The Spatial-Temporal Characteristics and Dilemmas of Sustainable Urbanization in China: A New Perspective Based on the Concept of Five-in-One

Abstract

A large amount of ink has been spilled to paint the picture of China’s urbanization. However, more research might be done on the connotation of sustainable urbanization in China. On the basis of a literature review, this study is the first to propose the perspective of evaluating the sustainability of urbanization from the five dimensions of urbanization: economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological. Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and entropy method, a five-dimensional indicator system was established to evaluate the urbanization quality of 31 provincial regions in China during 2005–2015. Then, the coupling coordination degree model was used to calculate the coupling coordination degree of the five dimensions for each region. Furthermore, Moran’s I index and a local indicators of spatial association (LISA) cluster map were used to measure and describe the spatial disparity. Finally, a factor identification model was used to recognize the weaknesses of each region. This study leads to four major findings. (1) In 2015, only ecological urbanization had a high-quality and balanced development, while the development of cultural urbanization was inadequate and regionally unbalanced. Economic, ecological, and cultural dimensions had a significantly positive global spatial autocorrelation. The local spatial autocorrelation varies with dimension. (2) The quality of comprehensive urbanization increased during 2005–2015, while the regional disparity experienced a reduction. A positive global spatial autocorrelation was shown during 2005–2015. The High-High type in the eastern coastal areas centralized over time, while the Low-Low type in the western areas experienced a decline, and the Low-High type was stabilized in the central areas. Only Chongqing was in the High-Low type in 2015. (3) The increase of coupling coordination degree and decrease of coefficient of variation indicated a favorable situation. The coupling coordination degree also had a positive global spatial autocorrelation during 2005–2015. Both the High-High and Low-Low types experienced an obvious shrink and displacement. The Low-High type expanded and centralized in the central areas, while the High–Low type was in Guangdong in 2005, and in Chongqing in 2015. (4) The highest obstacle degrees of each region were all within the cultural dimension, while the ecological dimension caused the least resistance. The lack of innovation had become the biggest barrier in most regions. Based on the above conclusions, this paper concludes with recommendations for policy makers to advance sustainable urbanization in China. Meanwhile, this study can provide lessons and suggestions for other developing countries in the world.

The Spatiotemporal Coupling Characteristics of Regional Urbanization and Its Influencing Factors: Taking the Yangtze River Delta as an Example

“…It can be seen that population urbanization includes changes in population attributes, changes in the structure of population employment and concentration of urban public service facilities [21,22,31,37,38]. Land urbanization refers to the process of transforming agricultural land and rural construction land into urban construction land, including the increase of the scale of urban construction land and the adjustment of its internal structure [20,[22][23][24][25]39]. Economy urbanization mainly refers to the improvement of economic aggregate and the transformation of economic structure.…”

“…In recent years, the phenomena of semi-urbanization such as the reduction of demographic dividend, the hollowing out of rural areas and the imbalance of economic development have emerged in endlessly [15][16][17]. Therefore, domestic scholars are more inclined to study the urbanization quality, involving new urbanization construction and sustainable urbanization [18][19][20]. According to the studies by Friedmann (2006) and Chen (2015), the high-level urbanization does not mean that there is a high-level coupling coordination among urbanization sub-systems, so whether these sub-systems are coordinated or not is the key to grasp the law of urbanization and achieve sustainable urbanization.…”

Research on the Coupling Coordination Relationships between Urban Function Mixing Degree and Urbanization Development Level Based on Information Entropy

“…Information entropy is a physical concept, introduced by Shannon to measure the disorder of a system, and to measure the complexity and balance between systems [ 36 , 37 , 38 ]. In the process of urbanization, the POI is one of the core elements of the urban structure and form.…”

Coordinated Interactions of Sustainable Urbanization Dimensions: Case Study in Hunan, China

“…The interpretations of urbanization vary in different fields, but generally they can be included as follows: Urbanization is the transformation from agricultural or rural activities, population, and lifestyles to nonagricultural or urban ones (S. Gao et al, 2019;. However, such interpretation is somehow traditional with some deficiencies: it focuses on the quantity of urbanization process and ignores the quality of urbanization process; thus, the traditional view of urbanization is not sustainable (Wei et al, 2018). Thereafter, the concept of urbanization was gradually evolved into sustainable urbanization, which focuses on the quality of urbanization process, and contributes to solving potential urbanization-related problems (such as environmental pollution, income disparity, and food insecurity), with the idea of sustainability during the urbanization process (F. Li et al, 2009;Zhong et al, 2020).…”