Table of Content

25 October 2008, Volume 63 Issue 10 Previous Issue    Next Issue

Researches on Comprehensive Measurement of Compactness of Urban Agglomerations in China FANG Chuanglin; QI Weifeng;SONG Jitao 2008, 63 (10):  1011-1021.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810001 Abstract ( )   PDF (1625KB) ( )   Save Urban agglomeration compactness indicates physical entities, such as city (town), industries, resources, funds, traffic, technologies, whose spatial concentration degree according to specified economic and technologic association in the process of urban agglomerations' form and development, include urban agglomeration industry compactness, urban agglomeration spatial compactness and urban agglomeration traffic compactness. An appropriate compactness reflects the maximum urban agglomerations' efficiency, over-high and over-low compactness are harmful to the healthy development of urban agglomeration. From the viewpoint of industry, space and traffic, this paper constructs synthetic measurement models and synthetically analyzes 23 urban agglomerations' compactness; finds out that urban agglomeration compactness is not high in totality and compactness's spatial discrepancy is great in China. According to the discrepancy and the clustering analysis method, this article classifies urban agglomeration compactness into five grades, highly compact, compact, medium compact, lower compact and dispersed. Urban agglomeration synthetic compactness appears a discrepancy tendency of gradually decreasing from east to west, from south to north. There is highly positive correlation between urban agglomeration synthetic compactness and urban agglomeration development degree. How to scientifically control compactness and which compactness criterion is the optimum choice are the question that this article always painfully ponders on and tries to reply to. The research will provide quantitative policy decision basis for urban agglomerations' form and development, constructing conservation-oriented, environmental-friendly, ecologic and high-efficiency urban agglomerations, establishing scientific basis for promoting the appropriate concentration and healthy development of urban agglomeration in China. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Urban Residential Suitability Evaluation of Dalian's Residents CHEN Li, ZHANG Wenzhong, LI Yejin 2008, 63 (10):  1022-1032.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810002 Abstract ( )   PDF (2807KB) ( )   Save In 1898, Howard put forward "garden city" as an introspection of the expense human paid for cities' vigorous development. One hundred years later, with the acceleration of urbanization China came the same problems. The deterioration of the living environment in cities is more and more common because of the agglomeration of population and industry in metropolitan areas. As a result, many scholars focus on the study of urban residential suitability, including the concept, content, influencing factors, as well as evaluation methods of it. There are usually three ways to appraise living environment, objective, subjective, and a combination of the two. This paper applies subjective method to have an overview of the suitability in Dalian. Choosing security, health, convenience, pleasure and facility as indexes, based on large-scale survey data of the residents' degree of satisfaction with the urban residential suitability in Dalian, this paper presents an empirical analysis of the residential problems in Dalian with the method of mathematical statistics and GIS analysis. The main content consists of the comparison of final score across each index, the study of relationship between attributes and evaluation result, and the comparison of both evaluation and spatial differences across social groups. Four conclusions are drawn as follows. (1) The average score of the five indexes shows that the urban residential suitability in Dalian is at a really fair level. Residents in Dalian are mostly satisfied with the traffic system, physical environment and daily facilities. However, they think there is a deficiency of community establishment. Meanwhile, the security of the city should be improved. (2) The attributes of residents would affect the evaluation result. According to analysis of correlation, the evaluation score is positively correlated to residents' income and education level, while is negatively correlated to family population. Age also counts for part of the final evaluation score. (3) Taking into account of these four attributes, residents in the city can be divided into four groups, which are working class, young white-collars, low-income local residents and young workers. People of different social groups show different evaluations of residential suitability. Working class and young white-collar people, who are wealthy and well-educated, are more satisfied with their living environment. Most of low-income local residents and young workers are living in suburban and old industrial districts, so their evaluation of urban residential suitability is lower. (4) The municipal government is obligated to take into consideration the need of all groups of people when dealing with urban residential suitability. At present, Dalian city has not met the need of the poor. For this reason, the governors should put more efforts on the equity of living environment, especially focus on the area where young workers and low-income residents live, such as Ganjinzi District and Jinzhou District. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Modeling Housing Demand Structure with an Example of Beijing GAO Xiaolu 2008, 63 (10):  1033-1044.