Urban Subsystems Research Articles

Study on Spatial–Temporal Evolution Characteristics and Restrictive Factors of Urban–Rural Integration in Northeast China from 2000 to 2019

With the rapid development of urbanization and the widening gap between urban and rural areas, how to effectively enhance the balanced development of urban and rural areas as well as promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas have become heated topics. Based on the basic theory of urban–rural integration and spatial balance, this paper establishes a comprehensive evaluation system. Using a coupling coordination model and an obstacle degree model, this paper selects 32 indicators from aspects of economy, society and ecology to measure the development level of urban–rural integration in 34 prefecture-level cities in Northeast China from 2000 to 2019. We also analyze the spatial pattern, evolution type characteristics and obstacle factors of urban–rural relations. The results show that: (1) The growth rate of urban development in Northeast China is higher than that of rural development. Except for rural ecology, all dimensions of urban and rural areas have increased year by year, but there are large spatial differences within the region. (2) The urban–rural integration development level of Northeast China is growing constantly and the types of urban and rural coordination are all rising to a higher level. Areas with high urban–rural coordination levels are concentrated in the Harbin–Changchun urban agglomeration and the central and southern Liaoning urban agglomeration, with obvious agglomeration effects. (3) In the coordinated development of urban and rural areas, the restrictive degree of the rural social subsystem was higher than that of the urban subsystem. The restrictive factors in the coordinated development of urban and rural areas are relatively stable, and include per capita consumption expenditure, per capita public budget expenditure, books in public libraries per thousand people, etc. (4) The functions of rural social elements should be enhanced, and the social urban–rural integrated development mechanism should be established to promote the integrated development of urban and rural society.

An Evaluation of the Coupling Coordination Degree of an Urban Economy–Society–Environment System Based on a Multi-Scenario Analysis: The Case of Chengde City in China

Sustainable urban development requires the coordinated development of economic, social, and environmental subsystems. Evaluating the coordination degree of different urban subsystems is of great significance to supporting sustainable urban development. This study explores the method of combining a scenario analysis with the coupling coordination degree model, proposing a new approach to measure the correlation between the level of urban sustainable development and the coupling coordination degree of urban subsystems. This method is used to analyze the correlation between the sustainable development level of 11 district-level and county-level administrative regions in Chengde City and the coupling coordination degree under different scenarios. The evaluation results show that, under different scenarios, the coupling coordination degree of the 11 administrative regions in Chengde City is at three levels: imminent imbalance, near coordination, and primary coordination. Compared with the business-as-usual scenario, the changes in the coupling coordination degree of all administrative regions in Chengde City under the economic-led scenario, social-led scenario, and environment-led scenario are in line with the level of sustainable development evaluation outcomes. The results confirm that there is a correlation between the level of urban sustainable development and the coupling coordination degree in different scenarios.

Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity and Driving Mechanism of Co-Ordinated Urban Development: A Case Study of the Central Area of the Yangtze River Delta, China

Urban system is a complex entirety composed of various subsystems, including land, population, economy, and society. The coordinated development of these subsystems is important for ensuring the advancement and improvement of the new urbanization process. Quantitatively evaluating the coordinated development level of a city or urban agglomeration is conducive to scientific urban planning and decision-making. In this paper, we constructed a multi-index evaluation system that includes land urbanization, population urbanization, economic urbanization, and social urbanization indicators to assess the degree of coordinated urbanization development. Experiments were then conducted in the central area of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2000 to 2019 using remote sensing images and statistical yearbook data. The driving factors of the urbanization evolution were also evaluated by the Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) model. The conclusions were drawn as follows: (1) The degree of coordinated urbanization development in the study area was constantly improving, from an extremely uncoordinated level in 2000 to a high-quality coordinated level in 2019; (2) During the period 2000–2019, the distribution of the cities with high coordinated development levels presented a northwest-southeast pattern, and the gravity center of the region constantly moved to the south; (3) In terms of the impact of various urbanization subsystems on the coordinated urbanization development in the YRD, economic urbanization had the greatest impact, while land urbanization had the least impact. (4) In connection with the problems existing in different dimensions of urbanization, we put forward corresponding development countermeasures and path suggestions based on the actual situation of the study area.

