City Planning Review（2024.1）

♦MEGACITY, CITIZEN RIGHTS, AND DEVELOPING COUNTRY: RETHINKING THE NATURE OF PEOPLE’S CITY

Author：HE Yanling

ABSTRACT: Construction of a People’s City is a response to how urban governance can meet people’s aspiration for a better life, reflecting the principle of putting people first in cities. Currently, theories on urban development have systematically discussed issues, such as the public value of cities and problems associated with urban development. Nevertheless, there is still no clear explanation on the complex governance of megacities and how it responds to people’s needs based on the attribute of “people”. The construction of a People’s City and the response to people’s needs are fundamentally related to the distribution of urban rights. Therefore, based on the theory of urban rights, it is possible to clarify the nature of “people” in the process of building a People’s City. Furthermore, an analysis based on specific governance scenarios can reveal the common needs of people in the city, namely, street prosperity, hustle and bustle, offline gatherings, accessibility, and emotional resonance. The proposal and realization of these needs provide another perspective for urban development and governance in China, which may contribute to more vibrant cities for the people.

KEYWORDS: unban governance; People’s City; people’s needs

♦CHINESE URBANISM: THE PLANNING OF CHINESE CITIES AND ITS MODERN VALUE

Author：WU Tinghai

ABSTRACT: The emergence of cities is a milestone in the formation and maturity of Chinese civilization, and cities play an important leading role in the progress of civilization. In the context of Chinese modernization and Chinese civilization, the paper analyzes the urbanity in early China, summarizes the characteristics of multi-scale urban planning in historical periods, and puts forward the Guihua (an ancient Chinese term for planning) framework balancing heaven, earth, people, city, and civilization. It is believed that Chinese urbanity is a crucial element of Chinese path to modernization. Accordingly, a proposal is made to discover the urban planning wisdom with modern value. In the establishment of China’s urban planning knowledge system, it is necessary to grasp the unity of China’s rurality and urbanity, as well as the unity of urban China and cultural China.

KEYWORDS:Chinese path to modernization; city planning; Guihua (planning); urbanity;modern value

♦WELFARE EFFECTS OF TRANSPORTATION DEMAND MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF “BANNING MOTORCYCLES AND RESTRICTING ELECTRIC BIKES”

Author：PENG Ying; HAO Zhesong; YANG Jiawen; SU Pinren

ABSTRACT: In terms of individual citizens, there is a lack of quantitative assessment on the implementation effect of the policy of “banning motorcycles and restricting electric bikes”. In this study, the impacts of the policy on commuter welfare (mode shift and cost change) are simulated by integrating transportation mode characteristics and land use characteristics into a discrete choice model. The finding reveals that (1) more than 35% of the motorcycle and electric bike users shift to car driving after the policy is enforced; (2) the disadvantaged group loses more benefits than other groups. The average time for one-way commuting increases by more than 6.9 minutes and the average cost increases by 0.47 yuan; (3) citizens in suburb areas experience a 20% increase in one-way commute time and 0.20 yuan more in economic costs than citizens living in other areas. The number of transfers and the length of waiting time of citizens around urban centers increase significantly. In the context of implementing the public transport priority development strategy and advocating green travel in China, this study has an important reference value for optimizing the implementation of related policies.

KEYWORDS:travel mode choice; travel structure; travel cost; travel behavior

♦IMPLICATIONS TO URBAN REGENERATION BASED ON THE INFLUENCE OF URBAN BLOCK EVOLUTION ON TRAFFIC CONGESTION: A CASE STUDY OF HUAI’AN, JIANGSU PROVINCE

Author：TANG Le; CHEN Wen

ABSTRACT: With multiple dimensions, urban block evolution may lead to various urban problems. Therefore, exploring relevant influences is a key prerequisite for implementing urban regeneration actions. Based on multi-source spatio-temporal data and applying approaches, including dimensional reduction, correlation analysis, and Geography Weighted Regression, this paper conducts a case study on 107 urban blocks in Huai’an City, Jiangsu Province and develops a multi-dimensional complex element system with several dimensions, including spatial capacity, transportation facilities, daily commute, socio-economy, and public traffic. Then it explores the spatio-temporal influence mechanism of urban block evolution on traffic congestion. The influence mechanism indicates that spatial capacity and daily commute have significantly positive influence, public traffic has significantly negative influence, and transportation facilities and socio-economy have insignificant influence. Following this influence mechanism and considering foreseeable physical changes in urban blocks, official guidance, and practical experience of urban regeneration, scenario simulation is conducted to explore the potential increase in spatial capacity in future regeneration of urban blocks, which can be considered as implications to urban regeneration.

KEYWORDS:urban regeneration; urban block evolution; traffic congestion; multi-dimensional complex element; influence mechanism

♦THEORIES AND METHODS FOR ACCESSIBILITY EVALUATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SERVICE FACILITIES

Author：WU Wenjie; SUN Ruining

ABSTRACT: To establish an evaluation system for the accessibility of public service facilities in line with the high-quality urban development in the new era, it is necessary to consider how to establish an evaluation paradigm that matches service facilities with residents’ needs. From a “place-based” and “people-based” combined perspective, this paper develops an accessibility analysis framework based on “availability, accessibility, affordability, and adaptability”, and establishes an accessibility evaluation system for urban public service facilities with “number and types of facilities, spatial distance, economic affordability, and individual satisfaction” as the core. On this basis, the paper explores the value orientation, data collection, application scenarios, and application process of the evaluation system, and proposes the future research prospects.