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810003 Abstract ( )   PDF (2732KB) ( )   Save A clear understanding of housing demand structure is the fundamental of making housing policies and stipulating relevant technical standards. In particular, it is critical to clarify the dividing lines of households with different demands, so as to define the target of housing policies. In addition, it is significant to estimate the appropriate housing size demand of different demand groups in order to make practical housing provision plans. In this paper, the above issues are addressed through modeling the housing demand of urban families on a micro scale. First, the influencing factors of urban households' housing demand, including family structure, income, current dwelling conditions, social status, location choice, investment tendencies, etc., are analyzed with their interactions being considered. Based on theoretical analysis, a two-level interaction model is proposed for representing the housing demand structure. Second, the model is used for analyzing the housing demand of Beijing residents, and it is empirically proved to be successful. As a result, eight family groups with significantly differentiated housing demand were identified and the thresholds for splitting the family groups, such as monthly family income of 5000 RMB and current housing status, were clarified. Furthermore, the differentiations of housing size demand across the demand groups are quantitatively clarified. It was found that 100 m2, 110 m2, 140 m2, 170 m2, and 230 m2 were currently thought to be "ideal" for families with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or more persons, respectively. These ideal sizes are obviously unrealistic considering the restrictions of land and resources of Beijing, therefore they were adjusted based on the modeling results. The calculation implied that the appropriate housing sizes for 2-person, 3-person, 4-person and 5-or-more-person families are 70-80 m2, 80-95 m2, 90-110 m2, and 90-155 m2, respectively. These results provide many useful implications for housing policy and enrich the methodology of housing demand structure analysis through micro-scale modeling. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Spatial Agglomeration and Evolution of Urban Population in China CHEN Gangqiang, LI Xun, XU Xueqiang 2008, 63 (10):  1045-1054.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810004 Abstract ( )   PDF (2367KB) ( )   Save The increasing urban agglomerative growth and urban interactions has been a conspicuous feature of urban development in China since the 1990s. This paper makes an analysis on the spatial agglomeration and evolution of urban population in China, 1990-2005. The spatial data in this study are the cities and towns population of 451 cities in 1990, 662 cities in 2000 and 634 cities in 2005. Moran's I, one of Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) techniques, is the main method, and Moran's I statistics are obtained with the usual 5% significance level in this paper. In order to investigate the rationality of the empirical results, the transition probability matrices are applied to test its robustness, then the results are visualized by ArcGIS 9.0 soft in the research. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The findings for the global spatial agglomeration of urban population are the existence of positive effect. Though the positive effect of the global spatial agglomeration is not strong, it is more or less increased from 1990 to 2005. On the other hand, the law of the local spatial agglomeration is obvious with a spatial agglomeration of a "T-shaped" pattern or along the main railroad lines, indicating that evolution of spatial structure of urban system has been optimized since 1990. (2) The diversity between HH spatial agglomeration of urban population in the East Zone and the LL ones in the Middle and West zones shows significant imbalance, while its changes show the imbalance had an extended trend during the 1990s and was mitigated in a way after 2000. At the same time, the effect and the changes of spatial agglomeration also suggest that the urban regions in the East Zone represent an integrative development while the ones in the Middle and West zones tend to the polarized development or less harmonious ability as a whole. (3) Furthermore, both different urban regions and the intra-urban regions have distinct state and changes of spatial agglomeration, which manifests that the spatial disparity is reflected not only between regions but also between intra-urban regions. The empirical results also show that the influencing scope of spatial agglomeration has expanded and the state and location of urban agglomeration has changed. (4) To a certain extent, the feature and its change of spatial agglomeration of urban population accord with the functions of market forces, economic development, construction of transport infrastructure, China's spatial development policies and so on. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Impact of Urban Planning and Industrial Development on Wetlands in Hangzhou Bay REN Liyan, WU Cifang, YUE Wenze, LIU Yong, LU Zhangwei 2008, 63 (10):  1055-1063.