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In the process of global urban development, there are urgent ecological security and environmental pollution problems, green development is the fundamental way for urban sustainable development, economic transformation and mitigation of ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 283 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper analyzes spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of urban green development efficiency (UGDE) and the peer effects of UGDE between cities of different grades. It is found that during the study period, in terms of temporal evolution, the average UGDE in China increased from 0.47 in 2003 to 0.61 in 2017, with a cumulative growth rate of 29.79%, showing a rising trend in general. In terms of spatial evolution, the number of low-efficiency cities and medium-efficiency cities continued to decrease. The eastern region has always been the main distribution area of higher-efficiency cities and high-efficiency cities; in the central region, UGDE in most cities improved significantly; in the western region, UGDE has always lagged behind that in the eastern and central regions. In addition, the center of gravity of UGDE presented a trend of northwest migration in general, with a total displacement of 100.07 km, and UGDE showed a spatial dispersion trend. The empirical results indicate that the improvement of UGDE in large cities has a driving effect on that in neighboring medium cities and small cities through the positive peer effect, and the growth of UGDE in medium cities has a promoting effect on that in neighboring small cities through the positive peer effect; the increase of UGDE in medium cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring large cities, and the growth of UGDE in small cities has a positive peer effect on that in neighboring medium cities; UGDE promotes each other between large cities through the positive peer effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the effects of the digital economy on highquality urban development and its mechanism. Theoretically, the digital economy can empower high-quality development by boosting entrepreneurial vitality. Empirically, the paper measures the overall level of the digital economy and high-quality development of the 222 Chinese cities at and above the prefecture level during 2011–2016, depicts the entrepreneurial vitality of the cities with the microscopic data of the business registration information and makes quantitative analysis on this basis. The result shows: Digital economy has remarkably improved high-quality development and this conclusion still exists after the robustness test selecting historical data as the instrumental variables and the Broadband China pilot policy as the quasi experiment. The analysis of the mechanism of action indicates that encouraging public entrepreneurship is an important mechanism of the digital economy to release the dividend of highquality development. Finally, thanks to the threshold model and the spatial model, it is found that the positive effect of the digital economy has the characteristics of nonlinear increment and spatial spillover of the “marginal effects.” The research of the paper stimulates the reasons for high-quality development and the understanding of the effects, mechanisms and regional differences of high-quality development empowered by the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Baidu migration data to obtain the intercity trips between cities in China. Taking intercity travel as a functional connection between cities, taking into account the internal and external intercity travel connections of urban agglomerations, an improved rank scale distribution method was used to quantitatively measure the form and function of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Chengdu-Chongqing, Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Harbin-Changchun urban agglomerations. It is found that, firstly, there are differences in the Functional Polycentricity presented by the internal and external connections of urban agglomerations, which are related to the economic development of urban agglomerations and central cities. Secondly, there are differences between Morphological Polycentricity and Functional Polycentricity of the eight urban agglomerations measured by the internal and external connections, indicating that the external connections have a significant impact. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections of urban agglomerations. The study of urban agglomerations should not ignore the internal or external connections, and the overall consideration can more comprehensively reflect the polycentric characteristics of urban agglomerations. The internal and external connections of urban agglomerations are important functional connections, and the study of urban agglomerations should not ignore internal or external connections. Overall consideration can better reflect the polycentirccharacteristics of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important foundation for promoting social progress and economic development, natural resources play an important role in the sustainable development of cities. However, the increasing demand of human beings for natural resources has led to various ecological environmental problems, such as excessive population density, serious environmental pollution, the continuous decline of total natural resources and per capita resources, all of which have hindered sustainable development. Therefore, the study of natural resources and sustainable development has become the focus of many current scholars. In this paper, CiteSpace is used as an analysis tool to analyze the literature on natural resources and sustainable development over the past 20 years. First of all, this paper deeply analyzes the research status of this field in terms of academic research trends, authors and research institutions, co-occurrence of keywords, etc., and on this basis, it then deeply analyzes its evolutionary path and research hot spots in the past 20 years through keyword emergence. Finally, according to the visualization of the analysis results, the future development trends of this research field are speculated: (1) Grasp the current research focus; (2) Improve the research accuracy; (3) Enrich the theoretical system of research; and (4) Establish an interdisciplinary research system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban digital governance represented by digital city and smart city is becoming an important direction of urban agglomeration development. It is necessary to reexamine the internal relationship mechanism between local government digital action and regional governance behavior. Based on the theory of collective action and network governance, this paper discusses how the economic development level of local government interacts with the cooperative network status of urban agglomeration and affects the tendency of digital governance strategy of local government. By constructing the configuration matrix of "economic development level" and "cooperative network status" of local governments in urban agglomerations, this paper extracts the possible "center" and "follow" governance strategies that local governments in different configurations may adopt in the digital field. The ant colony optimization algorithm proposed in this paper consists of two parts—ACO initialization and ACO optimization. ACO initialization describes how to map the path of ants to the solution of the problem, that is, the combination of orders. In addition, ACO initialization will also define and initialize the pheromone and heuristic information model compatible with the solution. ACO optimization updates the pheromone model to heuristic guide ants to build paths, so as to iteratively find the optimal solution. The case study of 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta of China shows that most of the digital governance strategies of local governments are in line with the selection logic of their configuration status of "economic level network status". The study results proved that the proposed model has provided effective accuracy of 96%. However, driven by selective returns, there are still some "abnormal" governance tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the environment and optimizing industrial structure are the primary tasks of resource-based