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    Jian FENG, Zhu YE
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    Most studies on China's urban transformation employ macro level socioeconomic and political analysis perspectives such as marketization, globalization, and decentralization. Based on the life course of a farmer-entrepreneur in Southern Jiangsu, this study discusses China's urban transformation at a micro level and the citizenization of famers in the transformation. Analyzing urban transformation with a life course approach not only links individuals' life events to changes in grand social history, but also manifests the interaction and maps relations between the history of individuals' lives and the economic and social development. The Southern Jiangsu area has experienced urban transformation since the 1980s. In the 1980s, urbanization of Southern Jiangsu was grounded in rural industrialization and town development, which was called the "urbanization from below." On the one hand, township enterprises had absorbed a large number of rural surplus labors and as a result, a great number of towns appeared. On the other hand, township enterprises provided funding for urban construction. But since the 1990s, Southern Jiangsu has undergone a rapid urbanization stimulated by development zones that attracted foreign investment and land finance. The governments' development strategy turned to development zone construction and land finance. Heavy intervention imposed on township enterprises by local governments hampered the development of those enterprises. Meanwhile, as a consequence of decentralization, institutional changes in the land market, and globalization, the local government of Southern Jiangsu can no longer rely on township enterprises and has to capitalize on the land to pursue the maximization of profit. From the micro level perspective, the transformation influences roles, events, and opportunities in individuals' life course. The farmer-entrepreneur in this study was a factory manager in a township enterprise at first, then he ran a private corporation, and finally, because of the construction of a development zone, he became a landless farmer. Through changes of his life course, we can understand his citizenization. In the township enterprise period, he obtained non-agricultural employment on his own initiative by working in a factory. Later, because of the hukou (population registration) reform and land acquisition and resettlement, he achieved the urbanization of identity, which was mainly promoted by the local government. Non-agricultural employment became the basis of urbanization of his identity, in the sense that it guaranteed his income after resettlement. This finding provides an enlightenment to "people-centered urbanization” advocated in the new urbanization.

  • Articles
    Yang WANG, Yuling ZHANG, Hong'ou ZHANG
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    Using a case study of central (Tianhe District) and suburban (Nansha District) Guangzhou City and the 2010 data on Chinese (Guangdong Province) household dynamic tracking survey data, and based on 13 indicators, including characteristics of the neighborhoods of household residences, construction characteristics, location characteristics, and household income, this study establishes an analytical model to map the relationship between household income and housing characteristics in Guangzhou City, as well as the direction of this relationship. On this basis, we use multiple-group pathway analysis to study the degree of influence and spatial variation of the location factor on income→housing characteristics. Finally, we use equations for variance and mean to analyze variations in housing characteristics at different locations (central city and suburb). Our results reveal the following: (1) Household income is a significant determinant of housing characteristics, but has no significant effect on neighborhood characteristics; (2) Location has a significant moderating effect on the income→neighborhood characteristics relationship, and a weak moderating effect on the income→housing characteristics” relationship; (3) Within the city center and suburban areas, household income significantly affects housing characteristics, though basically does not significantly affect neighborhood characteristics; (4) The beneficial effect of household income on several important housing characteristic indices such as convenience of public transportation, housing area, bathroom facility quality, number of houses, and comprehensive housing conditions, is greater in suburban areas than in the city center; (5) Neighborhood characteristics in the city center are noticeably better than suburban areas, but housing characteristics are noticeably poorer. These results show the switching of favorable neighborhood characteristics and housing characteristics at different locations in Guangzhou City.

  • Articles
    Jian FENG, Wensheng LIN
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    In the past decades the Chinese society and economy have experienced a great transformation. Residential differentiation is intensified and the new urban poverty phenomenon concentrates in specific population and space. Declining neighborhoods in old towns are one of the most representative areas of urban poverty. According to a survey conducted in six typical neighborhoods in the old town of Suzhou City, satisfaction level of the residents about the social environment is higher than the physical environment, and residential satisfaction level in the southern traditional city center communities is higher than that of the north. Higher residential satisfaction level can also be expected in communities with renovated housing and infrastructure but old residents than that without modification or experienced a destruction of the original stable social network contact. With a strong sense of loss and low residential satisfaction level, low-income local residents who are relatively deprived of in the rapid development process of the city are easier to involve in conflict with migrants. Residential satisfaction level is mainly determined by housing conditions, community environments, infrastructure and facilities, and social contact. The pattern of urban historical social space sets the foundation of the urban environment. Time since being built, maintenance, population density, and renewal opportunities affect the condition of specific community facilities. Population replacement caused by urban renewal, emigration or death of local residents, and migrant population will reduce residential satisfaction level and opportunities of poverty alleviation. High density of population makes neighborhood disputes more likely and the high homogeneity of the place is conducive to community harmony. Research on community scale residential satisfaction level and influencing factors of declining neighborhoods in old towns not only can help deepen the understanding of new urban poverty, but also benefits urban renewal process and poverty alleviation aimed at these areas.