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810005 Abstract ( )   PDF (2771KB) ( )   Save Hangzhou Bay Industries Belt is located in the north of Zhejiang Province, which is the important part of the Yangtze River Delta. With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, plenty of wetlands in this area were occupied and the conflict between economic development and wetlands protection will still be severe in the future. Based on remote sensing images and urban planning data, this paper analyzed the planned conversion of wetlands to urban construction lands from 2005 to 2020 and the potential risk to wetlands using GIS spatial model. Conclusions were drawn as follows: (1) Wetlands in Hangzhou Bay Industries Belt are distributed widely and most of them are close to present urban construction lands. (2) According to present planning, construction lands will expand rapidly in the coming 15 years and will occupy many wetland areas, most of which are distributed in Ningbo, Hangzhou and Cixi. Two wetland types, i.e., ponds and aquiculture water, which are distributed in the reclaimed areas of Hangzhou Bay south coast will decrease greatly. Potential risk to wetlands by construction lands layout is great at Daishan and Zhoushan. (3) On the whole, the potential risk to wetlands is great. The first risk rank is about 8000 hm2, being 69% of the total decreased area. The second, third and fourth risk ranks are about 2000 hm2, 700 hm2 and 700 hm2, accounting for 19% , 6% and 6% of the total decreased area, respectively. Besides, the tendency of wetlands occupation by urban construction lands will not decrease from 2005 to 2020. (4) The increase extent and the layout of construction lands have great effect on the decrease of wetlands. Adjustment of construction lands planning, compensating for wetlands loss, building of wetland park and other measures should be taken to protect wetlands. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Assessment on Vulnerable Regions of Food Security in China YIN Peihong, FANG Xiuqi 2008, 63 (10):  1064-1072.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810006 Abstract ( )   PDF (2631KB) ( )   Save An integrated index balancing between supply and demand for grain, reserves for food security and food affordability etc. is constructed for assessing the vulnerability of food security at the county level of China. Taking the revenue burden below 25% of local financial income as the acceptable threshold, six types of food security have been identified based on the data from county statistics for the period 2002-2004. Under the situation of grain-sown area less changed and without severe agricultural disasters, only about 14.5% of the total counties and cities (classified to Type1 and Type 3) have food productivity or food affordability to ensure food security at 400 kg per capita grain level. About 29.4% of the whole (Type 2) with food production at 400 kg per capita grain level, of which 57% belong to the main grain-output regions, would be difficult to afford huge reserves for food security because of the lowest local revenue and large population. In other words, 72% of the total main grain-output regions belong to this kind of food security. If these regions increase their financial income through decreasing the grain-sown area and increasing the non-agricultural use of cultivated land as what the developed regions in China have done, it would increase the risk of food security in China. The most vulnerable regions in food security in China (Type 6) are in 30% of the total counties and cities in China, which can be divided into two sub-types of the grain-shortage region. One is poor natural resource domain with the lowest food production and food affordability at 300 kg per capita grain level located in the marginal zone of summer monsoon and the hilly areas in southern China, and the other is industrial structure domain with the highest local financial income as well as the most densely populated coastal regions in Southeast China. To ensure the food security in the regions of Type 6, it is important to reduce grain production for ecological restoration, to improve farmers' livelihood, and to establish reserves system for food security in the regions of the former sub-type; while in the latter sub-type, it is very important to keep a moderate level of food production through identifying the red line of the grain-sown area and high-quality cultivated land, based on the threshold of acceptable level of revenue burden for food security. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Research on the Regional Variation of China's State-owned Enterprises HU Zhiyong, George LIN Chusheng 2008, 63 (10):  1073-1084.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810007 Abstract ( )   PDF (2979KB) ( )   Save Drawing insights from theories of new regionalism and firm-region nexus in new economic geography, this paper analyzes empirically the regional variation of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs hereafter). It reveals significant internal differentiation among China's state-owned sectors. Viewed at provincial level, SOEs in North and Northeast China were much larger and bigger than those in East and Southeast China, while their productive efficiency was greatly lagged behind by the latter. It is further found at municipal level that there emerges a trend of spatial concentration of highly productive SOEs toward coastal metropolitan areas. Statistical tests suggest that locally-specific traded and untraded interdependence is an important regional factor affecting the productive efficiency of SOEs. Specifically, SOEs with more local production and market linkages were more likely to benefit from external economies and achieve higher productive efficiency. Higher degree of diversification in local labor market allowed SOEs therein to adopt more flexible methods in labor management which was beneficial to their efficiency improvement. More untraded interdependence with foreign enterprises can facilitate SOEs to learn and adopt effective organizational structure and help them to improve productive efficiency. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Related Characteristics and Mechanisms for Excess Commuting in Guangzhou LIU Wangbao, YAN Xiaopei, FANG Yuanping, CAO Xiaoshu 2008, 63 (10):  1085-1096.