This paper established a research framework for administrative divisions based on functional areas analysis. Firstly, data related to natural conditions, history, socio-economy, transportation and information across Shaoxing are anchored to several small geographical units - blocks or small towns, which forms the basis to identify the interdependence between the units from different levels, and provides the proof of spatial flexibility for urban diversity. Subsequent analysis was concentrated on the division of functional areas through factor analysis and cluster analysis, which provides scientific foundation for the re-organization of the functional areas. On the basis of the research framework, with Shaoxing city as an example, the study indicates that the geographic, socio-economic, transportation and information connections between current administrative districts in Shaoxing have already broken through the limitation of administrative demarcation. Administrative divisions based on functional areas should be enhanced to further stimulate regional development. On the one hand, this approach ensures the accordance between administrative divisions and functional areas, which will facilitate the regional integration and socio-economic development; on the other hand, the administrative divisions dispel the shielding effect of segmentation between natural system and socio-economic system, which would exert positive influence for Shaoxing on promoting the development of surrounding areas. In all, this paper concludes that the administrative divisions based on the analysis of the function areas has exceptional importance and significance on the fast proceeding of physical environmental and socio-economic development.
In order to accomplish economic integration of prefecture, turning counties into districts dominates policy instruments of prefecture-level governments in way of breaking the administrative economy and reducing administrative borders. However, our research casts doubt on this policy instrument. In this paper we have introduced the DID (difference in difference) method which is generally applied in policy evaluation area, to analysis the city sample of turning counties (cities) into districts between 1990 and 2007 in China. And we have found the policy of turning counties (cities) into districts only have short-term effect in promoting the cities' economic growth in about 5 years, which embodied in certain indicators - per capita GDP growth, per capita growth rate of fixed asset investment, per capita consumption growth, etc. As for the growth rate of per capita road area and per capita of the number of buses, the effect is the first decline after rally, while the effect on adjacent cities' economic growth only lasted two years. In second part, the case study of Foshan is launched to explain causes for above-mentioned short-term rather than long-term incentive. We claim that investing in the cities' infrastructure will be local governments' primary behavior after the policy of turning counties (cities) into districts, and this behavior will promote industrial transfer and stimulate the real estate market, thus contributing to the cities' economic growth. However, turning counties into districts discourages county-level development by centralizing prefecture-level governments' control rights over resources and weakening development rights of county government. So we conclude the process to the regional economic integration by administrative means only have short-term effect because of the disappearance of long-term incentives.
Urban RBD (Recreational Business District), a place where local residents and tourists go for leisure, tourism and consumption, is widely accepted as an indispensable component of urban recreation system in recent years. However, existing research in urban RBD puts an emphasis on its conceptual aspects (i.e., classification, influence, spatial structure), and empirical and quantitative studies have been largely ignored. Firstly, a summary about urban RBDs’ characteristics from the perspectives of location, scale, users, function, and culture was made. Based on previous literature and RBDs’ characteristics and attributes, this study divides urban RBD into three groups, namely: Large Shopping Center (LSC), Commercial Pedestrian Street (CPS), and Urban Leisure Area (ULA). Quantitative methods, such as Gini Coefficient, Spatial Interpolation, Kernel Density Estimation, and Geographical Detector, were employed to collect and analyse data of three types of urban RBDs in Beijing in 1990, 2000, and 2014, respectively, and the spatial-temporal evolution pattern as well as distribution characteristics of urban RBDs were analyzed with the aid of ArcGIS software. The results show: (1) The total number and scale of urban RBDs in Beijing have been expanding, with urban RBDs increasing by 8.20% and 7.26% per year in 1990-2000, and 2000-2014, respectively; (2) spatial agglomeration of urban RBD in Beijing keeps strengthening, and the trend that all types of urban RBDs in Beijing are spatially agglomerated is continuing; However, there exist some variances in terms of their growth speed and degree; (3) the spatial structure evolution model of urban RBDs in Beijing is as one core concentration—two cores development—multi-core diffusion; (4) According to the statistics from database concerning traffic, resident and tourist density, tourism attractions and land price in Beijing, the results showed that urban RBDs were generally located in areas with low traffic density, tourist attractions, high resident and tourist population density, and relatively high land valuations; (5) tourists density strongly influenced the scale of each urban RBD type, compared with other factors.
