investment have been channeled to more profitable non-state sectors. In terms of regional changes, China's coastal provinces, particularly Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang have recorded more rapid investment growth and have much higher per capita investment than many interior provinces. In addition, investment in the coastal provinces relies less on the state and is more profitable than that in the poorer interior. The sectoral and regional unevenness of fixed investment has significantly contributed to the uneven regional development in China. This research also has important theoretical implications, as it shows that regional investment is neither a cumulative causation process nor a convergent process, but influenced greatly by government policy, local states and local conditions, and foreign capital. An analysis of these factors should improve the understanding of investment allocation and regional development, especially for the transition economy in which the control and capacity of the central state has declined, while local and global forces have emerged as equally important forces shaping spatial change.     

地质工作支撑服务国土空间规划的问题和策略——来自《上海市国土空间生态修复规划》的启示

在构建全国国土空间规划体系的新时代背景下, 地质工作如何有效支撑服务国土空间规划成为地质工作转型升级的新命题。我国地质成果在国土空间规划领域的应用程度与发达国家还存在明显差距, 主要原因在于地质调查精度和信息集成程度不足, 而且在体制机制和技术层面都存在与规划行业的脱节。通过深度参与《上海市国土空间生态修复规划》编制, 我们进一步发现地质工作的应用价值被普遍低估, 地质工作的技术路径难以契合规划行业思路, 传统地质成果表达方式也难以引起社会关注。为解决这些问题, 建议加强重点规划区地质调查和信息集成, 通过法律法规明确国土空间规划必须考虑的地质要素, 畅通地质信息获取渠道, 构建支撑国土空间规划的地质评价标准体系。在操作层面, 建议进一步开展以需求为导向的主动宣传, 构建问题导向、简单易行的技术路径, 强化空间导向、聚焦重点的成果表达形式。     

地质工作支撑服务国土空间规划的问题和策略——来自《上海市国土空间生态修复规划》的启示

在构建全国国土空间规划体系的新时代背景下,地质工作如何有效支撑服务国土空间规划成为地质工作转型升级的新命题。我国地质成果在国土空间规划领域的应用程度与发达国家还存在明显差距,主要原因在于地质调查精度和信息集成程度不足,而且在体制机制和技术层面都存在与规划行业的脱节。通过深度参与《上海市国土空间生态修复规划》编制,我们进一步发现地质工作的应用价值被普遍低估,地质工作的技术路径难以契合规划行业思路,传统地质成果表达方式也难以引起社会关注。为解决这些问题,建议加强重点规划区地质调查和信息集成,通过法律法规明确国土空间规划必须考虑的地质要素,畅通地质信息获取渠道,构建支撑国土空间规划的地质评价标准体系。在操作层面,建议进一步开展以需求为导向的主动宣传,构建问题导向、简单易行的技术路径,强化空间导向、聚焦重点的成果表达形式。     

Producing landslide-susceptibility maps for regional planning in data-scarce regions

In many of the lesser developed areas of the world, regional development planning is increasingly important for meeting the needs of current and future inhabitants. Expansion of economic capability, infrastructure, and residential capacity requires significant investment, and so efforts to limit the negative effect of landslides and other natural hazards on these investments are crucial. Many of the newer approaches to identifying and mapping relative landslide susceptibility within a developing area are hindered by insufficient data in the places where it is most needed. An approach called matrix assessment was specifically designed for regional development planning where data may be limited. Its application produces a landslide-susceptibility map suitable for use with other planning data in a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. Its development also encourages collecting basic landslide inventory data suitable for site-specific studies and for refining landslide hazard assessments in the future. This paper illustrates how matrix assessment methodology was applied to produce a landslide-susceptibility map for the Commonwealth of Dominica, an island nation in the eastern Caribbean, and how with a follow up study the relative landslide-susceptibility mapping was validated. A second Caribbean application on Jamaica demonstrates how this methodology can be applied in a more geologically complex setting. A validated approach to mapping landslide susceptibility which does not require extensive input data offers a significant benefit to planning in lesser developed parts of the world.     

