Discrimination on the Concept of Historic City in China

In 1982,the State Council announced a list of historic cities in China,aiming to set up a conservation measure to conserve the cultural heritages from the perspective of a city.The historic city is a concept in relation to urban administrative governance.Its conservation scope and specific contents should be defined in conservation planning.Since the conservation planning of historic city is a part of the city master planning,its planning area should be the same as that in the master planning,with focus on the central urban area.The conservation planning of a historic city should define its objects in view of the interconnection between city history and culture and thus specify its conservation scope and contents accordingly.     

Why Spatial Planning Often Fails to Control the Spreading Locations of Large Scale Commercial Facilities？

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the mechanism of planning failure on land use control in case of sprawl developments of large scale commercial facilities, which is often seen in many countries. The author demonstrates actual three cases in Japan： a huge commercial development established in the middle of rice field between the two local cities, two huge commercial accumulations established at the opposite fringes of urban area, and many large commercial developments established one by one within the small municipalities surrounding a central city. And by examining the statistical sales amount, the author describes that these huge suburban commercial developments apparently deprived the sales of the downtown. Through analyzing these cases, the author empirically stated that for the motorized local cites, the optimum location of commercial accumulation is no longer the central area of the city but about 15 min away from the center with the smooth accessible arterial road. At last, the author mentions that the ＂planning failure＂ could be occurred if the territory of planning authority and the scale of the development are inconsistent, such as the authority of small municipal government and the large scale commercial facility which impacts beyond the municipal boundary.     

Study on Emphases and Trend of Tianjin Urban Public Safety Planning from the View of Bohai Rim Megalopolis

Nowadays urban public safety has been an important subject of study in urban planning study. And planners realized that a safe city is very important for sustainable development. Traditional urban public safety planning begins to perfect the contents and method. And regional research is an important aspect in the improvement of new era urban public safety planning. This paper chooses Tianjin, the important city in Bohai rim area as the example for research. Tianjin urban public safety planning includes not only comprehensive disaster prevention and reduction, effectively preventing and reducing disasters, ensuring the safety of the life and property of the residents, but also sharing resources and facilities from the view of megalopolis, eliminating hidden area troubles, reducing whole environment risks and so on.     

The Historical Evolution of Chinese Urban Morphology

China has had a long urban experience. The existence oftowns in China can be dated to 2600 BC, and the pattern of urbanmorphology were essentially different from those in other majorcultural regions, which represents one of the major forms of urbangrowth of the world. This paper describes the characteristics andhistorical development of Chinese urban morphology. The centrallocation of political and administrative buildings, a grid-iron streetpattern, symmetrical layout and axis are the most important charac-teristics of Chinese traditional cities, which reflected the distinctivepolitical and economic system and cultural traditions of China. Polit-ical forces play a key role in shaping this urban pattern. The histori-cal development of Chinese urban morphology experienced fourphases: the walled city (770 BC——AD 906), the open city (618——1840), the colonial city (1840——1949), and the modern city(1949——1985). Each of these phases has its distinct characteris-tics and different planning philosophies reflecting the current na-tional political and economic development. The central feature of ur-ban development in China is that the process has been controlledto a large extent by the highly centralized government. After 1949,Chinese cities experienced a fundamental transformation in their in-ternal structure and morphology which reflect the communist idealsin urban planning. The key aims of urban planning in communistChina is to establish a highly productive and convenient living envi-ronment, and to reduce the gaps between city and countryside in or-der to achieve a new type of socialist city with 'classless' or 'uni-form socio-economic characteristic.     

New Situation and Tasks for Urban Planning

This article is a summary of the speech by Zhou Ganzhi,executive deputy sec-retary-general of China Urban Planning Society at its annual meeting in 1993. In the period when our country is deepening its reform and opening to the out-side world and rapidly developing is economy,urban planning and construction isfaced with an unprecedented opportunity for development and challenge. Thespeech analyzed the"happiness"and"worries"in the present urban planningwork,and especially its problems under the current situation.It sets the new tasksof the city planning in the new situation,that is,the urban planners should makeconcerted efforts to comprehensively improve urban planning and management.     

