Resources Science ›› 2016, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (7): 1254-1265.doi: 10.18402/resci.2016.07.07

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The spatial resilience of prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2012

JIAO Limin(), DONG Ting, GU Yanyan   

  1. School of Resource and Environmental Sciences,Wuhan University,Wuhan 430079,China
  • Received:2015-11-24 Revised:2016-03-05 Online:2016-07-25 Published:2016-07-25

Abstract:

China is experiencing rapid urbanization and land urbanization and population urbanization have led to urban land sprawl and low-efficiency land use. Analysis of urban spatial resilience and regional differences is of significance for urban spatial planning in China. During urban development,changes in urban construction land area and population cause changes in urban population density over time,reflecting change in urban spatial resilience. We selected 263 cities at the prefecture level and above,and used total population at the year-end and urban construction land area to calculate population density,to calculate the rate of change in density using indicators rank scoring methods to determine urban spatial resilience indicators. We found that all cities can be divided into higher spatial resilience,high spatial resilience,medium spatial resilience,less spatial resilience and low spatial resilience using the natural breaks classification method. Urban spatial resilience decreases from east to west and the highest proportion of higher spatial resilience cities are in eastern China. In central China,high and medium spatial resilience cities are found at a higher proportion. In western China,cities of medium and lower spatial resilience are more common. Along with the urban development,China’s urban population density reduced but urban spatial resilience increased,particularly 2000 to 2006. From the five urban agglomerations in China it is clear that economically developed areas have higher spatial resilience,but the cores of urban agglomerations have medium or low spatial resilience. The application of urban spatial resilience analysis can assist in the design and definition of urban growth boundaries in China.

Key words: China, population density, spatial planning, spatial resilience, urban growth boundary