cities in western China. This paper analyzes the impact mechanism and path of environmental effect on the industrial structure using the panel data of 37 prefecture-level resource-based cities in western China from 2008 to 2019. The results show that the environmental effect is beneficial for optimizing the industrial structure of resource-based cities in western China. The economic development and resource endowment amplify the positive impact of the environmental effect on industrial structure upgrades. In resource-based cities with different growth cycles, environmental effect has different impact on industrial structure upgrades. Technological innovation of enterprises and public awareness of environmental protection are effective paths for environmental effect to promote industrial structure upgrading. Therefore, it is really crucial to promote environmental protection, identify regional characteristics, and enhance departmental cooperation for resource-based cities in western China, realizing industrial structure upgrades and sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, with the development of the times and the advancement of science and technology, informatization has gradually become an important standard for measuring the state of national development in the course of national development. The artificial intelligence multimedia technology has been developed under the background of informationization and has gradually become an important means to achieve national development and regional economic progress. The impact often depends not only on the economic attributes of the industry but also on the economic attributes of urban planning. Countries and regions with high levels of regional integration and industrial economic development have begun to inject economic knowledge and methods into regional integration and industrial economic processes, which are used to solve or alleviate problems and contradictions in the process of urban and rural construction and development. It can be seen that industrial economy and regional integration are not only a spatial phenomenon but also an economic phenomenon. Based on the needs of the development of urban planning discipline theory and the era of national industrial economic integration, this paper puts forward the research methods and ideas of this paper and combines current multimedia backgrounds and their development trends to analyze key innovations and research frameworks, incorporating the main theoretical research elements into the concept of "combination" of traditional Chinese philosophy, aiming at the main problems and contradictions in the process of China's industrial economic development, respectively, the cultural economy and industrial economy, and the integration of public economy and environmental economy, land economy, and housing economy, a new urbanization development strategy of population economy and regional economic competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small cities located on the periphery of large cities have long faced challenges such as difficulties in economic development and population loss, especially in China. The concentration of a few super-large cities in China has hindered the growth of per capita income in most small cities and led to a widening income gap between cities. In addition, studies have shown that central cities can have a polarizing impact on surrounding areas thereby hindering economic growth. To address these issues, this paper examines Baoding, a small city close to the capital, Beijing. Through literature and policy research, we analyse how Baoding can take advantage of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration policy and pursue its urban development in the presence of neighbouring large cities. By providing theoretical suggestions the research contributes to Baodin's urban development through five potential industries: healthcare, automotive, electronics, digital, and tourism. Furthermore, we emphasize the practical contributions such as: the importance of higher education as a key driver of sustainable development for the city. Based on our analysis, we suggest that Baoding's strategic development direction should be aligned with Beijing's needs while recognizing that such alignment is merely a means to an end. The goal of urban development should always be to improve the living standards and well-being of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the digital economy is conducive to the innovative development of foreign trade and the formation of a "dual circulation" development pattern in China. Based on the panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2019, this paper examines the influence of the digital economy on urban export trade and its heterogeneity. And we use a mediating effect model to explore the possible mediating role of technological progress in the above influences. The results find that: (1) The improvement of the digital economy can promote cities export; (2) The promotion of the digital economy to the growth of city export scale is heterogeneous, which is more significant in the western and northeastern cities with relatively remote geographical locations, and the third-tier and lower cities with relatively backward economic development. (3) Technological progress has played a significant role in promoting the growth of export for the digital economy. Thus, it's of great importance for China to increase investment in digital economy infrastructure and pay more attention to the differences in diverse city development processes. It should also support basic research and development in information technology to promote high-quality development of China's foreign trade through the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue comprehensively researches China's financialization and examines the transformation of its development model, state development corporations, local government bonds, productivity, and the extent and characteristics of financialization. While it is widely known that the state plays an important role in enabling and constraining financialization, these papers further reveal that China's financialization originates from the state's deployment of financial approaches to urban and regional development under state entrepreneurialism. Through internalizing financial logic into the state development system, the expansion of financial operations reflects the state's developmental intention and increases its governance capability. Thus, financialization is not a unidirectional process but involves extensive state involvement and participation in finance, to such an extent that it often simultaneously evolves into greater interference and de-financialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the direct and indirect drag effects of land and energy on urban economic growth in the Yangtze River Delta in China over the period of 2003–2012. Using the spatial Durbin panel data model (SDPDM), we found that such urban economic growth is spatially autocorrelated and that resource input has a positive impact on economic growth. The SDPDM results show that the direct drag effect of land and energy is, respectively, 0.75 and 2.38%, indicating that the constraints of land and energy will reduce the economic growth rate by 0.75 and 2.38%. Besides, the indirect drag effect is 0.40 and 4.86%, suggesting that the focal unit's economic growth would also be influenced by the behavior of its neighbors. Based on these results, this paper proposes some policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities play an essential role in promoting the development of the whole national economy. Many scholars have proposed different methods to study this problem, but all have ignored the critical influence of network attention on the economy. Therefore, this study uses big Network data to profoundly analyse the relationship between urban spatial development and economic growth in eastern, central, and western China, further study this issue, and provide theoretical support for urban economic development. This study first divides China into three regions: eastern, central, and western, then selects the indicators of the national economy and urban development from 2014 to 2019, and finally constructs a panel regression model to explore the relationship between urban space elements and national economic development. The results show that China's national economic