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Shantytown is a type of urban residential space with a long history in populated areas; it is a negative and stark space with a gradual decline in function and poverty. It is also a concentrated reflection of an unbalanced and inadequate development of the urban social space, which restricts the development of a high-quality and sustainable social economy. Taking shantytown reconstruction in Nanjing as an example, based on the information of 434 shantytown plots dating from 2008 to 2020, it combines the two typical cases of state-owned land: Xijie and collective land—Nanhe, and the questionnaire data regarding the removal and resettlement of residents, the driving mechanism and the effect of social space reconstruction of shantytown. Reconstruction is mainly discussed based on the overall understanding of the space–time characteristics of shantytown reconstruction in Nanjing. It is found that the top-down policy which transfer from the central government to the local government, the value orientation of urban growth alliance in pursuit of asset appreciation, and the interest demands and game attitude of shantytown residents from the bottom up are all important forces to promote shantytown reconstruction. Shantytown reconstruction plays a key role in improving the housing conditions of residents; it fully taps on the potential land value, thus enhancing the urban function and quality. However, the gentrification reconstruction of the original shantytown space, and the centralized resettlement of the poor groups in the urban fringes, have led to an unbalanced development of the new urban social space, with an insufficient guarantee for the removal and resettlement groups. In view of the social space problems caused by the poor people living in the outer suburbs, this paper puts forward some recommendations on policy optimization and plan adjustment of shantytown reconstruction.
Yaqi Yuan; Weixuan Song. Mechanism and Effect of Shantytown Reconstruction under Balanced and Full Development: A Case Study of Nanjing, China. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7979 .
AMA StyleYaqi Yuan, Weixuan Song. Mechanism and Effect of Shantytown Reconstruction under Balanced and Full Development: A Case Study of Nanjing, China. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (19):7979.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYaqi Yuan; Weixuan Song. 2020. "Mechanism and Effect of Shantytown Reconstruction under Balanced and Full Development: A Case Study of Nanjing, China." Sustainability 12, no. 19: 7979.
Water eutrophication caused by agricultural production has become one of the most important factors that impede sustainable rural environmental governance in China. As a result, the Chinese central and local governments want to reduce the use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer and gain socioeconomical profit simultaneously by promoting crayfish and rice integrated system (CRIS) in the rural areas with abundant water resources. In this article, we investigated whether CRIS in Qianjiang, Hubei, the origin place of the system in China, contributes to fulfilling the governments’ expectations. We found that CRIS efficaciously cuts the fertilizer rate in rice production and boosts farmers’ incomes because crayfish has a demand for water quality and holds a large internal market requirement. However, higher profit encourages farmers to expand crayfish production and thus discourages the initiatives in rice production. The area of the ditch for crayfish production expands ceaselessly and exceeds the limit of regulation of CRIS. As a result, the CRIS in the areas has emerged as a practice of aquaculture but in farmland. This is a regulatory gap. The input–output analysis of CRIS by material balance method can also reveal that excessive feed for crayfish has become a new source of agricultural pollution. Beyond that, due to the changed irrigation system and increased water exchange frequency of CRIS, the pollution has transformed from passive distribution to active, which will increase the risk of water eutrophication on a large area.
Chunhui Liu; Naijuan Hu; Weixuan Song; Qian Chen; Liqun Zhu; Liu; Hu; Song; Chen; Zhu. Aquaculture Feeds Can Be Outlaws for Eutrophication When Hidden in Rice Fields? A Case Study in Qianjiang, China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2019, 16, 4471 .
AMA StyleChunhui Liu, Naijuan Hu, Weixuan Song, Qian Chen, Liqun Zhu, Liu, Hu, Song, Chen, Zhu. Aquaculture Feeds Can Be Outlaws for Eutrophication When Hidden in Rice Fields? A Case Study in Qianjiang, China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16 (22):4471.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChunhui Liu; Naijuan Hu; Weixuan Song; Qian Chen; Liqun Zhu; Liu; Hu; Song; Chen; Zhu. 2019. "Aquaculture Feeds Can Be Outlaws for Eutrophication When Hidden in Rice Fields? A Case Study in Qianjiang, China." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 22: 4471.
