URBAN DESIGHN

- WUHAN
Urban Growth in a Rapidly Urbanized Mega City: Wuhan

Abstract Wuhan, the largest mega city in central China, is not only a historic and 5 cultural city but also
a regional economic, transportation and educational centre
.
In 6 the past six decades, Wuhan has witnessed massive changes in national and local 7policies of
urbanization and urban development
.
Its spatial and temporal growth has shaped a representative urban morphology, which is interpretable
from socio- 9economic and spatial processes in each corresponding period.

Since 2000, Wuhan has entered a new era of economic boom and started the construction of metro
system. However, such rapid urban development has addressed great challenges to local urban planning.
. .
Introduction
The urbanization level, measured as the proportion of urban over total population, has reached 50 % in
2010 in China according to the latest 6th population census
.
1 Rapid urbanization has significantly brought about the massive changes of space in
City horizondaly and vertically
Wuhan, first termed in 1927, is situated on the East side of Hubei province as its
capital .
It lies between 113○410 and 115○050 East Longitude, and 29○580
 Its topography is dominated by relatively flat land

between 22 and 27 m above sea level except the hilly areas sporadically distributed
in suburban districts.

This region is characterized by typical subtropical monsoon

climate and well-marked seasons with cold and dry winter, abundant rainfall
and sunshine in summer.

Wuhan has a nickname ‘Water City’ which is shared with its

sister city—Manchester in the UK, as water body takes a high percentage (>20 %)
of its territory and because it is located at the middle reaches of Yangtze River
which is the third longest river in the world.

The whole city is divided into three

parts by the Yangtze River and its longest branch—Han River.

Wuhan is also a well-known tourism city, including the largest urban lake—
Donghu Lake, Guiyuan Temple, a historic building—Yellow Crane Tower
and traditional Cu Culture
.

On the top of the Yellow Crane Tower

that was first built in 220 AD and fully reconstructed in 1981, the entire landscape of
Wuhan city can be overviewed.
Fig. 16.1 Location of Hubei in China (left) and Wuhan in Hubei (right)
16 Urban Growth in a Rapidly Urbanized Mega City: Wuhan
of Donghu Lake. Wuhanise—
a local dialect is another
cultural landscape of 46
Wuhan. In the recent history
of China, Wuhan was the
origin of democratic 47
revolution—turning the Qing
Dynasty over in 1911.
The historic street in which
48
the revolution happened is
located in Wuchang, near
the Yellow Crane Tower.
49
The administrative division The total number of
of a municipality defines how permanent inhabitants of
a variety of demo- 50 Wuhan municipality is 10.02
graphic, social and economic 57 million in 2011 and total
data are registered and area 8,494.41 km2. The
reported. The administrative permanent inhabitant,
51 units in Chinese ci Wuhan contrasting 58 with floating
municipality, or called population, means those who
Greater Wuhan, have stayed for more than 6
months. 59
 • Wuhan Landscape