development is closely related to spatial factors such as urban transportation, environment, science and technology, energy consumption, and housing price. These findings will help to make full use of the natural advantages of each region and guide the rational planning of the urban economy. This study provides references for urban development planning and industrial transfer in various regions of China and offers feasible suggestions for China's overall national economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although existing studies questioned the simple positive correlation between the technology transfer speed and the benefits, they have been widely condemned for lacking empirical evidence. Using the patent transfer data at the city scale in China, and distinguishing fast from slow by dividing technology transfer speed into four levels, this paper attempts to answer the question in terms of city economic growth, which is whether the faster is the better. Panel regression results show that for economic growth of city, the speed of technology transfer does not mean that faster is better. In other words, technology transfer maintaining a relatively rapid speed (more than 1 year and less than 2 years) can promote city economic growth, although the evidence is weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-reform China, the spatial forms of cities are defined by two combined forces-a downward decentralization of responsibility for economic development, and an upward centralization of power to larger urban cores. This process of administrative rescaling is creating an "entrepreneurial urban space" in the city cores and "commercialized towns and villages" in the city margins (McGee et al. 2007). As a result of the rescaling, a form of contested space has emerged, mostly in cities and their immediate margins, where local civil society is constantly resisting or adapting to the Chinese urban expansion manifested through territorial reorganization and boundary redefinition. Cities' inner margins (suburbs) have in particular seen the most dramatic increases in population and manufacturing due to migration, housing development, and industrial relocation. This paper seeks to provide a close dissection of the process of rescaling and the production of these contested urban spaces through a spatial lens. In adopting a comparative and case study approach, this paper analyzes census data from three large city-regions in China: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to explore two questions: (1) whether this rescaling is creating segmentation, displacement, or polarization in residence and work spaces; and (2) at which scales (district or community) these spatial outcomes are unfolding. The paper concludes that inequalities are increasingly concentrated in the inner margins, where an entrepreneurial city core meets the self-initiated urban expansion of the towns in the outer margins, and farmers, displaced urbanites, rural migrants, and foreign workers aggregate and compete for space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the economic impacts of China's hukou system and propose the possible direction for future reform. Design/methodology/approach: The study develops a framework to incorporate the hukou system into the economic growth model. Using prefecture city-level panel data covering 241 cities over the period 2004–2016 and applying the fixed effects and instrumental variable regression techniques, the authors investigated empirically the impacts of the hukou system on city economic growth. Findings: The study provides three main findings. First, the city sector conditionally benefits from labour mobility deregulation that allows migrants to work in cities. Second, the hukou system has different impacts on economic growth among cities with different sizes and administrative levels. Third, to offset the costs of providing exclusive public services to the migrants, the big or high-administrative-level cities can use their high-valued hukou to attract the high-skilled migrants, but the small- or low-administrative-level cities do not have this advantage. Practical implications: This study suggests that the key for further hukou system reform is how to deal with the hukou–welfare binding relationship. Originality/value: The authors developed a theoretical framework and conducted an empirical analysis on the direct relationship between the hukou system and economic growth to reveal the mechanism of how does the hukou system influence the city economic growth and answer the question of why is the hukou system reform so hard in China. The framework also sheds some lights on explaining the success and failure of the hukou system reforms in the past 40 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid economic ascent of China and the increasing integration of the world economy in the past two decades have made metropolises in China such as Shanghai and Beijing emerging global cities. Foreign investment is a central force underlying the emergence and transformation of the Chinese metropolises into global cities. This is especially true in Shanghai, which has experienced massive infusion of foreign investment. Varied forms of foreign investment or development zones have been created to promote foreign investment inflows, yet remain under-studied. This paper analyzes structure, performance, and underlying factors of development zones in Shanghai, and discusses the implications for global city-formation; it unfolds the variations among development zones, and illustrates the significant role of the state and local conditions. As the literature on global cities dwells primarily on the experiences of advanced economies, this paper further contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics of emerging global cities in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As with many cities in China experiencing rapid urbanisation, Guangzhou is undergoing a specific form of urban development characterised by the engulfing of rural settlements: a process resulting in the so-called village in the city. This paper uses three modes of economic integration (redistribution, market exchange and reciprocity) as a framework to examine the interrelationship of various development issues and conditions of these villages. It shows that the poor integration in the spheres of state redistribution and formal market exchange pushes migrants to focus on survival strategies that relate to the self-organisation of housing, employment and education. It also makes a critical review of several (re)development projects, each relating to one or more of the different modes of economic integration. This paper concludes that new project approaches that organise a productive interplay between market exchange, redistribution and reciprocity are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ke S. and Feser E. Count on the growth-pole strategy for regional economic growth? Spread-backwash effects in Greater Central China. Regional Studies. This paper investigates spread-backwash effects associated with non-agricultural gross domestic product and employment growth across 922 cities and counties in Central China between 2000 and 2005. Simultaneous equation estimates find mixed spread-backwash effects from prefecture and higher-level cities to comparable or lower-level cities and counties. Spread effects of gross domestic product and employment growths are also indicated between county-level cities. However, county-level cities exerted backwash effects on rural counties. The paper discusses the implications of these findings in relation to the construction of urban economic growth zones in Central China as an important strategy of Central Rise. [image omitted] Ke S. et Feser E. Devrait-on compter sur la strategie de poles de croissance afin d'assurer la croissance economique regionale? Les effets de repartition et de redisribution en Chine centrale. Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a examiner les effets de repartition et de redistribution lies au PIB et a la croissance de l'emploi non-agricole a travers 922 grandes villes et comtes en Chine centrale de l'an 2000 jusqu'a 2005. Il resulte des estimations provenant des equations simultanees des effets de repartition et de redistribution mitiges dans les prefectures et plus grandes les villes jusqu'aux villes comparables ou aux villes et comtes plus petits. Les effets de repartition de la hausse du PIB et de l'emploi sont aussi indiques pour ce qui est des villes situees aux comtes. Cependant, les villes situees aux comtes ont eu des effets de redistribution sur les comtes ruraux. Cet article discute des implications de ces resultats par rapport a la construction des zones urbaines, economiques de croissance en Chine centrale comme une importante strategie de la Vague centrale. Chine centrale Pole de croissance Repartition-redistribution Econometrie geographique Ke S. und Feser E. Kann man sich fur regionales Wirtschaftswachstum auf die Wachstumspol-Strategie verlassen? Ausbreitungs- und Entzugseffekte in Zentralchina. Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir die Ausbreitungs- und Entzugseffekte durch nicht landwirtschaftliches BIP- und Beschaftigungswachstum in 922 Stadten und Bezirken von Zentralchina zwischen 2000 und 2005. Durch simultane Gleichungsschatzungen stellen wir gemischte Ausbreitungs- und Entzugseffekte von Stadten auf Prafektur- und hoherer Ebene hin zu Stadten und Bezirken auf vergleichbarer oder niedrigerer Ebene fest. Die Ausbreitungseffekte des BIP- und Beschaftigungswachstums waren auch innerhalb der Stadte auf Bezirksebene zu verzeichnen. Allerdings ubten die Stadte auf Bezirksebene einen Entzugseffekt auf die landlichen Bezirke aus. In diesem Beitrag werden die Auswirkungen dieser Ergebnisse im Hinblick auf die Einrichtung urbaner Wirtschaftswachstumszonen in Zentralchina als wichtige Strategie fur den Aufstieg Zentralchinas erortert. Zentralchina Wachstumspol Ausbreitungs- und Entzugseffekte Raumliche Okonometrie Ke S. y Feser E. ¿Podemos contar con la estrategia de los polos de crecimiento para el crecimiento economico regional? Efectos de dispersion y regresion en China central. Regional Studies. En este articulo investigamos los efectos de dispersion y regresion asociados al PIB no agricola y el crecimiento de empleo en 922 ciudades y distritos de China central entre 2000 y 2005. En los calculos de ecuacion simultanea observamos efectos combinados de dispersion y regresion desde ciudades a un nivel de prefectura o mas alto hacia ciudades y distritos a un nivel comparable o mas bajo. Los efectos de dispersion del PIB y crecimientos de empleo tambien se observan entre las ciudades a nivel de distrito. Sin embargo, las ciudades a nivel de distrito ejercieron efectos de regresion frente a los distritos rurales. En este articulo presentamos las implicaciones de estos resultados con relacion a la construccion de las zonas urbanas con crecimiento economico en China central como una importante estrategia para el auge de China central. China central Polo de crecimiento Dispersion-regresion Factores econometricos espaciales [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds a trade-based equilibrium, two-sector model to reveal the inefficiency of a foreign-dominated, gaming-biased, bubble growth in Macau. This fast GDP growth that has not led to much real development as measured by the effective GNP would likely have adverse impacts on the city's long-term prosperity. We employ the model to analyze why various gaming markets have adopted differing tax rates. This work provides a rigorous argument against the problematic attempts to push for low tax convergence in the Asian gaming market. To neutralize the damaging effects of foreign domination in the local economy, we offer several policy recommendations for reviving home businesses and enhancing domestic welfare in Macau. It is suggested that enforceable laws should be made to prevent the foreign firms with cross-market operations from stealing away Macau customers, that differential taxes on casino operators and income taxes on player winnings should be chosen to support Chinese-owned casinos and curb pathological gambling, and that a sovereign wealth fund should be established to stop too much of Chinese gaming money from being lost too fast and foster Macau's economic autonomy by reducing its overreliance on foreign concerns for output growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically tests the interactive effects of air pollution and economic spillovers in Chinese cities from 2003 to 2010. The results show that Chinese cities benefit from the economic spillovers from surrounding cities, but bear the costs of negative air pollution externalities created by neighboring cities. We use wind direction and the administrative boundaries of provinces to disentangle possible multicollinearity between air pollution emissions and economic spillovers across cities. However, the results could not reject the growth-restricting effects of air pollution from neighboring cities. The results imply that the development of a city surrounded by polluters is likely to be constrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greater understanding of the topological evolution characteristics of the supply side of urban transport systems could help urban planners and policy makers uncover patterns of both city growth and road development. This paper examines the road network topological evolution characteristics of a unique government-oriented development district, Shanghai Pudong New District, from 1995 to 2007, where a road-name–based dual approach is adopted to capture the homogeneity and functional continuity of different segments. The urban road network is found to evolve from a broad-scale system to a scale-free system driven by the government interventions. A generalized extreme value distribution is utilized to provide a general form for the road network topological evolution model with a good fit. This scale-free road network has shown to be effective in supporting economic development. This paper offers a new perspective that describes the patterns of topological evolution characteristics for transportation planners regarding network design and urban planning in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to quantify the transformation of China's tourism market during the pandemic. The research relies on methodological concepts developed by WHO, UN, and UNWTO. The methods include a strategic approach based on the analysis of key tourism market indicators and economic data, including information about global tourism. The study analyzed the tourism sector and highlighted pathways for restructuring the market and promoting safe tourism in the spread of and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the results of the study, statistics about the number of registered disease cases by country provide a certain level of awareness about tourism safety in a country. Tourism within China has acquired strategic importance, reorienting towards domestic tourism development. This sector has become a key component of the local economy. The Chinese tourism market, having become one of the largest in the world, has gained popularity among the countries of the Asia-Pacific region for both inbound and outbound tourists. This issue is especially important for identifying the impact of crisis events on the economy and the strategies aimed at overcoming the crisis. The finding of the study can be used by local governments and tourism organizations to develop tactical measures for the provision of safe tourism services in their area, as well as step-by-step instruction for crisis management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This research examines government policies and urban transformation in China through a study of Hangzhou City, which is undergoing dramatic growth and restructuring. As the southern center of the Yangtze River Delta, an emerging global city region of China, Hangzhou has been restlessly searching for strategies to promote economic growth and survive the competition with Shanghai. This paper analyzes Hangzhou’s development strategies, including globalization, tourism, industrial development, and urban development, in the context of shifting macro conditions and local responses. We hold that urban policies in China are situated in the broad economic restructuring and the gradual, experiential national reform and are therefore transitional. The paper suggests that China’s urban policies are state institution-directed, growth-oriented, and land-based, imposing unprecedented challenges to sustainability and livability. Land development and spatial restructuring are central to urban policies in China. Last, while Hangzhou’s development strategies and policies to some extent reflect policy convergence across cities in China, local/spatial contexts, including local settings, territorial rescaling and land conditions, are underlying the functioning of development/entrepreneurial states. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