  • Articles
    Kan ZHOU, Jie FAN, Hanchu LIU
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    A clear understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns and driving forces of water pollutant discharge has a crucial practical significance for regional joint reduction and prevention of water pollution. Based on the cross-section data of water pollutant discharge and socioeconomic parameters in 67 cities at the prefectural level or above, the spatiotemporal patterns and effects of spatial association of water pollution are quantitatively measured in the Bohai Rim region. Meanwhile, the socioeconomic drivers of water pollutant discharge are estimated by using the econometric model, and some suggestions for the reduction and control of regional water pollution are put forward. The results show that: (1) The Haihe River Basin is the largest and the most prominent watershed with regard to the total quantity and increment of water pollutants in the Bohai Rim Region. Its COD and NH3-N discharges accounted for 38.94% and 39.23% of the regional total discharges, respectively. (2) The spatial pattern of high water pollutant discharge areas has changed greatly, from scattered to continuous distribution since 2005. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Central and Southern Liaoning region, and the Shandong Peninsula region become the superimposed areas of high discharge zone of COD and NH3-N. (3) Discharges of water pollutants have significant spatial association effects in the Bohai Rim region, and the significance of water pollutant discharge presents a general decreasing trend from the coastal area to inland areas. Moreover, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has been situated in the hotspots for a long period, and the coverage of hotspot and sub-hotspot areas has expanded continuously from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to the Haihe River and Huaihe River Basin since 2012. (4) By means of an ordinary least squares (OLS) model estimation, it is demonstrated that there are significant differences in the driving forces of water pollutant discharges. Economic growth rate and fixed asset investment show marked positive correlation with COD discharge, and the level of urbanization and industrialization act as a disincentive to COD discharge. Population size is the primary driving factor of NH3-N discharge in the Bohai Rim region, and fixed asset investment and foreign direct investment also show marked positive correlation with NH3-N discharge. There is an appreciable association of high capital investment and high water pollutant discharge in the Bohai Rim region. But high economic development level depresses the discharge of water pollutant, especially in the accumulation zone of high intensity discharge.

  • Articles
    Renwei HE, Guangqin LI, Yunwei LIU, Lina LI, Fang FANG
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    Targeted poverty alleviation refers to focusing on the poor in anti-poverty programs and enhancing the ability of those who desire to fight against poverty. Sustainable livelihoods framework facilitates exploring the influencing factors and formation of poverty, which is useful in standardized and systematic research on precision poverty alleviation. Based on this framework, our study sets up an analytical framework to divide precision poverty alleviation into four stages and five links in order to assist the poor to reduce poverty; it also discusses the basic components of multidimensional poverty identification index (MPII) from the perspective of internal and external causes of difficulties in farmers' livelihood. Taking Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province as the example, we establish a unique MPII index system. A total of 420 households are identified as impoverished families. About 80% of the designated poor households (who are registered at the government office) overlap with the identified families; and the identified poor households are the poorest among those who have been registered, both in individual dimensions and the integrated dimension, so the identification is more accurate. The poor households can be divided into five types: lack of human capitals, lack of primary capitals, lack of social capitals, lack of multidimensional capitals, and living in severe environmental condition. Corresponding measures have been proposed in accordance with the causes of poverty conditions.

  • Reviews
  • Reviews
    Jun SUN, Maolin TANG, Tingting ZHANG
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    The survey of the trajectory of Chinese human geography in recent documentation was mainly abstracted from the published journal articles, and confined to the past three decades. Based on the data of book publication since 1912, however, this paper extended the time quantum, and finds that: (1) the research period could be divided into three phases according the total publication number, 1912-1940 (traditional fields slow-growth), 1941-1980 (few publication, and no new fields), 1981-2015 (increase rapidly, and new fields promoted the growth of publication number); (2) to the time stability among different fields, political geography was the most stable one, while the others expressed evident fluctuation; (3) the periodical characters could be expressed as “basis in advance, society influence latish, and applying promoting finally,” “basis in advance” means books on historical, methodological, theoretical, and philosophical issues were published primarily at the first stage, and then kept a certain percentage, “society influence latish” means the social factors had an evident impact on the quantity and quality of publication increasingly, “applying promoting finally” indicates the growth of publication was driven by applied research more and more; (4) growing steadily since 1981, and historical geography, cultural geography, tourism geography and GIS played an important role in publishing and promoting the formation of new cross-disciplinary fields, ethnical geography and frontier geography, however, was delayed; (5) currently, the publication of different fields of human geography in China is unbalanced. According to these trajectories, the paper concludes that: (1) as a typical cross-discipline, different fields in Chinese human geography have different tendencies to natural science, social science and humanities, this orientation is beneficial to enhance Chinese human geography’s role to sciences and humanities; (2) the development of Chinese human geography was deeply affected by social facts, and Chinese geographers have paid more and more attention to applied research, with some fields weakened, and Chinese geographers should pay closer attention to coordinate the proportionality among different fields of Chinese human geography in the future.