Spatial pattern of population distribution has a typical character of scale dependency. Fine-scale estimation of the population distribution has been a huge challenge in the field of population geography. In China, township is the finest administrative unit in official population census data. Thus, population density data at township level can be used to describe and characterize the population spatial pattern and changes elaborately, and support optimized layout plan of Chinese population, and government policy decision making. Township boundaries across 25 provinces in China had been collected in this study. The 5th national population census data was spatially joined to the boundary layer for population density calculation. Methods of Lorenz curve, geo-spatial analysis, and latitude/longitude transect had been applied to reveal the agglomeration degree, spatial patterns of population distribution with latitude and longitude. Based on the correlation and stepwise regression analysis, four variables, including relief degree of land surface (RDLS), water system density (WSD), road system density (RSD) and nighttime light index (NTL), were introduced to check the variety of population distribution in each province. The results showed that: (1) the variety of population distribution can be distinguished clearly by the mean population density on township scale than that of county level. (2) The overall population distribution can be characterized as dense in the southeast and sparse in the northwest, while lower population density occurs in some part of southeastern China, and vice versa. (3) The population density at township level along six designed longitude and latitude transects varies greatly. The possible impact factors include the three-level landscape features, local topography, regional economy, and the proximity to coastline, transportation hub, and hydrological systems. The correlation coefficient at provincial level, between the RDLS, WSD, RSD, NTL, and the population density has been identified as 0.56, 0.28, 0.61, and 0.69, respectively. At township level, topography and economy exert more impacts on population distribution in Liaoning, Jilin, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan. In addition to the four factors mentioned above, it is necessary to introduce more natural or social factors to explore the population distribution pattern in Tibet, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, and Guizhou. This study expanded the research scale and dimension of the research in population geography research in China. The resulted population density dataset in 2000 is expected to enrich the baseline data resources for population geography development in China and the world.
Through questionnaire investigation and factor analysis, this paper attempts to explore the status of social integration of migrants in Shanghai's urban villages. The results show that social integration of migrants can be mapped on four dimensions: social relation integration, economic integration, psychological integration, and cultural integration. According to the factor scores, the overall level of social integration of migrants is not so high, and economic integration is the lowest one. Furthermore, the results of multiple linear regression analysis show that, on the whole, the inflow factors of migrants exert more influence on social integration in urban villages than the individual factors. The individual factors play the most important roles in determining the status of psychological integration, while the inflow factors are more helpful to explain the variation in both economic integration and social relation integration. The study also shows that the social integration of migrants is closely related to their living space. Finally, some policies are suggested.
It has been acknowledged that the port system is of great significance to the regional development and even to land development. The port system has been the focus of port geography research. In fact, the evolution and dynamic mechanisms of regional container port system are promoting traditional research on port system. The authors selected 31 container ports in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) to analyze the evolution of the container port system by describing their overall development and centralized or decentralized processes during the period 1970-2013, especially focusing on the deduction of the theoretically evolving model and revealing evolving mechanisms. The result showed that the evolution of container port system in the PRD region presented both concentration and deconcentration patterns. We concluded a theoretical model of container port system which is divided into five stages according to different features and spatial patterns, including origin single-core structure, isolated dual-core structure, polarized-core hub structure, dual-core hub port structure, and multi-core co-development structure. The result also showed that port system in the PRD completed its containerization and evolution under the integrated influence of five factors, including physical conditions, industrial structure and international trade, technological progress, shipping and terminal market, and policy and institution. However, each factor has different influences on the development of container port system in different periods. This study not only enriches the theory on port system, but also provides guidance for container port construction in the PRD.
Rapid suburbanization in China is dramatically reshaping the daily life of suburban residents. Characterized by fragmentation, increasing car ownership and job-housing separation, suburbanization is changing the way residents use urban space. In China, long-distance commuting, traffic congestion, spatial mismatch and the low quality of life emerging in the progress of residential suburbanization have caused widespread concerns. Suburbanization of residents' daily life is believed to be a solution to the socio-spatial issues in suburbs. Therefore, scholars have argued that there is an urgent need to introduce behavioral perspectives to the study of suburbanization. This approach will enhance our understanding of the process and the mechanism of suburbanization from the perspective of an individual’s daily life. The important step in this study is to portray the nature of the daily lifestyle in the suburbs. Along with the trend toward behavioral perspectives in human geography, space-time behavior has become an important perspective for the study of urban space. Activity space and travel behavior often serve as important indicators of individual behavior in urban and geographic studies. This study focuses on daily activity-travel behavior, introduces the concept of lifestyle, and brings forward a concept of daily lifestyle based on a combined measure of activity space and trip frequency. The daily lifestyle of suburban residents can be classified into five categories: localization, spatial exclusion, suburbanism, polarization, and city dependence, according to the size of the activity space and the trip frequency. Based on a GPS-facilitated activity-travel survey dataset collected in the Shangdi-Qinghe area in Beijing in 2012, this paper compares the differences in activity-travel behavior among five daily lifestyle groups. The study finds that there are intergroup differences in the spatial distribution of activities, activity participation and modal split among these five lifestyle groups. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the impact of suburbanization on daily lifestyle by examining the relationship between daily lifestyle and built environment while controlling socio-demographic factors using a multinomial logistic model. Women and older people are more likely to be in the categories of localization and spatial exclusion. Low-income people have the higher possibility to be spatially excluded. These outcomes indicate that traditionally disadvantaged groups could be trapped in suburban areas, raising definite concerns for their daily life in suburban areas. Factors associated with the built environment primarily impact the localization lifestyle. Mixed land use in danwei and higher retail density contribute to the concentration of activity space in suburbs, as well as more active travel. The concept of daily lifestyle provides an effective and reasonable way to understand complicated activity-travel behavior of suburban residents. The paper offers a special perspective on understanding suburbanization and the interaction between urban space and individual behavior.
