Research On City Size, City System And Realization Mechanism Of China Based On Sustainable Urbanization

Since reform and opening up, China is experiencing a rapid and unprecedented process of urbanization accompanied with the rapid economic development, which results in a rural-urban population migration of the largest scale and longest duration through the history of the world. The urbanization in China expresses the general rule of the world, but more in its own characteristics. Because there is a fundamental historical condition difference of urbanization between China and the developed countries several decades or even more than 100 years ago. The first is China's huge population base and agricultural population; the second is resource exhaustion and environmental deterioration; and the third is high quality demand for labor force in the information era. Under such constraints, the cities in our country must take sustainable development path, and further realize sustainable urbanization, through which will promote overall sustainable development in our country.The content of sustainable development involves social, economic, environmental and other aspects. Based on population, resources and environment, this paper integrates sustainable development thought with urbanization research, and then investigates sustainable urbanization from four aspects, which is city size, city system, city form and the realization mechanism of urbanization. This paper can be divided into five main sections: introduction, theoretical study, statistics analyse, quantitative research and conclusion.On the introduction part, this paper presents the objective, meaning, content, thought and innovation of this research, which based on the analyse of the research background and topics selection basis. Rapid development of urbanization is an important feature of socio-economic development since reform and opening up and the next few decades in China, and the achievement of rapid, coordinated and healthy urbanization process must be guided by sustainable idea. Therefore, this research takes sustainable urbanization as the study object.The theoretical study of this research includes review of existing literature, theoretical analysis based on sustainable urbanization, theoretical model and mechanism for the realization of sustainable urbanization, and other aspects etc.On review of existing literature, the relevant chapters reviews the urbanization and sustainable development at home and abroad; the optimal city size, the dynamic mechanism of urbanization in China, which constitutes the theoretical starting point of this research.Firstly, in the research review on urbanization and sustainable development, there is a great deal of theoretical exploration in foreign literatures, which emphases micro quantitative analyse; the domestic literature turns out to be more focus on the macro theory, and the micro-econometric research needs to be further strengthened; meanwhile the specification and mutual relations of various concepts in domestic literature needs further theoretic exploration.Secondly, in the research on the optimal city size, there is theoretical study, empirical analyse, and quantitative research in the existing literature at home and abroad, most of which explores the optimal city size from the perspective of economic benefit, social benefit, input-output (cost benefit), and comprehensive factors etc; the optimal city size differs in different scholars, whose research method and model are different, and along with economic development and improvement of science and technology, the optimal city size is in a process of dynamic growth.Thirdly, in the research on mechanism of urbanization in China, the existing literature demonstrates the change process of mechanism of urbanization in China from different levels dynamically:"top-down"to"bottom-up"dynamic mechanism,"unified"to"dualized"and to"pluralistic"dynamic mechanism, other dynamic mechanism such as"internal-forced","external-forced","evolution of industrial structure","element-promoted"and"institutional change"etc, and the promoting role of education to urbanization in China is further upgrading.The theoretical analysis based on sustainable urbanization is the theoretical foundation of this research. Two different modes of urbanization are analyzed from the root of guiding ideology: the blind extended urbanization under the guidance of traditional concept of development and the sustainable urbanization under the guidance of sustainable concept of development, and the necessity and feasibility to achieve sustainable development of urbanization. Furthermore the concept and connotation of urbanization, sustainable development, and sustainable urbanization is defined, and the correlation between sustainable development and urbanization is analyzed. A theoretical model of sustainable urbanization is established based on this foundation.On the basis of relevant theoretical and empirical research, the theoretical mode of sustainable urbanization suitable for our country, which is the city form of sustainable development, is explored. Based on the actual situation of large population and little land in China, compact city is suitable for sustainable development in our country on the whole, but differentiates in various regions. The principle for the choice of sustainable city form in our country includes: guidance by the theory of eco-city; development target for compact city; people-oriented approach; main function zoning embodiment; and regional characteristics highlightness.Based on the realization mechanism of sustainable urbanization in China, a dynamic mechanism research for urbanization is reviewed, which shows