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Development zones have been an important spatial approach to promoting economic development since China's reform and opening-up. They have also been major contributors to the processes of China's industrialization and urbanization. Along with improvements in the worldwide industrial division of labor and the gradual implementation of China's development zones' Go Global strategy, it is necessary for Africa, a hot spot of global industrialization in recent years, to learn from China's development zone model. By attracting China's capital, technology and enterprises to Africa via Sino-African co-built development zones, a pattern of high complementarity and mutual development between China and Africa can be formed which does favor further improvement of the global industrial division of labor. In order to study the applicability and prospect of China's development zone model in Africa as per the above-mentioned international situation, this paper first sorts out the development course of China's development zones and discusses their roles in China's industrialization and urbanization. Subsequently, this paper analyzes the status quo of industrial development in Africa as a whole and the differences in industrial development between China and Africa, aiming to justify the timing of industrial transfer from China to Africa by constructing Sino-African co-built development zones. Lastly, this paper analyzes the current situation of six Sino-African co-built development zones by focusing on their operation modes, industry types and investment promotion models. In the authors' view, Sino-African co-built development zones can function as a new window of China-African cooperation, a new carrier of African industrialization, and a new engine of global industrial restructuring. China should adhere to the general principles of 'Sino-African Integration, Multi-Cooperation, Mutual Benefit, Scientific Location, Systematic Planning, Cluster Growth and Open Development' in the planning and construction of development zones in Africa, effectively promoting Africa as the very important part of the global industry system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of urbanization promotes the development of economy and society, and also brings great pressure to the environment. In order to better understand the harmonious and interactive relationship between environment and urbanization, by selecting 13 cities in Hunan province of China as cases, this paper establishes a correlation model and a comprehensive evaluation system, uses entropy weight method to weight the index, the coupling coordination model to analyze the coupling coordination relationships empirically, and gray prediction model to predict the trend and make corresponding decision recommendations. The results show with novelty that the overall performances of environment and urbanization for the 13 cities in Hunan province have similarities, the coupling coordination degrees are mild with slight fluctuations, and the next years will keep the similar trends. However, the coupling coordination development is unbalanced with the coupling degree of the east higher than that of the west; therefore, corresponding measures for better environmental governance and urban planning need to be taken in different cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urban explosion has resulted in a substantial loss of agricultural production on the fringes of many cities. Farmland is not only converted into urban uses but also taken out of production because it has lost its value for those who can farm it. This farmland abandonment process has received little research attention. This paper studies the abandonment of farmland around the rapidly urbanizing city of Wuhan and aims to identify its important determinants based on an extensive field survey among local farmers. Around 800 semi-structured field interviews were conducted to capture the parcel and location characteristics, farming practices, and household characteristics. Important parcel-related drivers of land abandonment are lack of family members to work the land and fragmentation of parcels. Spatial characteristics are less important, except for the presence of certain soil types that favour cultivation and designation under the farmland protection policy. The planted crop species and the option to transfer land to other farmers are important farming practices to continue cultivation. Moreover, farmers with a higher farming income and lower education levels are less likely to abandon their farmland. We suggest that land use policies can help in preventing further farmland abandonment by steering urban development away from the most suitable soils for farming and concentrating development to limit the fragmentation of parcels. Strengthening the land market and removing the remaining barriers for farmers to transfer land to colleagues can further help to keep farmland in production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The middle class in metropolitan Chinese cities has become an important social group. With the rapid development of urbanization and constant advancement of suburbanization, the middle class has increasingly come to influence city traffic. Research into middle-class commuting activities thus has practical significance for improving traffic congestion and reducing the commuting burden in metropolitan cities. Based on a dataset formed by 816 completed surveys, this paper analyzes the commuting mode, time and distance of middle-class residents in Guangzhou City using the descriptive statistical method. The results indicate that private cars are the main commuting mode, followed by public transport. Meanwhile, middle-class residents mainly undertake medium-short time and medium- short distance commuting. The study subsequently uses multilevel logistic regression and multiple linear regression models to analyze the factors that influence commuting mode choice, time and distance. The gender, age, number of family cars, housing source and