Approach to delimiting metropolitan regions’ boundary and grading urban hierarchy within a metropolitan region—A case study of Shanghai metropolitan region

In metropolitan regions, the change in the strength of＂flows＂ between a core city and surrounding cities reflects the range of the core city＇s influence, while the gravity between core city and other cities reflects the strength of potential relation between them. This article firstly attempts to delimit the boundary of metropolitan regions with the two dimensions measure combining ＂flows＂ and gravitation. The former is measured through the flow of people between the core city and surrounding cities, and the latter is measured through both population and gross domestic products （GDP） of the core city and surrounding cities. The hierarchy of the cities within a metropolitan region is classified in order to emphasize the roles of the cities belonging to the metropolitan regions, different from the general way through population scale and administrative level, and is typical in China. This paper uses the Shanghai metropolitan region as a research case, determining boundary of this metropolitan region clearly and classifying hierarchy of the cities within the region. The final results are significantly different to previous work, even overthrowing the traditional system of urban hierarchy partly. It is helpful to highlight the function of cities in organizing the regional economy, the level structure of metropolitan regions, and each city＇s relative importance in a metropolitan region, which can be taken as scientific basis for planning integrated regions or urban systems.     

Measurement and interpretation of connectivity of Chinese cities in world city network, 2010

This is an empirical paper that measures and interprets the position of Chinese cities in the world city network in 2010. Building on a specification of the world city network as a′interlocking network′in which business services firms play the crucial role in city network formation, information is gathered about the presence of global service firms in cities. This information is converted into data to provide the′service value′of a city for a firm′s provision of corporate services in a 526(cities)×175(firms) matrix. These data are then used as the input to the interlocking network model in order to measure cities′connectivity and its predominant geographical orientation. Here we focus on the position of some key Chinese cities in this regard, and discuss and interpret results in the context of the urban dimensions of the′opening up′of the Chinese economy.     

Changing Connectivities of Chinese Cities in the World City Network,2010–2016

Against the backdrop of the sizable economic growth of China in recent years, this paper uses the most recent data gathering of the Globalization and World Cities(Ga WC) research network to update and supplement earlier research on the shifting global connectivity of Chinese cities. The update consists of an evaluation of the connectivity of Chinese cities in 2016, the supplement of an analysis of the changing position of Chinese cities in the world city network between 2010 and 2016. To this end, we build on a specification of the world city network as an ‘interlocking network' in which producer services firms play the crucial role in city network formation. Information about the presence of leading producer services firms in cities in 2010 and 2016 is used as the input to a bipartite network projection algorithm in order to measure cities' network connectivity. The first set of results discusses the geographies of urban connectivity in the world city network in 2016. The second set of results discusses standardized measures of change to reveal the major dimensions of the transformations between 2010 and 2016. We find that, with the exception of Hong Kong, Macau and Kaohsiung of Taiwan, all Chinese cities record connectivity gains. This wholesale rise in connectivity is nonetheless geographically uneven, with above all Beijing, Chengdu/Chongqing and Changsha/Wuhan becoming more connected. We conclude that the wholesale rise of Chinese cities in the world city network and their changing trajectories in the post-crisis era are embedded in shifting external and internal political economies.     

Spatial agglomeration of exhibition enterprises on a regional scale in China

During the past two decades, the exhibition industry in China has been developing rapidly and has become an important part of the modern service industry, particularly the agglomeration characteristics of exhibition enterprises highlighted on the regional scale. Although the development of theoretical research on the western exhibition industry has taken place over time, the spatial perspective has not been at the centre of attention so far. This paper aims to fill this gap and report on the agglomeration characteristics of exhibition enterprises and their influential factors. Based on data about exhibition enterprises in the Pearl River Delta(PRD) during 1991–2013, using the Ripley K function analysis and kernel density estimation, this research identifies that: 1) the exhibition enterprise on the regional scale is significantly characterized by spatial agglomeration, and the agglomeration density and scale are continuously increasing; 2) the spatial pattern of agglomeration has developed from a single-center to multi-center form. Meanwhile, this paper profiles the factors influencing the spatial agglomeration of exhibition enterprises by selecting the panel data of nine cities in the PRD in 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2013. The results show that market capacity, urban informatization level and exhibition venues significantly influence the location choice of exhibition enterprises. Among them, the market capacity is a variable that exerts a far greater impact than other factors do.     

