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The recent economic advances made by China have now obliged the country to address the need for sustainable urban redevelopment. Unlike other recently developed areas in China, urban villages are in dire need of improvement. Consequently, the redevelopment of urban villages has garnered considerable public and academic interest. However, a comprehensive understanding is lacking on the drivers of urban village redevelopment in China. This study aims to fill this gap through a comprehensive survey of existing literature on redevelopment of urban villages. A total of 167 papers have been retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. A bibliometric analysis and a critical content analysis are conducted on the bases of these papers. We found at least three main processes which have driven urban village redevelopment in China. First, the growth of urban population and their income level has created a strong emerging demand to improve urban living conditions, which has triggered the restructuring of urban villages with sub-standard built environment into high-quality urban spaces. Second, from the production side, the market-oriented land reforms and the developers' pursuit of land-related investment returns from land rent gap is also a strong driving force for demolition and redevelopment of urban villages. Lastly, the states and local governments have played a critical role in promoting urban village redevelopment and integrating informal urban spaces into formal urban areas. This research concludes with an evaluation of current studies on urban village redevelopment and provides suggestions for further research in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With globalization and informatization, cross-border areas have become increasingly critical interactive spaces, experiencing rapid development and extensive changes in residents' cross-border travel, constantly changing the spatial patterns of neighboring cities. However, existing studies lack in-depth discussions of the new spatiotemporal characteristics of human activities, spatial pattern evolution, and the driving factors behind them. Therefore, taking the Guangzhou-Foshan metropolitan area as a case, this paper focus on the analysis of the cross-city travel of residents in these border areas in 2019, and investigated the evolution of spatial patterns and the driving forces in the border area during 1985–2020. We found that, instead of the previous one-way attraction pattern caused by the spread of residence, a large number of cross-city trips for leisure and entertainment purposes emerged, and the one-way unbalanced flow, "Foshan to Guangzhou", changed to two-way circulation. We also explore the scenario in which the travel behavior of urban dwellers in these two cities considerably interacts with the effect of urban structure to produce the observed mobility patterns. Second, we determined the spatial pattern of the Guangzhou-Foshan region from 1985 to 2020 to be on of spreading expansion, with Liwan District as the central core, connecting to several sub-centers. The cross-border area in the Guangzhou-Foshan region represented a compact, extremely high degree of integration and a well-matched functional space. Third, driven by the forces stemming from the planning guidelines and the improving transportation network construction in the border area, the growth points of the two cities continued to expand toward the borderline regarding integrated development, while the growth axis was mainly in the direction of the city border, urban arterial roads, and subway lines. We concluded with development suggestions for increasing travel interactions and optimizing spatial patterns to build a common vision of the whole Guangzhou-Foshan pattern of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has witnessed 556 million people migrating to urban areas over the past three decades with the process of urbanization, which has brought enormous pressure on electricity consumption and urban sustainable development. This paper establishes the generalized Divisia Index Decomposition Method (GDIM) model, and aims to reveal the electricity consumption mechanism of urban residents in China between 2000 and 2018. The results show that residential income, per capita electricity consumption and residential appliances are the main driving factors for the growth of urban residential electricity consumption, while the energy-saving willingness and expenditure structure have the inhibiting effect. With the expansion of urban residential income, the increase in income and air-conditioning numbers will continue to promote the growth of urban residential electricity consumption. Then, this paper puts forward relevant suggestions to alleviate the pressure of electricity demand and sustainable development from urban residents in China. [Display omitted] • The growth of power consumption in residential sector mainly comes from urban areas. • Establish GDIM model to decompose urban residential electricity consumption in China • Income has the greatest driving effect on urban residential electricity consumption. • Air-conditioning is the main source of the effect of household appliances. • Energy-saving willingness inhibits urban residential electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese development priorities have, since 2012, been formally framed under the slogan "Ecological Civilization" (EC). Simultaneously, urban agriculture (UA) has emerged as a potential strategy to contribute to urban food security in