• Therefore, the
population density
of Wuhan
municipality is
1,180 people/km2 in
• 2011, which is much
higher than 882
• To be consistent with the division of Chinese development history, the pre-1949 people/km2 in 2000.
• period is called “recent times” and the post-1949 period “contemporary As a result, Wuhan
age”. is a
• Historically, the three towns of Wuhan were constructed and configured in • typical mega city in
different central China
• dynasties. The first town—Wuchang named as ‘Jiangxia’ occurred some • After this
• 1,600 years ago. The second town—Hanyang was founded around a castle introduction, Sect.
that 16.2 aims to review
• was built during the Han Dynasty (206 BC–222 AD). The third one—Hankou the urban
began development in the
• during the period of the South–north Dynasties (420–589 AD) and the area was • three periods: pre-
• situated next to Hanyang before the Han River changed its course during the 1949, post-1949
Ming and post-2000.
• Dynasty (1368–1644 AD), separating it from Hanyang. By the thirteenth •
century,
 During the period of
second ‘five-year’ plan
(1958–1962), China
proposed the notorious
industrial campaign called
‘The Great Leap
Forward’. Required by the
145 political movement,
Wuhan city made an
ambitious industrial
development scheme in
which some 200 new
projects were planned to
be completed within 5
years. However, the
Fig. 16.5 Temporal urban growth of Wuhan 1955–2000 shortage of construction
capital had eventually
reduced the scheme
Thirdly, the urban growth 1965–1993 was down to 12 industrial
dominated by infill development mostly along main roads and slightly along rivers. zones and each of which
Fourthly, the urban growth 1993–2000 was dominated by outward expansion from had occupied a large area
traditional industrial centres, mixing with continuous compact development. To 14
understand better the spatial patterns of the temporal urban growth in Wuhan, it is
necessary to explore the process of urban development and relevant national and
local policies. The governmental policies in the period from 1949 to 2010 can be
referred to the paper by Zhou et al.
 During the period of
second ‘five-year’ plan
Industrial clusters and railway lines before 1978 (1958–1962), China
proposed the notorious
industrial campaign called
The first wave of large-scale urban development projects was initiated in ‘The Great Leap Forward’.
1953 that was the starting year of the first ‘five-year plan’ (1953–1957). Required by the 145
Due to its historic position in China, Wuhan was designated by the central political movement, Wuhan
government as one of few key heavy industrial cities which were able to city made an ambitious
receive considerable national invest- ment. The key industry and industrial development
infrastructure projects that were constructed fully or partially during the scheme in which some 200
period includes the well-known Wuhan Iron and Steel Com- pany, Wuhan new projects were planned to
Heavy Lathe Plant, Qingshan Thermoelectric Plant, Wuhan Boiler Plant and be completed within 5 years.
the (first) Road-Rail Bridge over the Yangtze River. More than ten new However, the shortage of
universities including the famous Huazhong (meaning Central China) construction capital had
University of Science and Technology were founded then. Consequently, eventually reduced the
Wuhan had become a heavy industrial city and a centre of education and scheme down to 12
scientific research since then. Meanwhile, a large-scale of clustered industrial zones and each of
residential units were built up by diverse 140 work units (e.g. university, which had occupied a large
government and factories) to serve their employees. In total, Wuhan received area 14
136.92 million RMB Yuan in these 5 years, accounting
 Generally, 2000 is a fourth
turning point of China’s
urban development when
urbanization was promoted
In 2007, an urban network development strategy proposed by Wuhan as a national strategy. The
munici- 204 pality was approved by the State Council. The urban network is spatial patterns of
centred on Wuhan 205 city with the inclusion of other nine cities that are all residential and commercial
located with 100 km distance 206 from Wuhan. The total population within land uses shown in imply
the network is 31.1462 million in 2010 207 and its total area 5,780,000 km2. there is no significant
It is an emerging urban cluster (or called urban 208 circle in Chinese) in change of urban form from
China following the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, and 209 Pearl 2000 to 2006. This is
River Delta. Wuhan municipality is also approved as a comprehensive reform because there have
210 pilot area of resource-saving and environment-friendly society in 2007.
Thus, 211 building a resource-efficient and environmentally- friendly eco-
city has become a 212
 It is well-recognized that transport infrastructure has been taking important roles
in stimulating economic development in China. Before 1987, the railway system
was the dominant transport infrastructure connecting factories and warehouses with
harbours and stations As a riverside city, the bridges over Yangtze and
Han Rivers particularly have made great contributions to transport mobility and
urban forms. There are five new road or rail or road-rail bridges over
Yangtze River, completed
from 2000 to 2012. These, together with the first and second bridges in use before
1995, have facilitated the connection between city centres and suburban areas
within the municipality by the functional inner, second and outer rings across the
municipality .
bility and reshape its urban form. Compared with other provincial capital cities,
 There are three state-level economic and technological development zones in 239
Wuhan: Donghu, Zunkou and Wujiashan. The Donghu Hi-Tech Development Zone
240 (Fig. 16.9) focus on optical and electronic communications, bioengineering,
mate- 241 rial research and laser technologies, while the Wuhan Economic and
Technological 242 Development Zone at Zunkou emphasizes on the production of
automobiles and 243 spare parts, food and beverages. Similarly, the Wujiashan
Industry Development 244 Park puts emphasis on food and beverages; in addition, it
also focuses on agricul- 245 tural products for further processing, and bioengineering.
Together, these three 246 Development Zones in Wuhan play a critical role in its
economic development and 247
 Residential land uses in 1994 and 2006