Urban hierarchy of innovation capability and inter-city linkages of knowledge in post-reform China

The 2000s has witnessed increasing interests in cities′role of innovation in the era of knowledge-based economy.Compared with substantial empirical analysis on the world city hierarchy of innovation,this paper attempts to examine the national urban hierarchy of innovation capability in China,in terms of ranking systems,spatial pattern and inter-city linkages of knowledge during the post-reform period since the late 1970s.Based on quantitative analysis such as principal component factor analysis and clustering analysis,this paper identifies the five-tier hierarchy of in-novation,which is headed by Beijing and Shanghai,followed by the capital cities of each province and regional centre cities.The development of China′s urban hierarchy of innovation capability has been driven by such factors as the scale of innovation,scientific scale,innovation potential and innovation environment.The paper further investigates the inter-city linkages of knowledge measured by the number of co-authored papers among the cities.Beijing is positioned in the central position of the knowledge diffusion and knowledge cooperation innovation.More knowledge diffusion among high level cities has occurred than that among the low level cities as well as between the low level cities and high level cities,and provincial capital cities and the regional central cities.     

Analyzing Asymmetric City Connectivity by Toponym on Social Media in China

The connectedness between cities has become one of the most widely discussed topics in urban and regional research in the mobile and big data era. One problem identified is the asymmetric city connectivity, partially due to data availability. We present a data-driven approach based on location and toponym(place name) extracted from social media data, to assess the asymmetric connectivity between cities. The assumption is that a higher frequency of occurrences of the name of city i in posts located in city j would imply that the city i is more influential than other cities upon city j. In addition, we’ve developed a group of measurements such as the relatedness index, impact index, link strength index, dependence index, and structure similar index to characterize such interactions. This framework of connectivity measurements can also be used to support smart planning taking into account the evolving interplay among cities. The space-time structure of urban systems in China is examined as the case study.     

Industrial transformation of Shenyang city

Industrial transformation represents a unique economic phenomenon in China‘s regional economy,and old industrial city reconstruction has long been a key problem that affects state security. As a typical old indus-trial city in China, Shenyang established its heavy industrial city position in the First Five-year Plan period (1953-1957), and this industrial structure has been consolidated for a long time. After 1978, Shenyang began its long last-ing industrial reconstruction in an all-round way by 3 main initiatives including restructuring economic system, up-grading traditional industrial technology and developing high-tech industry. In the end of the 1990s, it could be i-dentified that remarkable structural changes took place in city economy at large as well as individual industrial sec-tor. According to the GDP proportion change, Shenyang is on the way to a high level industrial structure. The sec-ondary industry also engendered significant shifting as smelting and textile industry declined sharply but IT industry increased largely. Although the ratio of the heavy industry to the light industry changed periodically, the heavy in-dustrial output value most time kept a high proportion over 60% of the gross industrial output value in the past five decades. Shenyang has favorable conditions for developing equipment manufacturing industry, but it should carry out the program by establishing its leading role in urban economy plan, building “Theme Industrial Parks“, improv-ing Tiexi Industrial Zone, removing any kind of system barrier, enlarging private and other ownerships economy and improving technology, marketing and management by IT application. In response to economy globalization,Shenyang needs to expand the cooperation worldwide and improve the cohesion with surrounding cities.     

Spatial Identification of Housing Vacancy in China

The housing vacancy rate(HVR) is an important index in assessing the healthiness of residential real estate market. In China, it is hardly to take advantage of the basic data of real estate information due to the opaque of those data. In this paper, the HVR is estimated to two scales. At the grid level, urban area ratio was calculated by nighttime images after eliminating outliers of nighttime images and night light intensity of non-residential pixels in mixed pixels by a proposed modified optimal threshold method, and built-up areas in each pixel were extracted from the land-cover data. Then, the HVR is calculated by comparing the light intensity of specific grid with the light intensity of full occupancy rate regions. At the administrative scale, the GCI(‘ghost city' index) is constructed by calculating the ratio of the total light radiation intensity of a city to the total construction land area of the city. The overall spatial differentiation pattern of the vacant houses in the national prefecture level administrative regions is analyzed. The following conclusions were drawn: vacant housing is rare in certain eastern coastal cities and regions in China with relatively fast economic development. Cities based on exhausted resources, some mountainous cities, and cities with relatively backward economic development more typically showed high levels of housing vacancy. The GCI of prefecture-level administrative units gradually declined from north to south, whereas the east-west distribution showed a parabolic shape. As city level decreased, the GCI registered a gradual upward trend. China's urban housing vacancy can be divided into five categories: industry or resources driven, government planned, epitaxy expansionary, environmental constraint and speculative activate by combining the spatial distribution of housing vacancy with the factors of natural environment, social economic development level, and population density into consideration.     