Agrarian development and conflicts of land utilization in the coastal plains of Calabria (South Italy)

In the Mediterranean area modern economic development is concentrating more and more on the favourably situated coastal plains. The coastal plains of Calabria, which are examined on the basis of land utilization mapping, form, in this backward S Italian region, individually characteristic areas of different levels of agrarian development. Areas with insufficient aid and stagnating development and those with a strong initial developmental impulse and hesitant further development, stand face-to-face with areas with a continuous upward trend. The latter fit into the ranks of those consolidated agricultural regions of S Italy in which government aid and private initiative are multifariously intertwined and together support the process of development. Up to now, however, the different non-agricultural interests have impeded the continuing progress of the process more and more and given rise to awkward land utilization conflicts. Through settlement expansion, the building of transport facilities and ports for industrial zones as well as tourism, the use of land for agriculture is, to an increasing extent, being taken away so that regional planning seems imperative.     

Policies for rural Eastern Europe in transition: The case of Slovakia

After losing much of their demographic vitality under communism, rural areas of Eastern Europe are now handicapped by greatly reduced commuting opportunities and by a lack of foreign investment in the countryside. Although restitution and privatisation has placed much of the land under the control of private farmers, there is a need to modernise agriculture and rural infrastructure generally and also to increase the scope for pluriactivity. At the same time, functional links with the towns must be restored through a growth of employment linked with the central place system. Despite the importance of private enterprise under the conditions of a market economy, the government must take a lead and this paper deals with initiatives taken in rural Slovakia to mobilise the human resources of the countryside. The paper is heavily oriented towards research by the geographers at Nitra who have been much involved with the transformation of their local area. It is evident that while there has been no shortage of ideas, progress has been limited on account of low investment and the tensions associated with a series of three Meciar governments which have dominated Slovak politics through the 1990s. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Regional planning and citizen participation in South Korea: The case of Chungbook Province

Regional planning in Korea has seldom been influenced by the demands and pressures of interested groups or citizens. To remedy this and open up the planning process to citizen participation, the Korean government developed the Regional Development Regulations of 1981. This mechanism directs regional development planning and citizen participation in it.The experience of the Chungbook Regional Development Plan (1981–1982) is characteristic of the present process of citizen participation in planning in Korea. The methods of insuring citizen participation are fourfold: the citizen advisory committee, the survey of citizens' opinions, the study conference, and the public hearing. Nonetheless, both planners and citizens often assess the participatory elements as being unsatisfactory.Citizen participation in the planning process in Korea can be improved. Specific measures include the addition of a pre-plan phase to the current regional planning process. This phase would require widespread publicity informing citizens of the opportunity to participate in the planning process and improved mechanisms to elicit from citizens their views on the key issues of the regional plan before the decision making phase begins. Finally, the government needs to develop a long-term approach to improving citizen participation in the regional planning process. This should involve the development of training programs that advocate a bottom-up approach to planning based on grassroots citizen participation.     

Regional effects of natural disasters in China: investing in post-disaster recovery

We examine the effects of natural disasters on income and investment in China. Using macroeconomic province-level data and the provincial history of disaster exposure over the past two decades, we describe the relationship between disaster mortality and morbidity, disasters’ economic damages, government investment and regional economic activity, and infrastructure development. The Chinese government’s aggressive investment in post-disaster reconstruction is discussed, and the implications of this investment for post-disaster private sector economic activity are analyzed empirically. We further investigate the differential effects of natural disasters on economic activity in China’s diverse geographical regions.     

Indigenous regional systems and Rural Development in Southern India

As a result of critism of the industrial-urban biased paradigm of development, a new social development approach is beginning to emerge. According to this strategy, development must be fitted to ecological constraints, priority attention must be given to rural development, and planning for rural development must be decentralized, participatory, and deeply immersed in the particulars of local settings. Agropolitan districts, or networks of socio-economic and political interaction, have been suggested as a suitable territorial basis for this paradigm. In India, where local planning has not been successful, indigenous regional systems, which correspond closely to criteria suggested to delineate agropolitan districts, have existed for hundreds of years. This is especially true in Tamil Nadu where a hierarchy of nesting socio-spatial units is firmly established in peasant tradition. Information is presented on the positive and negative aspects of the use of such regions for rural planning. It is suggested that these regions may better fulfil the objectives of agropolitan development than sets of functional regions derived from the urban hierarchy.     