During the 1990s and 2000s understandings of urban politics have become dominated by narratives of neoliberal urban entrepreneurialism. Considerations of, and even interest in, the diversities that exist in the specific politics that shape place developments have often been relegated to a matter of secondary interest when understood in relation to broader structural global forces. This is particularly significant as urban development projects have become increasingly bound-up with cultural programmes, many of which are embedded in the social relations of places, yet are often dismissed as subservient to global, fast-track development logics. This paper draws on a study of the politics surrounding the development of one of Asia's largest culture-led urban development projects, the West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong. It explores the complex relationships between contemporary development discourses and historically embedded postcolonial subjectivities and policy legacies. It uses the evidence to argue for more nuanced interpretations of change, and calls for a stronger focus on the concrete relations in and through which policy abstractions are formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid economic development has led to urban sprawl and threatens river systems. In this paper, we used geographic information system (GIS) techniques to examine the effects of urbanisation on the water resources of the Yanggong River watershed in Lijiang City, and analysed the temporal changes in river systems and their impacts on watershed ecosystem functions. The total length of the river systems in the Yanggong River watershed decreased from 786.9 km in 1995 to 674.2 km in 2009 and is predicted to continue to decrease by 35.5 km in the next 11 years according to various data sources. The decrease in river system density started in the Old Town of Lijiang and gradually spread to the surrounding areas. Our analysis shows that urbanisation is failing to take into account the impacts on river systems and their functions, which could cause a reduction in the size of the river systems and degradation of watershed ecosystem functions in the Yanggong River watershed of Lijiang City. It is suggested that protecting the natural river network and making full use of the advantages of the distinctive terrain in the Yanggong River watershed could contribute to the sustainability of urban development in Lijiang City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shenzhen is not only one of the fastest-growing urban agglomerations in mainland China, Shenzhen also stands for a unique, most rapid and successful transformation into an urban market economy. How important are personal characteristics, social norms and policy-related discriminatory factors for income determination in such an extraordinary city? This paper estimates the income effect of non-productivity-related discriminatory factors (like personal characteristics, social norms and policies), compared with productivity-related returns on human capital. The design of the Shenzhen Household Survey 2005 enables the inclusion of a large set of discriminating factors in a Mincer Becker type of income model, together with a unique look at the migrant population in this urban centre. The results show that the human capital approach holds. Strong evidence is also found of a significant influence of social norms and policies, which is particularly relevant in a developing and transitional economy, even in such an exceptional city. The most important discriminating factor appears to be the hukou registration system. The on-going existence of these non-productivity-related discriminating factors can be regarded as indicative of an on-going process of transition towards a fully functioning market economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the findings of a research conducted on advancing previous research works which have developed a means to predict adaptive reuse potential (ARP). Under the research, comparison of ARP between urban and non-urban settings drawn from case studies in both Hong Kong, China and Australia was done. The research reveals that the 12 urban cases in Hong Kong have a lower ARP score on average than the 12 non-urban cases in Australia, yet the maximum ARP score possible is higher. It concludes that adaptive reuse intervention in Hong Kong is too late and valuable opportunity for economic, social, and environmental gain is delayed.

This paper documents the efforts that a city in China has made to link economic development with the global scene. Shortly after China was opened to the outside world in 1978, Dalian officials had the foresight to include tourism in their urban plans. Tourism development has been an integral part of the overall urban development strategy. Environmental enhancement has upgraded the city's image and competitive competence. Multi-functional urban facilities have been constructed, such as conference centres that are aimed at and used by clients with multiple purposes. Tourism is well established in Dalian and has been a means of facilitating urban development rather than an end in itself. In spite of efforts to exert a global presence, the city is currently more influential at the regional rather than the global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting sustainable development in resource-based cities is required to accelerate transformative economic development, which also can promote harmonious development and accelerate progress of industrialization while playing a critical role in China's urbanization. However, the role of regional sustainable development plans within resource-based cities is unclear. This paper selected 87 resource-based cities as the treated group, matching propensity scores of city characteristics on a total of 253 cities in China from 2008 to 2018. The paper used the difference-in-differences method to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the "National Plan for Resource-based City Sustainable Development (2013-2020)", measuring six years before and five years post-planning implementation. We found: (1) The implementation of the plan has promoted economic, social, and ecological transformation by 19.6%, 55.4% and 74.5% respectively (p < 0.01), but there appeared to be no additional effects on sustainable utilization of resources. (2) Among driving factors, market development affected all forms of transformation the most. (3) The impact of this transformation varied by stages of urban development according to the full life cycle of the resource-based city and its local resources. Specifically, the transformation effect of the growing type city in economic, social, ecological and resource transformation was the strongest among that of all type stages. • Regard pilot policy of Resource-based City Sustainable Development as a quasi-natural experiment. • Employ a differences-in-differences method with panel data of 253 cities in China from 2008 to 2018. • Evaluate policy effects upon resource-based city sustainable transformation. • Exploit drive mechanism and market development is an important driving factor. • Transformation effects vary from stages of urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint industrial development zones have emerged among cities in the Yangtze River Delta region in recent years. Given that such zones involve collaboration between different authorities, this has implications for the practice of urban governance in China. This article examines these processes in relation to the Jiangyin Economic Development Zone in Jingjiang (JZJ) using debates around urban growth coalitions. Two categories of actors, different levels of local government and business sectors, are identified and their interactions in coalition-building are analysed in detail. After tracing the process of coalition formation, this paper argues that growth coalitions can form between two cities involving processes above the urban scale in a globalising era. In addition, a local government-big business coalition, similar to its Western counterparts, is dominating industrial zone construction within Chinese urban growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the