Resilience and Urban Regeneration Policies. Lessons from Community-Led Initiatives. The Case Study of CanFugarolas in Mataro (Barcelona)

This paper addresses socio-ecological, community-led resilience as the ability of the urban system to progress and adapt. This is based on the socio-cultural, self-organized case study of CanFugarolas in Mataró (Barcelona), for the recovery of a derelict industrial building and given the lack of attention to resilience emerging from grassroots. Facing rigidities (stagnation) observed under the provisions of urban regeneration policies (regulatory realm), evidenced in the proliferation of urban voids (infrastructural arena), the social subsystem stands as the enabler of urban progression. Under the heuristics of the Adaptive Cycle and Panarchy, the study embraces Fath’s model to analyze the transition along, and the interactions between, the adaptive cycles at each urban subsystem. The mixed method approach reveals the ability of the community to navigate all stages and overcome successive ailments, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles (traps) at the physical support (built stock) and the regulatory arena (urban planning). Further, cross-scale, social-centered interactions (panarchy) are also traced, becoming the “sink” and the “trigger” of the urban dynamics. The community, in the form of an actor-network, becomes the catalyst (through Remember/Revolt) of urban resilience at the city scale. At a managerial level, this evidences its temporal and spatial complementarity to top-down urban regeneration policies.

The impacts of comprehensive urbanization on PM2.5 concentrations in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Air pollution is a serious global environmental problem, especially in developing countries. PM2.5 is a major air pollutant that poses critical risks in urban areas. In this study, we identified the influence of comprehensive urbanization on regional PM2.5 in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the largest metropolitan region in China, from 1998 to 2015. The impacts of four urbanization subsystems (Economic, Spatial, Demographic, and Social) on the spatiotemporal evolution of PM2.5 were investigated at the city level using a linear mixed effect model (LME). The annual average concentration of PM2.5 over the YRD increased during the study period, with rapid growth in the northern plains and slow growth in the mountainous south. The LME model showed good performance between the predicted and observed PM2.5, with an R2 value for 10-fold cross-validation reaching 0.87 and a regression coefficient of 0.88. Urban population, GDP ratio of secondary industry, built-up area, total road area, number of students in colleges and universities, and total retail sales of consumer goods all had positive associations with PM2.5 concentration, while the proportion of tertiary industry employment, GDP ratio of primary industry, forest area, and number of hospital beds all had negative associations. Economic had the strongest effect (44%) on PM2.5 early on (1998–2003), but over time the contribution of other subsystems gradually increased. The overall contributions of urbanization type to PM2.5 in the YRD were Spatial (33.10%) > Economic (26.76%) > Demographic (16.85%) > Social (12.72%). Our results help deepen the understanding of regional air pollution in China as well as its correlation with urbanization and its subsystems.

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Coordinated Development of Urbanization and the Ecological Resource Environment in Southwest China Based on Data Mining

Urbanization and the ecological resource environment are mutually influential and interdependent, and their coordinated development is the key to the sustainable development of urbanization. Based on a coupling degree model, decision tree, and grey correlation model, the spatial and temporal evolution of the coupling and coordination relationship between urbanization and the ecological resource environment in Southwest China from 2000 to 2018 and its main influencing factors are studied in depth. The thresholds are extracted by the Classification and Regression Tree (CART) to avoid low-coupling coordination. The study finds that (1) the coupling coordination between urbanization and the ecological resource environment in this region shows stagewise development with regional differences. By 2018, except Xizang, all other provinces had entered a high coordination period. (2) The general trend is that urbanization development is on the rise, and the ecological resource environment is fluctuating. The influence of the ecological resource environment subsystem on coordinated development is greater than the influence of the urbanization subsystem. (3) The green coverage of built-up areas is the most important attribute affecting coordinated development. Urbanization still has room for development. The main issues that need to be addressed are population urbanization and social urbanization. Based on the research results, policy recommendations are made to provide a scientific basis for sustainable development and a reference for the formulation of regional new-type urbanization policies.