China, in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we interrogate EC as an approach to urban and agricultural development in China and explore how EC manifests in practical terms, through a case study of urban agriculture. Over four months, we conducted on-site interviews and surveys with UA practitioners in four Chinese cities to understand how their experiences are negotiated with the state, in the context of EC. We find through our case study that capital-intensive and peri-urban approaches to UA are favoured in the context of EC, while small-scale intra-urban initiatives are actively discouraged in policy but passively accepted in practice and enforcement. This is despite all forms of UA promoting key goals for EC, including beautifying urban areas, increasing the quality of life for urban residents, and reconnecting individuals with food growing culture. Despite novel developments in innovative agricultural practices in both rural and urban contexts, the EC pathway risks overlooking grassroots initiatives and meeting local residents' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, cities meet numerous sustainable development challenges in facing growing urban populations and expanding urban areas. The monitoring and simulation of land use and land-cover change have become essential tools for understanding and managing urbanization. This paper interprets and predicts the expansion of seven different land use types in the study area, using the PLUS model, which combines the Land use Expansion Analysis Strategy (LEAS) and the CA model, based on the multi-class random patch seed (CARS) model. By choosing a variety of driving factors, the PLUS model simulates urban expansion in the metropolitan area of Hangzhou. The accuracy of the simulation, manifested as the kappa coefficient of urban land, increased to more than 84%, and the kappa coefficient of other land use types was more than 90%. To a certain extent, the PLUS model used in this study solves the CA model's deficiencies in conversion rule mining strategy and landscape dynamic change simulation strategy. The results show that various types of land use changes obtained using this method have a high degree of accuracy and can be used to simulate urban expansion, especially over short periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future of cities in China is becoming increasingly important, not just within China but globally. China's urban population has grown from about 200 million in 1980 to about 800 million or 59% in 2018: that is about twice the total population of the USA and 1.5 times the total population of the EU. China has over 100 cities with over a million people. There are also more and more papers being written about urbanisation in China. However, urban development in China is very unlike urban development in the west or in many other developing countries. Despite the growth of a large, dynamic market sector, China is still a Communist country in terms of the pervasive and leading role of the party and the state. The question posed in this commentary is whether urbanisation in China is unique; or, to be more precise, whether the post-reform Chinese experience of urbanisation since around 1980 is so unusual that it constitutes an entirely unique case which lies outside conventional generalisations about urban change processes. This question links to recent discussions of comparative urbanism in which various scholars have grappled with questions about the generalisability of urban theory and experience. The tentative conclusion is that Chinese urbanisation may be unique and is certainly not easily subsumed into standard discussions about urban development and urban change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smart city is recognized as a potent instrument for creating efficient urban environments and improving the quality of life of urban residents. However, there is an absence of research establishing a comprehensive evaluation model for the smart cities (SCs) and focusing on their spatiotemporal analysis. Thus, a comprehensive evaluation framework was developed and applied to 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) in China from 2017 to 2020 to assess the smart city level (SCL) in China and analyze these cities' spatial–temporal characteristics. The results indicated the following: (1) The overall SCL in the YRDUA has exhibited sustainable improvement, and the gap between cities is gradually narrowing. (2) The SCL of the YRDUA exhibits a higher SCL in the east and a lower SCL in the west of the YRDUA. The global spatial correlation of the SCL was random. Nantong, Hefei, Jiaxing, Zhoushan, Chizhou, Tongling, and Wuhu showed significant local spatial correlation. (3) The comprehensive evaluation framework is applicable for analyzing the SCs in China, and this framework can also be extended to other countries. Pertinent recommendations are put forth to enhance the SCL through the formulation of policies and fostering intercity collaboration. This research not only enriches the theoretical research on smart city evaluation but also clarifies the spatial–temporal characteristics of the SCs in China, thereby providing valuable insights that can foster sustainable smart city development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between urban spatial structure, economic activities, and the environment is complex and interdependent, yet there is a paucity of literature that examines green innovation from a macro perspective of the urban development mode. To fill this gap, this study employs panel data from 268 Chinese