Indigenous regional systems and Rural Development in Southern India

As a result of critism of the industrial-urban biased paradigm of development, a new social development approach is beginning to emerge. According to this strategy, development must be fitted to ecological constraints, priority attention must be given to rural development, and planning for rural development must be decentralized, participatory, and deeply immersed in the particulars of local settings. Agropolitan districts, or networks of socio-economic and political interaction, have been suggested as a suitable territorial basis for this paradigm. In India, where local planning has not been successful, indigenous regional systems, which correspond closely to criteria suggested to delineate agropolitan districts, have existed for hundreds of years. This is especially true in Tamil Nadu where a hierarchy of nesting socio-spatial units is firmly established in peasant tradition. Information is presented on the positive and negative aspects of the use of such regions for rural planning. It is suggested that these regions may better fulfil the objectives of agropolitan development than sets of functional regions derived from the urban hierarchy.     

Some views on land ownership in urban planning and housing production in Sweden

Urbanisation is a functional change in land utilisation which requires a high degree of coordination in time and space. Swedish society has not considered it possible to entrust this coordination to the free market forces. A number of measures was introduced during the latter part of the sixties with a view to coordinating housing development by means of local authority-land ownership and preventing land speculation. In a recently published report of a Government Commission it is proposed that dwellings receiving Government housing loans (more than 90 % of building construction) shall only be built on land which is owned by the local authorities. The local authorities may then be assumed to be the only purchasers of land for housing development purposes. Their housing policy can be given a more short-term character and can be better adapted to urban planning. Urban development in Sweden during recent decades is characterised by a struggle between the two groups of our mixed-economy society, i. e., a social democratic government, and capitalistic enterprise. As far as the private individual is concerned, both parties are remote decision makers. The important question is whether an improvement in town environment may be expected before the private individual has been given a chance to influence planning. The relationship between housing development and land ownership in some Swedish towns over the period 1950–1970 is presented as an example of the realization of land policy.     

Regional investment effectiveness and development levels in China

For centuries, it has been taken for granted that social and economic development in China has an east-west spread, or from the coast to the interior. Even though a tremendous effort was made by the socialist government for thirty years (1949-1978) on rectifying this unhealthy imbalance, most people hold the belief that the spatial patterns of China's development remain the same as they were forty years ago. This deep-rooted concept plays an important role in shaping China's present economic development strategies. Thus, an evaluation of the impact of the goverment's regional balance effort remains critical. Understanding the changes and patterns of China's regional development is central to formulating appropriate policies for future planning. In this paper an overview of regional development is presented from the perspective of history. Regression between the total fixed capital investment and the combined industrial and agricultural output is analyzed, and an effort is made to find out the spatial distribution of regional investment effectiveness. A factor analysis based on twenty socio-economic variables revealed that apart from the traditional E-W regional disparity, the modern socialist dispersal policy has also affected the regional development in China. Though the historical economic factors unbalanced the development from E to W, the economic pratice advocated by Socialist China has reversed the tendency to some extent. A cluster analysis of 21 provinces, five autonomous administrative regions, and three municipalities identified new spatial patterns, and the result strengthened the finding that the effort of regional balance in the period of 1949–1978 is still at work.     

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.     

Regional effects of natural disasters in China: investing in post-disaster recovery

We examine the effects of natural disasters on income and investment in China. Using macroeconomic province-level data and the provincial history of disaster exposure over the past two decades, we describe the relationship between disaster mortality and morbidity, disasters’ economic damages, government investment and regional economic activity, and infrastructure development. The Chinese government’s aggressive investment in post-disaster reconstruction is discussed, and the implications of this investment for post-disaster private sector economic activity are analyzed empirically. We further investigate the differential effects of natural disasters on economic activity in China’s diverse geographical regions.

     

Accessibility to sport facilities in Wales: A GIS-based analysis of socio-economic variations in provision

Previous studies concerned with investigating the relationship between levels of physical activity and aspects of the built environment have often led to inconsistent and mixed findings concerning associations between the availability of recreational or sport facilities and area socio-economic status. Further complications may arise when analysis is conducted separately for access to either publicly available or private facilities or where alternative methodological approaches to measuring accessibility are adopted. This paper provides a review of such research before exploring the potential use of methods for examining variations in accessibility based on enhanced floating catchment area (FCA) models which are increasingly being advocated in medical geography applications. Using bespoke tools developed within a commercial GIS package, which are being made publicly available by the authors, and a national database of sport facilities, variations in accessibility are investigated in relation to a widely used measure of deprivation in the UK. Findings from this analysis suggest that whilst those living in deprived areas of Wales have greater potential access to publicly available sporting opportunities, associations with privately owned facilities are reversed for some distance thresholds and at different spatial scales. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the implications of such findings given current financial pressures on local government and other sport and leisure providers and highlights how spatial analytical techniques can be used to monitor such trends.