jobs-housing balance are the most important factors influencing commuting mode choice; housing, population density, jobs-housing balance and commuting mode significantly affect commuting time; and transport accessibility, jobs-housing balance and commuting mode are the notable factors affecting commuting distance. Finally, this paper analyzes what is affecting the commuting activities of middle-class residents and determines the differences in commuting activity characteristics and influence factors between middle-class and ordinary residents. Policy suggestions to improve urban planning and urban management are also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sri Lanka is experiencing speedy urbanization by converting the agriculture land and other natural land cover into built-up land. The urban population of Sri Lanka is expected to reach to 60% by 2030 from 14% in 2010. The rapid growth in urban population and urban areas in Sri Lanka may cause serious socioeconomic disparities, if they are not handled properly. Thus, planners in Sri Lanka are in need of information about past and future urban growth patterns to plan a better and sustainable urban future for Sri Lanka. In this paper, we analyzed the characteristics of past land use and land cover trends in Matara City of Sri Lanka from 1980 to 2010 to assess the historic urban dynamics. The land use change detection analysis based on remote sensing datasets reveal that the conversion of homestead/garden and paddy into urban land is evident in Matara City. The historic urban trends are projected into the near future by using SLEUTH urban growth model to identify the hot spots of future urbanization and as well as the urban growth patterns in Matara City up to the basic administrative level, i.e., Grama Niladari Divisions (GND). The urban growth simulations for the year 2030 reveal that 29 GNDs out of 66 GNDs in Matara City will be totally converted into urban land. Whereas, 28 GNDs will have urban land cover from 75% to 99% by 2030. The urban growth simulations are further analyzed with respect to the proposed Matara city development plan by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) of Sri Lanka. The results show that the UDA's city development plan of Matara will soon be outpaced by rapid urbanization. Based on the calibration and validation results, the SLEUTH model proved to be a useful planning tool to understand the near future urbanization of Sri Lankan cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current context of rapid development and urbanization, land use and land cover (LULC) types have undergone unprecedented changes, globally and nationally, leading to significant effects on the surrounding ecological environment quality (EEQ). The urban agglomeration in North Slope of Tianshan (UANST) is in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt of China. This area has experienced rapid development and urbanization with equally rapid LULC changes which affect the EEQ. Hence, this study quantified and assessed the spatial-temporal changes of LULC on the UANST from 2001 to 2018 based on remote sensing analysis. Combining five remote sensing ecological factors (WET, NDVI, IBI, TVDI, LST) that met the pressure-state-response(PSR) framework, the spatial-temporal distribution characteristics of EEQ were evaluated by synthesizing a new Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI), with the interaction between land use change and EEQ subsequently analyzed. The results showed that LULC change dominated EEQ change on the UANST: (1) From 2001 to 2018, the temporal and spatial pattern of the landscape on the UANST has undergone tremendous changes. The main types of LULC in the UANST are Barren land and Grassland. (2) During the study period, RSEI values in the study area were all lower than 0.5 and were at the [good] levels, reaching 0.31, 0.213, 0.362, and 0346, respectively. In terms of time and space, the overall EEQ on the UANST experienced three stages of decline–rise–decrease. (3) The estimated changes in RSEI were highly related to the changes of LULC. During the period 2001 to 2018, the RSEI value of cropland showed a trend of gradual increase. However, the rest of the LULC type's RSEI values behave differently at different times. As the UANST is the core area of Xinjiang's urbanization and economic development, understanding and balancing the relationship between LULC and EEQ in the context of urbanization is of practical application in the planning and realization of sustainable ecological, environmental, urban, and social development in the UANST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent efforts have been made to interpret spatial-temporal evolution of urban system using Zipf's law. The debates remain whether Zipf's law holds true for large and diverse countries with long urbanization history, and how varied geographical settings with different socioeconomic conditions affect city-size distributions. This research investigates China's urban system dynamics through expanded Zipf's law at national and regional level. First, the paper revisits urban system dynamic theories and recent applications of Zipf's law. The city data from 1960 to 2000 are then used to analyze rapid changes of urban systems in China through Zipf's plots of cities over the entire nation and in six macro regions, respectively. The paper also examines top ten city rank changes nationally and regionally to examine temporal trajectories of key cities and the impacts on urban systems over space. Three types of Zipf's law reflections are found over six China's macro regions, based on the similarities of temporal dynamics of urban systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been experiencing rapid urbanization since the reform and open policy launched in 1978, leading to the growth of urban water demands and aggravating water scarcity especially in the new millennium. Accordingly, water resources previously used for agriculture and environmental systems tend to be transferred to urban systems. Limited by the total quantity and frail environments, the patterns of water resources flows among different sectors and regions change obviously. Water related problems induced by rapid urbanization have become one of the key concerns for scientists and governments. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the new features of water resources flows related to urbanization in China, mainly with regard to bidirectional water resources flows between rural and urban areas, environmental and socio-economic systems, real and virtual water flows between the south and north. This paper also considers the socio-economic and environmental challenges which are resulted from water resources flows in such a case, and provides some countermeasures on how to promote water resources to flow healthily and swimmingly, so as to improve the urban development constrained by scarce water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization development quality (UDQ) of urban agglomeration (UA) is one of the important indexes to evaluate if the UA urbanization speed is reasonable, if the population urbanization process is sound, if the economic urbanization process is efficient, if the social urbanization process is harmonious and fair, which is generally composed of three parts, including economic urbanization development quality, social urbanization development quality and spatial urbanization security quality. With the research of evolution rules of UDQ, through the analysis on the interactive coordination relation between UDQ and urbanization level, the paper proposes three dimensional index ball and standard value of comprehensive measures of UDQ, which is composed of three categories of indexes. By introducing Atkinson model, this paper constructs the sub-element measure model and segmental measure model of UDQ, and further makes an overall evaluation on the characteristic of UDQ of UAs in China. Results show that: 1) UDQ of UAs lied at optimization and upgrading phase during 1995-2008 and the quality was low. Population urbanization level did not reflect the UDQ of UAs; 2) the improving speed of the spatial urbanization security quality was higher than the social urbanization development quality, and the improving speed of economic urbanization development quality was the lowest; 3) the coordination between UDQ and urbanization level was not so good; 4) there was a weak correlation relation between UDQ and UA scale, and it was not true that the bigger the UA was, the better the UDQ was. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarly efforts to investigate the conventional wisdom of urban transition and conceptualize the distinct patterns of urbanization emerging in China, simply referred to as ‘desakota’, have not yielded any conclusive validation. The possible existence of ‘desakota’ is significant for landscape ecology and regional science research in that it challenges long cherished Western notions concerning the separation of urban processes from rural processes and the spatial uniqueness of the respective landscapes. This paper examines physical evidence of desakota from land use changes and tempo-spatial dynamics of desakota development in the lower Yangtze River Delta-one of the most populous and rapidly growing economic regions in China. The paper uses satellite data in 1990, 1995 and 2000 to spectrally disaggregate such rural landscape patterns as urban construction expanding from existing commercial and industrial centers, rural nonagricultural construction, special large infrastructure construction, and crop cultivation. The paper inspects one transect (60 km long and 12 km wide) cutting across Suzhou City in south and Changshu City in north. The transect is divided into four segments to investigate quantitative changes of land types between the two cities over time. The paper applies landscape ecological metrics to analyze tempo-spatial patterns of desakota changes in terms of counts, densities, shapes, compositions, spatial relationships and diversities. The paper concludes: (1) desakota occurred in Suzhou area before 1990 and witnessed two phases of development, dramatic expansion between 1990 and 1995 and consolidation during 1995-2000; (2) desakota dynamics show distinct spatial patterns, new growth of large and specialized urban districts dominant in the vicinity of large cities (Suzhou) and incremental expansion of existing urban places in small cities and rural areas; and (3) landscape metrics are very informative in discerning dynamics and patterns of land use and land cover changes and different metrics vary in descriptive power and sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waterlogging is one of the major water issues in most cities of China and directly restricts their urbanization processes. The construction of Sponge City is an effective approach to solving the urban water issues, particularly for the waterlogging. In this study, both the urban issues emerged at the stage of rapid urbanization in China and the demands as well as problems of Sponge City construction related with the water issues were investigated, and the opportunities and challenges for the Sponge City construction in the future were also proposed. It was found that the current stormwater management focused on the construction of gray infrastructures (e.g., drainage network and water tank) based on the fast discharge idea, which was costly and hard to catch up with the rapid expansion of city and its impervious surface, while green infrastructures (e.g., river, lake and wetland) were ignored. Moreover, the current construction of Sponge City was still limited to low impacted development (LID) approach which was concentrated on source control measures without consideration of the critical functions of surrounding landscapes (i.e., mountain, river, wetland, forest, farmland and lake), while application of the integrated urban water system approach and its supported technologies including municipal engineering, urban hydrology, environmental science, social science and ecoscape were relatively weak and needed to be improved. Besides, the