China City Planning Review (No.2, 2016)

♦Methodological Issues and Values Arising from the Construction of a Heritage Corridor Along Chinese Eastern Railway

Author: Gao Fei, Shao Long

Abstract: The Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), which was designed by Russia in 1898 and constructed later by China, is a typical industrial cultural landscape of the 20th century that enjoys a high uniqueness and representativeness due to its integrality and systematicness. It sits on a historic site with various kinds of resources, including architecture, railways, and other facilities. As there has been few changes with CER’s route, its resources are, in fact, still serviceable to the current railway system and people living along the route. However, considering the problems, such as lack of maintenance, ignorance of the society, inappropriate renovations, etc., attention should be paid to CER’s value assessment before any reconstruction decisions are made. Although value assessment plays a very important role in the decision-making and investment-planning process, there is almost no related research on the construction of a heritage corridor along CER. Seeing that value assessment is part of the CER Heritage Corridor construction project and the values act as a reference in understanding CER as a heritage site, this paper aims to put forward a methodological guidance to identify CER’s values, so that its resources will be assessed by using what we call “value typology.” In addition, it also tries to promote the tools that can help to evaluate CER’s values. On the basis of a methodological analysis, it finally puts forward some advices to integrating the value assessment into the decision-making process.

Keywords: value assessment; heritage corridor construction; Chinese Eastern Railway; methodological issues

♦Using Micro-Level Data to Evaluate Infrastructure of the Walking Environment Around Bus Rapid Transit Stations: A Case Study of Xiamen, China

Author: Xu Junping, Wang Peng, Kenneth Joh, Bi Bo

Abstract: China has experienced rapid car-oriented suburbanization during the past decades and is facing emerging challenges such as traffic congestion, air pollution, and even health threats. Learning from North American cities, Chinese cities have started adopting and implementing a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) strategy, which encourages the transit ridership and walking trips by creating a pedestrian-friendly urban environment. Although much research has examined the walking environment in various neighborhoods or communities, few existing studies have examined the walking environment around transit stations, especially using micro-level data, such as walking infrastructure variables. This research chooses several infrastructure variables that are critical for pedestrians to investigate the walking environment around stations of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) No.1 Line in Xiamen City, China. This study defines a half mile buffer centered on each station as the spatial unit of analysis. The Geographic Information System (GIS) and field audits are employed to measure the characteristics of the infrastructure for pedestrians in each spatial unit of analysis. The results of this analysis can help assess the existing conditions of the infrastructure for pedestrians in each station area, which might need to be added or improved. The findings will not only provide empirical support for improving TODs in Xiamen, but also offer a lesson on how areas around transit stations could be retrofitted to improve the pedestrian environment.

Keywords: infrastructure; TOD; walking

♦Transformation of Urban Planning: Thoughts on Incremental Planning, Stock-Based Planning, and Reduction Planning

Author: Chen Hongsheng, Wang Xingping, Guo Zijian

Abstract: According to the current context of China’s new urbanization and urban and rural transformation, this paper defines incremental planning, stock-based planning, and reduction planning. It further discusses the socio-economic foundation of incremental planning, the transformation of incremental planning to stock-based planning, and the emergence of reduction planning, as well as the characteristics of these three types of urban planning. Based on that, it finds that incremental planning is determined by China’s unique urban growth pattern, and that the change of the urban growth mode leads to a transformation of urban planning. In addition, reduction planning can effectively cope with urban decline. After over 30 years of rapid economic development, more and more cities in China are approaching the bottleneck of growth. Therefore, the transformation of urban planning is unavoidable and will definitely become an important topic in planning circles.

Keywords: incremental planning; stock-based planning; reduction planning; transformation of urban planning

♦Policy Changes and Economic Logic of Industrial Land Renewal in Shanghai

Author: Zheng Degao, Lu Hongmin

Abstract: The change in the policy of industrial land renewal in many mega-cities is the result of a game between government and market. The principle of government policy-making is to balance its long-term benefits (tax revenue) and short-term benefits (land revenue). The policy of industrial land renewal is made to achieve this balance. And the renewal policy is gradually improved in terms of spatial indicators, self-ownership proportion, holding periods, and land management. And it can influence the industrial park typology. The industrial park typology has gone through three generations, from land sale-oriented, building sale-oriented, to park sale-oriented. The paper explains the changes of the industrial land renewal policies in Shanghai, and takes the construction of industrial parks in different periods as an example to explore the impact of policy changes on park forms and typologies.

