published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

So Man Shan. / Thesis submitted in: August 2003. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-187). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.ii / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.vi / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ix / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.x / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION / Chapter 1.1 --- Background of the Study --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Objectives of the Study --- p.5 / Chapter 1.3 --- Significance of the Study --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Scope of the Study --- p.6 / Chapter 1.5 --- Organization of the Thesis --- p.7 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- CONCEPT OF URBAN COMPETITIVENESS / Chapter 2.1 --- Competitiveness: An Evolving Concept --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Review of Research on Urban Competitiveness --- p.10 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- URBANIZATION AND URBAN TRANSFORMATION IN POST REFORM CHINA / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.21 / Chapter 3.2 --- Chinese Urban System --- p.22 / Chapter 3.3 --- Hukou System --- p.25 / Chapter 3.4 --- Urbanization Process and Patterns in Post-reform China --- p.27 / Chapter 3.5 --- Urban Transformation in Post-reform China --- p.30 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- METHODS TO MEASURE URBAN COMPETITIVENESS / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.36 / Chapter 4.2 --- System of Indicators --- p.36 / Chapter 4.3 --- Weighting Methods --- p.53 / Chapter 4.4 --- Comparison and Selection of Weighting Methods --- p.60 / Chapter 4.5 --- Statistical Data --- p.64 / Chapter 4.6 --- Procedures to Compute Urban Competitiveness Index --- p.67 / Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- ANALYSIS OF URBAN COMPETITIVENESS / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.73 / Chapter 5.2 --- Economic Competitiveness --- p.74 / Chapter 5.3 --- Social Competitiveness --- p.85 / Chapter 5.4 --- Environmental Competitiveness --- p.98 / Chapter 5.5 --- Urban Competitiveness --- p.105 / Chapter 5.6 --- Comparing Single Indicators with Urban Competitiveness --- p.114 / Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- CONCLUSION / Chapter 6.1 --- Major Points and Findings --- p.119 / Chapter 6.2 --- Limitations --- p.127 / Chapter 6.3 --- Suggestion for Further Research --- p.129 / APPENDIX A --- p.130 / APPENDIX B --- p.136 / APPENDIX C --- p.144 / APPENDIX D --- p.152 / APPENDIX E --- p.160 / APPENDIX F --- p.168 / REFERENCES --- p.176

In less than two decades since the notion of sustainable development has become firmly established in policy and academic domains, the debate within the field of sustainable development has shifted from the issue of definition to one of measurement. From the national to local levels, considerable efforts have been embarked in China to develop appropriate sustainability assessment measures (SAMs). The studies of SAM at the municipal level in China are particularly booming due to the diversity of Chinese cities both in terms of size and function. In spite of the value in generating creative thinking, the overlapping and redundancy in efforts of devising SAMs, partly because of the inapplicability of the devised SAMs, have undermined the usefulness of SAMs to guide policy-making and foster behavioral changes toward sustainable development. Many Chinese academic researchers and professionals have indicated these problems but primarily focused on methodological and technical aspects. This research attempts to address the radical issues embedded in the whole scheme of sustainability assessment with the objective of improving the applicability and effectiveness of SAMs for Chinese cities. Based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative investigations, this research identifies the major problems facing with the development and application of SAM for Chinese cities and the influential factors and proposes an implementation scheme for better appraisal of sustainability of Chinese cities. / The study has revealed a number of key findings. First, the evolvement of the SAMs for Chinese cities, typically characterized by increasing complexity and number of participants, was closely related to the evolvement of people's understanding of, and aspiration for, sustainable development. Second, of the problems identified by the sustainability assessment practitioners, the most crucial ones for SAM development and application respectively, are the unavailability of required data and incomprehensiveness of sustainable development dimensions. Third, the key factors that influence the applicability and effectiveness of SAMs for Chinese cities include difference between SAM developers and users in their understanding of the objectives and criteria of sustainability assessment; the context of the city subject to assessment, the process of decision-making in Chinese municipal governments and various methodological issues, etc. / With the above findings, this research concludes that sustainability assessment is an issue-driven, context-specified and decision-making-tailored task which demands the collaborative efforts of government users, data providers and SAM developers. The implementation scheme of sustainability assessment should preferably go through five phases: preparation for sustainability assessment, establishment of SAM, calculation of SAM results, application of SAM results and lastly the evaluation and improvement of SAM. Of the above, the first, the fourth and the last phases are of particular significances for Chinese cities. The research also highlights issues related to the evaluation of the applicability and effectiveness of SAM through an analysis of the ecological footprint and human development index of five cities in China including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taiyuan and Guilin. The perspectives and insights derived from these case studies have shed some light on the future development and application of similar SAMs for other Chinese cities. / Lu, Jia. / "May 2007." / Adviser: K. C. Lam. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-01, Section: A, page: 0333. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-229). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

