Habitat International最新文献

{"title":"A review of five books by Pengjun Zhao and team on transport and urban transformation in China","authors":"Becky P.Y. Loo","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103356","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103356","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This is a review of five books in the Springer series on Population, Regional Development and Transport authored by Professor Pengjun Zhao and his team. Each book deals with a key aspect of the interrelationship of transport with a phenomenon which is of great significance in contemporary China. The review outlines the contents of these books, recommends a sequence of reading, and identifies the value and significance of the five books as a collection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 103356"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143561966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A novel framework for rural vitality evaluation and revitalization by classification: A case of China","authors":"Chuanyang Pan ,&nbsp;Xu Feng ,&nbsp;Ming Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103361","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103361","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As a result of industrialization and urbanization, most countries around the world are facing the problem of declining vitality caused by rural population contraction. Rural vitality offers a valuable policy instrument for identifying key issues in rural development and finding specific responses. However, the extant research on rural vitality lacks sufficient systematicness and comprehensiveness, largely focusing on evaluations and applications at the micro level. In this context, corresponding to the hierarchical transmission of rural space, a novel two-tiered analysis framework of rural vitality is proposed. Then, we conducted a macro-level vitality evaluation from natural, facility, social, agricultural and economic dimensions, and typology identification of 1871 counties in China. The results indicated that rural vitality in China exhibited significant spatial heterogeneity, with a notable decline from the east coast to the center-west and northeast. In the sub-dimensions, except social, agricultural and economic trends were generally higher in the west and lower in the east, the other sub-dimensions exhibited the reverse trend. By employing cluster analysis, the research units were divided into eight categories. The regional policy directions were then proposed based on their respective strengths and weaknesses. In the future, all regions should respect the objective laws of rural transformation and the causes of vitality disparities, and focus on the strengths and characteristics of each sub-dimension to promote sustainable rural development. This study will provide a scientific basis for the diagnosis of rural problems and the implementation of rural revitalization strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 103361"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143561965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uncovering the edge urban villages using social media big data: A case study in Beijing, China","authors":"Hubin Wei ,&nbsp;Wei Qi ,&nbsp;Shenghe Liu ,&nbsp;Yu Li ,&nbsp;Yue Yin","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103357","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103357","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Spatial inequality in informal settlements has become a crucial issue in the sustainable development of global cities. Urban villages, emblematic of informal settlements in China, serve as focal points where migrant workers establish communities within urban areas. In recent years, the ongoing urban renewal and enhanced connectivity between urban centers and suburban areas have led to the progressive development of peri-urban informal settlements, which function as significant socio-spatial entities in the urban-rural continuum. This study introduces a concept of the Edge Urban Villages (EUVs) and applies it in a case study conducted in Beijing, China. EUVs are informal settlements located outside the physical urban area but serve traditional urban village functions, which play an important and as yet untouched role in serving migrants and sustainable urban development. Using systematic methods for analyzing social media big data, including conditional random field model, integrating natural language processing, geoparsing, and geocoding techniques, the locations and attention received by urban villages are identified. Moreover, the study outlines the spatial characteristics of EUVs based on their functions, utilizing a comprehensive dataset of 33,002 social media posts collected from various sources. The results indicate that: (1) 301 urban villages have been identified in Beijing, with over one third of them situated beyond the confines of the physical urban area, thus earning the designation of EUVs. (2) The proliferation of EUVs can be primarily attributed to the interdependence of their functions, encompassing rental services, public amenities, and transportation. However, the correlation between EUVs and their rural locale, measured by distance from urban centers, affluence levels, and land ownership types, lacks significance. (3) Although China has a strict urban-rural dichotomy in terms of population and land system, the rise of the EUVs identifies the fact that a large number of non-agricultural functions have emerged in the rural areas surrounding the big cities and maintain close functional links with the center cities. More attention should be directed towards EUVs, particularly concerning their emerging spatial inequality-related issues in the urban periphery.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 103357"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143534579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘Inter-city cooperation fever’ in China: Its trajectory, mechanisms and adjustment strategy","authors":"Yang Lingfan ,&nbsp;Tang Mi ,&nbsp;Luo Xiaolong ,&nbsp;Li Xiaolong","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103355","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103355","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the context of re-territoriazation during China's shift towards regionalization, the ‘inter-city cooperation fever’, involving imprudently over-promoted, along with issues such as excessive imbalance in resource allocation, intensification of governance frictions, and imbalance in the distribution of local fiscal interests, have caused severe crises in China's urbanization. Understanding the causes and adjustment mechanisms of these crises in inter-city cooperation fever is crucial to the promotion of sustainable urban development.