Equity is one of the fundamental principles in the planning of public service facilities. In recent years, many cities have started to promote the construction of 15 min community living circles with the aim of providing residents with more equitable access to basic public services. Based on this background, this study explores an equity-oriented spatial quantitative analysis method to assist in the planning of public service facility layouts. The node centrality measurement index, such as betweenness from spatial syntax and social network analysis is introduced into the analysis method in order to consider the potential activity paths and flows of people at the community scale. Selecting the central city of Shanghai as a case study, the research presents results regarding spatial equity based on the relationship between public service demand and public service facilities supply. Building on this foundation, various approaches to enhancing equity are discussed: (1) optimizing the layout of public service facilities; (2) optimizing residential spatial patterns; and (3) optimizing pedestrian transportation networks.

This study focuses on the equity of spatial layout for public service facilities targeting different age groups and proposes a systematic analytical approach. The method mainly includes the following steps: (1) collecting spatial distribution data of population and various types of public service facilities for each age group; (2) establishing demand matrices for different groups regarding different types of public service facilities and calculating supply-demand density; (3) calculating the level of public service accessibility for different population groups at any spatial location; (4) introducing the Gini coefficient to assess the spatial equity of public service accessibility for different age groups; (5) evaluating whether the Gini coefficient meets the planning objectives and identifying areas with inadequate public service accessibility for optimization of facility layout. Choosing Hongkou District in Shanghai as a case study, the analysis process and results indicate the technical feasibility of the proposed method and its supportive role in public service facility planning. Furthermore, the article discusses the importance of a systematic analysis perspective, the applicability of the methodology in planning decisions, and the enhancement of facility supply levels in weak areas.

It is generally believed that the development of mass transportation is an effective and practical path by which to promote low-carbon development. As a form of infrastructure for the development of bus transits, urban road networks directly affect the planning and operation of a bus network. Existing studies have shown that urban road networks affect the layout effect of bus transit from aspects such as the topological network structure characteristics. Based on the existing foundation of research, this study aims to address evaluation methods for quantitative research on the topological structure of road networks, emphasizing that the topological structure characteristics are an important attribute affecting the morphological characteristics of the road network and also a key attribute affecting low-carbonization orientation. Furthermore, this study proposes an evaluation method for the low-carbon friendliness of urban road network structures and constructed a numerical comparison matrix. On this basis, the actual case of the central urban area of Shanghai was selected to conduct an empirical analysis of the evaluation of the low-carbon friendliness of the road network structure. Based on the street (township) as the regional unit scale, four types of evaluation results were obtained, corresponding to different levels of low-carbon friendliness. Based on the above analysis results, a low-carbon-oriented road network structure optimization strategy in Shanghai’s central urban area was further proposed to (1) develop countermeasures for low-carbon transportation development according to local conditions; (2) emphasize the key role of intersection forms in optimizing topology; (3) improve the connectivity level of important road sections; (4) encrypt the road network density in high-density development areas; (5) and combine this with other form of green transportation development to improve low-carbonization levels.

After more than 40 years’ opening-up and reform, China’s urbanization has entered a new type of urbanization. In order to reveal the rule of different infrastructure investments and urbanization relationships, this paper uses Shanghai as a case by applying econometric methods to study the detailed relationship between different indicators from 1990 to 2019. Firstly, we quantify that each variable has a long-term co-integration relationship with urbanization by co-integration test. And we found that the real estate is a main driving force of urbanization while the construction project investment plays an important role in promoting the urbanization rate in the studied period. Secondly, according to the Granger test, our study illustrates that each variable has a bilateral Granger relationship with urbanization while the urbanization rate has more Granger causality impact on the studied variables. Thirdly, based on impulse response test and variance decomposition analysis, we found that urbanization rate with other variables accounts for the majority of the percentage of impacts while the total investment in fixed assets and its three categories contribute a small amount to the urbanization rate. Finally, we propose policy suggestions to strengthen healthy urbanization development in Shanghai.

Amid the vigorous development of the high-speed rail (HSR) network, local governments in China generally consider the construction of HSR as a crucial task in their regional development strategies. Currently, most provincial capitals and prefecture-level cities in the eastern and central regions of China already have operational HSR services. This study aims to examine a key question: has the objective of local governments to promote urban development through the construction of HSR been effective? The research selects cities along the Beijing–Shanghai, Beijing–Guangzhou, and Harbin–Dalian HSR lines as the study subjects. Based on the principles of proximity and similarity, cities with operational HSR and those without are chosen as the experimental group and the control group, respectively. Following the double difference (difference-in-differences) approach, an advantage index is proposed to systematically evaluate the impact of HSR operation on urban development from three dimensions: population aggregation, economic development, and expansion of construction land. Furthermore, the evaluation results are systematically clustered to identify city types that exhibit different promotional effects in various dimensions. The research findings indicate the following: (1) The promotion effect of HSR on the development of small to medium-sized cities is more reflected in economic growth and construction land growth. (2) The promotion effect of HSR on the development of large cities is more reflected in the growth of the employment population. (3) For smaller or economically less-developed cities, HSR may be detrimental to the aggregation of resident and employment populations. (4) Cities with moderate size and good economic development have the opportunity to use HSR to promote population aggregation. On this basis, combined with the findings above, strategies to promote the coordinated development of high-speed rail construction and urban systems are discussed.

Focusing on the Yangtze River Delta region, the spatial distribution and change characteristics of the employed population were assessed by selecting three time points: 2000, 2010 and 2020. Firstly, a correlation was established between population employment statistics and spatial units of administrative divisions to analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of the employed population in general and by industry; secondly, the changing characteristics of the spatial distribution of the employed population over time, including the migration of the centroid and density changes, were analyzed; thirdly, a systematic clustering approach was adopted to carry out a typological analysis of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from three perspectives: industrial structure, time stage and spatial level. It was found that (1) regional differences within the Yangtze River Delta are still significant, but are narrowing; (2) different cities or regions show different characteristics of development stages, and late-developing regions can learn from early developing regions; (3) metropolitan areas are still the main areas of employment concentration, and the spatial distribution of employment in some cities is beginning to suburbanize.