Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.8, 2015

 

Estimating Major Urbanized Areas in China：A Population Concentration Approach

(Abstract)

 

Jiang Manqi and Xi Qiangmin

 

On the basis of the new population concentration approach, taking as a benchmark the size of contiguous population concentrations of a certain population density, we calculate and analyze the situation of China’s major urbanized areas. Our findings show that these areas are distinguished by high population concentration. Great discrepancies exist between the geographical scope of urban administration and the spatial distribution of major urbanized areas based on the concentration approach. Over the last decade, there has been large-scale population concentration in major urbanized areas, but growth in the dimensions of these areas is occurring faster than population growth. In planning for major functional regions, the design of major urbanized areas suffers from excessively large scope and rather low current concentration, hindering the realization of an intensive and compact development mode of Chinese urbanization.