lack of special Sponge City plan and demonstration area was also a considerable problem. In this paper, some perspectives on Good Sponge City Construction were proposed such as the point that idea of urban plan and construction should conform to the integral and systematic view of sustainable urban development. Therefore, both the basic theoretical research and the basic infrastructure construction such as monitoring system, drainage facility and demonstration area should be strengthened, meanwhile, the reformation and innovation in the urban water management system and the education system should also be urgently performed. The study was expected to provide a deeper thinking for the current Sponge City construction in China and to give some of suggestions for the future directions to urban plan and construction, as well as urban hydrology discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to investigate the urban spatial patterns of Hubei Province and its evolution from three different perspectives: urban nodes, urban connections and urban clusters. The research adopts nighttime light imagery of cities in Hubei Province, the viewpoint of ′point-axis-area′ in the ′point-axis system′ theory, and employs light index model, gravity model and social network analysis. The findings are as follows: 1) In terms of urban nodes, the urbanization process of Hubei has been carried out mainly on the basis of external expansion rather than internal increasing. The polarization trend of urban connection network is strengthening. 2) As for urban connections, the estimation of urban connections using light index model is capable of containing various actual flow, and the connections are getting increasingly closer. 3) In regard to urban groups, seven urban groups of varying sizes have formed. On that basis, three stable and relatively independent urban groups as the centers, namely Wuchang, Yichang and Xiangyang emerge as well. But the structures of ′Wuhan Metropolitan Area′, ′Yichang-Jingzhou-Jingmen City Group′ and ′Xiangyang-Shiyen-Suizhou City Group′, which are defined by local development strategy in Hubei Province, are different from the above three urban groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urban environments are particularly vulnerable to flooding due to climate change and rapid urbanization. Study of the urban flood risk analysis has significantly increased over the past decade, and this paper therefore reviews the main results (i.e. theoretical basis, methods, techniques, case studies) obtained in the literature from China. We focus on the following topics: (1) urban flood hazard analysis, (2) exposure and vulnerability analysis, and (3) urban flood risk assessment. Recent advances made in the research area are presented with suggestions for further research to improve the availability and reliability of urban flood risk analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is an important direction for China's future social development and an important focus of its carbon emission reduction path. China's current administrative management is a vertical nested structure, and the characteristics of high-scale regions have a non-negligible impact on low-scale areas. Taking the county scale of the basic unit of economic and social development as the research scale, according to the panel data of the Yangtze River Delta from 2008 to 2016, a two-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) for carbon emission intensity is constructed, especially considering the characteristics of high-scale regions (i.e., low-carbon pilot cities) at the second level, and is combined with the mediating effect test method to analyze the impact path of urban development on carbon emissions intensity. The results show that (1) there is a spatial nesting relationship between regions of different scales, and the city scale can explain 85.21% of the carbon emissions intensity, which is much higher than the county scale. (2) There is an N-shaped curve relationship between urban development and carbon emissions intensity. After considering the high-scale factor (low-carbon pilot cities) at the city scale (the second level of the HLM), if a high-scale city is a low-carbon pilot city, then improvement in the level of urbanization in the county can promote a reduction in carbon intensity. (3) The impact path of urban development ⇄ per capita gross domestic product (the proportion of secondary industry, patent application volume) → carbon emissions intensity and urban development → the proportion of tertiary industry → carbon emissions intensity is significant. However, the path of the proportion of tertiary industry → urban development → carbon emissions intensity is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article maps the ways that the arts of the brush are being conscripted at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo to define the Chinese state's vision of an ideal city. Calling them 'boundary forms' that support the logic and rationality of the state-promoted urban grid map, it asks how calligraphy and ink painting might also slip through those grid map boundaries toward something invisible and unmappable. The article draws upon Jean-François Lyotard's conception of ideological practices in the supermodern age of technological reproducibility and takes Cai Guo-Qiang's concurrent exhibition at the Shanghai Rockbund Museum as an immediate and relevant means of questioning the brush line's status at the Expo. Rather than demanding a politics of deconstruction or a radical response which would only replicate, or mirror obliquely, the state's ideological and economic agendas for urban construction and development, the paper considers the fugitive morphologies of ink that prevent it from being reduced to formulaic propaganda and instead open up new ways-inarticulate and idiosyncratically felt-of thinking about and seeing the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization has taken place in China since the Open Policy in 1978. In face of the growing demand for mobility in