Launched in 1998, the market-oriented reform of urban housing has given urban housing the dual attributes of residence and investment, and led to the rapid growth of housing prices as well as the intensification of its spatial differentiation within cities. However, the spatial patterns of the differentiation and its mechanism as well as socio-spatial effects are rarely touched. This paper studies 3963 urban residential districts in central Nanjing and explores the socio-spatial differentiation pattern and process of the urban housing prices and its growth in Nanjing based on the sample data of housing transactions over 30 quarters during the period of 2009–2017. The paper concludes that, by splitting the research duration into phases of six quarters each, the average housing prices in Nanjing alternates between “rapid growth” and “relatively stable” phases. At the same time, this paper finds that the spatial heterogeneity of housing prices in the city has been enhanced constantly, and the price gap in different types of residential housing has been clearly widened. In combination with the price level, location characteristics and architectural attributes of residential districts, this paper has categorized housing in Nanjing into nine typical types in a comprehensive manner. Based on the differences in their spatial attributes such as location, comfort and scarcity etc., different types of residences exhibit different pricing and price-to-rent ratio growth models. Based on those findings, we discussed the mechanism of the socio-spatial differentiation of housing prices in Nanjing from the housing reform and strategies of urban renewal and expansion. Beyond that, we discussed the role of urban housing consumption in the process of (re)production of urban classes, and its negative effects on urban young people, rural immigrants and other disadvantaged families. At the end of the paper, the policy suggestion about the supply-side reform of the housing market to promote socio-spatial equity and sustainable development is also presented.
Chunhui Liu; Weixuan Song. Perspectives of Socio-Spatial Differentiation from Soaring Housing Prices: A Case Study in Nanjing, China. Sustainability 2019, 11, 2627 .
AMA StyleChunhui Liu, Weixuan Song. Perspectives of Socio-Spatial Differentiation from Soaring Housing Prices: A Case Study in Nanjing, China. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (9):2627.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChunhui Liu; Weixuan Song. 2019. "Perspectives of Socio-Spatial Differentiation from Soaring Housing Prices: A Case Study in Nanjing, China." Sustainability 11, no. 9: 2627.
The housing price-to-income ratio is an important index for measuring the health of real estate, as well as detecting residents’ housing affordability and regional spatial justice. This paper considers 1833 residential districts in one main urban area and three secondary urban areas in Nanjing during the period 2009–2017 as research units. It also simulates and estimates the spatial distribution of the housing price-to-income ratio with the kriging interpolation method of geographic information system (GIS) geostatistical analysis and constructs a housing spatial justice model by using housing price, income, and housing price-to-income ratio. The research results prove that in the one main urban area and the three secondary urban areas considered, the housing price-to-income ratio tended on the whole to rise, presenting a core edge model of a progressive decrease from the Main Urban Area to the secondary urban areas spatially, with high-value areas centered around famous school districts and new town centers. The housing spatial justice degree presented a trend opposite to that of the housing price-to-income ratio pattern; it progressively decreased from the secondary urban areas to the Main Urban Area. Furthermore, the spatial justice degree tended to decrease in the new towns, in the periphery of the Main Urban Area, and in the secondary urban areas, and it tended to rise, relatively, in the inner urban areas. The enhancement of the housing price-to-income ratio has caused the urban housing spatial justice degree to become gradually imbalanced, gradually squeezing out the poor and vulnerable groups to urban fringe areas and leading to a phenomenon of middle class stratification. This has thus aroused social problems such as housing differentiation and class solidification, etc., and has caused inequality in social spaces. Tt is therefore urgently necessary to reflect on urban space production with the value and principle of spatial justice, which is also the only way to obtain urban sustainable development, in mind.
Shanggang Yin; Zhifei Ma; Weixuan Song; Chunhui Liu. Spatial Justice of a Chinese Metropolis: A Perspective on Housing Price-to-Income Ratios in Nanjing, China. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1808 .
AMA StyleShanggang Yin, Zhifei Ma, Weixuan Song, Chunhui Liu. Spatial Justice of a Chinese Metropolis: A Perspective on Housing Price-to-Income Ratios in Nanjing, China. Sustainability. 2019; 11 (6):1808.
Chicago/Turabian StyleShanggang Yin; Zhifei Ma; Weixuan Song; Chunhui Liu. 2019. "Spatial Justice of a Chinese Metropolis: A Perspective on Housing Price-to-Income Ratios in Nanjing, China." Sustainability 11, no. 6: 1808.
Recent discussions on the spatial distribution of educational resources center on exploring the social-spatial equity of the allocation of educational resources in the city. Following the research about spatial accessibility of urban educational resources, and based on the data about public primary school districts and residential districts in Nanjing, China, we propose a social-spatial accessibility computing framework to measure different degrees of accessibility to different public primary schools across geographic, opportunity, and economic dimensions. Results show that: (1) the geographic accessibility to schools in the inner-city is superior to those in the outer-city, but the spatial differences are rapidly shrinking as schools are being incorporated in the inner-city and built in the outer-city; (2) the opportunity accessibility to schools in the inner-city is inferior to those in the outer-city, and the access to the educational resources in the inner-city, especially high-quality education resources, becomes more scarce, due to the demolition in the inner-city and the construction in the outer-city; (3) economic accessibility is associated with the grade of the school, which, in the top school district, is the minimum, while there is a large decline in economic accessibility, with the overall soaring housing price in Nanjing. In other words, family background differences appear to have a significant influence on accessibility to high-quality educational resources (HQER). As a result, misallocation of educational resources, especially HQER, restrict social mobility and further exacerbate urban socio-spatial differentiation.
