Research On Spatial Structure Planning Of Small Cities In Metropolitan Area

Due to the rapid process of regional integration, small cities with abundant transportation infrastructure resources in middle China are polarized because of the irrational spatial structure and lacking of overall competitiveness. These cities develop slowly and regional difference enlarges rapidly, which has become one of the major obstacles to build harmonious society. Therefore, it is of importance for the city's sustainable development to study the spatial structure planning in order to form overall competitiveness in such small cities.This paper systematically reviewed and summarized the current situation about domestic and foreign spatial structure in urban planning and geography, based on which ,while referring to multidisciplinary methods, the Gravity Model was applied to the research of small city spatial structure. A practical comprehensive planning system was developed for the spatial structure planning of small city within metropolitan area. In the spatial case study of Xiaochang, which located in the Wuhan metropolitan area, the paper studied the spatial structure planning both in urban system and central city, and brought forward the developing strategy for the city.Three steps compose the spatial structure planning of small cities. The first one is comprehensive evaluation. In Xiaochang spatial structure planning, evaluations were conducted in regard to the advantages and status quo of the city. The advantages include transportation resources, tourism resources and culture resources while the status quo includes urban system, central city, economy, ecological environment, population and urbanization.The second step was analyzing the location of Xiaochang in Wuhan metropolitan area and higher level in order to determine the overall positioning and development goals. Meantime, five Xiaochang urban development strategies were proposed, which jointly promote Xiaochang to form comprehensive competitiveness, achieve sustainable development and improve the enforceability of spatial structure planning.Based on the ideal spatial structure formed by the result of the Gravity Model, while combining the comprehensive evaluation of Xiaochang city and its overall localization and develop strategy, the spatial structure planning for urban system and central districts was carried through. Spatial structure planning for urban system consist of spatial structure type comparison, spatial structure planning, hierarchical planning , functional zoning, transportation planning, central districts planning consist of land use evaluation, developing direction selection, spatial structure planning, land use planning ,industrial spatial structure planning ,and comprehensive transportation system planning .The spatial structure modeling and planning system of small cities with transport resources which locate in metropolitan area can benefit from this paper.