large cities, new metro systems were developed in large cities like Guangzhou and Shanghai. At present, there are seven cities with 10 metro lines under construction. What are the policy issues and major challenges of developing metro systems in China? This paper systematically reviews the current situation and highlights three major gaps that Chinese cities have to overcome in planning metro systems. They are the technology gap, the financing gap and the affordability gap. A discussion of these gaps in the Chinese context leads us to the conclusion that early planning and careful studies are important in the development of metro systems in China. Moreover, the existing official criteria (population and economic power) for approving the building of metro systems are insufficient and should be supplemented by more vigorous evaluation criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationships between energy consumption, urbanization, green finance, and economic growth in China. By utilizing the quantile ARDL model and considering labor and capital as input factors, we analyze the period from 1999 to 2022. Our findings reveal that green finance and urbanization have negative effects on economic growth across different quantiles, in both the short and long run. Conversely, energy consumption exhibits a significantly positive impact on growth in various quantiles. Policymakers are encouraged to implement sustainable energy measures, promote eco-friendly urban planning, and embrace green technology to achieve both economic growth and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of land conversion to urban use is an important factor that promotes sustainable urbanization. However, China's local governments have relied too much on the land finance model for urbanization, which has led to disordered growth of urban land, ultimately posing a threat to ecosystem security and socioeconomic development. Effectively evaluating the factors that influence the growth of urban land is critical to improving the sustainability of urban land use. In this study, we explored the factors that affect the growth in the area of urban land using spatial analysis models based on panel data for Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2007 to 2019. We found that fiscal decentralization, infrastructure, industrialization, and industrial upgrading were the main factors responsible for the growth of urban land, but that their degrees of influence differed between regions. Our findings identify the necessity for local governments to design urban land-use policies and perform strategic planning for urban land use to improve sustainability based on the main factors that influenced the growth of urban land in each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agglomeration will be the main mode of future urbanization in China, greatly influencing social and economic development and ecosystem protection at the whole city cluster scale. It is important to analyze the impacts of large-scale, scattered land use and cover change (LUCC) consisting of one-pole-multi-point urbanization in city clusters on regional ecosystem services (ESs), so as to increase ecological security and maintain ES levels. Using the urban–rural gradient analysis method (UGAM), this study examined driver-response mechanisms of large-scale, scattered agglomeration urbanization on ESs along an urban–rural gradient and at a regional scale. This was done by simulating and analyzing tempo-spatial variations in ES characteristics along concentric ring gradients in the Central Yunnan City Cluster (CYCC) under its present urbanization path. The results showed that rapid urban sprawl is the main driver affecting the integral value of ESs in CYCC and that ES trade-offs (through LUCC caused by urbanization) between adjacent zones along the urban–rural gradient will particularly exacerbate the degradation of integral ES levels. Hence, CYCC should follow a sustainable, eco-friendly urbanization path and consider ecological principles and the impact of LUCC on regional ESs along the urban–rural gradient in top-level design and decision-making on urban planning and strategic land use management. Differentiated regional development policies should be formulated for each area, the urban–rural development pattern and layout optimized, the scale of construction land rationally controlled, and the overall efficiency of land use improved. Ecological buffers should be set up around areas with sharp and obvious changes in land use, to alleviate the negative impact of large-scale, decentralized city cluster urbanization on regional ESs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to other developing countries, China has a low urbanization level as a result of government policy to control urban development since 1949. However, there is much regional variation in urbanization and urban primary among its 26 provinces. This paper attempts to analyze the provincial variation in urbanization and urban primacy of China In 1978 by factor analysis and regression techniques. In China, government policy does not only slow down the overall rate of urbanization but also has profound Influence on provincial variation in urbanization and urban primacy. Low urban primacy In the eastern provinces la mainly the result of the urbanization policy of controlling the development of large cities that favours the development of small and medium cities. The spatial Industrial policy of decentralizing industries from the coastal provinces to interior provinces encouraged high urbanization and urban primary in the western Interior provinces of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Understanding patterns and drivers of urbanization is essential for urban sustainability, but such understanding is lacking for mountainous regions. Objectives: This study had three objectives: (1) to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion in Chongqing, the largest mountainous metropolitan area in China, during 1990–2015; (2) to explore major drivers for the observed urbanization patterns; and (3) to identify the spatial signatures of Chongqing's urbanization which differ from those of topographically flat urban regions for sustainable urban planning in mountainous regions. Methods: We used multiple metrics to characterize urbanization patterns and expansion modes. Pearson correlation analysis and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) were used to identify potential drivers. Results: The built-up area of Chongqing increased five times during 1990–2015 with regional variations. Three growth modes—leapfrog, edge-expansion, and infilling, took place concurrently, but their relative dominance varied in time and space with leapfrog as the dominant mode in recent years. The major drivers of built-up area expansion changed from demography to economy, with topographic constraints attenuating over time. Compared to flat urban regions in China, the spatial signatures of Chongqing's urbanization were characterized by greater dominance of leapfrog expansion mode with smaller and more regularly-shaped patches. Conclusions: The unique patterns and drivers of urban expansion in Chongqing provide new insights of urbanization in mountainous regions for sustainable urban planning. We have proposed a conceptual urban planning framework for mountainous cities based on landscape sustainability science, GeoDesign, and regional landscape characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If urban sprawl is to be avoided in China in the next ten years, it is not only crucial to understand the overall history, current status, and future trends of urban expansion there, but also these differences, and this is presently lacking. In this study, remotely sensed images with approximately 30 m spatial resolution were used to quantitatively assess the spatial and temporal patterns of urban expansion of 60 Chinese cities (1973-2013). Urban-expansion-process curves of the cities studied were drawn using annual expansion area as an indicator. Curve similarity analysis generated four basic process modes of urban expansion in China. These included cities that: 1) peaked around 2004 and then decelerated; 2) peaked around 2010 and then decelerated; 3) showed sustained acceleration, and 4) showed continued deceleration. Four basic process modes represented cities under different levels of development stage. Geographic location was found to be the most related characteristic to urban expansion process. Regional development policies at the national level in each region also showed highly temporal consistency with fluctuation characteristics of urban expansion process. Urban characteristic such as population size and administrative level were not found to be significantly related to urban expansion-process modes. Understanding the basic process-mode categories well is extremely important for future regional-balance planning and development of macroeconomic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the world regions with the most rapid economic growth and urbanization, eastern China faces many challenges during its urbanization process. The growth is characterized by the broad-scale loss of agricultural land, and by complex and unplanned urban growth, both of which threaten the future sustainability of the regional economy. The goal of this research is to investigate the changes within the driving forces behind the urban growth and to explore an analytical framework that explains the process. In particular, we discuss the role of the behavior of individuals in driving urban growth from a micro-perspective and formalize a framework for understanding and modeling the mechanisms of urban growth in eastern China. We start with an analysis of the changes in the macro-environment and how they have affected the autonomy of individuals, followed by an examination of the role of adaptive behavior in driving urban growth. We then propose a general analytical framework composed of an agent system, an environment system, and a policy and planning system. We present a layout for these subsystems and discuss the interactions within and among the subsystems. Furthermore, we summarize the common elements of urban micro-agents' adaptive behavior into three stages: agent learning, agent decision-making, and agent action. We enrich the urban micro-agents' learning process by importing learning from past self-experience and from shared experiences. The results may be helpful in the further modeling of urban micro-agents' adaptive behavior for simulating urban growth in support of scientific urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening-up program started in 1978, the level of urbanization has increased rapidly in China. Rapid urban expansion and restructuring have had significant impacts on the ecological environment especially within built-up areas. In this study, ArcGIS 10, ENVI 4.5, and Visual FoxPro 6.0 were used to analyze the human impacts on vegetation in the built-up areas of 656 Chinese cities from 1992 to 2010. Firstly, an existing algorithm was refined to extract the boundaries of the built-up areas based on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP_OLS) nighttime light data. This improved algorithm has the advantages of high accuracy and speed. Secondly, a mathematical model (Human impacts (HI)) was constructed to measure the impacts of human factors on vegetation during rapid urbanization based on Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI. HI values greater than zero indicate relatively beneficial effects while values less than zero indicate proportionally adverse effects. The results were analyzed from four aspects: the size of cities (metropolises, large cities, medium-sized cities, and small cities), large regions (the eastern, central, western, and northeastern China), administrative divisions of China (provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) and vegetation zones (humid and semi-humid forest zone, semi-arid steppe zone, and arid desert zone). Finally, we discussed how human factors impacted on vegetation changes in the built-up areas. We found that urban