Abstract
With respect to urbanization in China, there is a very obvious phenomenon of uncontrolled and disorderly city sprawl. The amount of built-up areas and land used for urban development has long been increasing at a much faster rate than the urban population.
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Notes
- 1.
The result of independent test on density effect is omitted herein. For more information, please refer to Wei and Su (2013).
- 2.
Rapid urban sprawl in China has consumed a large amount of farmland and has led to decreases in farmland size and quality.
- 3.
Only carbon emissions are included herein since SO2 emissions relate to both the sulfur content in fuel and other energy mixes. Namely, they may drop with a decrease in the former and changes in the latter.
- 4.
China released emissions standards for light vehicles in July 1999 and revised it in 2001. It successively implemented emissions standards equivalent to Euro I, II, III and IV emissions standards in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 respectively.
- 5.
By the end of 2008, there were 11.48 million households living in shanty towns across China, including 7.44 million households in cities (64.80%), 2.38 million households in state-owned factories and mines (20.73%) and 1.66 million households in forestation/farming zones (14.46%); of these, 6.81 million households were low-income and cannot afford housing and 4.67 million households were lower-middle-income and cannot afford housing, according to a survey. There remain about 12.00 million households living in shanty towns due to adjustments to China’s shanty town standards. The percentages of various shanty towns remain stable.
- 6.
Given that data for Lhasa is unavailable, these 35 cities include municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial/regional capitals except for Lhasa, and cities specifically designated in the state plan, each with an urban-area population of over 1,000,000 people. This is also true with the following sections.
- 7.
Chinese cities’ poor population mainly includes the unemployed, people suffering from serious or long-term diseases and/or disabilities, low-income employees and other disadvantaged groups.
- 8.
Municipalities directly under the Central Government were excluded from region- and urban population size-specific analysis unless otherwise stated. Given the uniqueness of these municipalities, they each have a large human population. Moreover, both Beijing and Shanghai are very populous and greatly affect data for East China and cities with populations over 2,000,000 people. As an example, East China and cities with populations over 2,000,000 people would each have a population density of 9637 and 11,173 people/km2 respectively if municipalities directly under the Central Government were included. That compares with 8559 and 10,063 people/km2 excluding such municipalities. For this reason, municipalities under the Central Government are excluded from region- and urban population size-specific analysis.
- 9.
Total urban-area population herein equals urban-area population plus temporary population in urban areas.
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Wei, H. (2019). Spatial Expansion Effect of Urbanization in China. In: Urbanization in China. Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1408-7_7
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