  • Reviews
    Fuyuan WANG, Kaiyong WANG, Tian CHEN, Ping LI
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    Urban ecological space is a main part of urban space, which is the interdisciplinary research topic in the urban planning, ecology and geography domain. Based on the analysis of literature related to urban ecological space(UES) home and abroad, the paper defined the urban ecological space and summarized the advance and limitations of domestic studies, pointed out that the foreign studies made important progresses in the effects of UES on residents' well-being and its mechanism, the UES perception, use behaviors and its influencing factors, economic and socio-cultural impacts of UES, UES governance methods and principles, UES pattern and optimization guided by social justice concept. In addition, humanistic approaches were applied widely. Accordingly, the paper proposed that future researches should focus on residents' well-being and pay more attention to social-ecological interaction and its mechanism, and the governance of public available UES, promote UES pattern and planning research guided by the concept of justice. At the same time, the application of multidisciplinary cross methods (such as humanism and behaviorism methods) should be strengthened.

  • Reviews
    Yanhua HE, Min LI, Jinyou BIN, Guohua ZHOU, Chengli TANG
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    Spatial organization of urban-rural integration is the key to the understanding of urban- rural integration process and mechanism. In recent years, there were more research on urban-rural integration and spatial organization in China, but few focused on spatial organization of urban and rural integration. This paper analyzed the hot field of urban-rural integration and spatial organization in the last ten years by using CitespaceV. And Urban-rural spatial correlation and regional differences, evolution of urban-rural spatial form and structure, urban-rural interaction mechanism and elements flow, pattern and optimization path of urban-rural spatial organization, closely related to spatial organization of urban-rural integration, were reviewed. Based on the analysis of the contribution, deficiency and main trend on these studies, some directions of future research in spatial organization of urban-rural integration were put forward from the contents, perspectives, methods and areas of research. The research showed we should take more attention to the new urbanization, migrant workers, the equalization of public services, new rural construction, rural reform, information technology and other new factors. And it is important to interdisciplinary research on the connotation, characteristics, evolution, influencing factors, operation mechanism, effect evaluation, development model and other aspects of the spatial organization of urban-rural integration.

  • Reviews
    Xiaoyue WANG, Shuangcheng LI
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    Due to the dynamic, interactive, and coupling relationship between urbanization and the ecological environment in urban areas, the study of urban problem in megacities is becoming increasingly complex and has become a hotspot area of research in China and internationally. A comprehensive understanding of the complex interaction between urbanization and the ecological environment is beneficial for revealing the mechanism and developing methods and techniques of diagnostic analysis and risk prediction of urban problems in megacity regions. Focusing on the questions of causes-diagnosis-risk prediction of urban problems, this article reviewed the progress of studies on diagnostic analysis and risk prediction of urban problems from multidimensional perspectives and identified the research trend. First, we summarized the causes of urban problems from three theoretical perspectives, including the coupling and coercing mechanism between urbanization and eco-environment, urban metabolism disorder, and loss of ecosystem services. Then, we reviewed the two approaches of urban problem diagnosis: assessment of urban health by index; and measurement of urban metabolism by ecological thermodynamic indicators. Third, we reviewed the research on risk prediction of urban problems from single risks and comprehensive risk. Finally, we identified several key issues and potential research directions based on the existing studies. Further study should be improved with regard to data acquisition and model simulation in order to study urban or urban agglomeration problems comprehensively. Such research will facilitate comprehensive geographic study and provide an important practical method for the study of human-environment relationship.

  • Reviews
    Lianlian XIAO, Linsheng ZHONG, Rui ZHOU, Hu YU
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    Research on national parks has been a focus in ecological protection and tourism fields. Based on 451 English-language academic publications (1986-2016) collected from the Web of Science database, this article synthesizes the multiple aspects of research on national parks with regard to resource assessment, environmental impact, planning, and management, and identifies research methods in national park studies. Citespace III and systematic review methods are employed to compile and analyze the literature in the database. This article also critically proposes five directions for future research in China, including legislation, development models, management content and methods, community participation models and mechanism, and environmental impact monitoring and assessment of national parks. In general, characteristics of international research on national parks involve complicated objectives, diverse perspectives, and comprehensive methods. In the context of national park construction in China, developing a research system of national parks based on international experiences will contribute to enriching the research on China’s protected areas and providing guidance for Chinese national park construction.

  • Reviews
    Ning LI, Zhengtao ZHANG, Xi CHEN, Jieling FENG
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    This article comprehensively analyzes the current thinking about disaster economic losses in China and internationally, the importance of loss evaluation in disaster management, and issues in the assessment of direct and indirect losses caused by natural hazards and disasters. It examines the progress of research in China on disaster impact evaluation methods and the current requirements of disaster management on loss evaluation. The article expounds the importance of understanding the economic losses of natural hazards and disasters, distinguishes the difference between total losses and direct loss, and demonstrates the necessity and feasibility of indirect loss evaluation of disasters. The results show that both direct and indirect loss assessments are important, and loss evaluation results based on sound assessment methods are urgently needed for disaster prevention and mitigation. Economic loss evaluations are also beneficial for measuring the effect of disaster management for improved disaster prevention and mitigation. Integration of disaster science and economics is an effective way to improve disaster economic loss evaluation.