Search Results (23)

The traditional paradigm for studying urban morphology involves the interpretation of Nolli maps, using methods such as morphometrics and visual neural networks. Previous studies on urban morphology discovery have always been based on raster analysis and have been limited to the central city area. Raster analysis can lead to fragmented forms, and focusing only on the central city area ignores many representative urban forms in the suburbs and towns. In this study, a vast and complex dataset was applied to the urban morphology discovery based on the administrative community or village boundary, and a new image deformation pipeline was proposed to enhance the morphological characteristics of building groups. This allows visual neural networks to focus on extracting the morphological characteristics of building groups. Additionally, the research on urban morphology often uses unsupervised learning, which means that the learning process is difficult to control. Therefore, we refined the NT-Xent loss so that it can integrate morphological indicators. This improvement allows the visual neural network to “recognize” the similarity of samples during optimization. By defining the similarity, we can guide the network to bring samples closer or move them farther apart based on certain morphological indicators. Three Chinese cities were used for our testing. Representative urban types were identified, particularly some types located at the urban fringe. The data analysis demonstrated the effectiveness of our image deformation pipeline and loss function, and the sociological analysis illustrated the unique urban functions of these urban types. Full article

Chinese urban planning has a millenary history. According to the ancient classic texts, it was based on principles related to the cosmic order as well as on traditional ideas related to the feng shui doctrines. The problem of understanding the extent to which such ideas were put into practice is still open, partially due to the overwhelming number of cities founded or re-founded in the more than 2100 years of Chinese imperial history. In the present work, a new, comprehensive analysis of this issue is presented, with a focus on the Ming period. We construct a database which includes 238 towns—virtually all the cities founded or re-founded by the Ming dynasty—using tools based on satellite imagery to investigate orientations and relationships with natural features, and historical paleomagnetic models to investigate magnetic orientation. The results show the existence of three main “families” of towns, of which one strictly adheres to “cosmic” principles, while the other two are mainly connected to the environment. Magnetic orientation turns out, instead, to be related to the imperial capitals only. Full article

Eliminating poverty and achieving social justice are global concerns. China has focused on common prosperity. Comprehensive land consolidation is a potential policy tool that can contribute to common prosperity, but its effectiveness and implementation methods are yet to be verified and discussed. Therefore, we construct an analytical framework to understand how comprehensive land consolidation promotes common prosperity. The pilot area for comprehensive land consolidation in Ningbo City is used as a qualitative case study. The research results indicate that comprehensive land consolidation focuses on development and sharing to promote high-quality socio-economic development, social fairness, and justice. The paths for achieving development included the following: (1) a network governance structure consisting of multiple entities to enhance land governance; (2) various consolidation activities were conducted at the town scale to optimize the functionality and spatial pattern of public spaces; and (3) enabling the flow of urban and rural factors for improved resource allocation efficiency and providing an impetus for industrial development. The paths for achieving sharing included clarifying collective land ownership and promoting land transactions to provide diverse land values and ensure a shared distribution. This research provides new insights applicable to other Chinese cities and numerous developing countries engaged in land consolidation to address social distribution issues. Full article

All-for-one tourism is a new planning concept proposed by Chinese tourism scholars and practitioners, which has been formally regarded as a new tourism model to develop the country’s tourism industries since 2016. It aims to stimulate the growth of the tourism industries across the entire region, encompassing all tourism and tourism-related resources at a destination. Hengdian Town is a tourism destination in China that has implemented the model of all-for-one tourism to develop and manage its film-related tourism. Based on the data collected from ethnographic methods (participant observations and individual interviews) in Hengdian Town, this paper examines the ways that the destination manages its film-related tourism, as well as the outcomes of such approaches, by applying the model of all-for-one tourism. The findings reveal that Hengdian Town has leveraged the model to manage its tourism resources and provided tourists with a comprehensive travel experience. This paper also explores the benefits and drawbacks of managing film-related tourism in the all-for-one tourism model. By focusing on film-related tourism, this study provides a unique perspective on the all-for-one tourism model. Full article

