City Planning Review（2023.9）

♦SPATIAL BEHAVIOR RESEARCH: PERSPECTIVE AND TECHNICAL PARADIGM

Author: WANG De; WEI Dan

ABSTRACT: Research on behavior involves management, psychology, economics, and many other disciplines, which usually focus on the human, society, or economy. Spatial behavior research is based on geography, urban and rural planning, and architecture, and specifically focuses on the usage of space, providing a new perspective to understand urban space evolution. This paper summarizes the different perspectives and technical paradigms of spatial behavior research from the discipline of urban and rural planning, and explores the development direction of future research. The paper categorizes the research subjects of spatial behavior into four aspects: behavior type, behavior subject, behavior space, and behavior time. Then, it divides the research perspectives into static and dynamic behavior, and active and passive environment. Furthermore, this paper summarizes three typical spatial behavior research paradigms, i.e., behavior description, behavior modeling, and behavior simulation. Finally, based on the changing behavior and space, this paper proposes that spatial behavior research needs to advance with the times. 

KEYWORDS: spatial behavior research; subjects; perspectives; technical paradigm

♦RESEARCH ON CITIES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ANALOGY TO HUMAN BODY AND LIVING ORGANISMS: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

Author: LIU Shangchao; LI Chao; NI Pengfei

ABSTRACT: There are many similarities between cities and human body/living organisms, such as their fundamental characteristics: complexity, self-organization, periodicity and network structure, as well as common laws: metabolism and allometry. In addition, we have gradually shifted our view on cities from an initial “space machine” to an “organic living organism”. Reviewing and summarizing urban studies from the perspective of human body and living organisms, this paper finds that life science has profoundly affected urban planning theories and practices, and that the theory and research methods of life science provide new ideas for solving problems in urban development. The interdisciplinary research of urban science and life science (can be called the “Urban Organism” study) is based on the characteristics of the urban living organism, as well as the two most important trends of “life science” and “urbanization” in the 21st century. Accordingly, it has broad prospects in many fields, such as urban infrastructure construction and management, urban metabolism, and urban development and governance. 

KEYWORDS: city organism; city; body; analogy; urban metabolism; urban allometry; urban network

♦A STUDY ON CHINESE PLANNING HISTORY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PLANNING DIFFUSION

Author: NIU Yuansha 

ABSTRACT: Against the backdrop of globalization, there has been an increasing focus on the dissemination of planning ideas. However, this process, referred to as planning diffusion, has not been extensively explored in the current Chinese scholarship on planning history. This article aims to address this gap by examining the implications, research subjects, primary concerns, and relevant theories and methodologies. The central argument put forward is that planning diffusion is essentially a process of partial reinvention. Building upon this premise, the article further suggests the exploration of multiple actors and local resistance as essential components to enrich the study of contemporary Chinese planning history. 

KEYWORDS: planning diffusion; actors; local resistance; reinvention; urban planning history

♦CHINESE TRADITIONAL WISDOM OF RESILIENCE AND ITS ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONTEMPORARY CITIES

Author: LI Yunyan; LI Zhenghao; WANG Ziyi; SHI Ling

ABSTRACT: Chinese civilization has been developed for thousands of years and contains profound resilience wisdom. Throughout the ancient Chinese urban construction and disaster mitigation system, whether it is the coordination between urban construction and nature, the construction of urban disaster prevention facilities, or the evolution of the national disaster control system, the process reflects the ideological underpinnings of China’s ancient traditional wisdom of resilience. Although the traditional ideas and systems of urban planning resilience are complex and far from forming a complete system, and their typical ritual planning ideas and the natural view of the landscape of the unity of heaven and man are in some aspects no longer suitable for the current urban development, there are ideas and technical wisdom worth learning. By systematically reviewing and sorting out the traditional wisdom of resilience presented in three aspects: ancient classic books and canons, historical figures, and urban construction practices, the article summarizes the characteristics and overall development history of resilient safety thinking in various ancient periods and concludes that China’s traditional wisdom of resilience is mainly reflected in the evolution of resilience thinking from passive natural adaptation to systematic subjective pursuit, the interweaving of emotional and rational demands for resilience, safety-oriented resilience engineering construction, and other aspects. It also summarizes the inspiration for modern resilient city theory and construction from four aspects: construction technology, organizational control, social mechanism, and economic regulation. 