Stability of Spatial Structure of Urban Agglomeration in China Based on Central Place Theory

This paper brings forward the concept of stability of the spatial structure of urban agglomeration(UA)based on Central Place Theory by introducing centrality index and fractal theory.Before assessment,K=4 is selected as parameter to calculate centrality index and fractal dimension(K represents the quantitive relationship between city and the counties in Central Place Theory),and then found the number of nodes,the type of spatial structure,the spatial al-location of nodes with different hierarchy affecting the stability of spatial structure.According to spatial contact direction and the level of stability,UAs in China are classified into five types.Finally,it is posed as a further question that how to use hierarchical relation K=6 and K=7 in central place system to coordinate with the assessment of stability of spatial structure is brought forward.     

SPATIAL STRUCTURE EVOLUTION OF SYSTEM OF RECREATION BUSINESS DISTRICT ——A Case of Suzhou City

The growing attention on urban tourism was very widespread. There are two angles to study urban tourism: supply-side and demand-side. And the supply-side of the tourism remains very important. The RBD (Recreation Business District) is a useful framework to understand the components of urban tourism and how they fit together. The paper begins with a review on the RBD and the spatial structure of tourism in urban areas and then attempts to develop a more general understanding of the spatial structure evolution of RBDs in a tourist-historic city—Suzhou. The spatial structures and functions of the RBDs in Suzhou are examined, based on field observations, interviews with city officials and industry leaders, and a review of available documents. The urban tourism of Suzhou has developed in a range of contexts, that various types of RBDs have emerged as a result of different urban development strategies. The spatial structure has evolved from the past “Single-cored Structure“ to “Double-cored Structure“ at present, and then to “Chain Structure“ in the future. The spatial form and evolution of RBD in Suzhou are closely relative with its urban spatial expansion. Urban area dispersal is the prerequisite of the emergence of the RBD. Planning and constructing the RBD becomes a new impetus to urban growth or renewal. Finally, a number of strategies for planning and developing the RBD in Suzhou are suggested. The different RBDs should adopt different strategies.Intensification can be the possible strategy for the RBDs in the ancient city. Accreting with the urban theme park or engrafting on the Jinji Lake is suggested respectively for the RBD in the Suzhou New District and the Suzhou Indus-trial Park.     

Eco-spatial Structure of Urban Agglomeration

In terms of ecological theory, this paper makes a comprehensive analysis of the mutualism and co- evolutionary mechanism between the eco-spatial structure and socio-economic development of the urban agglomeration, and maps out optimized modes of the eco-spatial structure of the urban agglomeration. The analysis is a case study of the urban agglomeration on different levels of global, national, provincial and local scales, on the basis of those conclusions are drawn: 1) Within the scope of the urban agglomeration, the cities should be reasonably sized and appropriately densified; the spatial combination of the urban agglomeration ought to be orderly, and its eco-spatial structure ought to be optimized and efficient; the relationship between the economic society and eco-spatial environment ought to be that of mutual benefit and co-evolution. 2) “The mode of corridor group network” is a certain trend evoked from the spatial structure of urban agglomeration. 3) The eco-spatial structure of urban agglomeration under “the mode of corridor group network” can further increase the environmental capacity of urban agglomeration, and is in favor of the harmonious relationship between man and nature.     

