Urban Social Landscape Transitions between 1990 and 2010: Case study of Wuhan, China

Urban social development interacts with physical ecological dynamics. China’s urban social landscape study attracted attentions within recent decades, but the research mainly focused on the first tier cities. This paper aimed to reveal China’s urbanization since the 1980s from the perspectives of social dynamic and second tier cities, through the study of Wuhan one of the largest city in central China. The analysis was based on the population census data in Wuhan in 1990, 2000, and 2010. Variables referred to demography, migration, age composition, marital status, household type, education, employment, and housing status. Factorial analysis was employed to find the dominant urban social dimensions. A principal component analysis was conducted to extract the principal factors while a varimax algorithm was used for rotation. Further, the comprehensive urban social structures were mapped based on the cluster analysis of the selected factors. To conceptualize the urban social structure, dummy variable linear regression models were conducted. The results showed that Wuhan urban social dimensions diversified definitely during the recent decades, which were mainly reflected as increasing concerns of the tertiary industry employment, highly educated population unemployed, elders, incoming migrants, and housing improvement. The predominant urban social structure was conceptualized as “three central towns, two wings, and one axis”. The author concluded that urban social landscape study should be introduced in sustainable urban planning, with the concerns of challenges in an aging society, social equity between local residents and incoming migrants, as well as between rural and urban population, social impacts on physical ecological degradation, and so on.