cities between 2008 and 2018 to investigate how a city's capacity for green innovation is influenced by its urban spatial structure, specifically in terms of urban compactness. Our results demonstrate a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between the compactness of urban spatial structure and green innovation, which remains robust even when using instrumental variable estimation. We find that an increase in urban compactness promotes green innovation when the compactness index value is less than 4.49 (3.74–4.10 with instrumental variable estimate). However, beyond this threshold, agglomeration diseconomies begin to outweigh agglomeration economies, and a decentralized growth pattern becomes more conducive to green innovation. These findings suggest that indiscriminate deployment of urban polycentric development plans may hinder a city's green innovation capacity. With the growth of urban population, the importance of urban environmental protection becomes more prominent. Therefore, should we stick with the compact urban development paradigm or transition to polycentric development to achieve sustainable urban growth? Using data from 238 Chinese cities from 2008 to 2018, we discover that adopting a compact spatial structure is more conducive to green innovation when the city population concentration has not yet reached a critical value, and that the latter structure is more effective when cities are overcrowded. Furthermore, we underline that for cities with difficult-to-extend metropolitan limits and excessive agglomeration, increasing institutional regulation might minimize the detrimental consequences of excessive agglomeration on city sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of the size distribution of Chinese cities. Since the relaxation of restrictions on rural-urban migration in the 1980s, China has experienced rapid urban growth. However, cities of different sizes have experienced varying patterns of growth. First, the evolution of city size distribution in China is described by documenting the growth in city size and in the number of existing cities. Then, focusing on the period from 1990 to 2000, the urban evolutionary trend is analysed by means of the Pareto law estimation and the mobility of cities between different size groups is examined with the Markov transition matrix. The convergence hypothesis in the city population growth process is also tested. The results suggest that, contrary to the expected dominance of large city growth, the Chinese city size distribution evened out during the 1990s, with small cities growing more rapidly than large cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper aims to investigate the impacts of the Link Policy on China's rural restructuring. • The Link Policy was comprehensively introduced through a systematic review of the literature. • The impacts of the Link Policy on rural restructuring were investigated based on the analysis of feedbacks from rural residents in Ezhou. • Policy recommendations are provided to mitigate the impacts of the Link Policy on farmers' rural lives. Rapid urbanisation in China leads to a dramatic urban expansion and farmland-to-construction land conversion. Aiming to address the tough issue of preserving farmland for food security while providing space for urban development, the central government proposed an innovative top-down land use policy termed "Link the increase in urban construction land with the decrease in rural construction land" (The Link Policy), which calls for land exchanges in urban and rural areas through centralised resettlement and land consolidation. The implementation of the Link Policy has significantly changed urban and rural landscape while also had profound impacts on China's rural restructuring process. This paper aims to investigate the impacts of the Link Policy implementation on rural restructuring from the perspective of rural residents. To provide Chines a holistic understanding of the policy impacts particularly for the international readers, Link Policy, as an innovative top-down land use policy in China, was first introduced comprehensively through a systematic review of the literature regarding the policy background, progress, typical practice models and the issues that emerged from previous implementation. A case study of Ezhou city in central China was followed to investigate the impacts of the Link Policy on rural restructuring based on the analysis of the feedbacks from rural residents. The results indicate that the implementation of the Link Policy accelerated the rural restructuring process in the way of economic restructuring, spatial restructuring, and social restructuring. Moreover, the related issues that appeared have also been identified and policy recommendations are provided to mitigate the impacts of the Link Policy on farmers' rural lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world's most populous country, China has experienced massive population growth and dramatic regional migration over the past 30 years. From 1990 to 2020, the national population increased by 24.4%, the urban population tripled, and the rural population declined by 41.0%. Combined with complex topographic features, unique characteristics of the population distribution have emerged. Many studies have examined changes in the spatial distribution of the population. However, few studies have examined the stability of certain aspects of this distribution over the last 30 years, particularly at the raster scale, which may provide important information for future research and development plans. Based