Empirical Analysis of City Contact in Zhujiang （Pearl） River Delta,China

In traditional urban geography, city contact research is a classic study element in city research. In general, researchers use the traditional gravity model to characterize the contacts that exist between two cities. The traditional gravity model assumes ideal condi- tions, but these preconditions and their results often do not exist in realistic conditions. Thus, we used a modified gravity model to char- acterize the city contacts within a specific region. This model considers factors such as intercity complementarities, government inter- vention, and the diversity of the transportation infrastructure which is characterized as the transportation distance instead of the tradi- tional Euclidean distance. We applied this model to an empirical study of city contact in the Zhujiang （Pearl） River Delta （PRD） of China. The regression results indicated that the modified gravity model could measure city contact more accurately and comprehen- sively than the traditional gravity model, i.e., it yielded a higher adjusted R2 value （0.379） than the traditional gravity model result （0.259）. Our study also suggests that, in addition to urban-regional and metropolitan development, the complementarities of the basic functions of cities at the administrative and market levels, as well as the corporeal and immaterial levels, play very significant roles in the characterization of city contact. Given the complexity of city contact, it will be necessary to consider more relevant influential fac- tors in the modified gravity model to characterize the features of city contact in the future.     

ON SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL CHANGES OF PRESENT URBAN POPULATION IN CHINA

Since 1949, great changes have taken place in the amount and distribution of China's urban population. From the analysis on the change in total urban population, it can be learnt that urbanization progress can be controlled mainly by social-economic development and government policy through influencing the migratory growth of urban population and the number of organic cities. In the period 1949-1990, the states of megalopolises had gone up; medium-sized cities had decreased. It is estimated that the total urban population of China will still increase at a rapid speed in the coming 10 years; there will not be great changes in grade system of urban scale; and urban population may shows a tendency to move to coastal area.     

Changing spatial and structural patterns of non-agricultural activities in outward-moving Beijing urban fringe

As responses to metropolitan suburbanization and rural urbanization,the formation and evolution of urban fringes should be understood against the background of overall economic development and spatial reconstruction of entire metropolises.At the same time,however,endogenous interactions between industrial structure and spatial patterns of non-agricultural activities are also worthy of scholarly attention.Since the 1980s,studies on urban fringes in China have been restricted by the lack of micro-level data.This paper investigates the spatial expansion and structural evolution of the urban fringe by taking the case of Beijing and uses systematic firm-level data in 1996 and 2001 from the National Census of Basic Units.The diversity of distribution patterns across industrial sectors brings about two interrelated results.On the one hand,structural adjustment of non-agricultural industries promotes the expansion and spatial evolution of the urban fringe.On the other hand,the stability and dynamics of industrial structure coexist in the moving urban fringe.This study also reveals that the outward-moving urban fringe is the optimal location for manufacturing,especially heavy manufacturing,as well as traditional producer and consumer services.However,industries with spatial stickiness such as tourism and sports have not moved with the fringe.Most advanced services remain concentrated in the city center.The authors argue that it is essential for understanding and managing urban fringes to take into account spatial evolution and industrial structural adjustment together with their interaction with each other.     

Changing Concepts of City and Urban Planning Practices in Guangzhou （1949-2010）： An Approach to Sustainable Urban Development

By focusing on Guangzhou, this paper examines how different concepts of city in terms of urban-rural relationships are shaped in transforming China since 1949, and explores how they influence the way in which urban planning are practiced. In the pre-reform era, the city was defined as a productive space under the system of urban-rural segregation established for securing rapid industrialization. Urban planning was thus only concerned with the development of urban areas. In the 1980s and 1990s after the reform, institutional change and economic transformation mobilized the urban-rural linkages. The development of suburban areas was then con- sidered by urban planning, but this consideration was a passive response to urban problems such as population explosion and water re- sources protection. Since the new millennium, the agenda for sustainable development and problems of uneven urban-rural development have called for the development of urban-rural integration. In this context, the city is conceptualized as a complex of mountain, city, river, farmland and sea, reconstructing the ideology of urban-rural division in defining urban development. Urban planning has therefore sought in an active way to develop a sustainable city embracing rural and natural elements, and to balance economic growth and envi- ronmental protection. It is argued that developing the concept of city as a complex of urban and rural elements contributes to the urban planning for sustainable urban development, while this conceptualization relies on the recognition of the integrated urban-rural relationship.     