</div><div>Combining the geopolitical concepts in city regionalism and the increasing number of local-led inter-city cooperation efforts with intertwined dilemmas worldwide, this paper proposes a new bottom-up re-territorialization concept of “competitive geopolitics”, to clarify the formation mechanism of the formation, crisis, adjustment, and continuous trajectory of inter-city cooperation. In China's “inter-city cooperation fever”, the competitive relationship among local actors is more obvious. This research conducts an empirical study on the inter-city cooperation zones in Jiangsu Province, China. The research results show that the inter-city cooperation fever is dominated by horizontal territorial politics among regions, involving three aspects: the dynamic territorial redistribution politics in which collaborators jointly adjust the local economic order under the transformation of the economic environment, the flexible administrative divisions that establish and maintain the results of interactive games and their political vulnerability, and the political and economic measures of superior governments and the risk of failure under the construction of policy discourse. In addition, in China, these three mechanisms all follow the government-led regionalism and are regulated by the “promotion-oriented” entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese government. This paper aims to promote academic discussions on geopolitics in the context of inter-city cooperation in China and, from the perspective of local competitive relationships, provides a method for observing inter-city cooperation projects that are gradually being implemented on a large scale from a long-term perspective.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 103355"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143535026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring conflicting rationalities in densification policy and informal practices: Insights from two neighbourhoods in Cape Town","authors":"Mercy Brown-Luthango,&nbsp;Martin Magidi","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103340","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103340","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Housing provision in Cape Town, like in many other African cities, is a highly contested issue. This is because of multiple and often competing demands for the provision of well-located housing and sustainable livelihoods in the context of shrinking natural resources, such as land, as well as environmental concerns. In this context, the need for high-density living environments has been expressed as an urgent policy concern. In this paper, we explore how this policy consideration stacks up against everyday experiences regarding informal practices within two communities in Cape Town and why there is a dissonance between official policy aspirations and communities’ everyday engagement with higher-density living. Using the conflicting rationalities theoretical framework, this paper highlights and shows the various clashes between the perceptions and experiences of densification, not only between the state and communities but also within the state and communities. Based on these cases, it is apparent that even within the same society or a group of comparable socio-economic status, experiences, logics, and perceptions of densification can be very different. We use these two case studies to conclude that a more context-specific, consultative rather than a one-size-fits-all top-down approach is required in designing densification policies, not only in Cape Town but also across many other African cities where the colonial legacy, as well as current planning practices, have produced highly unequal and fragmented cities. The cases also point to the need for a more nuanced and clear understanding of what constitutes density, different forms of densities and the underlying factors and interests which drive and sustain socio-spatial inequalities in cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 103340"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143529290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantifying the spatial patterns and influencing factors of open-pit mining land transition in China","authors":"Shaojie Xu ,&nbsp;Fuyuan Wang ,&nbsp;Kaiyong Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103338","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103338","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the context of China's accelerated green transition in economic and social development, understanding the dynamics and influencing factors of open-pit mining land (OPML) transition is crucial for promoting ecological restoration and developing green mines. This study establishes a theoretical model for OPML transition, utilizing remote sensing data, Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST), and Optimal Parameter-based Geodetector to quantitatively evaluate the spatiotemporal patterns and driving factors of both dominant and recessive morphological transitions of OPML in China. The results reveal that from 2019 to 2022, China's OPML experienced a significant dominant morphological transition, with a substantial area reduction of 58.13%, primarily converting to grasslands. However, the overall level of recessive morphological transition, characterized by ecosystem service functions, remains low. Notable regional differences exist in the transition process, with Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, and Yunnan exhibiting superior performance in mine governance. Common drivers of both dominant and recessive morphological transitions include road infrastructure, climatic factors, fiscal revenue, and economic development levels, with road infrastructure demonstrating an exceptionally high contribution rate. The underlying driving mechanisms of OPML transition can be understood within a three-dimensional framework encompassing natural, economic, and managerial systems. The paper further discusses the effectiveness of five existing mine management strategies in China, suggesting that future mine management should account for regional differences in natural conditions and economic development, leverage the critical roles of government governance and infrastructure development in advancing OPML transition, and adopt restoration strategies tailored to local conditions to promote sustainable land use and ecological restoration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 103338"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143519331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The welfare performance of low-carbon city practice: An innovative tool for assessing urban sustainable development","authors":"Xiaoyun Du ,&nbsp;Chenyang Ma ,&nbsp;Guangyu Cheng ,&nbsp;Xiaoxuan Wei","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103348","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103348","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Extreme climate change is challenging the sustainable development of human beings. The practice of low-carbon cities is an urgent mission worldwide. While previous studies evaluate low-carbon cities from either an input or output perspective, lacking of evaluation based on welfare perspective. This study introduces an innovative tool, the Welfare Performance of Low-Carbon City Practice (WPLCC), to assess urban sustainable development performance. The Super-SBM method is employed as the measurement model. An empirical study of 256 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2020 reveals the spatial-temporal evolution of WPLCC. The findings indicate that: (1) there is an imbalance in WPLCC in China, with the ecological welfare transformation stage significantly outperforming the production transformation stage. (2) Spatially, the overall WPLCC in China shows a circular distribution pattern, exhibiting poor performance in central areas and better performance in surrounding regions. (3) WPLCC performances display significant regional heterogeneity; for example, four municipalities excel in both production and welfare transformation stages. (4) Tailored strategies should be implemented based on performance types and low-carbon process while maintaining policy flexibility. The developed evaluation tool provides a novel