ICT as innovative tools for circular planning in urban areas

The challenges related to the implementation of a circular economy at an urban scale have scarcely been studied or critically interrogated. This contribution aims to define the possible ways in which ICT can be used to stimulate and monitor circular actions on an urban scale. Four urban subsystems have been identified from which circular urban programmes can be linked, providing benefits for numerous categories of stakeholders. This work investigates the main possibilities offered by the use of ICT and the most recurrent functionalities associated with and implemented by digital tools. Finally, among indicators that already exist in the literature, this work identifies a strategy to monitor the effects of the actions on the ecosystem.

Analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the coupling relationship between urbanization and environment in Kunming city, southwest China

Urbanization are resulting in enormous environment pressure to China's plateau cities. Taking Kunming as an example, based on statistical data from 2000 to 2016, this paper evaluated the comprehensive level of urbanization and environment by using the index system construction method, and investigated the dynamic changes of the coupling relationship between urbanization and environment by using the coupling coordination degree model. An index system for assessment of the comprehensive level of urbanization is established based on four aspects (social, economic, demographic and spatial urbanization). An index system of the comprehensive level of environment was also presented based on three aspects (response, state and pressure environment). The results show that: (1) In urbanization sub-system, the weight of social urbanization is the highest. While in environment sub-system, environment response has the highest weight. These indicate that these two are the key factors that need to be prioritized in the decision-making of adjustment and coordinated development. (2) During the past 16 years, the comprehensive level of urbanization increased rapidly from 0.117 to 0.909, while that of environment only increased from 0.446 to 0.566, showing a fluctuating trend. These represent that the process of environment change in the plateau region is complex and unstable. And the long-term environment improvement and management measures, such as controlling sewage discharge and improving water environment, need to be implemented. (3) The index of coupling coordination degree increased from 0.338 to 0.599, showing a S-shaped curve. Kunming had experienced a transformation from “moderately unbalanced development with hindered urbanization” to “preliminarily balanced development with a lagging environment”, which denotes that compared with the development of economic and social, the environment protection of plateau cities is lagging behind. This empirical analysis of Kunming indicate that CCD model is very useful for comprehensively quantifying the relationships between urbanization and the environment, and can produce objective results of great significance and reference value for Kunming's future development.

Spatiotemporal Differentiation of Coupling and Coordination Relationship of Tourism–Urbanization–Ecological Environment System in China’s Major Tourist Cities

Determining the coupling development mode and evolution process of the tourism–urbanization–ecological environment system is of great significance in promoting high-quality and sustainable development of tourism and the urban economy. In this study, an evaluation index system of the tourism–urbanization–ecological environment system was established, and the spatiotemporal differentiation of the coupling and coordination relationship of the tourism–urbanization–ecological environment system was analyzed for 35 major tourist cities in China from 2009 to 2018. The results show that the comprehensive development indices of the tourism industry subsystem and urbanization subsystem of China’s major tourist cities have steadily increased. The comprehensive development indices of large-sized and medium-sized cities in the east are relatively high. From 2009 to 2018, the coordination degree and coupling degree of the tourism–urbanization–ecological environment’ system of 35 tourist cities showed an upward trend. The growth rate of the coupling coordination degree lags behind the growth rate of the coupling degree, and the overall system coordination level is still low. There are significant differences in the coupling degree and coupling coordination degree among the eastern, central, and western cities. This study offers both theoretical and practical implications for further equalizing the development level between the cities, as well as improving the overall coordination between the tourism industry, urbanization, and the ecological environment in China.