Spatial and Temporal Pattern of Urban Smart Development in China and Its Driving Mechanism

Smart urban development is an inevitable choice, and is essential to overall strength improvement. It is important to explore an urban smart development path which unites smart growth with driving shrinkage perfectly in forming scientific and sustainable development concept and responding to new normal strategic opportunities. Based on statistic data of 294 prefecture-level cities and above in China from 2000 to 2015, we analyzed spatial and temporal evolution of urban smart development in China by constructing a dynamic fitting model of urban land expansion, population growth, and economic development as well as the coefficient of variation of urban smart development(CVSD). Further efforts were then made to consider differential distribution regularity of urban smart development so as to understand the driving mechanisms of heterogeneous classification of urban smart development in China from different scales and scale variation. Our results indicate that: 1) the disordered growth tendency of urban cities in China is overall well controlled in the middle, and late research and it mainly presented a doublet coexistence of shrinkage disordered cities and smart developing cities. It is particularly obvious that Northeast China and East China have regarded shrinkage disordered cities and smart developing cities as main development tendency separately. 2) Areas with basic stability and relative variation were relatively dispersed across the time period, but the proportion was far beyond areas with significant variation. It demonstrates a relative equilibrium spatial and temporal differential evolution pattern of prefecture-level cities and above in China, except for Tongling, Lanzhou and Chaoyang. 3) prefecture-level cities and above in China are mostly characterized by shrinkage disordered and smart development classification under the background of different scale and scale variation from 2000–2015; however, the spatial resonance relation is not obvious. 4) There are many interaction factors forming an important driving mechanism in developing the spatial and temporal pattern of urban smart development in China, including natural geographical factors, industrial structure adjustment, human capital radiation, regional traffic accessibility, and government decision-making intervention.     

From sequential to parallel growth of cities: Theory and evidence from Canada

This paper examines city growth patterns and the corresponding city size distribution evolution over long periods of time using a simple New Economic Geography(NEG) model and urban population data from Canada. The main findings are twofold. First, there is a transition from sequential to parallel growth of cities over long periods of time: city growth shows a sequential mode in the stage of rapid urbanization, i.e., the cities with the best development conditions will take the lead in growth, after which the cities with higher ranks will become the fastest-growing cities; in the late stage of urbanization, city growth converges according to Gibrat′s law, and exhibits a parallel growth pattern. Second, city size distribution is found to have persistent structural characteristics: the city system is self-organized into multiple discrete size groups; city growth shows club convergence characteristics, and the cities with similar development conditions eventually converge to a similar size. The results will not only enhance our understanding of urbanization process, but will also provide a timely and clear policy reference for promoting the healthy urbanization of developing countries.     

The Mechanism Behind Urban Population Growth and Shrinkage from the Perspective of Urban Network Externalities

Urban shrinkage is a global phenomenon, and it will coexist with urban growth for many years. At the same time, the network connection between cities continuously improved due to the construction of the transportation and information networks.However, the relationship between urban network externalities and urban population growth/shrinkage remains unclear. Therefore,based on high-speed railway(HSR) flow data, a spatial econometric model is used to explore the mechanism behind urban population g...     

Spatio-temporal dynamic of quality of life of residents,Northeast China

Quality of life(QOL) is a hotspot issue that has attracted increasing attention from the Chinese Government and scholars, it is also a vital issue that should be addressed during the cause of ′establishing overall well-off society′. Northeast China is one of the most import old industrial bases in China, however, the industrial structure of heavy chemical industry and the development mode of ′production first, living last′ have leaded to series of social problems, which have also become a serious bottleneck to social stability and economic sustainable development. Through applying the methods of BP neural network, exploratory spatial data analysis(ESDA) and spatial regression model, this paper examines the space-time dynamics of QOL of the residents in Northeast China. We first investigate the indexes of QOL of the residents and then use ESDA methods to visualize its space-time relationship. We have found a spatial agglomeration of QOL of the residents in middle-southern Liaoning Province, central Jilin Province and Harbin-Qiqihar-Daqing area of Heilongjiang Province. Two third of the counties are low-low spatial correlation, and the correlative type of about 60% of the prefecture level areas keeps stable, indicating QOL of the residents in Northeast China shows a certain character of path dependence or spatial locked. We have also found that economic strength and development levels of service industry have positive and obvious effect on QOL of the residents, while the effect of such indexes as the social service level and the proportion of the tertiary industries are less.