This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wang, F. Articles by Zhou, Y. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Modelling Urban Population Densities in Beijing 1982-90: Suburbanisation and its Causes

Department of Geography, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115-2854, USA, wang{at}geog.niu.edu.Yixing

Yixing Zhou

Department of Geography, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China

The existing empirical research of urban population density is rich on developed countries but much less so on developing countries. On cities in a planned economy such as that of China, very little is reported. Part of the reason is the lack of reliable data sources. This research models the population densities in Beijing 1982-90. Data are from the third and fourth national population censuses in 1982 and 1990 respectively, and are aggregated at the level of sub-district (jie-dao). Spatial boundaries of these sub-districts are obtained from various sources of local governments and numerous field trips. The research shows that the negative exponential function also fits the density distributions in Beijing, the density gradient becomes flatter, and the city-centre intercept drops over time. The results are consistent with the findings on Western cities, implying that even a socialist city cannot escape the universal forces shaping urban structure. In addition, GIS surface modelling is used to analyse the spatial patterns. While central-city sub-districts have experienced significant loss of population, suburban sub-districts have gained growth at various scales. This signals the beginning of suburbanisation in Beijing. However, some of the causes are different from those in Western countries.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. He, Z. Li, and F. Wu Transformation of the Chinese City, 1995-2005: Geographical Perspectives and Geographers' Contributions China Information, November 1, 2006; 20(3): 429 - 456. [Abstract] [PDF]