important issues related to world cities studies is the lack of systematic measurement of the formation of world cities. Such a measurement technique would be a useful tool for cities aspiring to attain world city status, especially those cities in Pacific Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, and Shanghai. This paper approaches this task by devising a measurement methodology based on quantifiable indicators to generate a World City Index and then uses Shanghai as a case study to test how the city stands compared to 32 current and potential world cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) play an increasingly important role in the process of urban environmental governance, especially in some developing countries such as China. However, existing studies pay little attention to such an issue in China. In this paper, we consider 113 cities in China from the pollution information transparency index (PITI) list released by ENGOs as the treatment group and some other cities as the control group, and use the difference-in-differences (DID) model and propensity score matching DID (PSM-DID) model to explore the role of ENGOs in China's urban environmental governance. The results show that ENGOs play a significantly positive and robust role in China's urban environmental governance. Furthermore, using regression analysis for eastern, central, and western China, we find that the influence of ENGOs exists in eastern and central China rather than in western China. In addition, the results of the Placebo test indicate that the effect of ENGOs shows an upward trend since 2008. We suggest that ENGOs' role should be strengthened in China, and governments at various levels should take into account environmental information released by ENGOs and consider appropriate measures to improve local environment quality using the obtained information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the land use and transport characteristics of a strip of urban development located along the northern shore of Hong Kong Island. The strip of land, with an area of 22.5 sq. km, is 17 km long and has an average width of 1.3 km. It has a population of approximately one million and provides over 700,000 jobs. Despite its small size, it accommodates the CBD, residential districts, shopping complexes as well as most of the civic/institutional facilities that a city needs. Its urban form is linear not by design but by default – the topography of the area has constrained the development from spreading sideways. Surprisingly however, apart from economy in land utilization, it is considered to possess three other good qualities: high accessibility enjoyed by residents; few roads and commercially viable public transport. Its travel characteristics are analyzed, using results of a home interview survey conducted by the Government in 1992. In addition, various statistics published by the Government and public transport authorities are also used in the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China's 35 largest cities, including Wuhan, are inhabited by approximately 18% of the Chinese population, and account for 40% energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Wuhan is the only sub-provincial city in Central China and, as the eighth largest economy nationwide, has experienced a notable increase in energy consumption. However, major knowledge gaps exist in understanding the nexus of economic development and carbon footprint and their drivers in Wuhan. Methods: We studied Wuhan for the evolutionary characteristics of its carbon footprint (CF), the decoupling relationship between economic development and CF, and the essential drivers of CF. Based on the CF model, we quantified the dynamic trends of CF, carbon carrying capacity, carbon deficit, and carbon deficit pressure index from 2001 to 2020. We also adopted a decoupling model to clarify the coupled dynamics among total CF, its accounts, and economic development. We used the partial least squares method to analyze the influencing factors of Wuhan's CF and determine the main drivers. Results: The CF of Wuhan increased from 36.01 million t CO2eq in 2001 to 70.07 million t CO2eq in 2020, a growth rate of 94.61%, which was much faster than that of the carbon carrying capacity. The energy consumption account (84.15%) far exceeded other accounts, and was mostly contributed by raw coal, coke, and crude oil. The carbon deficit pressure index fluctuated in the range of 8.44–6.74%, indicating that Wuhan was in the relief zone and the mild enhancement zone during 2001–2020. Around the same time, Wuhan was in a transition stage between weak and strong CF decoupling and economic growth. The main driving factor of CF growth was the urban per capita residential building area, while energy consumption per unit of GDP was responsible for the CF decline. Conclusions: Our research highlights the interaction of urban ecological and economic systems, and that Wuhan's CF changes were mainly affected by four factors: city size, economic development, social consumption, and technological progress. The findings are of realistic significance in promoting low-carbon urban development and improving the city's sustainability, and the related policies can offer an excellent benchmark for other cities with similar challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring the degree of urban sprawl largely depends on the local context and available data. This research establishes a multidimensional index which combines city expansion, urban compactness and urban form to measure sprawl. Urban planning, as part of the state-led growth approach, has exerted dramatic impact on city growth in China. Recent studies have discussed the role of planning in city growth. However, measuring the impact of planning on sprawl, has not been conducted. Taking Shanghai as a case study, this paper builds a multidimensional index to measure the spatio-temporal characteristics of urban sprawl in Shanghai from 1990 to 2010. It finds that urban sprawl was more serious in 2000s than in the 1990s, and the sprawl also presents spatial heterogeneity within different areas of the city. While quantifying the role of planning in urban sprawl, this study adopts the Geo-Detector based on spatial variation analysis of the geographical strata in order to assess the impact of planning on urban sprawl. It finds that planning is strongly correlated with urban sprawl, in other words, urban sprawl is kind of a "planned sprawl" in Shanghai. The research concludes with future planning policies necessary for a more sustainable and compact development pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban growth management is a popular topic for study area all over the world. Despite the increasingly rich literature, however, little has been considered of the complex relationship between the various urban development factors and their feedback structure. This paper contributes in understanding the mechanism of, and establishing a link between, urban growth management oriented by zoning in China (namely development priority zoning or DPZ). A system dynamics urban growth model is presented that is integrated with China's socio-economic development situation. With Yiwu city and Qingtian County as case studies, the model is applied in simulating urban growth under different driving modes. The results indicate that the DPZ in these two areas has an influence on urban growth management strategy, with the driving mode of urban growth affecting economic development levels, migration and types of land conversion. It is concluded that different driving modes are needed for different types of regions according to the functional positioning of their DPZ and that the model contributes to their identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of urban economies has been one key concern identified by scholars. In the past, most research methods on urban development assessments have been based on statistical data, and the analysis results have been presented in the form of statistical tables. Moreover, the development of urban road networks reflects the status of urban development and spatial metrics, which are obtained from the urban road network which can be used to evaluate the growth of the urban economy. The OpenStreetMap (OSM) is collected through crowdsourcing, and the OSM road network has the characteristics of a simplified and efficient approach to collect