Using fractal theory and urban land-use maps for 1949, 1959, 1980, and 1996, this study is devoted to analyzing the evolutionary features of urban form and land-use structure in Hangzhou, China. We find that self-similarity exists in both the built-up area and the municipal area, and fractal properties tend to become better defined with time. The fractal dimension of each type of land use is less than that of all land use. From 1980 to 1996, the fractal dimensions of residential, industrial, and external transport increased while those of educational and virescent land use decreased, indicating that partial degradation accompanied holistic optimization during the process of Hangzhou's self-organizing evolvement. The mechanisms of the spatiotemporal evolution of urban form in Hangzhou are discussed, including socioeconomic development and the dispersal or concentration of activities. The Tandabing approach to urban spatial expansion, the Jianfengchazhen approach to urban construction, and a top-down urban management style led to differences in fractal evolution between Chinese and Western cities.
References
1.
AddisonP S, 1997Fractals and Chaos: An illustrated Course (Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol)
2.
BakP, 1996How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality (Springer, New York)
BattyM, 1991, “Cities as fractals: simulating growth and form”, in Fractals and Chaos Eds CrillyA JEarnshawR AJonesH (Springer, New York) pp 43–69
5.
BattyMLongleyP A, 1988, “The morphology of urban land use”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design15461–488
6.
BattyMLongleyP A, 1994Fractal Cities: A Geometry of Form and Function (Academic Press, London)
7.
BenguiguiLCzamanskiDMarinovMPortugaliY, 2000, “When and where is a city fractal?”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design27507–519
8.
BenguiguiLCzamanskiDMarinovM, 2001, “City growth as a leap-frogging process: an application to the Tel-Aviv metropolis”Urban Studies381819–1839
9.
BenguiguiLBlumenfeld-LieberthalECzamanskiD, 2006, “The dynamics of the Tel Aviv morphology”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design33269–284
10.
ChenY G, 2008Fractal Urban Systems: Scaling, Symmetry, and Spatial Complexity (Science Press, Beijing) (in Chinese)
11.
ChenY GJiangS G, 2009, “An analytical process of the spatio-temporal evolution of urban systems based on allometric and fractal ideas”Chaos, Soliton and Fractals3949–64
12.
ChenY GZhouY X, 2003, “The rank-size rule and fractal hierarchies of cities: mathematical models and empirical analyses”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design30799–818
13.
ChenY GZhouY X, 2006, “Reinterpreting central place networks using ideas from fractals and self-organized criticality”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design33345–364
14.
De KeersmaeckerM-LFrankhauserPThomasI, 2003, “Using fractal dimensions for characterizing intra-urban diversity: the example of Brussels”Geographical Analysis35310–328
15.
Editorial Board of the Atlas of Urban China, 1994The Atlas of Urban China (Chinese Map Press, Beijing) (in Chinese)
16.
FederJ, 1988Fractals (Plenum Press, New York)
17.
FengJZhouY X, 2002, “On the spatial change and suburbanization of population in Hangzhou”City Planning Review2658–65 (in Chinese)
18.
FengJZhouY X, 2005, “Suburbanization and the changes of urban internal spatial structure in Hangzhou, China”Urban Geography25107–136
19.
FrankhauserP, 1990, “Aspects fractals des structures urbaines”L'Espace Géographique1945–69
20.
FrankhauserP, 1994La Fractalité des Structures Urbaines (Economica, Paris)
21.
FrankhauserP, 1998, “The fractals approach: a new tool for the spatial analysis of urban agglomerations”Population: An English Selection10205–240
22.
GoodchildM FMarkD M, 1987, “The fractal nature of geographical phenomena”Annals of Association of American Geographers77265–278
23.
Hangzhou's Planning Committee, 1998City Comprehensive Plan of Hangzhou (1996–2020) (Hangzhou Press, Hangzhou, China) (in Chinese)
24.
Hangzhou's Revolutionary Committee, 1981City Comprehensive Plan of Hangzhou (1980–2000) (Hangzhou Press, Hangzhou, China) (in Chinese)
25.
KayeB H, 1989A Random Walk Through Dimensions (VCH Publishers, New York)
26.
LongleyP ABattyM, 1989a, “On the fractal measurement of geographical boundaries”Geographical Analysis2147–67
27.
LongleyP ABattyM, 1989b, “Fractal measurement and line generalization”Computer and Geosciences15167–183
28.
MandelbrotB, 1983The Fractal Geometry of Nature (W H Freeman, San Francisco, CA)
29.
RyabkoB Ya, 1986, “Noise-free coding of combinatorial sources, Hausdorff dimension and Kolmogorov complexity”Problemy Peredachi Informatsii2216–26
30.
The Ministry of Propaganda of Hangzhou's Municipal Party Committee, 1999The Fifty Years of Hangzhou (Hangzhou Press, Hangzhou, China) (in Chinese)
31.
ThomasIFrankhauserPDe KeersmaeckerM-L, 2007, “Fractal dimension versus density of built-up surfaces in the periphery of Brussels”Papers in Regional Science86287–308
32.
ThomasIFrankhauserPBiernackiC, 2008, “The morphology of built-up landscapes in Wallonia (Belgium): a classification using fractal indices”Landscape and Urban Planning8499–115
33.
WhiteREngelenG, 1993, “Cellular automata and fractal urban form: a cellular modeling approach to the evolution of urban land-use patterns”Environment and Planning A251175–1199
34.
WhiteREngelenGUljeeI, 1997, “The use of constrained cellular automata for high-resolution modeling of urban land-use dynamics”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design24323–343
35.
YaoS M, 1997The Spatial Expansion of China's Metropolitan Area (Press of China's Technological University, Hefei, China) (in Chinese)
36.
ZhangT W, 2002, “Decentralization, localization, and the emergence of a quasi-participatory decision-making structure in urban development in Shanghai”International Planning Studies7303–323
37.
ZhouY XMaL J C, 2000, “Economic restructuring and suburbanization in China”Urban Geography21205–236
