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Green Space Changes and Planning in the Capital Region of China

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Abstract

Green space plays an important role in complex urban ecosystems and provides significant ecosystem services with environmental, aesthetic, recreational and economic benefits. Beijing is the capital city of China and has a large population of about 15.81 million. Construction of green spaces is an important part of sustainable development in Beijing. To attain the sustainable development of Beijing as a capital city, an international city, a historical cultural city, and a living amenity city, this article attempts to develop a comprehensive plan of green space development both at the municipal and regional levels. At the municipal level of Beijing, based on the study of green space changes, and taking physical geographic conditions and historical context into account, we propose to establish green barriers in the mountainous area, and plan a comprehensive green space pattern composed of one city, two rings, three networks, eight water areas, nine fields, and several patches in the plain area. At the regional level of the Capital Circle Region, integrating the characteristics and causes of main environmental issues, we design a macroscopic pattern—“barriers by mountains in the northwest,” “seaward open spaces in the southeast,” “grassland-forest-field-coast zones,” and “green-blue symphony”—for ecological restoration and green space construction. Finally, we discuss the principles necessary to implement green space planning considering adaptation to local conditions, composite function exploitation, interregional equity and integrated planning.

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Acknowledgments

This research is financially supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation Project (No. 8062018) and Natural Science Foundation of China Project (No. 40830746). The authors kindly acknowledge the supports. We are grateful to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Territorial Resources for providing the 1996 and 2004 land use maps and the land use change survey. We also thank Associate Professor Jian Lin in Peking University and the research group of Beijing General Land Use Planning for their valuable suggestions. Finally, we send thanks to the reviewers for their suggestions and comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Laboratory for Earth Surface Process of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Xuegong Xu

  2. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Xiaofeng Duan, Haiqing Sun & Qiang Sun

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  1. Xuegong Xu
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  2. Xiaofeng Duan
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  3. Haiqing Sun
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  4. Qiang Sun
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Correspondence to Xuegong Xu.

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Xu, X., Duan, X., Sun, H. et al. Green Space Changes and Planning in the Capital Region of China. Environmental Management 47, 456–467 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9626-3

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