The characteristic town (CT, or Te Se Xiao Zhen in Chinese) program is among the most important drivers of China’s new urbanization. However, the program aroused countrywide concerns about its rapid elevation, excessive real estate construction, high investment risk, and severe construction homogenization. Despite the policy’s rapid dissemination, there needs to be a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the local government to evaluate CT candidates to ensure the feasibility and sustainability of this novel urbanization practice. Moreover, simply employing traditional evaluation techniques, such as TOPSIS or analytical hierarchical process, may overwhelmingly stress inherited advantages of existing towns and easily overlook the potential candidates in the policy’s early implementation. Thus, the current study employs a novel advantage-oriented competitive evaluation (ACE) approach, which values the comparative advantages of the evaluated objects, to rate the performance of fifteen information technology characteristic towns (ITCTs) comprehensively. The presented work constructs a three-level performance index system based on public statistics, comprehensively evaluates the ITCTs’ performance, and reveals each CT’s unique advantages. The analysis and discussion disclose the evaluated ITCTs’ development status, highlighting the blooming development against public concerns and the ITCTs’ clustering based on unique comparative advantages. The evaluation results also verify that the ACE is an excellent comprehensive evaluation approach that can reveal an object’s comparative advantages from varying facets and depths. Finally, this work briefly concludes the emerging issues of ITCTs’ construction, the limitations of ACE evaluation, and suggestions for future research. Full article

It is widely accepted that permeability is a key attribute for sustainable development, but two puzzles remain unsolved. First, there is no consensus on its measurement. Second, there are still many new urban developments that lack this quality; regardless, it is a well-known urban design principle. This paper reviews different permeability measurements and proposes to categorize them into four quadrants, then compares eleven of them with four sets of abstract forms and four real cases from Southeast China. The two measures rooted in space syntax theory demonstrate their robustness in the abstract forms. In contrast, the area-based measures cannot quantify the differences between places with similar content. In the actual case studies, by comparing the differences between original plans and the real built forms, we suggest that three traps impair their permeability and therefore deviate greatly from the initial design visions, resulting in automobile-oriented travel patterns. The two new measures were used to quantify the different levels of permeability in these four cases. It is concluded that the qualitative urban design principles may fail to be delivered without a quantitative and precise description of urban form. Consistent measures and more empirical cases are needed to reveal the contribution of spatial networks to sustainable development. Full article

In urban development, balancing the ecological services of park green space with residents’ daily life and recreational needs, achieving sustainable development is an important issue in urban construction. The satellite cities of megacities have large development potential and are suitable research objects. This paper takes the Daxing District of Beijing as the research target and measures the integrated level of supply and demand by selecting unique evaluation indicators by integrating various dimensions and using the improved coupled coordination model and indicators with an expanded selection range at the smallest administrative unit of Chinese community unit scale innovatively. The study shows that: (1) The spatial heterogeneity between the supply and demand of parkland in 85 community units in Daxing New Town is obvious, the overall performance conforms with “demand exceeds supply”, and the supply and demand are generally positively correlated. (2) The correlation degree of the matched supply and demand is analyzed, and it is found that 55 community units show a mismatch between supply and demand and 53 community units have a low level of coordinated development. (3) The superposition analysis shows that the comprehensive level of supply and demand decreases from north to south and from the center to the surrounding area. (4) According to the Daxing New City Park Green Space Coupling Coordination Relationship and Policy Document, we divided the community units in Daxing New Town into six types, and provided differentiated development suggestions. The results of the study can help to guide the sustainable construction of Daxing New City and provide a basis for the future construction of satellite cities in other megacities. Full article

Building new industrial towns has become a popular strategy for the Chinese government, as part of its aim to disperse the population and create new concentrations of activity. However, relevant studies have shown that these development strategies often struggle to provide appropriate infrastructure and public services to residents. In this paper, we explore the case of Chenglingji new port area, which is an industrial new town in Yueyang City, Hunan Province. To understand the provision of public services in the area, we analyzed the construction of public service facilities using GIS software, while 939 questionnaires were distributed and collected from local residents and workers. The survey results confirm the low level of satisfaction with the livability of the area, and the lack and unevenness of public services to meet the needs of local residents and foreign workers. It further emphasizes that the provision of public services should be considered in the future planning of the Chenglingji new port area. We also provide some suggestions on the construction of industrial new towns of the same type as Chenglingji and other developing countries. Full article

Characteristic Chinese towns are “green ecology” innovation space units based on the background of the ‘Beautiful China Initiative’ (BCI), new urbanization, supply-side structural reform and the implementation of rural revitalization strategies. In this paper, spatial analysis models such as kernel density analysis, spatial autocorrelation analysis, the local correlation index and ArcGIS 10.5 are used to analyze the spatial layout and structural characteristics of the green development evolution of characteristic towns and to explore their spatial differentiation characteristics and laws, internal influencing factors and mechanisms. The analysis of the spatial distribution kernel density shows that regional economic development is an important influencing factor that affects the layout of the characteristic towns. Spatial autocorrelation analysis indicates that the spatial distribution of the characteristic towns does not have random distribution characteristics but is clustered in areas of similar scale. The results show the following: (1) The spatial layout of characteristic towns is generally a cohesive distribution with obvious agglomeration trends and differences, showing the characteristics of “dense in the southeast, sparse in the northwest” and “overall agglomeration, relying on economy, along the coast and along traffic arteries, spreading around cities, and differentiating by scenery”. (2) The high-density core area and sub-high-density area of characteristic towns are situated along the coast and along traffic arteries, are characterized by resource endowments and economic development, and are distributed along urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas. (3) The spatial pattern of green development evolution is organically coupled across three dimensions: location, industry and community. Our research results will help improve the level of green development in characteristic towns; coordinate the spatial layout of new urbanization; improve regional, high-quality, and coordinated development; and realize Chinese-style modernization for common prosperity. Full article

