城市地理学是研究在不同地理环境下,城市形成发展、组合分布和空间结构变化规律的科学,既是人文地理学的重要分支,又是城市科学群的重要组成部分.中国城市化的加速发展为中国城市地理学乃至世界城市地理学的发展提供了直接的营养.回顾过去几年中国城市地理学的发展,归纳起来呈现如下几方面的特点:中国城市地理学研究与国家经济建设的热点总体同步;在城市化、城市群/圈等领域积极参与国家战略和城市建设实践;强调定量和计量手段的科学研究悄然成为潮流;积极开辟和强化中国城市地理学研究的新基地、新力量;以更开放、更创新的视野,积极开创前沿性、战略性的新研究领域;推出年青人等计划初现成效.与国外相比,中国城市地理学在城市化和城市体系研究方面已形成自己的独特理论,并具有高度的实践性,中国城市地理学更好地实现了从知识生产到知识应用、反馈、知识再生产的良性循环.展望城市地理学的学科发展趋势,中国城市地理学在城市化加速的今天,认识城市、改造城市的道路仍任重而道远.为此我们一方面需要面向城市化背景,进行中国城市地理学理论和实践的战略思考,缩短中国城市地理学与主流的城市地理学的距离,通过大人文与大科学交融进行城市地理学方法论的建立和完善、国际视野和地方行动;另一方面需要面向国家“十二五”等近期发展目标和重点,积极的设计和执行中国城市地理学近期行动计划.

Urban geography is a major branch of numan geography, and is also important for urban studies. In China, the progress of urban feography is closely related to the rapid urbanization process. Generally, urban geography in China has the following features during the past few years. Firstly, the major topics mainly focused on the research of urbanization, urban systems or urban agglomerations, which played important roles for the national development in the social and economic fields. During this period, urban geographers took active part in the strategic decisions for the governments and also for the construction of cities or city-regions. For this, quantitative methods are often adopted. At the same time, new forces or persons are united together worldwide, and new fields of study broadened from the current demands of the society to the long-term need of human beings. Compared with foreign countries, the discipline of urban geography in China has already had its systematic theory such as those associated to urbanization and urban system issues, and most importantly, they are highly practical. In the future, on the one hand, urban geographers in China should continue their theoretical and practical exploration under the long-run urbanization context; on the other hand, they should do more for the current need of urban development.