data, update data, free available data, etc. Therefore, in this paper, the OSM road network density is used as a spatial metric which is taken as the main study subject, to evaluate the economic development of Chinese cities. In our experiment, results show that there is a significant regression correlation between the OSM road network density and municipal gross domestic product (GDP). For the 85 selected Chinese cities, a total of 71 cities with residuals between −0.1 and 0.1 account for 83.53%, and a total of 79 cities with residuals between −0.2 and 0.2 account for 92.94%. Therefore, it is apparent that the OSM road network density can be used as a spatial metric to evaluate the municipal GDP, and as a result, can be used by local governments and scholars to estimate, evaluate, and forecast the urban economic development of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The island development of functional polycentricity was lagging than that of the morphological dimension. • Spatial regression model performs well in fitting the association between polycentric urban variables and island landscape changes. • The effects of dual polycentric urban indicators on island landscape changes varied spatially and temporally. • Polycentric urban development generally contributed to fragmented and complex island landscape patterns on the periphery areas of subcenters and reclamation. Polycentric urban development has become popular worldwide as expected to generate greater agglomeration externality and facilitate socioeconomic achievements. Despite much insightful work on urban polycentricity in coastal agglomerations or megacities, few studies have focused on how polycentric urban development affects landscape sustainability in vulnerable island cities. This paper characterized the urban polycentricity from the perspective of morphological and functional dimensions during 1990–2020 in Yuhuan island city, China, and quantified the association between polycentric urban variables and island landscape changes by spatial regression. The results showed that there was a mismatch in development between the morphological and functional polycentricity, in which the functional dimension was lagging. In response, island landscape patterns became fragmented and scattered. With the application of GWR models, the effects of two polycentric factors on island landscape changes varied spatially and temporally. The stronger relationships between them were identified in regions where more heterogeneous patterns were presented, such as the subcenters and their surroundings and reclamation areas. These trends were mainly attributed to industrial suburbanization and the development of new economic zone and Damaiyu port. Our findings call for a more balanced functional urban polycentricity; and local-specific landscape effects should be scheduled in island planning practice and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development zone is an important institutional form of industrial spatial organization in China's economic transformation and is an essential growth pole of urban economic development. Based on the county-level panel data of Guangxi from 2005 to 2017, this study contributes to the discussion by exploring the effects of development zones on economic development in developed regions. Additionally, this study further attempts to illustrate the character of the agglomeration effect built on development zones and try to reveal the significant influence factors of the effect of development zones on the economy. Through the progressive difference-in-difference (DID) model approach, empirical results reveal that the development zone has a negative effect on the local economy within three years after its establishment, and the "development zone fever" significantly reduces the potential for regional economic growth. With the decrease in the established frequency of development zones, the effect of the development zone on economic growth becomes positive. However, this promoting effect is unsustainable because the agglomeration effect of development zones is mainly caused by the "clusters of enterprises". Certain industrial agglomeration and technological capabilities are essential prerequisites for development zones to promote economic growth, while the negative impact appears in a highly competitive environment caused by excessive government intervention. Therefore, the key to maintaining the sustainability of development zones' competition is to strengthen the assessment standard of survival of the fittest for enterprises, and promote the agglomeration of high-end industries by improving the selection effect of development zones. These findings have great potential in policy making and can be used as a resource by policymakers to promote the sustainable development of less developed regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies suggest that 'city–county consolidation' has significant positive impacts on urban economic growth. Yet, the specific spillover effects on surrounding rural areas and the overall net impact on larger regions have not been fully investigated. We propose a difference-in-difference framework and find that consolidations have led to a significant loss of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in nearby rural areas. The backwash mainly comes from the reduction of rural industrial output. We also find that this policy has an insignificant impact at the prefecture level, suggesting such consolidations do not promote aggregate growth and that any gains in urban areas are offset by losses in surrounding rural regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an empirically based novel research framework addressing 'the land/built environment–finance and economic development nexus' of China's urban growth model. First, urban growth must be viewed beyond manufacturing and production activities to incorporate consumption activities. Mega-projects and infrastructure development have gradually become dependent on the incomes and spending of increasingly mobile consumers and residents. Second, the article highlights the 'Chinese type' of financialization of the built environment. As financial assets, urban land and real estate have been connected to newly emerging finance capital actors and circuits nationwide, as well as to direct cross-regional property investments made by urban households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of the financialization of urban development on urban labour productivity. We identify that there is an inverted-'U' relationship between the financialization of urban development and urban labour productivity in China. A further investigation shows that the financial resource mismatch and alleviating of financing constraints underpin such an inverted-'U' relationship. Our conclusions are robust to a number of robustness checks. Finally, we also find that the financialization effect is stronger in less developed regions, and lower after 2008. This study demonstrates that the financialization of urban development could play complex and time-varying roles in an economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How urban financialization is achieved across different government levels receives limited attention. This study addresses the gap by examining the deployment of China's local government bonds (LGBs). LGBs introduce a distinct financialization process in which the government relies on debt-financing for urban development, but in a regulated way to constrain financial risks. Urban financialization is realized through the multi-scalar structure of the government. The centralized procedure strengthens central and provincial regulations on local development projects. The multi-scalar government not only facilitates urban financialization but also executes statecraft by designing the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth of urbanization and motorization in China in recent years, the demand for transportation in people's work and daily lives has increased. In this context, a number of issues such as urban traffic congestion, energy consumption, and environmental pollution have become increasingly severe. As a result, the tremendous socioeconomic, resource, and environmental pressures have been placed on the development of urban transportation. Sustainable economic and social development requires green development as a precondition. The economical and efficient use