Similarities and differences of city-size distributions in three main urban agglomerations of China from 1992 to 2015: A comparative study based on nighttime light data

Abstract

Comparing the city-size distribution at the urban agglomeration (UA) scale is important for understanding the processes of urban development. However, comparative studies of city-size distribution among China's three largest UAs, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei agglomeration (BTHA), the Yangtze River Delta agglomeration (YRDA), and the Pearl River Delta agglomeration (PRDA), remain inadequate due to the limitation of data availability. Therefore, using urban data derived from time-series nighttime light data, the common characteristics and distinctive features of city-size distribution among the three UAs from 1992 to 2015 were compared by the Pareto regression and the rank clock method. We identified two common features. First, the city-size distribution became more even. The Pareto exponents increased by 0.17, 0.12, and 0.01 in the YRDA, BTHA, and PRDA, respectively. Second, the average ranks of small cities ascended, being 0.55, 0.08 and 0.04 in the three UAs, respectively. However, the average ranks of large and medium cities in the three UAs experienced different trajectories, which are closely related to the similarities and differences in the driving forces for the development of UAs. Place-based measures are encouraged to promote a coordinated development among cities of differing sizes in the three UAs.

Inequality, Bi-Polarization and Mobility of Urban Infrastructure Investment in China’s Urban System

“…Furthermore, urban infrastructure investment (UII) is the main driving force of urbanization [12][13][14][15], by the end of the 21st century, the urban population is projected to reach 90% [16], reinforcing large-scale UII in the world, especially in the developing countries such as China and India [2]. Sustainable urbanization not only needs large-scale UII overall; how to allocate UII between cities nationwide is of the same importance [5].…”

“…Sustainable urbanization not only needs large-scale UII overall; how to allocate UII between cities nationwide is of the same importance [5]. UII allocation mainly impacts on urban system and the basic public services between cities [13,17,18]. An urban system represents an organic integrity composed of cities with various types and scales within a certain region [19], and its scale structure and spatial distribution have far reaching impacts on economic agglomeration and social development [12,15].…”

“…Regionally, the eastern coastal cities-which have already achieved development priority-have stronger economic strength to invest in urban infrastructure [24,40]. The unbalance of UII has seriously hindered China's urban sustainable development, such as uncoordinated urban systems and serious inequality of basic municipal services between cities or regions [12,13]. In addition, some small and medium-sized cities lacking adequate urban construction funds resort to urban infrastructure construction financing with excessive reliance on government credit, which results in serious local government debts that undermine fiscal sustainability [33].…”

“…Meanwhile, absolute viewpoints such as big cities, medium cities and small cities may be biased, according to related research and China's urbanization blueprint, the National New Urbanization Planning (2014-2020). The realization of coordinated urban systems and the accomplishment of equal basic public services between cities have gradually become mainstream thoughts among Chinese policy makers and theorists [13,15,20].…”

“…(2) The analysis of the reasons for China's UII unbalance from the perspectives of administrative powers and financial capacity. The distribution and redistribution of public resources are determined by the administrative levels of the various cities, and cities at higher administrative levels have more available resources for UII, leading to an unbalance between cities of different administrative levels [12,13,33,39,41]. At the same time, compared with those in backward regions, cities in developed regions have more funds for UII, causing unbalance between cities of different regions [34].…”