KEYWORDS: public service facilities ; accessibility; spatial configuration

♦GUIDANCE, TRANSMISSION, AND SUPERVISION: CONSTRUCTION OF COMPREHENSIVE URBAN DESIGN OPERATION SYSTEM BASED ON SHENZHEN’S EXPLORATION

Author：ZHOU Jin; CUI Chong

ABSTRACT:  After more than 40 years of exploration and practice, Shenzhen has gradually formed a technical and administrative mechanism of general guidance, directive transmission, and regulatory supervision in the field of urban design. This paper focuses on the comprehensive management and operation of urban design, and proposes the system framework of three links including concept, technique, and organization, from six perspectives including value, objective, method, team, policy, and operation. In the concept link, the value of urban design should be clarified as the promoter of social motivation, booster of economic vitality, and creator of environmental charm; and the differentiated guidance and control objectives for the bottom line, middle line, and high line should be determined according to the management service objects. In the technical link, the professional technical team should be organized, including experts, full-time professionals, and specialized classes. In the organizational link, principles of fairness, impartiality, and openness should be upheld to strengthen guidance, transmission and supervision through public policies. Through these methods, the blueprint of urban design can be implemented through the whole course.

KEYWORDS: urban design; operation mechanism; guidance and control; general principles; guidelines; Rules

♦CRITICAL THINKING AND TRANSCENDENCE OF URBAN SPACE HOMOGENEITY: A CASE STUDY OF WUKANG ROAD, SHANGHAI

Author：LI Jiewen; WANG Hongyang

ABSTRACT:  In order to achieve the goal of Chinese path to modernization, development of urban space with high quality and identities becomes more important and urgent at the late-intermediate stage of urbanization. However, after long-term research and practice in urban design, urban regeneration, collaborative innovation of multiple actors, etc., the urban spacial homogeneity as a problem is still not well addressed. This paper examines the spatial transformation of Wukang Road, Shanghai from homogenization to identity and then to the so-called re-homogenization, demonstrating that it is wrong to propose homogenization and identity as the problem and goal respectively in urban planning. Planning should always focus on the fundamental goal – to meet the people’s needs for a better life, which requires reasonable homogeneity and excludes unreasonable heterogeneity, pursuing process and permanent identities that can enhance human wellbeing. Planners, in particular, must focus on this goal and get out of the monotony and paradigmization of thinking.

KEYWORDS: urban space; homogenization; rehomogenization; Wukang Road; monotony

♦A CASE STUDY OF THE PUBLICITY OF EXTERNAL SPACES IN BEIJING’S HISTORIC DISTRICTS

Author：LIU Yifei; SONG Wenling; ZHOU Haiqin; LI Shuchang; ZHU Xiaochen

ABSTRACT:  The external space in historic districts is an important public space for social life, but nowadays there are many cases of private encroachment on such space, which are often hard to be prohibited. The external space of the 166-meter Hutong area in the west section of Shangxiejie Street in the Old City of Beijing is selected as a typical case, and the detailed research and mapping of the current encroachment status are conducted first, and then the spatial delineation is carried out based on the original function of the plan, the current use situation, and the public sentiment feedback, so as to analyze the public characteristics of the area in terms of three dimensions: functionality, right to use, and perception. The external space of 0.24 ha is divided into 45 spatial units of 7 categories from the functional dimension, 42 spatial units of 6 categories from the right-to-use dimension, and 51 spatial units of 6 categories from the perception dimension, and the degree of publicity of each dimension is evaluated into 1-4 levels based on the criteria of service scope, encroachment rate, and subjective perception. By superimposing the spatial units of each dimension and the publicity evaluation results, a total of 71 comprehensive spatial units are obtained, and then 16 categories of typical external spaces are summarized to make clear the characteristics and propose improvement suggestions. Through the investigation and analysis of typical cases of private encroachment on the external space of historic districts, this paper explores the complex publicity problems of China’s urban historic districts, and provides references for urban renewal and social governance.

KEYWORDS:publicity; urban regeneration; historic district; external space; public space; the Old City of Beijing

♦CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL NETWORK EVOLUTION IN HOLLOWING RURAL AREAS AND PLANNING RESPONSE: A CASE STUDY OF HOLLOWED VILLAGE A IN SICHUAN PROVINCE

Author：SHI Yaling; ZHANG Yue; ZHOU Zhengxu

ABSTRACT: During the nearly four decades of urbanization, China’s rural areas witnessed changes in spatial production logic owing to the flow of population, and their social relations were given new forms and implications. These changes in social relations lead to a realistic predicament of territorial planning in connection with rural revitalization. Accordingly, taking a typical hollowed village in Sichuan as an example, this paper discusses the evolution mechanism of social relation network and rural planning. The process is as follows: the basic data of population, social relation, and employment of the village during the past four decades is collected; the network structure models of kinship and geo-relation are developed using the social network analysis method; a comparative analysis is conducted on changes in the overall tightness, local stability, and individual concentration trend of social network structure before and after hollowing out. The results show that: in terms of kinship, the overall tightness first increases and then decreases, local stability first increases and then decreases, and the individual concentration continues to weaken; in terms of geo-relations, the overall tightness continues to decrease, and local stability and individual concentration show fluctuations. In addition, the paper further explores the connection between rural social relation network changes and spatial changes, and rural planning and governance with respect to explicit influencing factors and underlying mechanisms. Based on the logical connection of “population, social relation, social operation, and rural planning”, it puts forward a rural planning and governance strategy of “land transfer, relation building, and space reshaping”, which is expected to provide a reference for the rural revitalization in the western China.

KEYWORDS: rural area; social relation network; territorial planning; hollowing out