KEYWORDS: ancient cities; urban construction; wisdom of resilience; enlightenment 

♦GOVERNANCE LOGIC AND CORRESPONDING PLANNING METHODS FOR THE DEMONSTRATION ZONE OF INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT IN THE YANGTZE RIVER DELTA

Author: ZHENG Degao; SUN Juan; LIU Di; YAN Yan; ZHU Biyao; ZHAO Xianfeng

ABSTRACT: In response to the development trend of spatial governance in global urban areas, combined with the integrated governance framework of the Ecological and Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone of Yangtze River Delta, this article proposes a cross-border integrated regional governance logic of “governance subject – governance object – governance carrier” in conjunction with the formulation of the demonstration zone’s comprehensive territorial planning, as well as the technical logic of “common goals – key actions – demonstration projects” in the demonstration zone’s comprehensive territorial planning. The integrated territorial planning of the demonstration zone has been summarized on the premise of meeting the requirements of the provincial territorial planning compilation method, responding to three innovations under the governance logic: firstly, shifting from a from-top-to-bottom directive arrangement to a from-bottom-to-top “consensus” and “contract”; secondly, shifting from being comprehensive to focusing on “limited goals” and directly addressing the difficulties of cross-border collaboration through “strategic problem-solving”; thirdly, shifting from an ideal ultimate blueprint to a gradual policy guidance that adapts to market uncertainty. 

KEYWORDS: integrated region; regional governance; planning logic; the Yangtze River Delta; ecological and green; comprehensive territorial planning

♦IMPACT OF THE SPATIAL INTERACTION EFFECT OF HIGH-FREQUENCY CONNECTIVITY ON METROPOLITAN REGION INTEGRATION: EVIDENCE FROM SHANGHAI AND THE YANGTZE RIVER DELTA

Author: XU Jie; WANG Di; ZHANG Yina 

ABSTRACT: Against the background that the metropolitan region is taken as the key for high-quality development of urban agglomeration, and based on theories of the space of flows and the hinterworld, this paper puts forward the concepts of high-frequency hinterland and network core unit. It explores the interaction between the core city and its high-frequency hinterland, as well as the varied impacts of the interactions on metropolitan region integration, with the evidence from Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta. Firstly, by using mobile signaling data, the high-frequency hinterland is determined based on the distribution of commuting and one-day business trips. Secondly, the core unit is defined according to the proportion of inter-city trips. Thirdly, the change of socio-economic attributes of each research unit is analyzed and the spatial interactions are divided into three patterns: mutual promotion, structural imbalance, and mutual consumption, which produce the impacts of positive promotion, initial promotion, and weakening on the metropolitan region integration respectively. The reason for the variability lies in the nodes’ own development stages and the relative development levels between nodes, which restrained the role of flow, resulting in the discrepant effects. At the end of the paper, the policy suggestions that can facilitate positive spatial effects are proposed based on the above patterns. 

KEYWORDS: high-frequency connectivity; metropolitan region integration; spatial effect; Shanghai; the Yangtze River Delta

♦RESEARCH ON SPATIAL FORM OPTIMIZATION OF TRADITIONAL BLOCKS BASED ON GENETIC ALGORITHM: A CASE OF THE OLD CITY OF KASHGAR

Author: LI Tao; CHEN Zhaozhe; WANG Huaibin; LI Shuqi 

ABSTRACT: This paper analyzes the scientific value of exploring the wisdom of climate-adaptive construction of traditional blocks for today’s urban regeneration and design. Taking the old city of Kashgar as an example, the paper studies the relationship between the spatial form of traditional blocks and microclimate in the hot-arid climate in northwestern China. In view of the low efficiency of artificial coupling in the current urban form and microclimate simulation research that mostly focuses on modern blocks and adopts a single variable to analyze them one by one, the paper introduces genetic algorithm and Pareto principle, and makes use of the Octopus, a multi-objective optimization platform, to carry out the experiment of space form self-generation based on the optimal outdoor thermal comfort. Thus, the best value of space form parameters for climate-adaptive blocks can be obtained, based on which the methods and design strategies for the optimization of street space form of traditional blocks in hot-arid areas can be developed to improve the outdoor thermal comfort. Such methods and strategies can provide the scientific basis for microclimate optimization in the urban regeneration and design of local cities. 

KEYWORDS: northwestern hot-arid area; traditional block; block form; outdoor thermal comfort; genetic algorithm; urban regeneration

♦WHY HAS VILLAGE PLANNING LOST ITS CREATIVITY: ANALYSIS OF POWER RELATIONS IN THE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION OF Y VILLAGE PLANNING PROCESS

Author: TONG Zhihui

ABSTRACT: Village planning is the basic work to promote rural development, rural construction, and rural governance, which is urgent to get out of the predicament of low quality. Existing studies show that village planning is a knowledge production process involving multiple subjects, but they fail to directly reveal why it is difficult for the knowledge production to achieve high quality. This paper analyzes the planning process of Y Village by means of Foucault’s power relations theory, and finds that power relations inhibit the creativity of knowledge production. On the one hand, the power relations among various knowledge subjects restrict the entry of various kinds of knowledge, resulting in the deficiency and low quality of raw materials in knowledge production. On the other hand, the power relationship implied by knowledge classification hinders planners’ motivation to create new knowledge. Based on this finding, this paper proposes that we should further understand the nature of village planning by exploring the patterns of knowledge production in planning, and also suggests that in practice, we can optimize the planning process by balancing power relations and enhance planners’ sensitivity to the inhibiting effect of power relations. 