perspective for LCC assessment, and empirical findings can offer valuable insights for formulating effective strategies to achieve urban sustainable development goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 103348"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143511383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Inferring ghost cities on the globe in newly developed urban areas based on urban vitality with multi-source data","authors":"Yecheng Zhang,&nbsp;Tangqi Tu,&nbsp;Ying Long","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103350","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103350","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Due to rapid urbanization over the past 20 years, many newly developed areas have lagged in socio-economic maturity, creating an imbalance with older cities and leading to the rise of “ghost cities”. However, the complexity of socio-economic factors has hindered global studies from measuring this phenomenon. To address this gap, a unified framework based on urban vitality theory and multi-source data is proposed to measure the Ghost City Index (GCI), which has been validated using various data sources. The study encompasses 8841 natural cities worldwide with areas exceeding 5 km², categorizing each into new urban areas (developed after 2005) and old urban areas (developed before 2005). Urban vitality was gauged using the density of road networks, points of interests (POIs), and population density with 1 km resolution across morphological, functional, and social dimensions. By comparing urban vitality in new and old urban areas, we quantify the GCI globally using the theory of urban vitality for the first time. The results reveal that the vitality of new urban areas is 7.69% that of old ones. The top 5% (442) of cities were designated as ghost cities, a finding mirrored by news media and other research. This study sheds light on strategies for sustainable global urbanization, crucial for the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 103350"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143508333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantitative characterization of China's farmland scale utilization level and driving factors: A 30-year comprehensive evaluation perspective","authors":"Feng Tang ,&nbsp;Li Wang ,&nbsp;Meichen Fu ,&nbsp;Pengtao Zhang ,&nbsp;Ni Huang ,&nbsp;Wensheng Duan ,&nbsp;Yuelin Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103335","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103335","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Enhancing farmland scale utilization is crucial for achieving the sustainable development goal of zero hunger and ensuring food security. However, quantitative research on this topic is relatively lacking. This study focuses on the scientific issue of how to quantify and characterize China's farmland scale utilization level and its driving factors in a long time series. Based on long-term multi-source spatiotemporal data, we comprehensively used the entropy weight-catastrophe progression model and GTWR model to construct a quantitative analysis method for the farmland scale utilization, quantitatively assessed and revealed the spatiotemporal differentiation patterns and driving factors of farmland scale utilization in China over the past 30 years. We found that: (1) Farmland scale utilization level in China has shown a slow upward trend from 1990 to 2020, with an average value ranging from 0.3 to 0.4, mainly at lower and medium grades. 89% of the prefecture-level cities experienced an increase in scale utilization level, while 11% saw a decrease. The most significant increase occurred in the Northeastern China, while the most significant decrease occurred in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. (2) The influence degree of driving factors was ranked as follows: farmland terrain relief &gt; per capita farmland area &gt; proportion of secondary and tertiary industries &gt; urbanization rate &gt; population density &gt; land use intensity &gt; farmland elevation &gt; per capita GDP &gt; rural per capita net income &gt; road accessibility &gt; distance to the urban land. Each driving factor showed significant spatial differences in the degree and direction of impact on the scale utilization level, and exhibited different change characteristics over time. We recommend that future efforts should be focus on enhancing agricultural mechanization, promoting comprehensive land consolidation, and strengthening farmland protection to promote sustainable scale utilization of farmland. This study can provide scientific references for the formulation of management policies for the large-scale and sustainable utilization of farmland resources in different regions of China.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 103335"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143508331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Aspirations versus reality: Factors influencing the vertical social mobility of urban Roma mothers living in extreme poverty","authors":"Boglárka Berki ,&nbsp;György Málovics ,&nbsp;Remus Creţan","doi":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103334","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103334","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As a result of historical racism and stigmatization for Roma people, living their lives spatially segregated in extreme poverty, opportunities for individual, vertical social mobility are limited by a myriad of structural factors. In addition to this stark reality, no studies deal specifically with the vertical social mobility of extremely poor, stigmatized and segregated urban Roma mothers. The present study aims to contribute to filling this research gap by raising the following research question: What kind of aspirations do extremely poor, stigmatized and segregated urban Roma mothers have in relation to social mobility and, what are the factors that influence their (lack of) vertical mobility? Long term qualitative observations supplemented by semi-structured interviews were used in a Hungarian urban context to answer this research question. Our results indicate that aspirations of vertical social mobility among urban Roma mothers is not related to leaving class behind, and all that implies, but to provide basic material security for their children. However, this aspiration should still be realized in an essentially hostile environment characterized by racist everyday relations in the illiberal nation-state of Hungary. As a result, a number of factors that are linked to the core institutions of social reproduction limit vertical mobility, supplemented by certain internal norms of segregated Roma communities. Meanwhile, vertical mobility might also lead to loss of community ties and thus important material and emotional resources. Within such a context, Roma mothers' efforts towards vertical social mobility are a dramatic struggle. Our results reinforce the understanding that social mobility that indeed serves social justice should be considered as a collective endeavour that improves the situation of entire communities, instead of individualizing responsibility for one's own social position – especially if these “ones” are historically stigmatized and othered.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48376,"journal":{"name":"Habitat International","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 103334"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143508332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}