of resources and the protection and improvement of the ecological environment are conducive to the formation of a new pattern of modernization for the harmonious development of man and nature. Transportation planning is an essential technical field for promoting the development of green and ecological cities, and it is one of the primary responsibilities of urban planning. The application of green ecological planning technology and the scientific and reasonable development of traffic planning and management measures can aid in reducing energy consumption and, thus, achieving the goal of environmental protection. In this field, green transportation is a mature green ecological planning technology. Green transportation development is not only a key solution to urban transportation problems, but also an essential means of achieving sustainable urban development, so it has become a hot topic in the field of transportation. As the ideal city of the postindustrial era, ecocity can serve as a model for the sustainable development of China's small and medium-sized cities. After all, industrial development is an unsustainable path, so human society must embrace green development. The core of green development lies in shifting from an exclusive reliance on industrialization to the urban transformation into an ecological civilization. Given the current contradictions between economic growth and resource and environmental degradation, promoting green and environmentally conscious transportation planning with resource conservation in mind is a crucial means of resolving these contradictions. Government incentives and restrictions are essential for the development of green transportation. Therefore, it is crucial to study the impact of environmentally conscious transportation planning and management measures on the economic growth of small and medium-sized cities. This will provide relevant departments and stakeholders with guidance and a reference for formulating policies that will contribute to the harmonious development of China's green transportation and economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article selects socioeconomic data related to 146 prefecture-level cities included in nine city clusters from 2014 to 2018 to establish a city-level socioeconomic system in China. A sensitivity analysis of regional entrepreneurship and economic quality development based on system dynamics was conducted to explore the changes in regional entrepreneurship and economic quality development over time and their sensitivity factors. In this way, the dynamic evolution mechanism of the system can be portrayed, and the optimization of the system can be achieved through the coordination of the factors within the system. The article sets up three scenarios to explore the fluctuations in regional entrepreneurship and economic quality development when three sensitive factors, namely, business environment, financial services scale, and innovation environment, change. Findings: There are differences in the development of cities within city clusters. The business environment and high-quality economic development of the central cities within the city cluster are stronger than those of the non-central cities. Therefore, regions should focus on synergistic development within city clusters when formulating related policies. The variation of regional entrepreneurship development and economic quality development, after a factor in the system is changed, is asymmetric. Because the sensitivity of different urban clusters and the way they are affected by sensitive factors varies, the state should pay more attention to the adaptability of cities when formulating corresponding policy measures and adapt its policy measures to the sensitivity characteristics of each region according to local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial agglomeration is a key way to promote the green transformation of the global economy and environmental governance. The existing literature mainly analyzed the impact of financial agglomeration on economic development, but rarely examines its comprehensive impact on economic growth and environmental governance considering spatial spillover effects. Based on the perspective of spatial spillover effects, this paper uses panel data of 285 cities above the prefecture-level in China to examine the impact and mechanism of financial agglomeration on green development. The results show that: (1) During the study period, financial agglomeration and green development in China are significantly different in directions of spatial distribution and expansion, but the spatial correlation between the two is relatively high. (2) Financial agglomeration can exert significant spatial spillover effects on green development. (3) Financial agglomeration has more obvious positive spatial spillover effects on green development of cities in the servitization stage or with high administrative level. (4) Industrial structure upgrading effect, labor upgrading effect and technological innovation effect are the main paths that financial agglomeration affects green development. The research results can provide a new perspective and approach to promote the green transformation of economy and sustainable development of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: China’s recent wave of rapid urbanization generated a specific form of urban development called the “village in the city” (ViC). It is characterized by the dual urban-rural structure and it accommodates, to begin with, the monumental housing needs of rural migrants. Although the issues of ViCs are very specific and enormous, they evidently have a lot in common with those of slum areas and dilapidated urban areas in developed and developing contexts, in which there already is a long experience with upgrading or urban renewal operations. Also in this specific context of upgrading and urban renewal, the strategic urban project approach is generally being advocated. It emphasizes vision development, the coproduction by stakeholders and the implementation of actions. Strategic urban projects are the cornerstone of this approach. This paper sketches a conceptual framework for the strategic urban project approach for the sustainable redevelopment of “villages in the city” (ViCs) in Guangzhou. It makes an attempt to translate the methodologies of the strategic urban project approach to the Chinese context. Adapting the method to deal with the multi-stakeholder environment and complex issues in ViCs is indeed necessary in order to obtain a sustainable redevelopment of ViCs. Consideration is given to the roles and partnerships of key stakeholders, visions at different levels, and specific actions that deal with opportunities and issues in strategic locations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper qualitatively examined urbanization impacts at an eco-regional scale by analyzing landscape pattern and ecosystem service value changes in four eco-regions in the Hang-Jia-Hu region (China): the Hang-Jia-Hu Plains agricultural eco-region (region 1), the Tianmu Mountain forest eco-region (region 2), the Hangzhou urban eco-region (region 3), and the Qiandao Lake watershed forests-wetlands eco-region (region 4). Our results showed that the four eco-regions exhibited a similar urbanization process of rapid population growth, economic development and urban expansion. The considerable urban expansion led to a loss of 8.5 billion RMB yuan ecosystem service values per year on average between 1994 and 2003. The problems associated with urbanization were namely that the level of the landscapes within regions 1, 2, and 3 became increasingly more diverse, irregular, fragmented and isolated. Region 4 presented the opposite trend. Multivariate regression further qualitatively explored the dynamics of landscape changes in response to urbanization as well as the interactions between landscape pattern and ecosystem service values. It was found that landscape fragmentation, configuration and diversity, which were induced by urbanization, could significantly impair the provisions of ecosystem services. By discussing the inside meaning of the obtained regression models, we also discussed some implications for landscape planning. Our results highlighted the significance of joint application of landscape metric analysis and ecosystem service values assessment in landscape planning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]