Yan Xu; Weixuan Song; Chunhui Liu. Social-Spatial Accessibility to Urban Educational Resources under the School District System: A Case Study of Public Primary Schools in Nanjing, China. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2305 .
AMA StyleYan Xu, Weixuan Song, Chunhui Liu. Social-Spatial Accessibility to Urban Educational Resources under the School District System: A Case Study of Public Primary Schools in Nanjing, China. Sustainability. 2018; 10 (7):2305.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYan Xu; Weixuan Song; Chunhui Liu. 2018. "Social-Spatial Accessibility to Urban Educational Resources under the School District System: A Case Study of Public Primary Schools in Nanjing, China." Sustainability 10, no. 7: 2305.
A public health crisis in the process of brownfield land redevelopment (BLR) has frequently appeared in the context of promoting industrial upgrading and de-industrialization in China. Recent discussions on the reasons for this problem centered on the lack of laws, standards, and policies needed to secure the process of BLR. However, we argue that an urban governance approach to BLR can identify the sources of the problem. This paper discusses a case study of a toxic soil event in Changzhou, China, based on the theoretical framework—the Institutional Industry Complex (IIC). Under the pressure of fiscal distress as well as the requirements of economic growth and urbanization, local governments in China are bound with fiscal revenue from land development and land urbanization and have formed a pro-growth alliance with enterprises, property developers, and even the public. The alliance is defined as the pro-growth IIC of land finance regime in this paper. Due to the path-dependence of the IIC, the conventional pro-growth IIC of land finance regime in China has been circulated, and then transformed into a pro-growth IIC of BLR. As a result, the goal of the pro-growth IIC of BLR is maximizing profit in the process of land development, a goal that is the same as the pro-growth IIC of land finance regime Thus, as the pivotal stockholders of the pro-growth IIC of BLR, local governments, enterprises, and property developers hesitate to pursue a prudent and secure BLR process, which effectively attenuates a series of serious environmental issues and public health crises. That is the root cause of the problem. This study suggests a positive interaction between central and local government, as well as between enterprise and the public to create a sustainable IIC of BLR in future.
Chunhui Liu; Weixuan Song; Chen Zhou. Unsuccessful Urban Governance of Brownfield Land Redevelopment: A Lesson from the Toxic Soil Event in Changzhou, China. Sustainability 2017, 9, 824 .
AMA StyleChunhui Liu, Weixuan Song, Chen Zhou. Unsuccessful Urban Governance of Brownfield Land Redevelopment: A Lesson from the Toxic Soil Event in Changzhou, China. Sustainability. 2017; 9 (5):824.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChunhui Liu; Weixuan Song; Chen Zhou. 2017. "Unsuccessful Urban Governance of Brownfield Land Redevelopment: A Lesson from the Toxic Soil Event in Changzhou, China." Sustainability 9, no. 5: 824.
China has achieved rapid urbanization and unprecedented economic booming over the past three decades. Numerous cities and towns dreamed of cloning the miracles of Shenzhen and Pudong, Shanghai, in terms of their international development. However, inappropriate development strategies have meant that the majority of fast expanding urban suburbs or newly developed towns suffer a high ratio of vacant dwellings in real estate markets and a massive loss of farmland. The frequent exposure of these empty cities to mass media or the public has urged urban governments to impose fiscal austerity. These unexpected and negative consequences of urban development have explicit conflicts with sustainability. This paper aims to provide a political economy view of these unsustainable outcomes of new development. To achieve this, the processes and agendas of new city or town planning in Wujin District, Changzhou City, are analyzed and evaluated from the perspective of scale theory. Extensive interviews conducted with local politicians at different levels, planners, real estate agents and local residents facilitate the interpretation of these processes and agendas. It is argued that the legends of Shenzhen and Pudong, Shanghai originate from a modified neoliberal capitalism intervention at the right time and place, with which other peer cities are not comparable. It is concluded that the scaling-up strategy is not appropriate for the local new town development of Wujin, which has led to unsustainable outcomes—empty cities and towns—and created important lessons for the sustainable development of Chinese cities.
Hao Chen; Qiyan Wu; Jianquan Cheng; Zhifei Ma; Weixuan Song. Scaling-up Strategy as an Appropriate Approach for Sustainable New Town Development? Lessons from Wujin, Changzhou, China. Sustainability 2015, 7, 5682 -5704.
AMA StyleHao Chen, Qiyan Wu, Jianquan Cheng, Zhifei Ma, Weixuan Song. Scaling-up Strategy as an Appropriate Approach for Sustainable New Town Development? Lessons from Wujin, Changzhou, China. Sustainability. 2015; 7 (5):5682-5704.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHao Chen; Qiyan Wu; Jianquan Cheng; Zhifei Ma; Weixuan Song. 2015. "Scaling-up Strategy as an Appropriate Approach for Sustainable New Town Development? Lessons from Wujin, Changzhou, China." Sustainability 7, no. 5: 5682-5704.