This book answers the call for New
Urbanization, and proposes
a “5+9+6” national
spatial layout plan for the urbanization
of the 770 major cities in China. This macro pattern is based on a few
major metropolises at the center, and other cities supporting and benefitting from these
metropolises to form a pyramid-like urban hierarchical system. The book also presents a comprehensive
regionalization plan for China’s New Urbanization and strategic approaches to improving the quality of this
New Urbanization.
Currently, China is aggressively promoting a so-called New Urbanization, which has been regarded as one of the primary
ways to build a moderately prosperous society, to address critical issues
related to agriculture,
rural regions and farmers, to expand domestic demand and promote industrial innovation, and to realize the China Dream.
From a systematic perspective and using recently released urban data, the
authors analyze the current status of New Urbanization in China and also investigate
the various potential problems and obstacles to its concrete implementation. Based on the analyses
and investigations, the authors propose strategic directions, paths and basic
principles for China’s New Urbanization. In addition, they clearly identify the three different
modes of New Urbanization, namely, the general mode, differentiated mode, and gradual mode.
Today, many scholars argue that China’s urban regions are
experiencing a highly unsustainable mode of development. Chinese cities are
heavily burdened by the
so-called “urban diseases,”
which are characterized e.g.
by congested traffic, polluted water and air, and a lack of open and green spaces. Traditional
urbanization, which primarily focuses
on economic development, must
be fundamentally reformed. New Urbanization, which focuses on integrated economic development,
social integration and space/environmental sustainability, or simply put, on the quality of
urbanization, has been called for to provide a potential “cure” for these urban diseases. Due to the vastness of China’s
population and its rapidly growing economic, political and cultural relationships
with the rest of the world,
the book demonstrates that
the success of this New Urbanization is critical not only to the future of urban China,
but also the future of urbanization worldwide.
The
book offers a valuable reference
work for all researchers, graduate student and policy makers interested
in China’s urban development.
Author Biography:
Dr. Chuanglin Fang obtained his Ph.D. in Geography in 1998 from the
Institute of Geography at the Chinese Academy of Sciences-National Planning
Committee. Dr. Fang is a professor of the Institute of Geographic Science and
Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also a Distinguished
Professor of “Changjiang Scholars” and “Tianshan Scholars” and a doctoral
faculty. Dr. Fang is currently a member of the International Society of City
and Regional Planners, executive council member of the Regional Science Association
(RSA) China Division, director of the Human Geography Specialty Committee of
the Chinese Geographic Society, Vice President of the Chinese Urban and Rural
Development Think Tank Association, executive council member of the Chinese
Urban Science Association, executive council member of Chinese Urban Economics
Studies, council member of Chinese Urban Planning Association, council member
of China’s Urbanization Promotion Association, and council memberof the
China’s Geographic Society. In recent years, Dr. Fang has mainly engaged in the
research and teaching of urban geography, sustainable development of urban
agglomerations, the process of urbanization and its impact on the
eco-environments. Dr. Fang has served and is still serving as the principal
investigator of over 120 various projects funded by the Chinese National
Natural Science Foundation (Key Projects), Chinese National Social Science
Foundation (Key Projects), and the Chinese National “973” Projects, among many
others. Dr. Fang is a very prolific scholar with a publication record of over
20 edited manuscripts or monographs, and over 330 peer-reviewed journal
articles (among them, 50 are published in journals that are indexed in
SCI/SSCI).
Dr. Danlin Yu obtained his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of
Wis-consin-Milwaukee in 2005. He is currently a tenured Associate Professor of
Urban Geography and GIS at Montclair State University. Dr. Yu’smain research
areas include urban and regional development planning, spatial data analysis,
geographic information science and technology, geocomputation, simulation of
complex systems, big data mining and analysis and its application in human and
natural systems. So far, Dr. Yu has published more than 60 journal
articles/book chapters in these areas in both Chinese and English, among them,
more than 40 papers are published in SCI / SSCI indexed journals. Dr. Yu’s
research in these areas has gained domestic and international influences. Dr.
Yu has been actively using R language to write freely available spatial data
analysis software packages. He is one of the co-authors of the SPGWR package
that is for Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis. The package has
already received a wide range of applications in the world. Since 2008, Dr. Yu
was invited by the Georgia National Science Foundation as international
evaluation experts. Dr. Yu currently serves as an Associate Editor for the
Journal of Urban Planning and Development since 2012. From 2013 onwards, Dr. Yu
was awarded the “Tianshan Scholar” title by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region, and housed in Xinjiang University.
