打印

作者

Ying Ning;Shuguang Liu;Shuqing Zhao;Maochou Liu;Haiqiang Gao;Peng Gong

来源

CITIES,Vol.126,Issue1,Article 103717

语言

英文

关键字

Urban expansion;Gibrat's law;Regional disparity;Urban development policy

作者单位

National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in South China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology (CSUFT), Changsha 410004, China;College of Life Science and Technology, CSUFT, Changsha 410004, China;College of Urban and Environmental Science and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;Center for Healthy Cities, Institute for China Sustainable Urbanization, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry & Ecology in South China, Central South University of Forestry and Technology (CSUFT), Changsha 410004, China;College of Life Science and Technology, CSUFT, Changsha 410004, China;College of Urban and Environmental Science and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;Center for Healthy Cities, Institute for China Sustainable Urbanization, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

摘要

It is undeniable that the process of urbanization in China is a massive phenomenon of scale and speed in humanity history. The relentless march of urbanization poses a critical challenge for creating a comprehensive analysis of the integrated characteristics of contemporary cities. Here, we integrated 30 m continuous and consistent human settlement areas to quantify spatiotemporal dynamics of urban development in 344 prefectural-level cities of China from 1987 to 2017 via Gibrat's law. Results indicated that China had experienced a rapid urbanization process during the past three decades with annual expansion and annual growth rates of 3877.93 km2 and 5.84%, respectively. A key finding was that city growth rate was inversely proportional to initial city size, therefore contradicting Gibrat's law, whose performance was relevant to shifts in urbanization policies. Furthermore, results also highlighted interregional disparities between the southwest and northwest and other regions, as well as intra-regional differences within geographical, urban sizes, and administrative levels. Exploring the validity of Gibrat's law involving the links between city size and growth rate in China deepens our theoretical insights and, more importantly, will make policymakers aware of the need to adopt a holistic approach by considering the uneven nature of urbanization toward better sustainability.