Some Empirical Examples of Central Place Model in China

At the beginning of 1980s,the Central Place Theory was introduced into China from the West.The authors ofthis article are the initiators of applying this model to China's urban and regional planning as well as to the allocationof commercial activities.Since the commodity economy has been developing in China for thousands of years,most ofthe areas in eastern plains and inland basins of China show the spatial structure of typical central places scene.Duringsome six years,the authors participated in a lot of rural,urban and regional planning projects in which the spatialphenomena and relevant internal mechanism proved this model and its deformation.This paper gives only a few ex-amples of the application of central place theory in China:1.the distribution of rural markets,the empirical study isbased mainly on the situation in Shengfang town and its vicinal area;2.the spatial combination of urban systems,problems about city allocation in North China are emphasized;3.commercial centers in city and the network,a cru-cial study on commercial centers in city and the network,a crucial study on commercial distribution of themetropolis.Beijing is done by using central place model.     

Joining Paths and Dividing Paths： Juiz de Fora, Brazil

The aim of this paper is to present the urban history of Juiz de Fora, a city with some 500,000 inhabitants in southeastern Brazil, and discuss how strategic decisions about the planning and construction of roads and highways can determine ways of life in a city. While paths may integrate landholdings and territories, they may also segregate communities and environments, causing deep rifts in the fabric of urban and land areas. The growth of Juiz de Fora is particularly marked by the construction of paths. This article reviews the local urban history from the establishment of paths in the city, to an analysis of the major impact and benefits they have had, notably on the local economy and demographics, as well as on the conservation of the local environment： Issues that are frequently relegated to a secondary role in the cost-benefit analysis of the city＇s planning decisions. After analysis of the case study, the authors concluded that citizens should be included on the agenda of the city, from spectators to actors of daily urban life.     

Analysis of Urban Morphology in Core Towns＇ Neighborhoods of Mexico： Santa Barbara＇s Neighborhood as a Case Study

Cities＇ urban morphology is the result of historic, cultural, political and social processes. The historical cores in Mexican cities have high cultural diversity, which also intermingle pre-Hispanic cultures with colonial forms, as well with modernity and post-modernity irruption. The case study is Santa Barbara＇s neighborhood in Toluca City, which was founded in 1524, and the case study was the first neighborhood in Toluca＇s historical core. At present time, this neighborhood is considered as one of the most dangerous places in the city＇s historical core, therefore, it has been abandoned. This paper will display the changes in urban morphology of the neighborhood through the years from 1877 to 2010. For site evaluation, the methodologies of Ashihara （1982） and Lynch＇s （1961） were used in order to analyze positive and negative spaces, as well as main street visual features, street and avenue directions, street circulation and street circulation path configuration. The results show that the focal nodes are a key factor for economic and social reactivation, with which, through urban activation of vacant lots and the traditional use of the streets as public space, is possible to generate centripetal development to restructure the neighborhood.     

The Sharp Increase of the Urban Floating Population A new problem faced by our big cities

The sharp increase of the floating popu-lation in the cities is a new phenomenonbrought about by the implementation of thepolicy of reform and opening to the outsideworld.It has vitalized the urban economy,but also created new demands for and pres-sure on the city planning,construction andmanagement and become a new problem forthe cities,especially for the big cities in their     

Why High-Speed Railway Stations Continue China’s Leapfrog Urbanization:Institutional Parameters of Urban Development

An ambitious program of High-Speed Railway (HSR) is under construction in China and already soon the network will overtake its counterparts in Europe. Reflecting on experiences in Europe, the authors explore the conditions for place making qualities of six new HSR station areas in China. The superb inter-city connectivity of the new infrastructure nodes raises a lot of expectations about the economic and social potential of the station areas, but the experiences in Europe thus far are very differentiated. With regards to the attraction of economic activities usually the existing differences between different economic regions are reproduced rather than shaping completely new conditions. Also the expectations of developing completely new integrated urban centers around stations in the urban periphery are rather ambitious. The paper questions the planning responses to HSR development in Chinese cities and investigates the institutional conditions that frame these responses. The authors explore how the plans for Chinese HSR station development account for their objectives and reflect on the potential of the station area planning by investigating the institutional parameters of urban development.     