on land use maps and nighttime light images, China's census data from 1990 to 2020 was scaled down to a resolution of 1 km using a method called multiple linear regression based on spatial covariates. The results show that there were some striking features of both stability and change in the spatial distribution of China's population over the past three decades. The population shares divided by the Hu line, the Qinling-Huaihe line, and the three-step staircase have remained almost unchanged. In contrast, the population share of the coastal region has risen from 23.7% to 29.0% during the study period. The urban areas have expanded by 1.35 times and their population has doubled. In addition, for every 1 km2 increase in the urban areas, an area of 29.4 km2 has been depopulated on average. This suggests that urbanization can alleviate population pressure in larger areas. However, the coastal regions and urban and peri-urban areas were the main areas of population density growth, so they required a great deal of attention for ecological protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid urban population growth and industrial agglomeration, the urban land supply is becoming gradually tight. Improving land use quality (LUQ) is becoming increasingly critical. This study was carried out in the Luohe built-up zones between 2013 and 2021. The aim is to explore the growth characteristics of LUQ and determine the association between the inner urban location and the growth rate from the perspective of spatial heterogeneity. Therefore, based on a socio-economic-environmental framework, we selected an integration/GDP/population/artificial-surface Rate, and a remote-sensing-based ecological index to construct a LUQ assessment framework that is more stable and applicable for developing urban areas. Additionally, then, multiscale geographical weighted regression is adopted, which can better help us explore the scale of the location factors. The results show that: (1) The LUQ overall growth is gradually slowing. High-quality areas clustered in the urban center and subsystem elements spread outward along the national and provincial highways to drive boundary expansion; (2) In the W/E/SE direction, land use tends more towards physical sprawl than usual development and expansion; (3) Location factors were distinguished as global, semi-global, and local. The global factors constitute the homogenized locational space. Semi-global and local factors constitute a heterogeneous locational space. The latter is critical to guide LUQ growth. LUQ assessment can promote intensive land use. Exploring location factors can further guide the LUQ spatial growth and provide data in support of urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the main carbon sink in the carbon cycle process, vegetation is an important support for achieving "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality. How does the vegetation coverage of urban built-up areas change in the process of urbanization in China? Taking advantage of Landsat remote sensing data, we extract urban built-up areas, calculate the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), estimate fractional vegetation cover (FVC), and analyze the temporal and spatial dynamics of vegetation coverage in built-up areas of provincial capitals from the national and individual city levels in China. Major conclusions are as follows: (1) The FVC in the urban built-up areas has increased by 7.97%, and the urban green space has gradually changed from the "green core" distribution model to the "green vein" distribution mode. (2) The disparities in FVC of built-up areas of provincial capitals are notable, presumably due to a variety of factors that include the natural geographic environment, economic development level, built-up area expansion, land type conversion, afforestation of greening policy, etc. (3) Not just simply raise or lower, the FVC curves in the built-up areas of provincial capital cities present oscillating patterns with gradually weakening amplitude. Our study is expected to provide scientific references of an important theoretical basis for urban ecological construction and practical support for promoting the harmonious development of urban residents and urban environments in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With accelerated urbanization and rapid expansion of the urban population, there is an increasing demand among urban residents for urban green spaces (UGS) and the ecosystem services (ES) they provide. The existing research mostly focuses on the spatial pattern of UGS types and ES provided by different UGS but ignores that residents' preferences for UGS types and their ecological and social services should also be incorporated into the spatial planning decision-making of UGS. A web-based questionnaire was distributed randomly in urban areas of China and 1050 valid samples were collected in this study. Descriptive statistical analysis methods, structural equation modeling, and Pearson correlation were used to parse the residents' preference for both UGS types, ecological–social services, and the relevant impact factors. The results showed that: (1) the strongest preference of residents for UGS and their ecological and social services are the attached green space, "beautifying the city", and "physical and mental relaxation", respectively; (2) the leading factors for residents' access to UGS are "age" and "sufficient time", except for attached green space. The most significant effect on both ecological and social services is the "season" factor. Further, "social gathering" and "exercise" are the services most and least likely to be affected. (3) Future planning of UGS should reinforce construction of attached green space and improve the aesthetics-related ES they provide. Construction of park green space and plaza green space should be enhanced to deal with the aging trend in society. Further, maintaining the existing construction of attached green space and building regional green space are crucial to the sustainability of UGS and its ecological–social services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, change detection reviews have examined and categorized algorithms based on their techniques for the remote sensing community. Here, we synthesize urban land change algorithms by the types of information they provide to a diverse and growing set of user communities. Two goals of the paper are first to synthesize past and current change detection studies to examine urban land change to help users of remote sensing algorithms understand and navigate the vast variety of available methods, and second to identify gaps in knowledge for the urban remote sensing community. We analyzed 644 peer-reviewed research papers published in English-language journals and conducted a systematic review of urban land change algorithms. All papers included in our study focus on urban land change ; studies that concentrate on single-date urban classification or mapping for one point in time without an explicit urban land change component are not included in this analysis. The review showed five key results and knowledge gaps. First, most urban change detection algorithms are being developed and applied for only a few regions, with 75% of studies focused on high or upper-middle-income countries and the majority of these on China or the United States. This suggests a major gap in geographic coverage as well as the need for more studies on cities in low and lower-middle-income countries. Second, the results show that 41% of the algorithms have been developed or applied for cities of over 5 million inhabitants. This focus on large cities is problematic given that only 11% of the world's urban population lives in cities with populations greater than 5 million and that most future urban growth will occur in small- and medium-sized towns and cities with populations of fewer than 1 million people. Third, our analysis shows that 62% of the studies use three or fewer time points to measure urban land change with an average study length of 17 years. Since rapidly growing urban areas are highly dynamic, this suggests that existing algorithms using only a few time points are likely missing urban transitions that can only be captured with high temporal frequency analysis. Fourth, we find that urban expansion is the most commonly monitored type of urban land change. Comparatively fewer studies characterized intra-urban change or three-dimensional structural change. Fifth and finally, the results show that an overwhelming majority—87%—of all studies identify only one urban class, highlighting a need for more studies that distinguish intra-urban variation and differentiate multiple urban classes. Our analysis shows that it is very difficult—nearly impossible—to compare across algorithms. Thus, for users of urban land change information, it is difficult to navigate the literature and know which algorithms are most appropriate for a particular use. Taken together, this points to the need for improved reproducibility, replicability, and comparability of studies in order to help harmonize urban land change information across regions and countries. This is especially important given the growing user communities of urban land change products and analysis, especially from policy and practice. • We conduct a systematic review of the urban land change algorithm literature. • Most studies monitor urban change at low temporal frequencies. • The majority of urban land change is characterized using only one urban class. • Over 75% of studies focus on high or upper-middle level income countries. • Key knowledge gaps include in geographic coverage, city size, and land transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper explores urban system in China and its deviations from Zipf's law. • The size distributions of Chinese cities did not follow Zipf's law until recently. • Both large and small cities were under-sized relative to the Zipf's law. • Excluding the top 10% large cities, the data fit the Zipf's law better. • The deviations rises with government interferences and decreases with market forces. How are urban residents distributed and agglomerated across different-sized cities? This question can be addressed by studying urban system or Zipf's law. Using Chinese data for the period of 1990–2017, this paper contributes to the literature by exploring the evolution of urban system, and more importantly deviations from Zipf's law. It is found that (1) The size distribution of Chinese cities, as expected, did not follow Zipf's law until very recently. Both large cities and small towns were under-sized relative to the Zipf's law, implying possible loss of agglomeration economies; (2) When the top 10% large cities are excluded, the Chinese data fit the Zipf's law better, demonstrating the adverse role of government interference in containing the growth of mega-cities; (3) By and large, the distribution has been moving closer or further away from Zipf's law, corroborating with policy directions in the relevant five-year plans of the central government; and (4) Government interferences helped enlarge while market forces helped reduce the