that the dynamic mechanism to promote urbanization in China is on a stage of multi-level and dynamic change, and education constitutes the continuous impetus for sustainable urbanization in China. In addition to dynamic mechanism, the realization mechanism for the sustainable urbanization in China also includes: mechanism of human capital enhancement, mechanism of scientific and technological safeguard, mechanism of incentive system, and mechanism of city-culture optimization.The statistics research includes analysis on present situation of urbanization and sustainable development in China at the beginning of this century, the characteristics of change in the system of city size, and analysis on the regional differences of the system of city size, which constitutes the realistic background of this research.In the part of present situation analysis on urbanization and sustainable development in China, the realistic characteristics of urbanization and migration from the perspective of country and region contains: 1. the growth rate of urbanization level in China is high since 2000, while presents a decreasing trend; 2.the city population newly added and the scale of rural-urban immigration is still very high, while tends to slow down, and the contribution rate of rural-urban net immigration is also declining; 3.the attraction for the immigration and the contribution of immigration towards the growth of city population is lager while the city size is larger; 4.the net rate of immigration and its contribution rate in cities of east and west is higher than cities in the middle of China. Furthermore the challenge confronted by the sustainable urbanization is analyzed from the perspective of population, resource and environment, and then the causes and countermeasures are analyzed.Through the analyses on the changing characteristics and regional differences in the system of city size in China at the beginning of this century, the characteristics of city system structuce from overall perspective in China since 1998 presents as follows: 1.the number of super big cities and big cities increases rapidly, while the number of small cities is decreasing, which is promoted to cities of large size, and the system of city size is in the middle and late stage of urbanization which transients from development of small cities to medium-sized cities; 2.the number of city population also exhibits a characteristics which grows fastest in super big cities and big cities, the population in super big cities accounts for the main position, while the proportion of small cities is in a rapid decline; 3.the average city size is increasing. Combined with the indexes (the first principal component corresponded) of population quality, resource consumption and environment quality in chapter V, a comparation among these indexes of city system in the three regions and three urban agglomerations in our country is studied, which concludes: the city system coordinated by large, medium and small cities is favorable to sustainable development.The econometric research is the core content of this research, which is one of the innovations. First, use the cost-return curve of city size created by urban economist Button for reference, a theoretical model between city size and population quality, resource consumption, environmental quality is established, which provides a theoretical model support for the follow-up quantitative analyse. Then, a econometric analysis between city size and population quality, resource consumption, environment quality is carried on by using relevant data of cities at prefecture level or above in china from 1996 to 2005, which results in empirical model of the nation and region. Furthermore the appropriate city size of sustainable urbanization which is suitable for the nation and various regions is identified based on the previous foundation.From overall perspective, this paper concludes: 1.the model of city size-population quality, city size-resource consumption, and city size-environment quality presents a curve of positive N-shape, but in reality the model of city size-population quality evolves to be a curve of positive U-shape, and the model of city size-environment quality evolves to be a line of monotonic increase; 2.the appropriate city size for comprehensive and concerted development of population, resource and environment can not exist when the city size is less than 6 million people; 3.when the city size is more than 6 million people, the appropriate city size is 10-12 million.From regional perspective, this paper concludes: 1.in the eastern region, the model of city size - population quality presents a curve of positive U-shape, the model of city size-resource consumption presents a line of monotonic decline, and the model of city size-environment quality presents a curve of inverted U-shape; 2.in the middle region, the model of city size-population quality and city size - resource consumption presents a curve of positive N-shape, while the model of city size-environment quality presents a curve of inverted U-shape; 3.in the western region, the model of city size-population quality and city size-resource consumption presents a curve of positive N-shape, while the model of city size-environment quality presents a curve of inverted U-shape; 4.the appropriate city size fitted for comprehensive and concerted development of population, resource and environment is not exist in the eastern and middle region, while the appropriate city size is 2-3 million for the western region.The final part of this research is conclusion, which outlines the main research results, summarizes the innovation and deficiency, and designates the direction of subsequent research.