Megalopolisation: An Effect of Large Scale Urbanisation in Post-Reform China
Megalopolis is a group of densely populated metropolitan areas that combine to form an urban complex. Since China introduced the economic reforms in late 1970s, the Chinese urban system has experienced unprecedented growth. The process of urbanisation prevailed in the 1980s, and the process of predominantly large city growth appeared to continue through 1990s and 2000s. In this study, the magnitude and pattern of urbanisation in China during 1990s were examined using remotely sensed imagery acquired by TM/ETM+ sensor onboard the Landsat satellites. The development of megalopolis areas in China was also studied based on the GIS analysis of the increases of urban and built-up area from 1990 to 2000. The analysis suggests that in the traditional agricultural zones in China, e.g., Huang-Huai-Hai Plains, Changjiang River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Sichuan Basin, the urban and built-up areas increased by 1.76 million hectares, of which 0.82 million hectares are expansion of urban areas, an increase of 24.78% compared with 1990 at the national scale. The Yellow River Delta, Changjiang River Delta and Pearl River Delta also saw an increase of urban and built-up area by 63.9%, 66.2% and 83.0% respectively. As a result, three major megalopolises were developed in China: the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong- Macau (Pearl River Delta: PRD) megalopolis area, the Shanghai- Nanjing-Hangzhou (Changjiang River Delta: CRD) megalopolis area and the Beijing-Tianjing-Tangshan-Qinhuangdao (Yellow River Delta-Bohai Sea Ring: YRD) megalopolis area. The relationship between the processed of megalopolisation and the inter-provincial population flow was also explored in the context of social-economic and transport infrastructure development in Post-reform China.
[1] Gottmann, J. 1957. Megalopolis, or, urbanization of the Northeastern
Seaboard. Economic Geograohy 33(3): 189-200.
[2] Gottmann, J. 1958. Megalopolis: some lessons from a study of the
urbanization of the Northeastern Seaboard. Annual Report. NY:
Twentieth Century fund.
[3] Gottman, J. 1961. Megalopolis: The urbanized Northeastern seaboard of
the United States. NY: Twentieth Century fund.
[4] Gottmann, J. and R. Harper (eds.), 1990. Since Megalopolis. Baltimore:
John Hopkins Press.
[5] Borchert, J. R., 1992. Megalopolis: Washington D.C. to Boston. New
Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press.
[6] Robert, J., 1976. Prospective study on physical planning and the
environment in the megalopolis in formation in North-West Europe.
Urban Ecology 1: 334-411.
[7] Baker, T. and A. Sutchliffe (Eds). 1993. Megalopolis: the giant city in
history. London: MacMillan Press.
[8] Santo, Y. 1976. Regional planning and the future development of the
megalopolis in Japan. Habitat International 1(2): 165-173.
[9] Takahashi, J. 1976. Changing socio-cultural patterns in the process of
megalopolitanization - a study of Nagoya and its region. Habitat
International 1(2): 183-194.
[10] Deng, F.F., Huang, Y., 2004. Uneven land reform and urban sprawl in
China: the case of Beijing. Progress in Planning 61 (3): 211-236.
[11] Zhao, S. , R. Chan and K. Sit. 2003. Globalization and the dominance of
large cities in contemporary China. Cities 20 (4): 265-278.
[12] Au, C. and J. Henderson. 2006. How migration restrictions limit
agglomeration and productivity in China. Journal of Development
Economics 80(2): 350-388.
[13] Liu, J. and J. Diamond. 2005. China-s environment in a globalizing
world. Nature 435: 1179-1186.
[14] Liu J., M. Liu, D. Zhuang, Z. Zhang and X. Deng, 2003, Study on spatial
pattern of land-use change in China during 1995-2000, Science in China
(Series D), 46(4): 373-384.
[15] Liu, J., H. Tian, M. Liu, D. Zhuang, J. Melillo and Z. Zhang. 2005.
