The Study On Regional Livable Cities In Metropolitan Areas Of Shandong Peninsula, China

The improvement of human habitat, accompanied with progress of culture and civilization, is an everlasting concern around the world. In nowadays China, concomitant with rapid urbanization and the massive population influx into cities, the conflicts among population increase, resource constraints, environmental degradation and economic growth are becoming increasingly acute, which pose a great challenge on urban habitats and hence draw universal attention of peoples at all levels. Scientific principles should be introduced and inculcated to ensure cities' long-term development. The ideas of Building Livable Cities, which attaches great importance to human-oriented and sustainable development, are embodiment of such principles.The Metropolitan Areas of Shandong Peninsula are one of the important urbanized districts in China's urban landscape. Due to rapid economic growth, urban environment of this region is significantly improved and some "Stars of China's Livable Cities", such as Weihai and Qingdao, emerges.At present, 'Building Livable Cities' is a hot topic in China, both in theoretical research and urban practicing fields. However, up to now, the awareness of 'Livable Cites' has been confined to mere conceptions and foreign examples. The relatively superficial understanding of 'Urban Livability' and the lack of local paradigms have become restraining factors on China's urban development.In view of reasons stated above, this paper makes a research on "Urban Livability", whose main contents can be summarized as follows:(1) .This paper makes an analysis on theoretical, practical background of Urban Livability and the connotation of this concept, then a summarized narration on following aspects: the domestic and foreign academic research progress in human habitat, the progress in Livability ranking and evaluation, practical experiences from and current conditions of urban livability advancement.Moreover, this paper makes an elaboration on characteristics of livable cities, that is, regional, continuously changing and relatively livable, etc. Furthermore, an investigation on constituent factors of urban livability from following angles: economic growth, social progress, environment preservation and cultural development.(2) .Taking metropolitan areas of Shandong Peninsula for example, this paper then constructs an evaluation index framework and makes an appraisal on livability of this region by utilizing the method of principal factor analysis. Based upon above works, this paper draws following conclusions on livability conditions of this area: 1) the livability conditions are still underdeveloped as a whole; 2) the cities within this region differ widely in their livability conditions; 3) economic resources and environmental constraints are two main factors restraining livability of this region. (3 ) .Based on previous analysis, this paper points out possible problems during the course of building livable cities in this area and puts forward suggestions to help aid its livability development.(4 ) .Finally, this paper makes a study on current progress in exemplary livable cities, such as Weihai, Qingdao and Ji'nan, and then an analysis on contributing factors of their urban livability conditions and positive experiences learned from their hard work of making cities more livable.