Since a solution towards carbon neutrality in already highly populated territories that does not profoundly alter the territories has not yet been found, territorial acupuncture, a new methodology presented in this paper, proposes a solution to this challenge and simultaneously helps to counter the dysfunctional dichotomy between large urban centres and small towns. The aim of this study is therefore to present this new concept and its operation. Hence, a phased study was carried out. Territorial acupuncture is the result of merging different theories and practices, such as Biourbanism, urban acupuncture, and energy community design. For Territorial Acupuncture, the territory is conceived as a single organism and, just like acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine, punctual interventions (in this case, interconnected energy communities) would benefit the entire territory organism. To make the theory work properly, it will be necessary to carry out multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary analyses over the entire territory to identify the intervention points and then proceed to the design and interconnection of the individual district. Thus, Territorial Acupuncture provides a new approach to the resilience of densely populated territories, which, through punctual interventions on a district scale, benefits the entire territory by modifying energy, socio-economic, and environmental dynamics. Full article

The suburbs around Shanghai have a complex river network and a unique Chinese water-town culture. The riparian landscape in the rural Qingxi area has important regional, ecological, and social significance; it serves as an important part of the local bioclimate, but the existing studies on river vegetation did not pay enough attention to the riparian landscape in the countryside around the metropolis. The goal of this study was to examine a comprehensive evaluation model for the river plant landscape in the countryside surrounding a high-density metropolis such as Shanghai in the face of the national policy of rural revitalization and the low-carbon development problem, and to propose optimization strategies accordingly. Therefore, in this study, we selected 91 rivers in the Qingxi area and investigated their plant communities. According to the characteristics of the riparian landscape and its relationship with the river environment and local bioclimate, we classified the 91 riparian landscapes into four types of quadrats: natural landscape, residential recreation, roadside linear landscape, and agricultural landscape. In addition, based on the 13 indicator layers under the categories of ecological carrying capacity, landscape beauty, and social service, we calculated the comprehensive evaluation value (CEV) and comprehensive evaluation index (CEI) of 91 river quadrants using specific formulas to scientifically evaluate the riparian landscape in the rural Qingxi area of Shanghai. Finally, based on the existing problems summarized through data analysis, the researchers proposed five optimization directions: (1) increasing vegetation diversity, (2) choosing native and culturally representative species, (3) improving waterfront planting design, (4) achieving ecological riverbank construction, and (5) building greenway systems and recreational spaces. This study proposed an innovative evaluation model for the riparian vegetation landscape and tested its feasibility by site survey, which provided new visions for future rural landscape research. Full article

The paper investigates China’s effort to create an eldercare market to shed light on how China’s economic reform entailed the creation of new institutions (e.g., eldercare market including eldercare labour market) and the reconfiguration of existing institutions (e.g., governance and regulation, the family, and the community). All this was needed for the market to flourish while maintaining and strengthening the regime. An urban eldercare market, including an eldercare labour market, was created by local governments (i.e., municipalities, districts, counties, and towns) with central government policy directives, in order to address China’s demographic aging and care crisis. However, once enough demand and supply were created, local governments turned to New Public Management (NPM) to operate publicly funded eldercare institutions. The paper argues that NPM has different rationalities in China than in liberal democracies; in China, they strengthen the Party and contribute to the durability of the authoritarian rule, rather than “shrink the state”. However, in China as in the West, bureaucratic logic hampers the implementation of NPM and the governance of the eldercare sector. The implication of bureaucratic logic driving the regulation of the eldercare sector is that care is not at the centre of eldercare. The paper also argues that the commodification and privatization of eldercare, in line with the global trend, was a deliberate government policy aimed at creating a positive condition for the market economy to flourish, but at the expense of social reproduction/care. Unlike many Western transitions to market provision, this one entailed the decline in the extended family as the main eldercare institution of the immediate past. However, the commodification and privatization of social reproduction have been incomplete and met with resistance, prompting the state to invest more in the sector to maintain social stability. Data for this paper derive from personal interviews with key informants and eldercare workers, official document analysis, and secondary literature analysis from Chinese scholars in mainland China. Full article