China-s changing landscape during the 1990s: Large-scale land
transformations estimated with satellite data. Geographical Research
Letters L02808, doi: 10.1029/2004GL021561.
[16] McNeill, J.R. 2000. Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental
History of the Twentieth-Century World. W.W. Norton & Company, New
York, NY, 421p.
[17] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 2003. China Population Statistical
Yearbook 2002 (in Chinese), China Statistics Press, Beijing.
[18] Liu, S., X. Li and M. Zhang. 2003. Scenario Analysis on Urbanization
and Rural-Urban Migration in China. Internatal Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis (IIASA) Interim Report IR-03-036, Laxenburg,
Austria.
[19] Cao, G. 2000. The Future Population of China: Prospects to 2045 by
Place of Residence and by Level of Education. Internatal Institute for
Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Interim Report IR-00-026,
Laxenburg, Austria.
[20] Kaplan, D. H., Wheeler, J. O., & Holloway, S. R. (2004). Urban
Geography. New York: Wiley & Sons. 484p.
[21] Tan, M., X. Li, H. Xie and C. Lu. 2005. Urban land expansion and arable
land loss in China-a case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Land
Use Policy 22(3): 187-196.
[22] Kalnay, E. and M. Cai. 2003. Impact of urbanization and land-use change
on climate. Nature 423: 528-531
[23] Zhou, L., R. Dickinson, Y. Tian, J. Fang, Q. Li, R. Kaufmann, C. J.
Tucker and R. B. Myneni. 2004. Evidence for a significant urbanization
effect on climate in China. PNAS, 101: 9540-9544.
[24] Chung, U., J. Choi and J. Yun. 2004. Urbanization effect on the observed
change in mean monthly temperatures between 1951-1980 and
1971-2000 in Korea. Climatic Change 66: 127-136.
[25] Zhao, T., J. Liu, D. Zhuang, X., Deng and S. Chen. 2004. Environmental
Effects of Urban Expansion in Medium-sized Cities of China: A Case
Study in Mianyang City. In: Gao, W. and Shaw, D.(eds). Remote Sensing
and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability, Proceedings of SPIE Vol.
5544, pp346~355.
[26] Pauleit, S., R. Ennos and Y. Golding. 2005, Modeling the environmental
impacts of urban land use and land cover change - a study in Merseyside,
UK. Landscape and urban planning 71: 295-310.
[27] Milesi, C., C. D. Elvidge, R. R. Nemani, and S.W. Running. 2003.
Assessing the impact of urban land development on net primary
productivity in the Southeastern United States. Remote Sensing of
Environment 86: 401-410.
[28] Zheng, X., C. Fu, X. Xu, X. Yan, Y. Huang, S. Han, F. Hu and G. Chen.
2002. The Asian nitrogen cycle case study. Ambio, 31, 79- 87.
[29] Fu, C. 2003, Potential impacts of human-induced land cover change on
East Asia monsoon, Global Planet Change 37: 219- 229.
[30] Tian, H., J. Melillo, D. Kicklighter, S. Pan, J. Liu, A.D. McGuire and B.
Moore III. 2003. Regional carbon dynamics in monsoon Asia and its
implications to the global carbon cycle. Global and Planetary Change
37:201-217.
[31] Cohen and Goward 2004. Landsat-s Role in Ecological Applications of
Remote Sensing. BioScience 54(6): 535-545.
[32] Coppin P, Nackaerts K, Queen L, Brewer K. 2001. Operational
monitoring of green biomass change for forest management.
Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 67: 603-611.
[33] Chen, S., J. Liu, D. Zhuang and X. Xiao. 2003. Characterization of land
cover types in Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, using multi-temporal
Landsat TM/ETM+ sensor data. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 13(2):
131~138.
[34] Hill, M., P. Vickery, E. Furnival and G. Donald. 1999. Pasture land cover
in Eastern Australia from NOAA-AVHRR NDVI and classified Landsat
TM. Remote Sensing of Environment 67: 32-50.