Comparing Regional Sustainability and Transportation Sustainability at the Metropolitan Level in the U.S. using Artificial Neural Network Clustering Techniques

Regional sustainability and transportation sustainability have been intensely discussed and analyzed in recent decades. Though the use of indicators has been adopted in those models, debates continue on what indicators should be used and how to optimize the number of indicators. This results in the lack of a comprehensive and efficient method to assess and compare the sustainability of a sub-system, such as transportation system, and overall regional sustainability. A thorough literature review is conducted to identify indicators used to assess regional sustainability and transportation sustainability. Then, based on the available data, two sets of indicators for regional sustainability and transportation sustainability are identified and calculated respectively for the 382 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the U.S. A self-organizing map, which is a type of artificial neural network, is used to cluster the MSAs and compare their regional sustainability and transportation sustainability as well as to investigate the relationships among indicators. The results show that MSAs with a higher score on regional sustainability do not necessarily have a higher score on transportation sustainability. Some MSAs that are geographically close to each other have similar scores in regional sustainability and transportation sustainability. These findings provide insights to decision makers that the assessment of sustainability should consider both correlation and heterogeneity of different indicators within a region. Therefore, it is important to develop a comprehensive and efficient method to evaluate the role of sustainability in one urban sub-system, such as transportation, in the overall regional sustainability.

Coupling and Coordination Level of the Population, Land, Economy, Ecology and Society in the Process of Urbanization: Measurement and Spatial Differentiation

Coupled and coordinated development is key to improving the level of regional urbanization and sustainable urban development and has important practical significance for solving a series of problems that arise in the process of rapid urbanization. First, from the perspective of system coupling, the development mechanism of the urbanization internal subsystems was deconstructed into five dimensions: population, land, economy, ecology and society. Second, based on data from 2017, the coupling coordination degree of urbanization in 13 cities in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region was measured using the entropy method and a coupling coordination model. Finally, the spatial differences in the levels of subsystem development, comprehensive development and coupling and coordination development of urbanization were analyzed using spatial analysis tools. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the development indices of urbanization subsystems in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, among which the economic and social development indices have the greatest differences, and the ecological development index has the smallest. The comprehensive urbanization index shows a core–periphery distribution pattern, in which Beijing and Tianjin have the highest values, the cities in middle-southern Hebei Province generally have lower values, and the cities in northern Hebei Province have the lowest values. The coupling coordination level of urbanization in the Beijing–Tianjin–Tangshan region and Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, is high, and the difference is small. In contrast, in middle-southern and northern Hebei Province, the coupling coordination degree of urbanization is generally low, and the difference is large. Based on the current situation of urbanization in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, policy suggestions are proposed from the perspectives of strengthening the market mechanism of urbanization, adjusting the regional industrial structure and attaching importance to the coupled and coordinated development of urbanization.

Investigation of Dynamic Coupling Coordination between Urbanization and the Eco-Environment—A Case Study in the Pearl River Delta Area

The interaction between urbanization and the eco-environment is usually viewed as an effect–feedback framework. Its coupling system is composed of urbanization and eco-environment subsystems. In this paper, the coupling degree (CD) and the coupling coordinated degree (CCD) are used to reflect the coupling interaction and coupling coordination between the urbanization subsystem and the eco-environment subsystem. Based on the dynamic relative quantities of urbanization and eco-environment data in the Pearl River Delta, CD and CCD values were calculated, and the spatiotemporal evolution trend of coordination was analyzed. The results show that (1) from 2000 to 2015, the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta had high CD values and CCD values. Though they had different performances in different periods, they were all in a coordinated class, including good coordination (GC), moderate coordination (MC), and bare coordination (BC). (2) In terms of temporal evolution, the coupling coordination between urbanization and the eco-environment in the entire Pearl River Delta greatly improved. (3) From the perspective of spatial distribution, the coupling coordination of the central region was higher than that of the peripheral regions, and that of the west bank of the Pearl River was higher than that of the east bank of the Pearl River. These results can help local policy makers enact appropriate measures for sustainable development.

Identifying resource and environmental carrying capacity in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China: the perspectives of spatial differences and sustainable development

The resource and environmental carrying capacity (RECC) is an important foundation and support for a city or region, and determines the direction of regional sustainable development. Identifying the RECC in basin economic belts aids the understanding of overloaded regions and development shortcomings. Based on the human–environment coupling system theory, in combination with the pressure–state–response relationship, we have built a theoretical framework of RECC applicable to the basin economic belt. Taking the area of the Yangtze River Economic Belt as a case area, an RECC index system was constructed and a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method used to evaluate the RECC and its subsystems for prefecture-level cities. We found that cities with better RECC are mainly located in urban agglomeration areas and neighboring cities. Among them are cities with more coordinated subsystems that are not only located in large cities but also in some provinces, showing obvious critical effects. We also found that the geographic location of the river basin and the stage of economic development cause differences in the level of urban subsystems. Furthermore, the backwardness of environmental governance and resource-saving technologies, and insufficient human feedback from government intervention are key constraints on the RECC. We propose that the optimization of the layout of the chemical industry and the innovative development of a competitive model are important means for solving the development dilemma of the basin. This research can help inform sustainable development policies of river basin economic zones worldwide.

