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Digital economy has been given a critical mission and momentum to promote high-quality integrated development in the Yangtze River Delta of China. Based on previous research on the spatial distribution of the digital economy and urban networks, this paper creatively utilized the data on human resource needs in the digital economy to compare the urban network. Using Kriging interpolation, network density, clique analysis, GIS technology, and other tools and methods, the evolution of network characteristics and the structure of digital economy companies in the Yangtze River Delta were described. The study found that (1) the digital economy of the Yangtze River Delta cities has developed rapidly, but the industry segmentation, spatial distribution, and scale are not balanced; (2) the networked pattern of the digital economy has taken shape, and the collaborative governance effect of the digital economy network based on the human resource supply chain and the urban network is beginning obviously; and (3) the core cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou still occupy a dominant position in the digital economy, although there have been formed several cliques, most cities in the network have not yet been able to form subclusters independently. The urban agglomeration spatial structure attracts scholars, urban managers, and policymakers. Many scholars have researched the network structure of urban agglomerations from transportation and population flow perspectives. It is a new attempt to analyze the urban system through the spatial relationship of human resource demand. In recent years, as a new development content, the digital economy has attracted the attention of urban managers and markets around the world. From the perspective of urban planning, describing the network distribution of digital economy enterprises' human resource needs in the urban agglomeration space is conducive to better grasping the structural characteristics of China's Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration and understanding the urban system within the urban agglomeration. At the same time, it also provides a basis for the organization and resource allocation of the digital economy in space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Place Theory has been proposed for a long time, but it is rarely applied in empirical research or planning practices on retail center systems in the real world primarily attributable to the complexities that are too difficult for the theory to capture and replicate in efficient ways. This paper proposes an agent-based simulation system which can derive spatial distributions of multilevel retail centers by simulating the interactions between retail centers and consumers. In the simulation, the retail centers can grow, recess, and adjust locations according to the revenues; the consumers generate different levels of shopping demands and choose retail centers according to spatial distance. By recursively simulating the interactions, equilibrium is reached with the distribution of emerging retail centers. The system is validated by examining the simulated retail center systems under five hypothetical but typical scenarios of consumer spatial distribution. It is also applied in modeling the retail center system of Shanghai in the 2000s. The results show a face validity of the simulation system as a potential tool for real-world planning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experienced an unprecedented level of farmland conversion for urban development despite the fact that farmland remains a highly scarce and valuable resource in this densely populated country. The causes of this presumably unreasonable phenomenon are examined from the perspective of competing claims for farmland conversion in Shanghai. The reasons behind such excessive farmland conversion for urban development in transitional China are generalized as follows: (1) the present urban-rural dualistic structure influences farmers to pursue economic rather than agricultural claims, (2) local governments with economic claims exercise strong incentives and power in converting farmland for urban purposes, (3) local governments largely undermine the enforcement of the central government's policies (which upholds agricultural claims), (4) other groups with noneconomic claims are excluded from the farmland conversion process, and (5) the village cadres and role model campaigns effectively reduce the conflict between farmers and local governments regarding the amount of compensation. Based on these findings, policy suggestions for farmland preservation are presented at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To advance public transportation development, it should be explored from the perspective of behavioral analysis. This paper adopts the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to study public transportation choice behaviors. The first aim is to explore the necessity of dividing subjective norms into an injunctive norm and a descriptive norm and to explore their roles in predicting behaviors. The second aim is to investigate the mechanism related to several key variables and their role in forming the intention to take transit. The third aim is to develop appropriate improvement strategies through the analysis of behavior, subjective norms, or perceived control beliefs. Empirical data were collected by distributing online and hard-copy questionnaires in Shanghai, China. A sample of 393 valid questionnaires was collected. An ordinal regression model was constructed based on the empirical data. The results reveal that TPB can be applied to explain choice behaviors with respect to public transport. Among the factors affecting travelers' intentions, attitude toward public transport is most decisive. Descriptive norms seem to have more direct effects on public transport use behaviors on the basis of the correlation coefficients. Injunctive norms, at least in this case, have a more obvious influence on travelers' intention to take public transport than do descriptive norms. Furthermore, on the basis of belief analysis, some critical approaches to