numerical deviations of individual cities from Zipf's law. The last three analytical findings are the first in the literature since no previous studies have focused on the issue of why urban system in China does not follow Zipf's law. In particular, no earlier efforts have been made to model numerical deviations from Zipf's law, as attempted in this paper. The results appeal for removal of government interferences and furthering market-based reforms in order to reap economies of agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a short period, rapid urbanization has reshaped China's eco-environment, especially at the beginning of the new century. Many studies have focused on the changes in certain physical indicators of eco-environments; however, these indicators cannot directly explain or only slightly consider the eco-environmental benefits of urban residents. Therefore, we analysed location-based population-weighted eco-environmental changes with indicators of the vegetation index and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration at each pixel in China's prefectures and combined the changes with urban expansion to provide an expanded understanding of the transformation of China's urbanization and its eco-environmental dynamics. We discovered that China's urban areas expanded by 38,350 km2 from 2000 to 2015 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and PM2.5 concentration, but the changes varied among different periods. From 2005 to 2010, urban areas expanded by 20,970 km2 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and PM2.5 concentration. The period from 2000 to 2005 was a key transforming period that experienced an urban expansion of 9081 km2 with a decrease in the population-weighted vegetation and an increase in the population-weighted PM2.5 concentration. An urban expansion of 8299 km2 with an increase in the population-weighted vegetation and a decrease of the population-weighted PM2.5 concentration occurred from 2010 to 2015. The results of this research indicate that China's urbanization and environmental changes have facilitated eco-environmental improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development in the global economy and technology, urbanization has accelerated. It is important to characterize the urban expansion and determine its driving force. In this study, we used the Xiaonan District in Hubei Province, China, as an example to map and quantify the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban expansion from the two perspectives of built-up area and urban land in 1990–2020 by using remote sensing images. The location of rivers was found to be a primary limiting factor for spatial patterns and expansion of the built-up area. The transfer of the city center and the main direction of expansion generally corresponded well to the topography, policies, and development strategies. The built-up area expanded faster than the urban population in 1995–2020, which caused a waste in land resources. The results showed that the urban expansion first decreased and then increased during the research period. The increase in the proportion of the secondary industry was the main driving force of the urban expansion. Based on the characteristics of urban expansion in the past three decades, we conclude that the urban land of Xiaonan District will expand quickly in the future and will occupy vast agricultural land. The government must deploy control measures to balance the benefits and costs of urban expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sustainable development has attracted widespread attention worldwide as it is closely linked with human survival. However, the growth of urban areas is frequently disproportionate in relation to population growth in developing countries; this discrepancy cannot be monitored solely using statistics. In this study, we integrated earth observation (EO) and statistical data monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 11.3.1: "The ratio of land consumption rate to the population growth rate (LCRPGR)". Using the EO data (including China's Land-Use/Cover Datasets (CLUDs) and the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) nighttime light data) and census, we extracted the percentage of built-up area, disaggregated the population using the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, and depicted the spatial heterogeneity and dynamic tendency of urban expansion and population growth by a 1 km × 1 km grid at city and national levels in mainland China from 1990 to 2010. Then, the built-up area and population density datasets were compared with other products and statistics using the relative error and standard deviation in our research area. Major findings are as follows: (1) more than 95% of cities experienced growth in urban built-up areas, especially in the megacities with populations of 5–10 million; (2) the number of grids with a declined proportion of the population ranged from 47% in 1990–2000 to 54% in 2000–2010; (3) China's LCRPGR value increased from 1.69 in 1990–2000 to 1.78 in 2000–2010, and the land consumption rate was 1.8 times higher than the population growth rate from 1990 to 2010; and (4) the number of cities experiencing uncoordinated development (i.e., where urban expansion is not synchronized with population growth) increased from 93 (27%) in 1990–2000 to 186 (54%) in 2000–2010. Using EO has the potential for monitoring the official SDGs on large and fine scales; the processes provide an example of the localization of SDG 11.3.1 in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]