An Empirical Study On Residential Spatial Differentiation: Based On Residential Choice Perspective

The development of western cities tells us that urban residential differentiation is inevitable and the increasing urbanization does no help to solve poverty, inequality and other social issues. After China's reform, urbanization takes rapid advance with the increasing urban areas,the development of land market,real estate market and the reform of the housing allocation system.All the phenomenon drives urban residential space in new way:with the growth of urban space, urban residential differentiation becomes increasing obvious, especially in many big cities,such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou,Nanjing and so on.There is great significance to make empirical study of one city in order to understand the phenomenon of urban residential differentiation clearly,to enhance the function of the whole city and to promote social harmony.Existing researches focus on the pattern or characteristics and the reason of urban residential differentiation.Most of the researches about the reason of urban residential differentiation base on the macro-level, such as system, policy and planning, so the author chooses the micro-level to research the reason of urban residential differential. The main contents and conclusions are as follows:As the base of the research, theory of social space, location theory and consumer behavior theory are summarized. From the material properties of urban living space, 13 characteristics are selected as the urban space variables:the housing unit price, the age of the house, natural environment, community environment, cultural environment, living support, sports facilities, educational facilities, property management, CBD distance, West lake distance, the distance of Qianjiang New city and traffic. Then the author researches the pattern of Hangzhou urban residential differentiation with GIS and statistical analysis, quantitatively divides 348 communities into 5 patterns low-value community, lower-value community, mid-range community, higher-value community and high-value community; qualitatively divides 2 patterns:squatter settlements and villas. Finally, descriptive statistics and single factor analysis of variance model are used to compare the difference of urban residential patterns coming to the general conclusions of urban residential differentiation. The research studies the releationship of the characteristics of Hangzhou residents and their spatial patterns, constructs the discrete choice model with the variables of residents'family characteristics and spatial preference. The result shows that all the variables impact the spatial patterns'selecting significantly in different degrees.In order to research the changing trends of urban residential differentiation, the author makes a study of residents'location choice:selects family characteristics, housing characteristics and psychological characteristics to construct the model of residential location choice. The result shows that all the characteristics influence the decision-making. Family characteristics means inherent conditions, housing characteristics means external conditions, psychological characteristics link them closely.Finally, the results of urban residential differentiation and location choice illustrate the reason of urban residential differentiation:residents'life cycle leads the direct result, residents'socio-economic status leads the material basis, residents' spatial preference leads the accelerator, residents'social attributes increasingly diverse. External powers drive urban residential differentiation increasingly deepening.