The Chinese society is currently experiencing a radical transition to modernity. Although the Chinese modernity is not simply a duplicate of what originally rose from the Western context, Chinese people's experiences of modernity are in many ways comparable to their western counterparts. The term modernity signifies a historical period in which reason and scientific rationality become the fundamental ideologies to orient social activities and everyday behaviours. It is characterized by a teleology which advocates endless progress and growth. However, although modernity endows social members with greater freedom to pursue personal advancement, it also leads to negative experiences, especially the loss of stable and authentic social life. Against this the background of post-reform social transformation, particular sections of the Chinese society have embarked on an endless search of places which seems to be "uncontaminated" by modernization. This paper narrates one of these stories. It investigates Han Chinese "drifters" who dwell in Lhasa, and Tibet in order to enact anti-modernist identities. In particular, this paper provides an account of the ways in which the "drifters" in Lhasa imagine, constructs and consumes the placeness and place identity of Tibet. It argues that the question of modernity has an inherently spatial dimension. The construction of the drifters' identity is contingent upon the place identity of Tibet, which itself is a social and lived construction. The drifters' construction of place identity involves two dimensions, namely the representation and imagination of Tibet's place identity, and the lived practices of the imagined place identity of Tibet. On the one hand, this paper suggests that Han-Tibetan cultural difference is discursively constructed and spotlighted via the imagination of the place identity of Tibet. These representations are not objective descriptions of absolute realities, but socially constructed discourses that contribute to identity formation. On the other hand, this article analyzes the ways in which the imagined Tibetanness is lived via mundane practices of everyday life, and argues that these practices contribute positively to the formation of the drifters' identity.
The miniaturization of families, primarily caused by intergenerational household separation, commenced after the initiation of the reform and opening up of China. This was expected to greatly influence family harmony, social stability, and the housing market. Moreover, there are fundamental differences in Chinese and Western societal behaviors and mechanisms of intergenerational household separation. In light of these issues, here we develop a conceptual model of intergenerational household cohabitation/separation of urban Chinese citizens. The main zone of Chengdu was selected for our empirical study because of its rapid economic growth, aging citizens, and the effects of potentially conflicting values of traditional Chinese and Western cultures. We found that the residential choices of Chinese urban families exhibited the following tendencies: (1) cohabitation followed by separation (an increasing ratio of intergenerational separation, but at a low rate of increase); (2) cohabitation followed by separation, and subsequently by cohabitation (an increasing ratio of intergenerational cohabitation, but at a low rate of increase); (3) final separation (an increasing ratio of intergenerational separation, but at a low rate of increase); and (4) cohabitation (an increasing ratio of intergenerational cohabitation, but at a low rate of increase). Pearson correlation was applied to select the main factors influencing residence. Significant values and impact directions were determined using binary logistic regression. Choices and variables of intergenerational household cohabitation/separation within different age groups were also analyzed. The results showed that intergenerational household residential choices positively depended on several factors, including educational level, living spouses, household income per capita, an inclination to separate, routines, eating habits, health habits, spending habits, and private space requirements. Factors that negatively influenced intergenerational household cohabitation/separation included age, current/previous professions, parents and their children living in close proximity, children available to support the elderly, and habits of parental care. Differences in the variables affected household intergenerational cohabitation/separation among different age groups.
Social-ecological systems (SESs) are characterized by unpredictability, self-organization and regime shift. Road construction usually exhibits strong influences on the local SESs across multiple scales. By placing the research under the framework of the SESs and resilience theory, we conducted a comprehensive study on the influences of road paving in Shangluo, Shaanxi Province, from two scales—both the local and community scales. Specifically, the local social-ecological system in Shangluo was divided into three dimensions including economic growth, ecological landscape pattern and rural development. In order to understand the impacts of road construction on the economic development, landscape fragmentation, and resilience of rural area, we integrated and analyzed the statistical data, satellite images and questionnaires. The results indicate that, (1) Although road paving is an important factor in the process of poverty-relief, it is not a driving force in economic development. Economic development, in fact, has advanced the development of road paving. (2) Road paving has not only fragmented the local landscape, but also increased the social connectivity. Landscape fragmentation and social connectivity are positively correlated. (3) At the rural community level, the relationship between road paving and social resilience are complex, where the measurement of rural community resilience can be built from collective memory, livelihood diversity, and adaptive capacity. The impact factors of the resilience of rural community have been identified. Finally, based on the results, we highlighted the future work, in particular, the community resilience in the less-developed rural areas.
