Research On The Layer Structure Of Shanghai City Region

My thesis first points out"one question". Then based on the literature review and analysis of"two dimensions", I conduct an empirical study on the layer structure of Shanghai city. This thesis studies and solves"three problems", and contributes to the literature through"three innovations".Concretely,"one question"is that in city-regions, there are certain structures of the systems including central cities and surrounding cities. For example, Tokyo city-region shows the feature of"one capital and three counties". New York city-region has the feature of"core, inner circle, mid circle, and outer circle."Inspired by this, I put forward the following question. Since the city region shows a layer structure in the macro perspective, does the central city also shows a layer structure in the micro perspective?The"two dimensions"foundation of this thesis is as following. First, the literature review of studies on city region and central city worldwide. Second, the cases of major international city regions and their central cities. The central cities of large city regions are mostly international metropolises which are complex systems with multi-level economic actions. We need to deeply analyze the industrial structure, space position, and function allocation of the layers of the central city, and then shape its development pattern and situation to stimulate the growth of both the city region and the central city. Therefore, it is hardly to conduct a study from the perspective of the development of single city. We should study this question from the the perspective of international metropolis and big Shanghai city region development. To some extent, using the extant research on large city regions for reference and studying the relevant questions on central city from a higher perspective are beneficial to the problem solution.One empirical study. Based on the above analysis, this thesis combines the practice of Shanghai. Using the classification of the layers of city regions, I try to find a scientific and reasonable method to display the geographic pattern and features of multi-layers of Shanghai city. The unit of analysis is the central city of big Shanghai city region. By establishing economic intensity index and concentration intensity index, I elicit the geographic pattern of Shanghai city-layer structure: core-layer with 60 square kilometers, mid-layer with 600 square kilometers, and outer-layer with 6000 square kilometers."Three problems". After drawing out the clear three-layer structure of Shanghai city, this thesis explores three problems. First, I investigate the economic development of Shanghai's buildings. Second, I compare the"removing county and establishing district"system of the outer-layer and the"removing county and establishing city"system of south Jiangsu province. Third, I study the population distribution by discussing the structural feature of Shanghai's three layers.The three contributions of my thesis are:(1) The contribution to the city-region theory. This thesis clears up and improves the city-region theory. Based on the existing literature on the layer structure of central city, this thesis postulates the three drives and causes for the formation of metropolis circle central city layer structure. First, the original cause of central city's layer structure is the formation and development of cities. Second, the major drive is the transformation of economic growth pattern and upgrading of industrial structure. Third, the maturation and amalgamation of big Shanghai city region is an important cause. Meanwhile, this thesis points out the theoretical foundation of highly concentration of core layer.(2) The contribution to the empirical study of big Shanghai city region central city layer structure. This thesis empirically investigates the economic index of 19 districts in Shanghai. It establishes a theoretical model, and defines and describes the layer structure of Shanghai city region central city. Finally, it draws the conclusion that the layer structure of Shanghai has the feature of three layers. Compared with past literature lack of quantitative research is a huge improvement.(3) The contribution to the comparison between the economy and system of Shanghai's outer-layer and those of cities in south Jiangsu province. I conclude the main differences between"removing county and establishing city"and"removing county and establishing district"in the legal and managerial aspects. I further sketch the major obstacles in the development of Shanghai's outer-layer, and give solutions from the perspective of system innovation to promote the economic and social development.