Evaluating Urban Expansion and Spatial Characteristics in Urumqi

1. Evaluating Urban Expansion and Spatial Characteristics in Urumqi Wen Dong, Xiaolei Zhang Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography , Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) 14 May 2007

2. Lecture’s Structure: • Data sources • Generalsituation • Speed of urban expansion • Spatial differentiation • Direction of the urban expansion • Future development

3. Data sources • MSS image in 1975 • Landsat TM images (1990, 2000, 2006) • Land use map in Urumqi

4. Geographical location of Urumqi Area：10900.773 km2 Population: 2.02 million GDP：654.3 billion District：7 • General situation

5. General situation of oasis city—Urumqi Urumqi’s main economic indexes, such as the per capita GDP, financial income, total turnover of social consumer goods and per capita disposable income, are at the forefront of the 10 largest cities in west China. Per capita GDP of Urumqi in 2006 was 32,401 RMB, which was the highest in 5 capital cities in western China.

6. Speed of urban expansion During the period from 1949 to 2006, the built-up area was enlarged from 12.4 km2 to about 200 km2, the average annual expansion rate was about 5% .

7. 1949-1965 • Speed of urban expansion

8. Spatial differentiation :1949-1965 Urban expansion occurred mainly in the old districts, such as Tianshan District and Shayibake District. The city expanded along the newly-built highway, and urban expansion demonstrated the obvious axial of north and south.

9. Spatial differentiation :1965-1975 Urban expansion was slow during this period. It occurred mainly around Tianshan District and Sayibake District and along the main roads, and the expansion was not so significant.

10. Spatial differentiation :1975-1990 Urban expansion was significantly accelerated during the period 1975-1990. The pattern of urban expansion during this period was dominated by south-north zonal expansion and supplemented by east-west axial expansion.

11. Spatial differentiation :1990-2006 The speed and scale of urban expansion in Urumqi during this period were much lower than that in the previous period.

12. Spatial differentiation :1990-2006 Affected by policies regarding conserving cultivated lands and compensated land use, urban expansion was dominated by internal construction and reconstruction based on the early planned framework, except for the expansion around all downtown areas and along traffic lines, and outward expansion was slow.

13. Direction of the urban expansion With the rapid development of economy and population, the lack of land resources already became a barrier to the development of Urumqi. How to deal with this problem has become urgent for Urumqi’s future development.

14. Landsat TM image in 2006

15. Direction of the urban expansion Recently, the municipal government established Changhe new district and Miquan city had already turn over to Urumqi in 2007. The essence of these proposal is to utilize the location advantage of Urumqi to spur the regional economy growth on and solve the lack of land resources. It offered a powerful policy foundation for the operation and planning of a predominantly urban region and made it possible to establish an effective development control system.

16. Future development • The urban expansion of Urumqi has greatly driven the • development of the peripheral cities, which will make the network system of the regional urbanization more complicated. • Along with the rapid economic development, the relatively simple economic structure in Urumqi is changing into a complex one. Thus, the urban expansion of Urumqi may become more comprehensive and extensive. • The connection between Urumqi and other regions may sharply increase, and the new extended urban areas will develop in the direction of north, northwest, and southeast along the outward traffic lines.

17. Thanks for your attention!