Based on SBM model, this paper first analyzes the spatial differences of urban industrial land use efficiency in the six main economic zones of China. Then it analyzes the dynamic variation in total factor productivity (TFP) of urban industrial land by using Malmquist index, and examine the convergence of urban industrial land. The results show that the Pearl River Delta Region and Yangtze River Delta Region have higher urban industrial land-use efficiency and show downward trends in TFP, while the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, Chengdu-Chongqing Region, Guanzhong-Tianshui Region and Central Plains Region have lower urban industrial land-use efficiency and show upward trends in TFP. The extensive use of industrial land, industrial labor surplus and shortage in industrial economic output exist in all six major economic zones of China. Only the Yangtze River Delta has club-convergence, and all the economic zones show the conditional convergence. The estimation results of influence variables show that, in order to raise urban industrial land's TFP, the Yangtze River Delta should reduce the percentage of industrial labor force in total labor force and the percentage of industrial output in total economic output. The Pearl River Delta should raise urbanization rate, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region should raise the industrial level and transfer industrial surplus labor, and the Chengdu-Chongqing Region should also reduce the percentage of industrial labor force in total labor force. The industrial land use intensity should be increased in all the six major economic zones.
DMSP/OLS nighttime light (NTL) data has been widely applied to many studies on anthropogenic activities and their effects on the environment. Due to the limitations of the OLS sensor, NTL data suffers from saturation problem in the core of urban areas, which further influences researches based on nocturnal lights. The radiance calibrated nighttime light (RCNTL) products developed by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) at NOAA partially solved the problem. However, they are only available for a very limited number of years. Recently, a vegetation adjusted NTL urban index (VANUI) has been developed based on the stylized fact that vegetation and urban surfaces are inversely correlated. Despite its simplicity of implementing and effectiveness in increasing variation to NTL data, VANUI does not perform well in some fast growing cities. In this paper, we proposed a new urban index, i.e., the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) adjusted nighttime light index (EANTLI), which combined MODIS EVI with NTL to alleviate the saturation problem of NTL data. In order to evaluate the proposed EANTLI's capability in reducing NTL saturation, we first compared its spatial distributions in potential saturated areas (PSAs) of three metropolitan areas in China with that of the original NTL and VANUI, respectively. Then we randomly selected 30 latitudinal transects across these urban areas to verify EANTLI's similarity to the RCNTL. Finally, we tested EANTLI's effectiveness in assessing electric power consumption of 168 prefecture-level cities in China. Results from these experiments showed that EANTLI significantly increases spatial heterogeneity in the PSAs and effectively alleviates the NTL saturation problem. EANTLI's similarity to RCNTL is consistently higher than that of VANUI in the comparison of latitudinal transects. EANTLI also yields better results in the estimation of electric power consumption. In conclusion, the EANTLI can effectively reduce NTL saturation in urban centers and thus has great potential of wide range applications in the future.
Compiling and publishing world maps is regarded as one of the symbols of the progress of a nation. After the Silk Road opened during the Han Dynasty, Buddhist scriptures were introduced to Western countries) during the Tang Dynasty. China's outstanding maritime activities began in the Song Dynasty, and then ancient China's Four Great Inventions (the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing) spread to the West. This led to exchanges between Chinese and foreigners, and helped amass a wealth of Chinese and foreign geographical and mapping data. In the third century AD, the "Hawn biography" put forward six theories and methods of cartography. Its continuous legacy and improvement of the map of China until the Yuan Dynasty demonstrated that traditional mapping theories and methods had improved and tended to be mature. The data used in this study cover the Ming and Qing dynasties and spans nearly 600 years (AD 1368-1911), including more than 25 kinds of typical world maps. This paper analyzes the historical backgrounds of world maps, with the discussion of their features, contributions, and roles. The main conclusions can be drawn as follows. (1) Ancient Chinese civilization and its economic power took the lead in the world for a long period, prior to the Western creation of a complete world map. (2) Under the more conservative policies of the "closed" imperial power in the Ming and Qing dynasties, world maps showed a focus on five relatively open boom time trajectories. (3) Five distinct traits and achievements characterize ancient Chinese world maps—ahead of the West to complete world map, abundant accumulation of data, advantages of traditional cartography, illustrated models, and the first fusion of Chinese and Western approaches. (4) Different periods of world maps provide new contents that speaks to the spread of world geographic & history knowledge and etc., and plays an important role in promoting social progress, which shows that ancient Chinese world maps have important historical value and practical significance.