[35] Vieira, I., A, Almeida, E. Davidson, T. Stone, C. Carvalho and J.
Guerrero. 2003. Classifying successional forests using Landsat spectral
properties and ecological characteristics in eastern Amazonia. Remote
Sensing of Environment 87: 470-481.
[36] Xiao, X., J. Liu, D. Zhuang, S. E. Frolking, S. H. Boles, B. Xu, M. Liu, W.
Salas, B. Moore and C. Li (2003), Uncertainties in Estimates of Cropland
Area in China: A Comparison Between an AVHRR-Derived Dataset and
a Landsat TM-Derived Dataset, Global Planet. Change, 37, 297 - 306.
[37] Zha, Y., J. Gao, S. Ni, Y. Liu, J. Jiang and Y. Wei. 2003. A spectral
reflectance-based approach to quantification of grassland cover from
Landsat TM imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment 87: 371-375.
[38] Liu, J. (Ed.), 1996. Macro-Scale Survey and Dynamic Study of Natural
Resources and Environment of China by Remote Sensing. Beijing, Press
of Science and Technology,. 353 pp. (in Chinese).
[39] Liu, J. and Buheaosier. 2000. Study on spatial-temporal feature of
modern land-use change in China: Using remote sensing techniques,
Quaternary Sciences 20(3), 229.
[40] Zhuang, D., J. Liu, M. Liu. 1999. Research activities on land use/land
cover in the past ten years in China using space technology. Chinese
Geographical Sciences 9(4): 330-334.
[41] Liu, M., X. Tang, J. Liu, D. Zhuang. 2001. Research on scaling effect
based on 1 km grid cell data. Journal of Remote Sensing 5(3), 183-190
(in Chinese).
[42] Tang, X., 2000. Studies on Geo-spatial data fusion and its applications.
PhD dissertation, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. 139 pp. (in Chinese).
[43] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 1999. Cities China 1949-1998 (in
Chinese). China Statistics. Press, Beijing.
[44] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 2000. China Statistical Yearbook 2000 (in
Chinese), China Statistics Press Beijing.
[45] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 2001. China Statistical Yearbook 2001 (in
Chinese), China Statistics Press, Beijing.
[46] Chan, K. and L. Zhang. 1999. The Hukou System and Rural-Urban
Migration in China: Processes and Changes. The China Quarterly 160:
818-855.
[47] Riley, N. 2004. China-s Population: New Trends and Challenges.
Population Bulletin 59(2): 4-36.
[48] Yue, T., Y. Wang, J. Liu, S. Chen, D. Qiu, X. Deng, M. Liu, Y. Tian and
B. Su. 2005. Surface modelling of human population distribution in
China. Ecological Modelling 181: 461-478.
[49] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 2002. China Statistical Yearbook 2002 (in
Chinese), China Statistics Press, Beijing.
[50] Brown, L. 1995. Who Will Feed China? W.W. Norton, New York.
[51] Chen, B. 1996. Comments on ÔÇÿÔÇÿWho will feed China?--. Journal of
Natural Resources 11: 210-215.
[52] Heilig, G. (1999), ChinaFood: Can China Feed Itself? (CD-ROM, version
1.1), Int. Inst. for Appl. Syst. Anal., Laxenburg, Austria, available at
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/ChinaFood/index_m.htm.
[53] Huang, J., and S. Rozelle (1995), Environmental stress and grain yields in
China. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 77: 853-864.
[54] Xiao X., S. Boles, J. Liu, D. Zhuang, S. Frolking, C. Li, W. Salasc and B.
Moore III. 2005. Mapping paddy rice agriculture in southern China using
multi-temporal MODIS images. Remote Sensing of Environment 95:
480-492.
[1] Gottmann, J. 1957. Megalopolis, or, urbanization of the Northeastern
Seaboard. Economic Geograohy 33(3): 189-200.
