A temporally cyclic growth model of urban spatial morphology in China: Evidence from Kunming Metropolis

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and complexity of political-economic transition in China has brought about continuous and remarkable changes of urban morphology over the past decades, which were driven by a mixture of spatial, social-economic and institutional forces. Understanding such urban morphological evolution requires new mixed evidences and holistic perspectives. In this paper, it is argued that two dominant types of urban growth in China: low-density expansion and high-density infill might be driven by different forces at different stages. To interpret the processes of urban development, two easy-to-understand morphological indicators: expansion-induced investment density index" (EID) and "infill-induced investment density index" (IID) are defined to measure the investment density per unit of developed land and used to compare the morphological changes between different phases in a long period by integrating spatial and socioeconomic data. The temporal variation of these indicators suggests a cyclic growth model (CGM), which means the periodic switch between low density expansion and high-density infill. Using Kunming metropolis as a case study, this paper has confirmed that its urban morphological evolution from 1950-2014 was periodically and reciprocally driven by a set of vis-à-vis dualistic dynamics, in which low-density expansion is led by pro-growth infrastructure oriented public investment, while the high-density infill is activated by collective and rational actions of individual enterprises and their economic behaviors. It is concluded that the confirmed CGM model, together with two morphological indicators, offers a new holistic perspective and method to easily and integrally interpret urban morphological evolution and accordingly has potential theoretical implications for reasonably understanding the urbanisation in China.

Perspectives of Socio-Spatial Differentiation from Soaring Housing Prices: A Case Study in Nanjing, China

“…Secondly, land capitalization and over-marketization of property development. Wu and Cheng believed that China's rapid urbanization is a cyclical shift between low-density expansion and high-density infill [46]. Low-density expansion is led by the government's public infrastructure investment, and aims to activate the rental gap between urban peripheral lands.…”

Densify and Expand: A Global Analysis of Recent Urban Growth

“…We are not aware of any study that examines our second research question. Comparing population increase attributed to infill within the city footprint at an earlier date and expansion areas at later dates follows a tradition exemplified by [31] and adopted by others such as [32,33].…”

Analysing the consequences of progressive Urban Spatial cycles to evaluate urban land use policy

“…As a result, the built-up growth diffuses to the suburban area in the form of urban sprawl and fragmentation (Koroso et al, 2021), along with its positive and negative effects (European Union, 2019). The two major urban morphological changes that occur periodically due to supply side constraints and institutional decisions are recurrence of spatial low-density and high-density infill development (Wu & Cheng 2018). Besides, transportation, civic infrastructure and other urban amenities are seen to be continually expanding to sparsely populated suburban areas where land is easily available for development (Park et al, 2013).…”

“…A zone that has encountered high fragmentation tends to face densification in its near future, along with all costs and benefits, as is already observed in the inner suburban zone. Perhaps this is the nature of progress in which the core city consumes the outer suburban areas and moves toward the rural hinterland (Wu & Cheng, 2018). In the case of a polycentric city, unless all growth centres offer the required civic amenities and encourage coexistence of job and housing, it triggers dispersed development and travel frequency (Lin et al, 2013).…”