Improving Open Spaces for a Sustainable City

The feasibility of city living with nature as a way to restore the balance between human uses and natural processes is the focus of this paper about the city of Maringa in Southern Brazil. This urban form, a planned new town founded in 1947 upon a previous, comprehensive British land-development scheme, originally offered a friendly interaction between urban settlement and nature. Hence, this paper outlines how open spaces can be enhanced as an ecological structure, bringing parks, squares, gardens and urban farming into a productive system, both for nature＇s and for people＇s sakes. Following a morphological study, the proposed ecological structure will maintain ecological processes within the urban grid and help to preserve historical and social values, by linking a wide variety of natural and restored ecosystems and landscape features. The adoption of this kind of ecological planning will certainly result in an increase of the urban landscape quality, changing actual planning paradigm and preventing the city from environmental quality decrease.     

Anyang:A Case Study of Foreign University Involvement in Chinese Sustainable New Town Planning

Over the last ten to fifteen years,planning and design professionals in the United States and Europe have increasingly been engaged in consulting work in China.Major Architectural & Engineering firms from the United Kingdom and the United States,for example,have been opening offices in Beijing and Shanghai.Recently,the concern with sustainable urban development and China’s policies to alleviate pressures of urbanization has been an engine for commissions for new town plans and city expansion plans across China’s provinces.During the 2007-2009 academic years,the School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati prepared a conceptual plan for the expansion of the City of Anyang through a collaborative agreement between the city and it.The experience of the faculty leading this project with field work,the planning process,plan preparation,and the engagement of students has revealed some important issues that need to be addressed by planning schools and planning professionals engaged in planning in provincial China.Thus,this paper is a case study of foreign university involvement in Chinese sustainable new town planning,and the following sections discuss the Anyang Eastern New Town Conceptual Plan,identify the key issues regarding preparing the plan,contracting and payment,data availability,data sharing and field investigation,and finally discuss the lessons learned regarding the planning process,project program and expectations.     

Underground space planning in Helsinki

This paper gives insight into the use of underground space in Helsinki,Finland.The city has an underground master plan(UMP) for its whole municipal area,not only for certain parts of the city.Further,the decision-making history of the UMP is described step-by-step.Some examples of underground space use in other cities are also given.The focus of this paper is on the sustainability issues related to urban underground space use,including its contribution to an environmentally sustainable and aesthetically acceptable landscape,anticipated structural longevity and maintaining the opportunity for urban development by future generations.Underground planning enhances overall safety and economy efficiency.The need for underground space use in city areas has grown rapidly since the 21 st century;at the same time,the necessity to control construction work has also increased.The UMP of Helsinki reserves designated space for public and private utilities in various underground areas of bedrock over the long term.The plan also provides the framework for managing and controlling the city's underground construction work and allows suitable locations to be allocated for underground facilities.Tampere,the third most populated city in Finland and the biggest inland city in the Nordic countries,is also a good example of a city that is taking steps to utilise underground resources.Oulu,the capital city of northern Finland,has also started to ‘go underground'.An example of the possibility to combine two cities by an 80-km subsea tunnel is also discussed.A new fixed link would generate huge potential for the capital areas of Finland and Estonia to become a real Helsinki-Tallinn twin city.     

中国经济技术开发区建设的生态学理论研究

Introducing ecology and sustainable development concept into Development Zone planning has now been an unavoidable issue for us. The ecological urban planning must be based on the sustainable development theory. In the Development Zone construction, People are inclined to think that the city represents the most terrible aspects. If people do not underpin the relationship between human and the environment in a specific manner, this spiritual relationship will finally break down. The development of a city is a dynamic process, and it is impossible to get the urban planning done once and forever. Thus, enough space should be set aside for the sound development of a city.     