[2] Gottmann, J. 1958. Megalopolis: some lessons from a study of the
urbanization of the Northeastern Seaboard. Annual Report. NY:
Twentieth Century fund.
[3] Gottman, J. 1961. Megalopolis: The urbanized Northeastern seaboard of
the United States. NY: Twentieth Century fund.
[4] Gottmann, J. and R. Harper (eds.), 1990. Since Megalopolis. Baltimore:
John Hopkins Press.
[5] Borchert, J. R., 1992. Megalopolis: Washington D.C. to Boston. New
Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press.
[6] Robert, J., 1976. Prospective study on physical planning and the
environment in the megalopolis in formation in North-West Europe.
Urban Ecology 1: 334-411.
[7] Baker, T. and A. Sutchliffe (Eds). 1993. Megalopolis: the giant city in
history. London: MacMillan Press.
[8] Santo, Y. 1976. Regional planning and the future development of the
megalopolis in Japan. Habitat International 1(2): 165-173.
[9] Takahashi, J. 1976. Changing socio-cultural patterns in the process of
megalopolitanization - a study of Nagoya and its region. Habitat
International 1(2): 183-194.
[10] Deng, F.F., Huang, Y., 2004. Uneven land reform and urban sprawl in
China: the case of Beijing. Progress in Planning 61 (3): 211-236.
[11] Zhao, S. , R. Chan and K. Sit. 2003. Globalization and the dominance of
large cities in contemporary China. Cities 20 (4): 265-278.
[12] Au, C. and J. Henderson. 2006. How migration restrictions limit
agglomeration and productivity in China. Journal of Development
Economics 80(2): 350-388.
[13] Liu, J. and J. Diamond. 2005. China-s environment in a globalizing
world. Nature 435: 1179-1186.
[14] Liu J., M. Liu, D. Zhuang, Z. Zhang and X. Deng, 2003, Study on spatial
pattern of land-use change in China during 1995-2000, Science in China
(Series D), 46(4): 373-384.
[15] Liu, J., H. Tian, M. Liu, D. Zhuang, J. Melillo and Z. Zhang. 2005.
China-s changing landscape during the 1990s: Large-scale land
transformations estimated with satellite data. Geographical Research
Letters L02808, doi: 10.1029/2004GL021561.
[16] McNeill, J.R. 2000. Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental
History of the Twentieth-Century World. W.W. Norton & Company, New
York, NY, 421p.
[17] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 2003. China Population Statistical
Yearbook 2002 (in Chinese), China Statistics Press, Beijing.
[18] Liu, S., X. Li and M. Zhang. 2003. Scenario Analysis on Urbanization
and Rural-Urban Migration in China. Internatal Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis (IIASA) Interim Report IR-03-036, Laxenburg,
Austria.
[19] Cao, G. 2000. The Future Population of China: Prospects to 2045 by
Place of Residence and by Level of Education. Internatal Institute for
Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Interim Report IR-00-026,
Laxenburg, Austria.
[20] Kaplan, D. H., Wheeler, J. O., & Holloway, S. R. (2004). Urban
Geography. New York: Wiley & Sons. 484p.
[21] Tan, M., X. Li, H. Xie and C. Lu. 2005. Urban land expansion and arable
land loss in China-a case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Land
Use Policy 22(3): 187-196.
[22] Kalnay, E. and M. Cai. 2003. Impact of urbanization and land-use change
on climate. Nature 423: 528-531
[23] Zhou, L., R. Dickinson, Y. Tian, J. Fang, Q. Li, R. Kaufmann, C. J.
Tucker and R. B. Myneni. 2004. Evidence for a significant urbanization
effect on climate in China. PNAS, 101: 9540-9544.
[24] Chung, U., J. Choi and J. Yun. 2004. Urbanization effect on the observed
change in mean monthly temperatures between 1951-1980 and
1971-2000 in Korea. Climatic Change 66: 127-136.