With the rise of cities as geographical units, there have been a growing number of municipal partnerships and networks. Government-led intercity cooperation at regional scale—regional city-to-city (C2C) cooperation booms in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region in the last two decades. Urban competitiveness is a concept tied to intercity competition that decides the relative position of cities in urban ranking. In regional C2C cooperation, urban competitiveness serves as the asset of partner-cities and usually as one of the primary targets of the cooperation. However, there is a general lack of studies on the influence of urban competitiveness on regional C2C cooperation. The introduction of the perspective of urban competitiveness is an approach of developing a comprehensive framework connecting factors of regional C2C cooperation. The objective of this research is to analyze the influence of urban competitiveness on regional C2C cooperation in China’s local context. In this study, the added value of regional C2C cooperation is divided into added value of urban competitiveness and political added value brought by intervention from upper-level governments. Three typology of C2C cooperation (i.e. hybrid, hierarchical and spontaneous) have been identified. Three cases in the YRD region including the Jiangyin-Jingjiang Industrial Park of Jiangsu Province, Suzhou-Suqian Industrial Park, and Shanghai Caohejing Hi-Tech Park Haining Sub-park are selected for case studies accordingly. This study indicates that urban competitiveness and government intervention are crucial to regional C2C cooperation. Urban competitiveness is essential in regional C2C partnership maintenance, while intervention from upper-level governments is effective and efficient in strategy formulation and partner selection. The measurement of urban competitiveness in the YRD region in 2002, 2005, and 2008 indicates the partner-city with relatively larger urban competitiveness is more likely to assume a leading role in the C2C partnership. Noticeably, it is found that the intervention from the provincial government tends to consolidate such impact. The measurement also reveals that urban competitiveness in the YRD region is transforming from an investment-driven stage to an innovation- and human capital-driven stage. Noticeably, the increasing weighting of basic factors in the building of urban competitiveness found in the YRD region is hard to be explained by the mainstream urban competitive advantage theories. Therefore, a localization of the theories is advocated by this research. Imprints of China’s local context transpire in the three cases, including economic decentralization and simultaneous political centralization. The role of provincial government is weakened in China’s political restructuring. However, revealed by the case studies, intervention from provincial government to regional C2C cooperation is still observed to be effective in terms of strategy formulation and negotiation. With the rise of public-private partnership focusing on investment and economic growth, as well as strong government intervention in regional C2C cooperation, the three cases reflect China’s urban entrepreneurialism. Furthermore, a recent shift in China’s urban entrepreneurialism has been found in the region, which is the increasing emphasis on environmental care for sustainable development. This recent shift accords with the global movement toward environmentalism for sustainable development. The underlying logic and reasons are different from those in the West, resting upon the different nature of involvement and governing process. The findings of this research contribute to a better understanding of the relations between urban competitiveness and regional C2C cooperation in China’s local context and the role of governments. As one of the most developed regions in China, the experiences in the YRD region can shed light on the development of other developing areas. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Advancement in science and technology has brought about tremendous changes in the world. Under the influence of globalization, increasing competition among cities has been witnessed all over the world and urban competitiveness has become a new research topic. This study conducts a comparative analysis of 253 Chinese cities at prefecture-level or above based on a conceptual framework of urban competitiveness. Two methodological issues are addressed and carefully examined which are the selection of weighting methods and the assessment of the impact of population data on the result of urban competitiveness analysis. Based on the empirical results, this research further analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese cities and the regional pattern of urban competitiveness in China. / In this study, urban competitiveness is understood from a comprehensive perspective including economic, social and environmental components. Adopting a three-level hierarchical indicator system, this study compares the different results derived from the use of two different weighting methods, Equal Weighting and Factor Analysis. Through tracing the calculation process, it is found that Factor Analysis generates problematic weights to some indicators and it also has a tendency to ignore the environmental performance of the cities in this study. Thus the Equal Weighting method seems better to fit urban competitiveness study. / The impact of the quality of population data is addressed by comparing the results using the population data from the 2000 Population Census and from the 2001 Urban Statistical Yearbook. Although the general inconsistency in the result of urban competitiveness analysis caused by using different population data was not as serious as the one caused by using different weighting methods, the results from using population data from the 2001 Urban Statistical Yearbook were inaccurate. / The inter-regional differences and intra-regional variations within regions and provinces have been significant in the reform period. The eastern region outstripped the central and western regions not only in economic, but also in social and environmental competitiveness. Economic competitiveness driven by a large amount of FDI in the eastern region was the most outstanding among the three competitiveness dimensions. Cities in the central region were better off than the western region with the exception of Economic Performance. It is worth noting that a few cities in the central and western regions demonstrated strong competitiveness which even outscored many eastern cities. However, the large disparity among the cities in the western region increased the difficulties of reducing the overall regional disparity. The variation of urban competitiveness also shaped the inter-provincial disparity within each region. / These methodological considerations have led to the selection of Equal Weighting as the weighting method and the 2000 Population Census as the population data source with which to measure urban competitiveness. As revealed by the analysis, the cities varied by having either consistent or inconsistent ranks in their economic, social and environmental competitiveness. Hangzhou, Zhuhai, Beijing, and Shenzhen ranked at the top for the country, while Bazhong, Baoshan, Suining, and Guang'an ranked near the bottom in total urban competitiveness. / This research contributes to the understanding of and measurement of urban competitiveness in Chinese cities. It provides a useful reference on the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese cities. Furthermore, the regional pattern of urban competitiveness also helps to improve the general understanding of China's uneven development. / Jiang, Yihong. / "January 2007." / Adviser: Jianfa Shen. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-08, Section: A, page: 3537. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-248). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.