IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i8p2953-d164662.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Far Has China’s Urbanization Gone?

Author

Listed:
  • Yiping Xiao

    (Center for Economic Development Research, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
    Department of City and Regional Planning, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
    Population, Resources and Environment Economics Research Center, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China)

  • Yan Song

    (Department of City and Regional Planning, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA)

  • Xiaodong Wu

    (Department of Economics, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
    American Public University Systems, Charles Town, WV 25414, USA
    University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ 85040, USA)

Abstract

China’s rapid urbanization has attracted wide international attention. However, it may not be sustainable. In order to assess it objectively and put forward recommendations for future development, this paper first develops a four-dimensional Urbanization Quality Index using weights calculated by the Deviation Maximization Method for a comprehensive assessment and then reveals the spatial association of China’s urbanization by Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis. The study leads to three major findings. First, the urbanization quality in China has gradually increased over time, but there have been significant differences between regions. Second, the four aspects of urbanization quality have shown the following trends: (i) the quality of urban development has steadily increased; (ii) the sustainability of urban development has shown a downward trend in recent years; (iii) the efficiency of urbanization improved before 2006 but then declined slightly due to capital, land use, and resource efficiency constraints; (IV) the urban–rural integration deteriorated in the early years but then improved over time. Third, although the urbanization quality has a significantly positive global spatial autocorrelation, the local spatial autocorrelation varies between eastern and western regions. Based on these findings, this paper concludes with policy recommendations for improving urbanization quality and its sustainability in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Yiping Xiao & Yan Song & Xiaodong Wu, 2018. "How Far Has China’s Urbanization Gone?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:8:p:2953-:d:164662
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/8/2953/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/8/2953/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tuba Bakıcı & Esteve Almirall & Jonathan Wareham, 2013. "A Smart City Initiative: the Case of Barcelona," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 4(2), pages 135-148, June.
    2. Guo, Shen & Liu, Lezheng & Zhao, Yan, 2015. "The business cycle implications of land financing in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 225-237.
    3. Kam Wing Chan, 2010. "The Household Registration System and Migrant Labor in China: Notes on a Debate," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 357-364, June.
    4. Li, Shiyu & Lin, Shuanglin, 2016. "Population aging and China's social security reforms," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 65-95.
    5. Peixin Li & Chen Wang & Xueliang Zhang, 2017. "Did city cluster development help improve labor productivity in China?," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 122-135, January.
    6. Biagi, Bianca & Ladu, Maria Gabriela & Meleddu, Marta, 2018. "Urban Quality of Life and Capabilities: An Experimental Study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 137-152.
    7. John Friedmann, 2006. "Four Theses in the Study of China’s Urbanization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 440-451, June.
    8. Jing Qian & Yunfei Peng & Cheng Luo & Chao Wu & Qingyun Du, 2015. "Urban Land Expansion and Sustainable Land Use Policy in Shenzhen: A Case Study of China’s Rapid Urbanization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Daniel L. Childers & Mary L. Cadenasso & J. Morgan Grove & Victoria Marshall & Brian McGrath & Steward T. A. Pickett, 2015. "An Ecology for Cities: A Transformational Nexus of Design and Ecology to Advance Climate Change Resilience and Urban Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-18, March.
    10. Yumin Ye & Richard LeGates & Bo Qin, 2013. "Coordinated Urban-Rural Development Planning in China," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 79(2), pages 125-137, April.
    11. Simona R. Grădinaru & Cristian Ioan Iojă & Ileana Pătru-Stupariu & Anna M. Hersperger, 2017. "Are Spatial Planning Objectives Reflected in the Evolution of Urban Landscape Patterns? A Framework for the Evaluation of Spatial Planning Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, July.