Integrated modelling of autonomous electric vehicle diffusion: From review to conceptual design

The future Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are likely to be electric. We started with a review of the adoption of AVs, Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Autonomous Electric Vehicles (AEVs), as well as the six associated urban sub-systems, namely transportation, land use, environment, energy, economy, and population systems, in order to find evidence about the linkages and interactions between the diffusion of AEVs and the six sub-systems. Based on the review, we argued that an integrated urban model, which takes the linkages and interactions into account, was needed to fully understand the adoption and impacts of AEVs. Furthermore, we conducted a conceptual design of an integrated model for AEVs (without explicit modelling), and demonstrated how to update an existing agent-based Land Use and Transport Interaction (LUTI) model by incorporating AEV components. The resulting integrated model of AEVs would help different AEV-related stakeholders (e.g., local authorities) in their decision-making.

A Study on the Coordinated Development of Ecological Environment, Urbanization and High-quality Economy in the Yellow River Basin

The protection of the ecological environment and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin is a major national strategy. Urbanization is also important and should be promoted more efficiency in China. The ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin has been destroyed, further affecting the process of urbanization. The difficulty of sustainable economic development has increased. Therefore, China needs high-quality economic development. In this context, the coordinated development of the ecological environment, urbanization and high-quality economy in the Yellow River Basin deserve more attention. Based on the time-series data of the Yellow River Basin from 2010 to 2020, this paper analyzes the trend and characteristics of the development of the ecological environment subsystem, urbanization subsystem and high-quality economy subsystem by building a comprehensive evaluation system of the three subsystems, using entropy method and coupling coordination degree model. The results show that: from 2010 to 2020, the comprehensive level show an obvious upward trend; the story of urbanization and high-quality economic growth is higher than the level of ecological environment. Urbanization and economic development show the spatial difference of environmental carrying capacity; the coupling degree has been at a high level, and the coordination degree has changed significantly. We can conclude that the system coordination degree is in a steady upward trend. And, as a whole, it is shifting to order from disorder and getting to the level of coordination. It is helpful to guide the strategy formulation of the coordinated development among the ecological environment, urbanization and high-quality economy in the Yellow River Basin.

ОДЕСЬКИЙ РАЙОН ЯК СІЛЬСЬКО-МІСЬКА АГЛОМЕРАЦІЯ

The article defines the composition of Odessa district by demographic characteristics of the communities that are part of it, identified it by essential characteristics as a rural-urban agglomeration. The scientific novelty and practical value of the study is to reveal the features of Odessa district, which are determined by its location, resource potential and nature of economic, industrial, social, cultural, recreational and other relationships and relationships between of urban, settlement and rural communities. It is proved that the inclusion of four other cities of regional significance in the district violated the existing natural-geographical and socio-economic division of the system of territorial organization of society into its rural and urban subsystems, but at the same time provided an opportunity to combine resources of communities to meet the growing needs of urban and rural populations and to solve existing problems that hinder the achievement of a higher standard of living by these communities. The advantages of Odesa district over other districts are determined, which consist in the presence of significant socio-economic, intellectual and cultural potential of its administrative center. The Indicated role of Odessa and other towns that are part of the district in the socio-cultural services of the population of suburban villages, their impact on changes in the settlement network, to planning of rural settlements. The socio-economic expediency of placing branches, workshops of enterprises, subsidiaries in the suburban zone of the administrative center of the district in order to prevent critical urbanization and deconcentration of production within its spatial boundaries. It was found that the predominance of certain functions, types of economic activity within the suburbs largely depends on the degree of remoteness of its communities from Odessa. With this in mind, three echelons of the suburban zone have been identified. The distance of the third echelon from the administrative center of the district varies between 50–60 km, the second – 30–50 km, the first – 30 km. The first echelon is used mainly for residential and industrial construction, unloading, placement of recreation centers, cottages, gardens. Within the second and third echelons, agricultural enterprises and other economic entities operate. Based on the results of the research, conclusions are made and prospects for further research in this area are determined.