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810008 Abstract ( )   PDF (2770KB) ( )   Save Excess commuting which reflects the efficiency of urban commuting and the potential commuting which could be saved, means the disparity between actual commuting and minimum commuting calculated by simulating residential and workplace location choice without changing the urban structure. Linear programming optimization function is adopted to calculate excess commuting of all households and subgroups divided by household structure, housing types and job types of the head and so on. The analysis shows that about 58.41% and 44.74% of the commuting are excess in 2001 and 2005 respectively which could be saved through optimization reorganization of residential and workplace location, which means that the efficiency of commuting and spatial organization of residence and workplace in Guangzhou are very low. Excess commuting has strong relationship with socio-economic characteristics and housing types of households, especially with households' income, types of Hukou (registered residence of a household), housing tenure and types, and occupation of the head. The division of household structure and income are important factors for excess commuting. The simulation of the impacts of residential and employment suburbanization shows that both residential and employment suburbanization increases the minimum commuting. Besides the errors brought by the assumptions of minimum commuting calculation models, the socio-economic systems reform, urban planning and constructions and personal residential and employment preference have great impacts on excess commuting. The reformation of related systems including housing, state owned enterprise (SOE) and land since 1978 has led to spatial reorganization of residence and workplace location in large scale, urban planning policies pay little attention to regional job-housing balance, personal residential and employment preference has great changed, all those factors interacting mutually have major impact on the production and expansion of excess commuting. References | Related Articles | Metrics

Spatial Polarization of Railway Transport in Northeast China: 1990-2005 XIU Chunliang, ZHAO Yinghui, SONG Wei 2008, 63 (10):  1097-1107.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810009 Abstract ( )   PDF (2726KB) ( )   Save The focus of this research is to examine the spatial polarization of railroad transport in Northeast China. Railroad sections which are consistent for the years of 1990, 1994, 1999, 2000 and 2005 were used as the basic spatial units of analysis, for each of which the length, and passenger and freight flow densities were collected. GIS techniques were first employed to analyze spatial characteristics in the change of railway passenger and freight flow densities. Disparities in the distribution of passenger and freight densities, as well as their degrees of spatial polarization were then evaluated with Gini Coefficient, Theil Index, H Index, and TW Index. Three railroad trunklines, Harbin-Dalian, Shenyang-Shanhaiguan, and Manzhouli- Harbin-Suifenhe, were also highlighted and examined in terms of the change in the absolute passenger and freight turnovers and relative shares. The research reveals that: (1) there is a strong spatial polarization for passenger flows in the 1990s, while the trend of polarization has been weakened and even somewhat reversed since 2000. (2) A trend toward polarization has been exhibited for freight flows in the upper bound direction (toward middle Harbin-Dalian Railway and south inner Shanhaiguan). (3) In the background of changing spatial distribution of both passenger and freight flows, the significance of Harbin-Dalian Railway has been greatly enhanced in the railroad network of Northeast China. Passenger flows outside Harbin-Dalian Railway are moving toward a more dispersed pattern. Changes in the distribution of railroad transport indicate that in Northeast China, regional polarization has been concentrated toward along Harbin-Dalian Railway. Regional system has become less hierarchical, with the spatial influence and control of Harbin-Dalian Railway at the top of the hierarchy greatly boosted. Meanwhile, the railroad network and the regional economy have become increasingly integrated. References | Related Articles | Metrics

The Core Competence of Logistics Industry Development in Shandong Peninsula City Group SUN Fenghua, WEI Xiao, LIU Yuqiao, SHEN Xiangxin, LI Shitai 2008, 63 (10):  1108-1118.  doi: 10.11821/xb200810010 Abstract ( )   PDF (2730KB) ( )   Save This paper sets up the systematic model about the ideal macroscopic factors index that influences the core competence of district logistics industry development based on the reference of foreign and Chinese researches. Thereon, this paper objectively established the indexes system to evaluate the core competence of the logistics industry development in Shandong peninsula city group. Through the compositor and ranking demarcation of the comprehensive evaluation on the core competence of logistics industry development in Shandong peninsula city group which includes 8 cities, and through the comparison of core competence of the logistics industry development on the related five eastern littoral city groups and the analyses on the influencing factors, this paper has proved up the main and subordinate factors that influences the core competence of the logistics industry development in Shandong peninsula city group and drawn a lot of conclusions. The first conclusion is that in order to build and promote the core competition of regional logistics, the key point is to enhance the regional economic strength, to improve logistics enterprise competence and to strengthen science and technology competence of logistics industry. The other conclusion is that with the increasing core competence of regional logistics, it can get lower logistics cost and higher GDP caused by unit logistics cost during the certain period. At last, it puts forward some suggestions which can provide a science guidance for the development of core competence in logistics industry of Shandong peninsula city group. References | Related Articles | Metrics