Following the detection of COVID-19 in cold chain aquatic products (CCAP) at Xinfadi Produce Wholesale Market in Beijing, China, in June 2020, novel coronavirus positive tests of CCAP have been reported in such markets of Dalian, Xi’an, Qingdao, Taiyuan, and other places, which has aroused the concern of Chinese consumers. The CCAP outbreak puts tremendous pressure on public health management and threatens customer well-being. This article uses the theoretical model of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate Chinese consumers’ purchasing intentions of CCAP under this circumstance. A total of 783 questionnaires were administered in China with empirical analysis through a structural equation model. The results show that attitudes (ATT) towards the safety of CCAP and subjective norms (SN) have significant positive effects on customers’ purchasing behavior intention (BI); the emotional response to the health concern (EM) of CCAP has a significant positive impact on SN, ATT, and BI; and BI of CCAP is significantly affected by individual characteristics. The BI of CCAP for those married consumers living in cities and towns with a low monthly consumption frequency is more likely to be affected by the new coronavirus epidemic events. This paper is one of the first studies that contribute to the literature by exploring the influencing factors of the consumption behavior intention over the COVID-19 pandemic in China from a public health perspective. The findings provide significant implications for cold chain operators, market managers, and policymakers to develop guidelines and offer a framework to initiate and support the produce market and boost consumer health confidence in CCAP at the practitioner level. Full article

The purpose of this research is to examine how the local community views the local school and higher education from the viewpoint of school leaders. Learning ‘using’ technologies has become a global phenomenon. The Internet is often seen as a value-neutral tool that potentially allows individuals to overcome the constraints of traditional elitist spaces and gain unhindered access to learning. Additionally, the study looks at the peculiarities of rural regions that are sparsely inhabited. The data came from a survey of 1270 Chinese school administrators. According to school leaders, local schools and higher education often score best in major cities and lowest in sparsely populated rural towns, revealing considerable disparities across the four categories of international urban regions. The articles also disclose certain information about sparsely populated rural places, such as a different sort of expectation of the local school, but also its worth, and establish a positive relationship between the school and the community. School staff have likewise expressed low expectations for the local school. These findings relate to continuing conversations in Asian nations about school leadership and education. The national governments and nongovernmental agencies who fund educational endeavors in developing countries have advocated the use of new technologies to reduce the cost of reaching and educating large numbers of children and adults who are currently missing out on education. This paper presents an overview of the educational developments in open, distance, and technology-facilitated learning that aim to reach the educationally deprived populations of the world. It reveals the challenges encountered by children and adults in developing countries as they attempt to access available educational opportunities. Full article

The “Belt and Road” has developed from a Chinese initiative to an international consensus, and Silk Road cities are becoming a strategic step for its high-quality development. From the perspective of industrialization, the “Belt and Road” can be regarded as a “spillover” effect of the industrialization process in China. With the spatial shift of Chinese industries along the “Belt and Road” and their clustering in Silk Road cities, the development and change of industrial land in Silk Road cities has become a new area of concern for governments and scholars. In this paper, the driving mechanism of industrial land change in 129 cities along the Silk Road in China is empirically studied by the GeoDetector method. The findings include: first, the development and changes of industrial land in Silk Road cities are significantly spatially heterogeneous, and the “Belt and Road” reshapes the town system and economic geography along the route by virtue of the differentiated configuration and changes of industrial land, changing the social, political, landscape and spatial relations in cities on the line. Second, the driving forces of industrial land change in Silk Road cities under the influence of the “Belt and Road Initiative” are increasingly diversified and differentiated, with significant two-factor enhancement and non-linear enhancement interaction between two driving factors, and growing complexity of the driving mechanisms, requiring policy makers to design policies based on key factors, comprehensive factors and their interaction. Third, the environmental effect of industrial land change is highly complex. The industrial land quantity has a direct impact on the ecological state parameter and plays a decisive role in the quality of the ecological environment and its changes in Silk Road cities. However, changes in the industrial land affect the ecological state change indirectly, mainly interacting with it through the coupling of pollutant and carbon dioxide emissions, energy use, ecological planning and landscape design and policy interventions. Finally, this study provides a new framework and method for Silk Road scholars to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of land use and coverage in cities along the “Belt and Road” and their influence mechanisms, and provides a basis for the government to make decisions on industrial land supply and layout planning and spatial governance policy design, which is of great theoretical significance and practical value. Full article