    12. Pessarossi, Pierre & Weill, Laurent, 2015. "Do capital requirements affect cost efficiency? Evidence from China," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 119-127.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuanzhi Guo & Weifeng Qiao, 2020. "Rural Migration and Urbanization in China: Historical Evolution and Coupling Pattern," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Haiting Jiang & Bo Burström & Jiaying Chen & Kristina Burström, 2021. "Rural–Urban Inequalities in Poor Self-Rated Health, Self-Reported Functional Disabilities, and Depression among Chinese Older Adults: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study 2," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Gwilym Owen & Yu Chen & Timothy Birabi & Gwilym Pryce & Hui Song & Bifeng Wang, 2023. "Residential segregation of migrants: Disentangling the intersectional and multiscale segregation of migrants in Shijiazhuang, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(1), pages 166-182, January.
    4. Sun, Nan & Yang, Fan, 2021. "Impacts of internal migration experience on health among middle-aged and older adults—Evidence from China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    5. Chen, Zhongfei & Wanke, Peter & Tsionas, Mike G., 2018. "Assessing the strategic fit of potential M&As in Chinese banking: A novel Bayesian stochastic frontier approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 254-263.
    6. Mariusz J. Ligarski & Tomasz Owczarek, 2024. "Preparing Quality of Life Surveys Versus Using Information for Sustainable Development: The Example of Polish Cities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 765-782, July.
    7. Chong Lu, 2022. "The effect of migration on rural residents’ intergenerational subjective social status mobility in China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3279-3308, October.
    8. Shen, Ke & Zeng, Yi, 2014. "Direct and indirect effects of childhood conditions on survival and health among male and female elderly in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 207-214.
    9. Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor & Walid Hamma & Huu Duy Nguyen & Giovanni Randazzo & Anselme Muzirafuti & Mari-Isabella Stan & Van Truong Tran & Roxana Aştefănoaiei & Quang-Thanh Bui & Dragoş-Florian Vintilă, 2020. "Degradation of Coastlines under the Pressure of Urbanization and Tourism: Evidence on the Change of Land Systems from Europe, Asia and Africa," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-43, August.
    10. Xie, Xiaoxia & Huang, Chien-Chung & Chen, Yafan & Hao, Feng, 2019. "Intelligent robots and rural children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 283-290.
    11. Irina Tumini & Paula Villagra-Islas & Geraldine Herrmann-Lunecke, 2017. "Evaluating reconstruction effects on urban resilience: a comparison between two Chilean tsunami-prone cities," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 85(3), pages 1363-1392, February.
    12. Taoyuan Wei & Qin Zhu & Solveig Glomsrød, 2018. "Ageing Impact on the Economy and Emissions in China: A Global Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, April.
    13. Zhen Yang & Jun Lei & Jian-Gang Li, 2019. "Identifying the Determinants of Urbanization in Prefecture-Level Cities in China: A Quantitative Analysis Based on Spatial Production Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, February.
    14. Sanja Gašparović & Ana Sopina & Anton Zeneral, 2022. "Impacts of Zagreb’s Urban Development on Dynamic Changes in Stream Landscapes from Mid-Twentieth Century," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-25, May.
    15. Meng Wang & Aleksandra Krstikj & Huan Liu, 2022. "Planning Compact City in Rapidly Growing Cities—An Estimation of the Effects of New-Type Urbanization Planning in Hangzhou City," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-16, October.
    16. Hani Amir Aouissi & Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor & Mostefa Ababsa & Maria Boştenaru-Dan & Mahmoud Tourki & Zihad Bouslama, 2021. "Influence of Land Use on Avian Diversity in North African Urban Environments," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.
    17. Lili Zhang & Haoru Liu & Dong Wei & Fei Liu & Yanru Li & Haolin Li & Zhuojun Dong & Jingyue Cheng & Lei Tian & Guomin Zhang & Long Shi, 2022. "Impacts of Spatial Components on Outdoor Thermal Comfort in Traditional Linpan Settlements," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-26, May.
    18. Chen, Mingxing & Liu, Weidong & Lu, Dadao, 2016. "Challenges and the way forward in China’s new-type urbanization," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 334-339.
    19. Elisa Frutos-Bernal & Ángel Martín del Rey & Irene Mariñas-Collado & María Teresa Santos-Martín, 2022. "An Analysis of Travel Patterns in Barcelona Metro Using Tucker3 Decomposition," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, March.
    20. Johannes Stübinger & Lucas Schneider, 2020. "Understanding Smart City—A Data-Driven Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-23, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:8:p:2953-:d:164662. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.