Research On Residential Space Differentiation Of Urban Waterfront

Since the 21st century, under the requirement of intensive land use and readjustment of traditional industrial structure, the waterfront regeneration has gradually become a focus problem in the construction of China's major cities. With the promotion of economic development and landscape effect, waterfront areas have been presented as a coexistence of multiple residential forms. Due to the agglomeration of people from varying economic levels, cultural background and social characteristics, material space and social structure in waterfront areas have been continuously reshaped, posing a severe challenge to the inheritance of cultural vein and social harmony. Therefore, how to regulate and control the differential degree of residential space and promote the sustainable development of environment, culture and society, and at the same time exploring the economic value of waterfront areas, has become an important theory and practical problem for contemporary cities.Under this background, taking the waterfront of Suzhou River in Shanghai as a research case, this thesis adopts the methodology of the combination of theoretical and practical research and the integration of empirical and quantitative analysis to focus on studying the present characteristics and formation mechanism of the residential space differentiation of urban waterfront, and meanwhile, proposes some corresponding regulation strategies. The research contents of this thesis include the following three major parts:The first part of this thesis is the preface and introduction which analyzes the research background and significance of the residential space differentiation of waterfront, defines and explains principal related concepts and implicates the research thinking and method of this thesis. Then, it clarifies some related theory and study on the residential space differentiation of waterfront from the perspective of both home and abroad and delivers objective comments.The second part is the main body of this thesis which summarizes, taking the waterfront areas of Suzhou River in Shanghai as a research case and comparing and analyzing among different sorts of residential space, the principal present characteristics of residential space differentiation in waterfront areas: bonding characteristics of "three types of residential space 'cycle-layer-type' and 'interlacing type'" in respect of material form and the characteristics of "homogeneous agglomeration and heterogeneous isolation" in respect of social relationships, imposing a huge challenge on the sustainable development of environment, culture and society in waterfront areas. By the analysis, it is revealed that the comprehensive effect of various factors, such as the renewal and industry systems of waterfront areas, profoundly influences the present characteristics of residential space differentiation in waterfront areas. Based on the above-mentioned study, this thesis proposes that the effective regulation of residential space differentiation in waterfront areas can be achieved by the method of participation-based readjustment and hybrid inhabitation in the premise of continuous waterfront regeneration.The third part of this thesis is the conclusion which generalizes the key results ofthis study and points out some weakness and limitation as well as several problemsrequiring further study.