Resilient Development of Urban Waterfront in Fast-Changing Cities--A Case Study of Wuhan,China

Urban waterfronts, where the land of city meets a body of water, are unique and finite resources representing the best opportunities for community enhancement and enrichment. On the other hand, waterfronts are also high-risk areas, where the water-related disasters could seriously affect the long-term sustainability of urban environment. This paper focuses on the relationship of the cities with their waterfronts. It presents a case study of Wuhan--a Chinese metropolis, where waterfronts play an important role in its urban planning policy. It attempts to investigate the mechanism of waterfront transformation, and to find out which strategies to adapt and what resilience means in terms of urban waterfronts in a rapidly transforming city. This article examines some representative urban projects on the waterfront and summarizes spatial models applied on the waterfront with distinct policies. Finally, it demonstrates that an urban waterfront is an ＂osmotic interface＂ which should be more correctly envisaged as a network of places, functions, additions and hinges between the city and its water environment. It clarifies that waterfront areas represent a multidisciplinary and multitasking issue in perspective of urban resilient development.     

The Controlled Approach in City Planning:Technique and Practice---Take,as an example,the control type of planning for the developing area of Chigang in Guangzhou

On the basis of the practice in Guangzhou in recent years,this article proposes the tech-nique of the“control”approach in city planning,and presents its specific application and ex-plorations with the example of the planning for the developing area of Chigang inGuangzhou.With the reform of the urban economic-political system and the advancement of theopen-door policy,significant changes are evolving in the ideas and the ways of city planningand design.To meet the demand of these developments,the new“control”approach in cityplanning and design is thus adopted.     

Major Issues in Transport Planning of Shanghai

Urban transport is an urgent metropolitan problem to be solved.The city of Shanghai has made somemeaningful efforts in transport planning,especially in the analysis of present traffic loads and urban traffic.The arti-cle also offers suggestions about the future transport strategy in Shanghai city.     

Social Participation in the Context of the Urban Public Space Renewal： The Case of Lagarteiro Neighborhood in Oporto

In 1980, Giancarlo de Carlo wrote in the Perspecta： Yale Journal, ＂An Architecture of the Participation＂. Carlo, proposed a sequence of procedures： the problem definition, the solution and the results evaluation, in all the three steps, the social communities should be integrated in as part of a share and dynamic process. This text corresponds to a new way of understanding the importance of the social communities in the architecture definition. From de Carlo＇s text, the main goal of this paper is to present the results of an intervention in public space renewal of the Lagarteiro neighborhood （in Oporto city） and the relation of this process with the participation of the resident population. The urban context of Lagarteiro＇s neighborhood presented before the intervention the typical and classic signs of disqualification of environmental and urban peripheral areas of resettlement. The term ＂disadvantaged areas＂ is associated with these areas in urban or peri-urban case, was framed in a specific Portuguese policy, called Initiative Critical Neighborhoods. Being a recent intervention, the renewal of the public space in Lagarteiro is a complete case study that allows comprehending the participation phenomenon in nowadays, at the same time that seduces a reflexion about technical and architectural solutions for ＂critical＂ neighborhood.     

瑞典斯德哥尔摩建设可持续的紧凑城市

The case concerns Stockholm‘s past, recent and future planning strategies towards developing an environmen-tally sound leading edge city in the “IT and wireless communication industry“. The overall goal is continued city growth and development whilst preserving and enhancing the city‘s unique characteristics. The City of Stockholm‘s initiatives in environmental management and urban planning were recognized as a good practice in 1998 and 2000.     

Evolution Characteristics of the Ecological Space Network of Resource-Based Cities: A Case Study on Xuzhou

The territorial and spatial planning is an essential tool for ecological civilization construction in spatial development and urban governance. Since ecological space has been an important part of the territorial and spatial planning, this study established a spatial structural pattern of "ecological source-ecological corridor-ecological node" along with methods including landscape connectivity analysis and ecological resistance surface analysis. Taking the ecological space of Xuzhou City, a typical resource-based city, as a case study, this research analyzed the ecological spatial network structure and evaluated the evolution characteristics before judging the breadth threshold value of the ecological corridor and providing planning control strategy. The study found that since the urbanization of Xuzhou City resumed its growth, the quantity of ecological sources, corridors, and nodes have grown along. The resistance of the ecological corridor increases year by year, with the proper breadth threshold value around 100 – 200 m. The development of an ecological network structure shows a single-polarization evolution characteristic that is high quality and high resistance.