[25] Zhao, T., J. Liu, D. Zhuang, X., Deng and S. Chen. 2004. Environmental
Effects of Urban Expansion in Medium-sized Cities of China: A Case
Study in Mianyang City. In: Gao, W. and Shaw, D.(eds). Remote Sensing
and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability, Proceedings of SPIE Vol.
5544, pp346~355.
[26] Pauleit, S., R. Ennos and Y. Golding. 2005, Modeling the environmental
impacts of urban land use and land cover change - a study in Merseyside,
UK. Landscape and urban planning 71: 295-310.
[27] Milesi, C., C. D. Elvidge, R. R. Nemani, and S.W. Running. 2003.
Assessing the impact of urban land development on net primary
productivity in the Southeastern United States. Remote Sensing of
Environment 86: 401-410.
[28] Zheng, X., C. Fu, X. Xu, X. Yan, Y. Huang, S. Han, F. Hu and G. Chen.
2002. The Asian nitrogen cycle case study. Ambio, 31, 79- 87.
[29] Fu, C. 2003, Potential impacts of human-induced land cover change on
East Asia monsoon, Global Planet Change 37: 219- 229.
[30] Tian, H., J. Melillo, D. Kicklighter, S. Pan, J. Liu, A.D. McGuire and B.
Moore III. 2003. Regional carbon dynamics in monsoon Asia and its
implications to the global carbon cycle. Global and Planetary Change
37:201-217.
[31] Cohen and Goward 2004. Landsat-s Role in Ecological Applications of
Remote Sensing. BioScience 54(6): 535-545.
[32] Coppin P, Nackaerts K, Queen L, Brewer K. 2001. Operational
monitoring of green biomass change for forest management.
Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 67: 603-611.
[33] Chen, S., J. Liu, D. Zhuang and X. Xiao. 2003. Characterization of land
cover types in Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, using multi-temporal
Landsat TM/ETM+ sensor data. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 13(2):
131~138.
[34] Hill, M., P. Vickery, E. Furnival and G. Donald. 1999. Pasture land cover
in Eastern Australia from NOAA-AVHRR NDVI and classified Landsat
TM. Remote Sensing of Environment 67: 32-50.
[35] Vieira, I., A, Almeida, E. Davidson, T. Stone, C. Carvalho and J.
Guerrero. 2003. Classifying successional forests using Landsat spectral
properties and ecological characteristics in eastern Amazonia. Remote
Sensing of Environment 87: 470-481.
[36] Xiao, X., J. Liu, D. Zhuang, S. E. Frolking, S. H. Boles, B. Xu, M. Liu, W.
Salas, B. Moore and C. Li (2003), Uncertainties in Estimates of Cropland
Area in China: A Comparison Between an AVHRR-Derived Dataset and
a Landsat TM-Derived Dataset, Global Planet. Change, 37, 297 - 306.
[37] Zha, Y., J. Gao, S. Ni, Y. Liu, J. Jiang and Y. Wei. 2003. A spectral
reflectance-based approach to quantification of grassland cover from
Landsat TM imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment 87: 371-375.
[38] Liu, J. (Ed.), 1996. Macro-Scale Survey and Dynamic Study of Natural
Resources and Environment of China by Remote Sensing. Beijing, Press
of Science and Technology,. 353 pp. (in Chinese).
[39] Liu, J. and Buheaosier. 2000. Study on spatial-temporal feature of
modern land-use change in China: Using remote sensing techniques,
Quaternary Sciences 20(3), 229.
[40] Zhuang, D., J. Liu, M. Liu. 1999. Research activities on land use/land
cover in the past ten years in China using space technology. Chinese
Geographical Sciences 9(4): 330-334.
[41] Liu, M., X. Tang, J. Liu, D. Zhuang. 2001. Research on scaling effect
based on 1 km grid cell data. Journal of Remote Sensing 5(3), 183-190
(in Chinese).