Analysis of the state of the urbanized landscape of the city of Tyumen

The multifunctionality of the city makes it possible to consider it from the point of view of the urbanized landscape, giving due attention to the concept of its sustainable development. The development is based on the landscape-ecological approach, which makes it possible to analyze the natural, social, economic and urban planning subsystems of the city’s land-property complex. This approach made it possible to assess natural and anthropogenic processes, to establish the degree of degradation of the urban landscape and, based on the method of analyzing hierarchies, the results of sociocultural surveys, to develop a set of measures for the rational organization of the use and protection of urban lands [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9-11].

Coupling and coordination analysis of urbanization, economy and environment of Shandong Province, China

Extensive urbanization and industrialization are taking place in eastern China, resulting in huge challenges on environmental quality. In this case, a coupling and coordination model to analyze the complex relationship between urbanization, economy and environment was developed. The corresponding composite system was built using system dynamics, consisted of urbanization level, urbanization efficiency, social impact, industrial structure, economic level, resource utilization, environmental pollution and environmental protection. Based on the statistics data of each component in temporal sequence (2006–2017) of Shandong province, the inherent relationship of the composite system was explored. The results showed that (1) the key influencing factors of the composite system were environmental pollution level, environmental protection intensity, urbanization extent, industrial structure type, and resource utilization efficiency (in descending order of importance); (2) the coordination degree between economy and urbanization subsystem was the lowest, therefore much more efforts should be made on the coordinated development between urbanization evolution and economic growth; (3) the coupling degree reached a high level for both subsystems and the composite system, in contrast, the coordination degree exhibited an increasing trend from low-level coordination to medium coordination. It is necessary to enhance the coordinated development of urbanization, economy and environment, to achieve sustainable development of ecological civilized society.

Destabilization of an urban subsystem by a virtual collapse in its space–time structure

It is shown that a virtual collapse in the space–time structure of a geographically distributed system may induce changes in the information flow field of the system and lead to instability. A case study of the commercial banking system of New York City demonstrates how a virtual collapse in the space–time structure of its check clearing process led to a transformed information flow environment in which banks had, for the first time, accurate and timely information concerning the decision-making processes of other banks. A dynamical systems model representing the behavior of the banks, both before and after the transformation, demonstrates how their competitive use of this information led to decision-making based on the decisions of others. This process of internal referencing resulted in a structurally unstable state in which perturbations, arising from asymmetric responses to seasonally changing deposit flows, accumulated with little or no decay. This caused loans to diverge from deposits and made the system susceptible to random financial perturbations that led to a banking panic. While the behavior of the aggregate system was structurally unstable, the behavior of the individual banks was stable, with the banks behaving as a coherent group. The internal referencing structural instability is of general significance for the aggregate behavior of geographically distributed systems that undergo a virtual collapse in their space–time structures and a transformation of their information flow fields.

Visibilización y reconocimiento de los recursos naturales y culturales en espacios del periurbano: Villa María, Córdoba, Argentina

The peri-urban spaces are the zones of transition between the urban and the rural, where phenomena of transformation and high social dynamics unfold. In these systems, complexity is one of the main factors, which by understanding the interrelation between object systems and social actors, allow planning to minimize environmental risks and promote coexistence. The natural physical conditions of each territory must be the baseline to establish municipal planning; likewise, it must contemplate the urban subsystem as the productive and natural subsystems of the territory. The theoretical interpretation of a geographical fact in the peri-urban area of Villa Maria was a appropriate tool as a trigger for the transdisciplinary approach to natural and cultural resources. From the combination of different methodologies, the scheme of the system and the importance of social actors in the territory were obtained.