How does urban renewal affect residential segregation in Shenzhen, China? A multi-scale study

Abstract

Increasing residential segregation is emerging as a hindrance to urban sustainability. Urban renewal projects that claim alignment with sustainable development goals still lack comprehensive studies of their impact on social segregation, as evidenced by the ongoing scholarly debate over whether urban renewal has a positive or negative effect on social segregation. This paper explores the dynamics of urban spatial segregation, analyzes the role of urban renewal on segregation, and bridges the gap in existing research by considering dynamic changes, multiple spatial scales, and diverse renewal types. Using multi-source data – house price data, planning permit data and points of interest –stepwise regression models are combined with t-test methods to examine the impact of multiple types of urban renewal on local and regional residential segregation in Shenzhen. Our findings are as follows: 1) Income-based segregation in Shenzhen increased from 0.77 to 0.81 across neighborhoods, from 0.62 to 0.73 across sub-districts, and from 0.58 to 0.67 across districts between 2000 and 2020, therefore increasing at all scales but with more pronounced growth of segregation observed between units at larger scales; 2) Urban renewal can lead to greater income similarity amongst residents of a sub-district, by attracting more high-income people to move in, but this can lead to increased residential segregation of high- and low-income people at the macro-scale. 3) When assessing the impact of urban renewal on segregation, it is recommended to consider the variations in outcomes resulting from temporal changes, spatial scales, the types of renewal, the types of segregation, and the stages of urbanization. Understanding this process can help promote socially sustainable urban renewal projects.