[42] Tang, X., 2000. Studies on Geo-spatial data fusion and its applications.
PhD dissertation, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. 139 pp. (in Chinese).
[43] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 1999. Cities China 1949-1998 (in
Chinese). China Statistics. Press, Beijing.
[44] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 2000. China Statistical Yearbook 2000 (in
Chinese), China Statistics Press Beijing.
[45] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 2001. China Statistical Yearbook 2001 (in
Chinese), China Statistics Press, Beijing.
[46] Chan, K. and L. Zhang. 1999. The Hukou System and Rural-Urban
Migration in China: Processes and Changes. The China Quarterly 160:
818-855.
[47] Riley, N. 2004. China-s Population: New Trends and Challenges.
Population Bulletin 59(2): 4-36.
[48] Yue, T., Y. Wang, J. Liu, S. Chen, D. Qiu, X. Deng, M. Liu, Y. Tian and
B. Su. 2005. Surface modelling of human population distribution in
China. Ecological Modelling 181: 461-478.
[49] State Statistical Bureau (SSB). 2002. China Statistical Yearbook 2002 (in
Chinese), China Statistics Press, Beijing.
[50] Brown, L. 1995. Who Will Feed China? W.W. Norton, New York.
[51] Chen, B. 1996. Comments on ÔÇÿÔÇÿWho will feed China?--. Journal of
Natural Resources 11: 210-215.
[52] Heilig, G. (1999), ChinaFood: Can China Feed Itself? (CD-ROM, version
1.1), Int. Inst. for Appl. Syst. Anal., Laxenburg, Austria, available at
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/ChinaFood/index_m.htm.
[53] Huang, J., and S. Rozelle (1995), Environmental stress and grain yields in
China. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 77: 853-864.
[54] Xiao X., S. Boles, J. Liu, D. Zhuang, S. Frolking, C. Li, W. Salasc and B.
Moore III. 2005. Mapping paddy rice agriculture in southern China using
multi-temporal MODIS images. Remote Sensing of Environment 95:
480-492.
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:60020", author = "Siqing Chen", title = "Megalopolisation: An Effect of Large Scale Urbanisation in Post-Reform China", abstract = "Megalopolis is a group of densely populated metropolitan areas that combine to form an urban complex. Since China introduced the economic reforms in late 1970s, the Chinese urban system has experienced unprecedented growth. The process of urbanisation prevailed in the 1980s, and the process of predominantly large city growth appeared to continue through 1990s and 2000s. In this study, the magnitude and pattern of urbanisation in China during 1990s were examined using remotely sensed imagery acquired by TM/ETM+ sensor onboard the Landsat satellites. The development of megalopolis areas in China was also studied based on the GIS analysis of the increases of urban and built-up area from 1990 to 2000. The analysis suggests that in the traditional agricultural zones in China, e.g., Huang-Huai-Hai Plains, Changjiang River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Sichuan Basin, the urban and built-up areas increased by 1.76 million hectares, of which 0.82 million hectares are expansion of urban areas, an increase of 24.78% compared with 1990 at the national scale. The Yellow River Delta, Changjiang River Delta and Pearl River Delta also saw an increase of urban and built-up area by 63.9%, 66.2% and 83.0% respectively. As a result, three major megalopolises were developed in China: the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong- Macau (Pearl River Delta: PRD) megalopolis area, the Shanghai- Nanjing-Hangzhou (Changjiang River Delta: CRD) megalopolis area and the Beijing-Tianjing-Tangshan-Qinhuangdao (Yellow River Delta-Bohai Sea Ring: YRD) megalopolis area. The relationship between the processed of megalopolisation and the inter-provincial population flow was also explored in the context of social-economic and transport infrastructure development in Post-reform China.
", keywords = "Megalopolisation, Land use change, Spatial analysis, Post-reform China", volume = "3", number = "6", pages = "1040-8", }
