Suburbanization and Subcentering of Population in Beijing Metropolitan Area:A Nonparametric Analysis  

作　　者：SUN Tieshan HAN Zhenhai WANG Lanlan LI Guoping 

机构地区：[1]School of Government, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China [2]Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural ResourcesResearch, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China [3]China Academy of Public Finance and Public Policy,Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China)

出　　处：《Chinese Geographical Science》2012年第4期472-482,共11页中国地理科学（英文版）

基　　金：Under the auspices of National Key Basic Research Program of China (No. 2012CB955802);National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41001069);Grant Program of National Social Science Foundation of China (No.10zd&022)

摘　　要：This study focuses on the suburbanization and subcentering of population and examines the nature of spatial restructuring in terms of the population distribution in the Beijing metropolitan area.Instead of the classic density function approach,we employ the nonparametric analysis to characterize the spatial pattern of population densities in the Beijing metropolitan area and identify the suburban subcenters.Our findings suggest that the population has spread with rapid urban growth in the Beijing metropolitan area,and the compact urban form has been replaced by a more dispersed polycentric spatial distribution.However,compared with the decentralization of western cities,the spatial extent of the decentralization of population in the Beijing metropolitan area is quite limited.The rapid growth of population in the near suburbs has expedited the sprawl of the central city,with a larger central agglomeration of population dominating the metropolitan area.In this sense,the spatial pattern of the Beijing metropolitan area is still characterized by the continuous compactness.However,our findings do provide the evidence that the city has been turning to a polycentric structure.We find significant population subcenters have emerged in the suburbs of Beijing since the 1980s.But the polycentricity emerged in the Beijing metropolitan area is very different by nature from that observed in Western cities.The subcenters emerged are adherent to the development scheme planned for the city,so it can be referred to as the so called 'planned polycentricity'.This study focuses on the suburbanization and subcentering of population and examines the nature of spatial restructuring in terms of the population distribution in the Beijing metropolitan area. Instead of the classic density function approach, we employ the nonparametric analysis to characterize the spatial pattern of population densities in the Beijing metropolitan area and identify the suburban subcenters. Our findings suggest that the population has spread with rapid urban growth in the Beijing metropolitan area, and the compact urban form has been replaced by a more dispersed polycentric spatial distribution. However, compared with the decentralization of western cities, the spatial extent of the decentralization of population in the Beijing metropolitan area is quite limited. The rapid growth of popu- lation in the near suburbs has expedited the sprawl of the central city, with a larger central agglomeration of population dominating the metropolitan area. In this sense, the spatial pattern of the Beijing metropolitan area is still characterized by the continuous compactness. However, our findings do provide the evidence that the city has been turning to a polycentric structure. We find significant population subcenters have emerged in the suburbs of Beijing since the 1980s But the polycentricity emerged in the Beijing metropolitan area is very different by nature from that observed in West- ern cities. The subcenters emerged are adherent to the development scheme planned for the city, so it can be referred to as the so called ＇planned polycentricity＇.

关 键 词：SUBURBANIZATION population subcenters POLYCENTRICITY urban spatial structure Beijing metropolitan area 

分 类 号：TU984.113[建筑科学—城市规划与设计] C922[社会学—人口学]