The Study On Urban Sprawl And Government Behavior In The Process Of Chinese Urbanization

Urban sprawl is a multifaceted concept centered around the expansion of low-density development which comes from western countries.Topics range from the outward spreading of a city and its suburbs to its logical limits,to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land.,Since China opened to the outside world,urban sprawl appeared in many large and medium-sized cities which caused excessive use of rural land and irrational urban space structure with the rapid development of urbanlization.Under the current administration system in China,municipal government has taken many measures such as guide,regulate and control which influence urban sprawl.It is meaningful to guide the urban expansion as a scientific way by analysing these effects to regulate government behaviors and reduce the urban problems caused by urban sprawl.Based on the case study of urban sprawl control by government in foreign counties,the author focused on the relationship between urban sprawl and government behavior under the rapid urbanizationas well as the effects and how it works of government behaviors on the urban land expansion and its utility efficiency in ChinaCountermeasures and suggestions of urban sprawl control were put forward.This study reached the following conclusions.(1)Using government behaviors appropriately is the key point to control urban sprawl The most important oness of government behaviors are financial and tax regulations,urban plan managementand land allocation.Insufficent government revenue is the main cause of urban sprawl.The high return from the new urban land market and its development is the key motivation of urban sprawal.Therefore,a government controlling framework should be built to urban sprawl,in which fiscal control is the bracing,planning and land adjustment are the core tools.(2)In order to promote the smart urbanization,the reform of the financial system is nessesary to enhance local fiscal capacity and better the urban public services.Most of the existing studies about the rural-urban migration are based on market mechanism,while the rural-urban migration in China is promoted by government.In the current financial system,urban public services are decided by mucicipal financial revenue which may limit new immigrations and their employments.,resulting in a lag and spurious urbanization.(3)In the process of pushing on urbanization by government,urban planning is a useful tool to guide and control urban space.The government behavior has two sides,which is a double-edge sword for urban development.Some urban management tools,such as administrative divisions,urban events,traffic strategies and new zone constructions,have guided the scientific and rational development of urban space,while it has fully aggravated the urban sprawl.Therefore,the scientifical decision of the municipal government is needed on the basis of fully consideration on the limits and the synthetically use of policies in urban sprawl control.(4)Imperfect land system is the root of urban sprawl.State ownership of urban land legitimizes the high return of municipal government.Land revenue reliance,prestige and political projects magnify the demand of urban land while the government owned right of land requisition makes possible urban land expansion.In the transition from farm land to urban use,the compensed price is lower than market price which reduces the acquisition cost of farm land.Land requisition has been accomplished successfully under the exsiting ambiguously defined rural collective land ownership which largely reduces the cost of urban sprawl.Municipal government has the strong motivation to enlarge the urban land while up government,especially centre government intends to control the urban land use.Usually some cases of land use contravened laws and regulations come from government.Land supervision,general land use plan from up to down have restricted the expansion of urban land to a certain degree.(5)The land management measures of controlling urban sprawl are as follows:.Distinting land property right,reforming land expropriation regulations,realizing the adjusted fuction of general land use plan,strictly space govenerns of constrction land,controlling the boundary of urban growth,entisive urban land utilization,increasing the return of existing urabn land by charging on real estate,pursuing "one map" management,using romote sense to find illegal land use.