Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) for Urban Sustainability: a Comparative Case Study of Beijing and Shenzhen, China
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Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) for Urban Sustainability: A Comparative Case Study of Beijing and Shenzhen, China by Jing Xie A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Masters of Environmental Studies in Sustainability Management Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2017 © Jing Xie 2017 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract A number of urban problems pose ongoing challenges to sustainable development, which includes urban sprawl, low rates of land utilization and increases in private vehicular ownership and related traffic congestion. Transit-oriented development (TOD) has been touted as one strategy to address these urban development challenges. Although TOD strategies have a relatively mature theory and practical system in the world, the development situation in China is still at a stage of trial and error. Moreover, many studies have been conducted to tackle the issues related to land use, transportation planning, and the feasibility of TOD, while few have investigated the implementation effects of TOD on a sustainable urban future. Therefore, this thesis reviews the basic concept of sustainable urban development and pioneering paradigms about TOD practices, then applies a Pressure-States-Response (PSR) evaluation framework to compare the implementation effects of TOD in two typical Chinese metropolises —Beijing and Shenzhen. Quantitative data collected from National Statistics are visualized using descriptive statistics to conduct the comparative analysis. This study defines a sustainable city as one that achieves a balance between the three sustainability pillars of: economy, environment, and society. Within this definition of sustainability, the comparative implementation effects are assessed for the TOD, performance of Beijing and Shenzhen from the year 2010 to the year 2014. The research found that both Beijing and Shenzhen had faced an increasing pressure from population density, expenditure on housing and transportation, and the number of civil automobiles during the five years. iii Shenzhen performed better than Beijing on the indicators of ―disposable income of urban residents per capita‖, ―construction land per capita‖, ―area of roads per capita‖ and ―GDP per acre‖; while Beijing showed more positive effects than Shenzhen on the indicators of ―urban residential gross floor area per capita‖ , ―passengers traffic‖, and ―number of public vehicles‖. For the economy response indicators, the Beijing government produced a more effective effect on ―fixed assets per acre‖, and ―fixed investments in real estate industry‖, while the Shenzhen government had a stronger performance on ―fixed investments in transportation industry‖. The key findings from this research support the building of muilti-mode transportation systems to enhance ecological, economic and social sustainability in rapidly growing cities. The research contributes to the body of knowledge of the performance of metropolises towards urban sustainability by evaluating the implementation effects of TOD and demonstrating that government planning and development policy does impact TOD outcomes. Besides, this study makes a practical contribution to discussions on China‘s urban planning and TOD supportive policies and decisions that urban planners and policy makers face as they work towards achieving more sustainable urban development. Keywords: Transit-oriented Development; Implementation Effect; Sustainable Urban Development; PSR Evaluation Framework; Comparative Analysis; Descriptive Statistics; China iv Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the entire SEED department for their support and guidance throughout my time at Waterloo. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Bruce Frayne for his support, guidance, patience, and knowledge. Prof. Bruce Frayne believes in my abilities even when I had doubt, and his encouragement and careful guidance help me fulfill this research. Thanks my Committee member Prof. Komal Habib and the reader of my thesis Prof. Joe Qian for their valuable comments and suggestions. Besides, many thanks to Cameron Mccordic who helped me find out technical issues existing in quantitative data analysis and lead me back to the right path. Finally, I would like to express my love and gratitude to my parents, colleagues and friends whose support made the completion of this Master‘s degree possible. v Table of Contents List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................................. viii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................................................. ix List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................................................... x 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Problem Statement ............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Research Purpose and Scope .............................................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................................ 3 1.4 Methods and Analysis......................................................................................................................................... 4 1.5 Assumptions and Limitations ............................................................................................................................. 5 1.6 Significance and Contribution ............................................................................................................................ 6 1.7 Outline of the Document .................................................................................................................................... 7 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Origins and History of TOD ............................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Definition of TOD ............................................................................................................................................ 11 2.3 Sustainable Urban development ....................................................................................................................... 14 2.4 Smart City with TOD ....................................................................................................................................... 18 2.5 Experience of TOD Implementation ................................................................................................................ 21 2.5.1 Stockholm: multi-centered built form .......................................................................................................... 21 2.5.2 Copenhagen: hand-shaped land-use transport plan ...................................................................................... 25 2.5.3 Curitiba: trinary road concept ....................................................................................................................... 28 2.5.4 Hong Kong: rail + property development .................................................................................................... 32 2.5.5 Lessons for China ......................................................................................................................................... 38 2.6 TOD in China ................................................................................................................................................... 40 2.6.1 Differences with North America .................................................................................................................. 40 2.6.2 TOD Planning Conception ........................................................................................................................... 42 2.6.3 The Implementation of TOD ........................................................................................................................ 47 2.6.4 Influencing Factors of Implementation ........................................................................................................ 59 3 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................................... 61 3.1 TOD Effects Evaluation ................................................................................................................................... 61 3.1.1 Indicators of TOD Success in America ........................................................................................................ 62 3.1.2