Abstract
As the capital and one of the metropolises in China, Beijing has met with a number of serious so-called "urban diseases" in the process of rapid urbanization such as blind expansion of urban areas, explosion of population and the increase of urban heat island effect. To treat these “urban diseases” and make the metropolis develop healthful and sustainable in Beijing in the future, the spatial characteristics of metropolis developments in Beijing are explored in this paper. The urban built-up areas in Beijing are extracted using the DMSP-OLS nighttime light data from 1992 to 2013. The characteristics of the urban developments of Beijing are studied, including spatial and temporal scales of urban developments, urban barycenter of Beijing and its transfer trajectory, variations of urban spatial forms and the differences of urban internal developments. The results have shown that the built-up areas had been increasing and circling extending from the central urban areas to the outer spaces in the last 21 years. The built-up area had expanded by 878km2 in 1992–2013, and the built-up area in 2013 had expanded to three times comparing to that of 1992. The expanding area of the built-up area in the northeast is the largest. The expansion of the urban had mainly occurred in 1996–2007, and the expanded area had accounted for 92% of the total research period. During the whole research period, the urban barycenter of Beijing had moved 5000.71 meters towards Northeast 28° of its original place from Dongcheng District to Chaoyang District. The development level of each municipal district had been increasing year by year, and the development differences among the municipal districts had been gradually reduced; the spatial forms of Beijing had been alternately changed between extensive and intensive expansion. The results of this study can help to plan urban land use and people migration of Beijing.
Highlights
China has experienced a rapid process of urbanization since its open-door policy
The built-up area in each period are displayed in different colors
It is of great significance to study the laws and characteristics of spatial-temporal evolution of urban development for the purpose of determining the rational distribution of urban land and avoiding blind expansion of urban land use, and realizing the sustainable development of big cities [44, 45]
Summary
China has experienced a rapid process of urbanization since its open-door policy. With the acceleration of urbanization, many "urban diseases", such as rapid increasing of urban population, disorder expansion of urban land use, reduction of cultivated land, environmental pollution, ecological deterioration and traffic congestion, have become more and more serious, and the resources and environments in many metropolises are difficult to support the development of the cities. Rapid urbanization will lead to urban heat island effect, which negatively impact ecological and economic aspects of the cities, including urban atmospheric pollutant concentration, water consumption and higher health risks for residents. These affected the quality of life and the sustainable and healthy development of the cities. It can reflect the intensity of human activities and urbanization development levels in various comprehensive factors It is a new and effective data source for monitoring the process of urbanization developments
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