Urban Planning and Its Impacts

Since 1949, Wuhan city has designed and revised five master plans in total in 1954,
1982, 1988, 1996 and 2009 respectively . The land use classifications in
the master plans have been evolving in this period. From 1954 to 1982, the main
urban land uses were industrial, warehouse, residential, universities/schools, and
green areas. In 1988, the classes included industrial, warehouse, residential, com-
mercial/trade, universities, and green areas. In 1996 the classification was updated
with low-density residential, commercial and residential, commercial, banking and
China. The planners are authorized by law to investigate the spatial and temporal
16 Urban Growth in a Rapidly Urbanized Mega City: Wuhan
 16 Urban Growth in a Rapidly Urbanized Mega City: Wuhan

Assessing the impacts of master plan (a): growth 1955–1965 and plan in 1954;
(b) Growth 1993–2000 and plan in 1988 and (c) residential land uses in 2006 and planed
residential land use in 1996
 goods and people, have been greatly enhanced. Within the municipality, the metro
system, river bridges and tunnels, and ring roads have effectively improved the
connectivity between the three towns. The improvement of various accessibility
indicators (e.g. employment, services and facilities) across the city has efficiently
increased the land and housing values and accordingly the real estate market has
been stimulated considerably. Zhang and Wang (2013) have confirmed that invest-
ments in mass transit can have significant and positive impacts on land development
through a case study of Beijing. The focus of traditional planning method should be
shifted from on proximity analysis to on accessibility analysis and the latter is
aimed to provide sustainable and equal access to a variety of opportunities among
diverse groups. Cheng et al. proposed an accessibility-based view of
urban form or urban network, which outperforms the traditional node and density-
based views, by taking a case study of Amsterdam. Commuting is the most frequent
travel of urban working groups. Huang et estimated that the average
travel distance of family head for working is 6.32 km in Wuhan, based on a sample
 A urban village located in the central part of Wuchang

properties around, and passive use of urban space. Socially, it will

cause problems of public security (home of low-income residents
and sometimes criminals), insuf- ficient guaranty in social security
that may cause instability of surrounding urban communities.
Environmentally, it produce ugly scenes in urban areas and
pollutions from overcrowd population and insufficient utilities. It is
reported that urban villages occupy 22,458.9 ha in 2006. There is
a challenge for local planners:
From a systematic point of view, Chinese mega cities are not only
growing larger and
larger but also the interactions among urban political, social,
economic, cultural and
environmental components are becoming more and more
complicated . The urban system is increasingly unpredictable due
to numerous stochastic and chaotic processes resulting from these
dynamic interactions and also the external environment such as
globalization. As a result, traditional planning methods need to
adapt to the fast changing environment. Planners in the master plan
or blueprint era saw planning as mainly concerned with the
production of plans, very physically oriented. The existing master
plan has no phasing related to the implementation of its
policies, and it is more like a physical design instead of a
comprehensive plan . The examination and approval of a city
master plan sometimes take nearly a decade and this will lead to
the failure of reflecting the changing environ ments: planning
always lags behind development or construction. First, there is an
448 increasing trend of comprehensive planning in China with
more socio-economic
UNDERGROUND PLAN