KEYWORDS: village planning; knowledge production; power relations; creativity of knowledge production; inhibiting effect; planning process; planner

♦TECHNICAL EVOLUTION AND THEORETICAL TREND OF RURAL PLANNING IN CHINA: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE “THREE RURAL ISSUES” POLICY AND URBAN-RURAL RELATIONSHIP

Author: FENG Xu; WANG Kai; MAO Qizhi 

ABSTRACT: Through an analysis on the “three rural issues” policy and urban-rural relationship under the influence of the macro socio-economic system after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, this paper explores the external environment, internal motivation, and theoretical trends that have promoted the development of rural planning at different stages. Based on the allocation of urban and rural resources, the development of rural planning in China can be divided into five stages: (1) the stage of separated urban-rural management (1949-1980), in which agricultural production was improved through regional land planning; (2) the stage of improved urban-rural relationship (1981-1993), in which the comprehensive town/township planning was used to guide the construction of residential areas at different levels against the background of rural industrialization; (3) the stage of accelerated urban development (1994-2003), in which the exploration of integrating urban and rural planning systems at the county level was carried out to guide the reasonable utilization of urban and rural space; (4) the stage of rural development driven by urban development (2004-2011), in which rural construction and multifunctional development of agriculture and rural areas were implemented under the concept of urban-rural coordination through the village system planning at the county level and the new countryside construction; (5) the stage of integrated urban-rural development (2012-2018), in which the village construction planning at the county level was used to guide the spatial adjustment and project construction required by the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. The paper offers inspirations for rural spatial planning methods under the territorial planning system: firstly, it is necessary to consider the rural spatial planning objectives based on the “three rural issues” policies and the urban-rural development trend; secondly, it is necessary to establish integrated technical logic for planning and governance; finally, it is necessary to explore practical village classification methods for spatial optimization. 

KEYWORDS: “three rural issues” policy; urban-rural relationship; rural planning; technical evolution; theoretical trend; territorial planning

♦COORDINATED DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AND TERRITORIAL PLANNING: REFLECTIONS BASED ON THE PERSPECTIVE OF COORDINATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE POWER

Author: HUANG Kaidi; XU Wangtu; ZHANG Wei

ABSTRACT: Transportation is an important support for shaping the spatial pattern and strengthening the spatial organization. The coordinated development of transportation planning and territorial planning is of great significance for optimizing spatial pattern and improving spatial governance. As the promoter of the planning implementation, the government departments have a direct impact on the planning implementation through the fulfillment of their duties. This paper reviews the administrative power system of transportation planning and territorial planning at the present stage. And it explains the development focus of transportation planning in the new development pattern in China, i.e., to meet the needs of territorial control and the strategic priority of building a strong transportation nation. Then, this paper analyzes the conflicts of administrative power between transportation planning and territorial planning in the process of planning management and implementation, which mainly include the conflict between protection and development, the conflict between short-term goal and long-term goal, the conflict in planning management and transfer, and lack of legal status and vague legal authority. In view of the existing conflicts and considering the future development priorities, this paper puts forward the idea of the coordinated development of transportation planning and territorial planning, i.e., recognition of objectives, legal protection, and communication and cooperation between management departments. Specifically, it is to insist on overall coordination and strengthen the integration of objectives; improve the legal system, clarify the boundaries of power and responsibility; promote multi-party interaction and improve the mechanism of cooperation.

KEYWORDS: transportation planning; territorial planning; administrative power; coordinated development

♦RESEARCH ON COORDINATED DEVELOPMENT OF RAIL TRANSIT NETWORK AND CENTER SYSTEM IN METROPOLITAN AREA

Author: ZHANG Pei; WANG Chaoshen; WU Xiao; ZHANG Zhonghua

ABSTRACT: With the support of rail transit network, the motorized organization mode of metropolitan areas in China is changing from automobile-oriented to rail transit-oriented. However, there are few in-depth studies on the mechanism of rail transit network reshaping urban spatial form and function. In response to the above problem, this paper emphatically analyses difference in transportation capacity and accessibility characteristics of traditional road network and rail transit network. The paper argues that the layout of metropolitan center system should match network accessibility. Taking Chengdu and Xi’an, typical cluster-shaped metropolitan areas, as examples, it establishes network accessibility distribution models corresponding to two transportation modes, finding that the rail transit network accessibility distribution does not present a circle owing to the influence of express rail transit lines, which is quite different from the road network accessibility. Within the scope of 3,000 km2, rail transit network accessibility is superior to road network accessibility. From the perspective of spatial organization efficiency, this paper questions the polar nucleus center system of urban planning in China. It deems that the intensity of peripheral regional center development should not be too high under the condition that the rail transit capacity in the city center could still be greatly improved. 

KEYWORDS: metropolitan area; center system; accessibility; express rail transit line; Chengdu