Urban Transformation Of Urbanization In Developed Countries And Its Enlightenment

By the end of 2015, urbanization rate in China had exceeded 56.1%, which means that China has basically achieved the transformation from rural society to urban society. According to the current situation of China’s urban development, "Urban China" in rapid development of urbanization in the middle stage has both obtained great achievements in urban construction and faced problem of high incidence of "urban disease". Therefore, from the perspective of strategic goal to build a well-off society in an all-round way and realize the modernization, how to realize urban transformation and improve the urbanization quality has great strategic significance in our country. It is well known that urbanization originated from western developed countries, and after 200 years of development, urbanization in developed countries has entered the mature stage and showed a relatively good image of urbanization. When the rate of urbanization in developed countries is close to that of current China in the middle stage of rapid development, urban development shows both prosperity and problems at the same time, even severer "urban disease", which can be found in the urbanization history of developed countries. Then it comes the question that from “urban disease” featuring both prosperity and problems to relatively good urbanization situation presented currently, are there any laws to be found with regard to the urban transformation of developed countries in the middle and later stages of their urbanization? Is there any successful experience in transformation for Chinese cities?Urban transformation is a complex process, starting from transformation theory and taking urban transformation as goal orientation to achieve people-oriented urban development. This paper carries out systematically comparative analysis and concludes some regular enlightenment about the urban transformation of developed countries in the middle and later stages. Taking the city as an organic system, this paper considers that the most basic subsystem includes the city’s economic system, spatial system, social system and ecological system. Urbanization in middle and later stages is actually transformation of sub systems to achieve the people-oriented urban development, which means maintaining urban sustainable growth through the transformation of economic system, realizing urban spatial expansion and function optimization through spatial system transformation, easing social conflicts and maintaining social stability through social system transformation and improving urban people’s living environment through ecological system transformation. However, different from the other three basic sub-systems, the goal of urban ecological system transformation is achieved by motivation of urban economic transformation, spatial transformation and other systems. So from the point of view of urban transformation path, urban economic, spatial and social system transformation exert the greatest influence on urban transformation.From the perspective of the economic system, spatial system and social system to explore urban transformation in middle and later stages of developed countries, we can find that technological revolution, system support and industrial regional transfer help to avoid urban recession and maintain sustained growth of urban economy based on the realization of rationalization and optimization in urban industrial structure in the middle and later urbanization stage of developed countries; from the perspective of urban spatial system, urban planning direction is constantly adjusted on the basis of gradually grasping the urban spatial growth law of middle and later urbanization stage in developed countries and developed countries both realize networking of spatial form, gradual optimization of urban functions, and realize the coordinated development of urban economy, society, culture and ecology; by establishing urban social governance system participated by multiple governing bodies, cities in developed countries in the middle and later stage of urbanization gradually solved the allocation imbalance in efficiency and equity of urban resource; in the process of realizing empowerment and autonomy, easing the contradiction in the urban society, raising the level of basic public services in cities and maintaining the basic stability of the urban social are achieved. So it is the transformation in three areas of industrial structure, spatial planning and social governance that helps to solve the "urban disease" in middle and later stage for developed countries and makes the urban system operate in a new state orderly. And with further analysis of factors influencing successful transformation in developed countries, it can be seen that new industry situation of technological revolution and constant adjustment of urban management system in developed countries will have decisive significance for successful urban transformation. Therefore, we should pay great attention to the important influence of technological innovation and institutional change on urban development, enhancing functional escalation driven by innovation and formulating system policy conductive to full play of urban elements’ positive role.From the enlightenment of urbanization transformation in developed countries in middle for China’s urban transformation, it can be seen that China’s urban transformation is a process of urban development under the era background of Chinese economic and social overall transformation, globalization and informatization. Industrial advantages, China’s national conditions and the complexity of internal and external environments make the urban developing road complexly with Chinese characteristics, rendering more opportunities and tough tasks facing China’s urban transformation. Therefore, the urban transformation in middle and later stage should be based on our specific development situation in China and useful experience of developed countries during the process of urban transformation should be learned to seize the historical opportunity of comprehensive deepening reform, adhere to urban development direction of people-orientation, harmony and sustainability, lay solid foundation for China’s urban transformation through technology and system innovation, comprehensively and systematically understand China’s urban transformation, emphasize the realistic requirements for China’s transformation from times situation, make use of two markets both at home and abroad, mobilize all powers, co-ordinate to solve the problem in the urban development, transform with high standards to achieve livable city construction, and realize the results of urban development shared by whole people. All those are meant to build China into a better garden with rich production, functional coordination, and social harmony and stableness as well as ecological and sustainable development.