improving the competitiveness of Shanghai public transportation are proposed that can be used to develop people-oriented public transportation policies and strategies in other similar cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, macro- and mesoresearches on urban morphology have started, but microscopic morphology of development zones is still a neglected area. In this paper, the GIS spatial analysis method is used to undertake empirical research to reveal the relationship between the morphological characteristics of development zones, land-use intensity, and industrial concentration. The aim is to provide a reference for development zone planning, construction, operation, and management. Results of this study reveal the following: (1) spatial distribution of industrial land in Shanghai is obviously clustered around the Big Hongqiao region; (2) although only one-third of development zones are above the average level of the whole city in land-use intensity, the disparity among development zones is still marked, especially between national-level and municipal-level development zones; (3) compactness and radial index have a strong positive correlation with the land development ratio, but local integration has a negative correlation with the index of land use intensity; (4) an incongruous trend exists between industrial concentration and the compact construction of development zones; and (5) transport accessibility is not a major factor impacting the industrial concentration of development zones in Shanghai, but a high degree of leading industrial concentration appears in those development zones with clear functional positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The community question, referring to the transformation of social networks when rural residents move into urban areas, has been extensively debated by urbanists and sociologists in Western countries. This paper, focusing on the urbanization of rural villages caused by urban expansion and land requisition, examines the community question in the context of transitional China. It aims to investigate whether the unique institutional settings in China will lead to a different answer to the community question. Compared with the existing studies, there are two improvements in the design of this research, which include: (1) adding a middle stage to divide the urbanization process into the three stages of rural village, semiurbanization village, and urban resettlement housing district, thereby identifying and comparing the status of personal social ties at each stage of the state-led urbanization process; and (2) controlling the features of sampled villages and characteristics of respondents that may affect social life patterns, therefore understanding the exact effects of urbanization on neighborhood social life. This study found that (1) the conventional community- lost argument finds support in transitional China with state-led urbanization; (2) the decline of social ties is nonlinear during the urbanization process, which is different from the common statement of linear transformation in the literature. Instead, the decline reaches the lowest point at the stage of semiurbanized village; and (3) the structure of personal networks also changes along with the process of community lost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical patterns and driving forces of land-use change were investigated in Shanghai under the background of drastic socioeconomic transition in China. Differing from the previous researches, this paper highlights the investigation of not only the socioeconomic factors driving urban area growth, but also the physical elements affecting urban land’s spatial distribution through remote sensing and multivariable regression methods. The results indicate that land-use changes have been occurring at an accelerating pace in Shanghai over the past two decades, and are characterized by a massive increase of urban land and a loss of croplands. The growth in urban land use has primarily been driven by population, economy, and transportation, and its spatial distribution has mainly been influenced by accessibility to the transport network and the city center, together with the constraints of existing land-use patterns. The implications for policy are that improvements are needed in the efficient use of resources and the layout of a more adequate transport network; simple restrictions on the migration to cities are not a long-term solution. The conservation and exploitation of agricultural land, as well as the promotion of urban green spaces, are also crucial instruments for sustainable city development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of former industrial areas is important to urban redevelopment, although such activity is often limited by possible on-site pollution, complicated ownership, and legal constraints. Rather than treating these areas as a problem, many cities recognize the advantages of redeveloping them because of their often central locations. Some are transformed through a temporary city event with the participation and support of external organizations and planned as a part of the urban development. This paper is an in-depth case study on the planning perspectives of Expo 2010, Shanghai, China, a regeneration project on a former industrial site. By scrutinizing the case with the details based on compiling information, contextualizing the project, and comparing the expectation and reality during the preevent, event phase, and postevent phase of the project, it is found that (1) governmental participation plays a key role in the transformation of former industrial area with city event, especially on the site where it has not completely finished its industrial activities; (2) the main motivation and significance of regenerating the former industrial area is to boost city redevelopment in the long term; and (3) a successful transformation is determined by not only the first stage from preevent to event phase but also the second stage from event to postevent phase. All these features provide a deep insight into the redevelopment of a former industrial area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]