Keywords: industrial land renewal; policy change; spatial change; Shanghai

♦Delimitation and Classified Planning Management of Functional Renovation Zone: Experience of and Discussion on Shenzhen’s Practice of Urban Renewal

Author: Hao Wenxuan, Tong De, Liu Qing, Feng Changchun

Abstract: Urban renewal is one of the important issues of urban development in China. Along with its development in the contemporary time, China has seen considerable achievements and problems as well in urban renewal. Taking into account that Shenzhen has carried out plenty of explorations on urban planning renewal, this paper takes it as an example to firstly analyze the plights of its urban renewal planning, the shortcomings of its urban renewal projects, and the advantages of functional renovation zones to manifest the necessity of the delimitation and classified planning management of functional renovation zone in urban renewal. It then summarizes the experience of its urban renewal unit planning in terms of the methods of zoning and implementation, and finally discusses the conceptual connotations of functional renovation zone, as well as the logic and characteristics of renovations of its delimitation and classified planning management, in hope of providing other Chinese cities with some references.

Keywords: functional renovation zone; urban renewal planning; Shenzhen

♦From “Three Olds” Reconstruction to Urban Renewal: Reflections on Establishment of Urban Renewal Bureau in Guangzhou

Author: Wang Shifu, Shen Shuangting

Abstract: With the establishment of Guangzhou Urban Renewal Bureau, the first of its kind in China, as the background and the starting point, the paper reviews relevant experiences in the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong, summarizes the features, responsibilities, and rights of such institutions. Through analyzing three statuses of redevelopment, which are increased, reduced, and retained construction, the paper points out that urban renewal is a process orienting at promoting the comprehensive capacity of the built-up environment. Then the paper summarizes the strength and weakness of the “three olds” reconstruction policy making and implementation in Guangzhou, holding that the strength lies in the effective land consolidation and socially collaboration experiences, while the weakness includes the unclear rights and responsibilities, unsystematic target, and imbalanced interests distribution. It concludes that the goal of urban renewal is to improve the existing built-up environment without damaging the benefits of original stakeholders, to emphasize both fairness and efficiency, and to seek for sustainable city redevelopment with optimized comprehensive capacity. Moreover, the paper clarifies that the primary responsibility of urban renewal is to well maintain the built-up environment and the extended responsibility is to properly coordinate the city redevelopment. Considering that urban renewal is a kind of public administration with distinctive social and processing features, urban renewal should be empowered the necessary implementation priority and administrative permission power via local legislation measures. In addition, an effective social collaboration platform should be established to actively support the urban renewal and to reflect the “new normal” of city redevelopment.

Keywords: “three olds” reconstruction; urban renewal; responsibility; built-up environment; social collaboration

♦Resident’s Floor Level Preference in High-Rise Residential Buildings in China: A Case Study of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Author: Sun Pingjun, Wang Ying, Pang Ruiqiu, Song Xinyan

Abstract: With the constant advance of global urbanization and aggravation of urban construction land scarcity, high-rise residential buildings have become one of the main carriers of urban residential function on account of both land saving and large housing requirement. However, relevant studies on consumers’ floor selection preference in high-rise residential buildings, regarding what inherent and regular features and causes it has, are still insufficient, despite that related issues have important practical significance for real estate developers and designers’ decision making in terms of dwelling size ratio, floor area, indoor layout, and so on. This study, based on systematic examination of existing domestic and international researches, seeks to make empirical tests and generalization on the above issues from the aspect of “utility function” (safety, comfortableness, accessibility and economic efficiency) of the living environment that impacted by different floor levels, and floor selection features regarding consumers’ social and family structure attributes, as well as the intrinsic correlation between them. The results show the existence of floor level preference in high-rise residential buildings. Its essence is a personalized characterization of consumers’ social and family structures’ attributes in selecting the “utility function” of the living environment, as the preference value differs under various attributes including gender, age, income, family members and others.

Keywords: high-rise residential building; floor level preference; living environment; Shijiazhuang City

♦Dynamic Analysis on Population Suburbanization and New Town Development in Shanghai

Author: Wang Chunlan, Yang Shangguang

Abstract: This paper studies the suburbanization process of Shanghai from 2000 to 2010 and the population aggregation of its five suburban new towns including Jiading, Songjiang, Qingpu, Nanqiao, and Lingang. It finds that Shanghai’s population distribution pattern is featured by both continuity and variety. In detail, although Shanghai is still dominated by a single-centered expansion pattern, a multi-centered spatial pattern is gradually formed with a narrowing gap in population density between the central city and the suburbs. As the suburbanization of the migrant population is faster than that of the registered population and migrants re-gather in the central city as a result of its service industry development, there is a relatively smaller migrant population in the area between the Inner Ring Road and the Outer Ring Road. Consequently, the population in the new towns that the city planning strategy has focused on is not increasing at the expected speed, thus more attention should be paid to a reasonable central city-centered, multi-leveled, towns-grouped, and compact urban spatial structure.

Keywords: population distribution; suburbanization; new town; Shanghai