planning policies and developmental stages impacted on vegetation changes in the built-up areas. The negative human impacts followed an inverted' U' shape, first rising and the falling with increase of urban scales. China's national policies, social and economic development affected vegetation changes in the built-up areas. The findings can provide a scientific basis for municipal planning departments, a decision-making reference for government, and scientific guidance for sustainable development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is a comprehensive concept, a trinity process that is based on the interactions and mutual influences among the population urbanization, economic urbanization and space urbanization, in which, people are the central and leading players in this process, while economic activities serve as the driving force and space is the carrier—the physical or material setting as well as the product. So the coordination among these processes is crucial for a country or region’s sustainable development. China is experiencing rapid growth of cities and a surge in urban population, with the basic national condition of many people and little land, which calls for a systematic study of the issue of coordinated urbanization from theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives. Based on the concept of urbanization and non-coordination of urbanization, this article built a quantitative method to identify and evaluate the urbanization and non-coordination of urbanization, and made an empirical analysis in China between 2000 and 2008. The results show that the non-coordination overall level of China’s urbanization declined during the study period, because population urbanization, economic urbanization, and space urbanization exhibited different trajectories of change. This study also reveals that performance assessment system, household registration system, and urban land expropriation system, etc., are the main affecting factors. At the end, we put forward some suggestions to achieve sustainable development of China’s urbanization from the aspects of improving the local government’s objective function, implementing the urban planning system, enforcing public participation aspects and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sprawl is a worldwide phenomenon happening particularly in rapidly developing regions. A study on the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban sprawl and urban pattern is useful for the sustainable management of land management and urban land planning. The present research explores the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban sprawl in the context of a rapid urbanization process in a booming economic region of southern China from 1979 to 2005. Three urban sprawl types are distinguished by analyzing overlaid urban area maps of two adjacent study years which originated from the interpretation of remote sensed images and vector land use maps. Landscape metrics are used to analyze the spatiotemporal pattern of urban sprawl for each study period. Study results show that urban areas have expanded dramatically, and the spatiotemporal landscape pattern configured by the three sprawl types changed obviously. The different sprawl type patterns in five study periods have transformed significantly, with their proportions altered both in terms of quantity and of location. The present research proves that urban sprawl quantification and pattern analysis can provide a clear perspective of the urbanization process during a long time period. Particularly, the present study on urban sprawl and sprawl patterns can be used by land use and urban planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pearl River Delta Economic Zone is one of the most developed regions in China. It has been undergoing a rapid urbanization since the reformation and opening of China in 1978. This process plays a significant impact on the urban environment, particularly river water quality. The main goal of this present study is to assess the impact of urban activities especially urbanization on river water quality for the study area. Some Landsat TM images from 2000 were used to map the areas for different pollution levels of urban river sections for the study area. In addition, an improved equalized synthetic pollution index method was utilized to assess the field analytical results. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between the rapidity of urbanization and the pollution levels of urban river water. Compared to the rural river water, urban river water was polluted more seriously. During the urban development process, urbanization and urban activities had a significant negative impact on the river water quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has experienced dramatic urbanization in recent decades. However, we still lack information about the characteristics of urbanization in large cities throughout the world. After analyzing 841 large cities with built-up areas (BUAs) of over 100 km2 from 2001 to 2018, here we found an uneven distribution of urbanization at different economic levels. On average, large cities in the low-income and lower-middle-income countries had the highest urban population growth, and BUA expansion in the upper-middle-income countries was more than three times that of the high-income countries. Globally, more than 10% of BUAs in 325 large cities showed significant greening (P < 0.05) from 2001 to 2018. In particular, China accounted for 32% of greening BUAs in the 841 large cities, where about 108 million people lived. Our quantitative results provide information for future urban sustainable development, especially for rational urbanization of the developing world. Urban development has dramatically increased in recent decades. Analyzing 841 large cities throughout the world for the period from 2001 to 2018, the authors disclosed uneven features of global urbanization in terms of urban expansion, population growth, and greening at different economic levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]