Speaker
Description
With the rollout of China's national strategy promoting metropolitan area integration, a plethora of urban planning practices spanning administrative boundaries are flourishing across the country, sparking considerable academic interest in a novel type of intercity adjacent regional unit—which we designate as "cross-border urban cooperation zones." The main contribution of this paper lies in addressing the gap in existing literature regarding methodologies for delineating the geographical scope and boundaries of cross-border urban cooperation zones and forecasting their potential advantageous functions. Using Wuhan, the largest metropolis in central China, and its neighboring city of Xianning as a case study, the research leverages land-use data, corporate data, socio-economic data, mobile phone signaling data, and transportation data. By employing social network analysis, GIS spatial analysis and spatial statistics, as well as landscape pattern index methods, the paper not only devises a "four-dimensional, three-step" framework for identifying the geographical scope and boundaries of cross-border urban cooperation zones but also formulates a calculation method for assessing their potential advantageous functions, rooted in potential indicators, evaluation matrices, and advantage indices. Through these methodologies, the study successfully outlines a 384.8 square kilometer Wuhan-Xianning cross-border cooperation zone, analyzes the divergent land-use growth patterns and population dynamics on either side of the administrative boundary, portrays the natural environmental features of a major lake straddling the two cities, unveils the spatial distribution of manufacturing zones, residential areas, cultural and tourism spaces, and agricultural/forestry lands within the cooperation zone, and highlights the road and railway infrastructure of the cross-border cooperation zone situated at a pivotal node of a regional transportation corridor. Additionally, the paper forecasts the region's most promising future functions in terms of ecological landscape, technological innovation, and healthcare and wellness services. Consequently, the paper conceives a comprehensive spatial planning blueprint for the sustainable development of the region, emphasizing the pivotal roles of ecological connectivity, clustering of scientific research and industries, and the enhancement of healthcare and sports facilities. The research findings will be partially incorporated into the implementation of the upcoming version of Wuhan metropolitan area's territorial spatial planning.
| Keywords | Cross-Border Urban Cooperation Zones; Advantageous Potential Functions; Spatial Integration Planning |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
