Abstract
Rapid urban expansion has radically transformed the city centers and the new districts of Chinese cities. Both areas have undergone unique redevelopment and development over the past decades, generating unique urban forms worthy of study. To date, few studies have investigated development patterns and land use intensities at the neighborhood level. The present study aims to fill the gap and compare the densities of different types of developments and the spatial compositions of different commercial uses at the neighborhood level. We captured the attributes of their built environment that support instrumental activities of daily living of 710 neighborhoods centered on the public elementary schools of the entire Shanghai municipality using application programming interfaces provided in Baidu Map services. The 200 m neighborhood provided the best fit to capture the variations of the built environment. Overall, city center neighborhoods had significantly higher residential densities and housed more daily routine destinations than their counterparts in the new districts. Unexpectedly, however, the total length of streets was considerably smaller in city-center neighborhoods, likely reflecting the prominence of the wide multilane vehicular roads surrounding large center city redevelopment projects. The findings point to convergence between the city center’s urban forms and that of the new districts.
Highlights
IntroductionSince the 1980s, the rapid expansion of built-up areas has transformed Chinese urban landscapes [1]
Pre-1979 Chinese cities were compact [1]
P-values of bivariate analyses between each built environment attribute and whether a school was located in the city center or new districts were included in the tables as well
Summary
Since the 1980s, the rapid expansion of built-up areas has transformed Chinese urban landscapes [1]. In the early 20th century, Shanghai was composed of compact, crowded, and multifunctional neighborhoods where people conducted most of their daily activities near their homes, and where almost all daily needs could be met within walking distance [4]. The planning and design of workers’ new villages generally followed principles similar to those of Perry’s neighborhood unit [5,7,8]. These urban forms continue to affect travel behavior today; walking and biking account for more than half of travel mode share for subsistence and maintenance trips in Shanghai’s city center [9]
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