Historical Perspectives of Land-use and Land-cover Changes in Beijing

Transcription

1 1 Historical Perspectives of Land-use and Land-cover Changes in Beijing Qi LU Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences Abstract Beijing is one of ancient cities in China.In history, the land use and land cover within its territory have been changed greatly due to various human activities. The most striking land-use changes have been the expansion of urbanized areas no matter fast or slow in different periods. Its historical development process is divided into two periods in this paper, one is from Liao Dynasty when Beijing initiatively became the accompaning capital to 1911 when traditional China ended. Another is from 1911 to the present, particulary from 1949 to 1997 on which the discusson on the land-use changes is most concentrated. Through the brief discussion we can see the land use or the land cover changes have been accelerated in the past 100 years, especially in the past 50 years because of changes of social ideologies, policies, population growth, technological improvements and the strenthening of economic power. The concequences of the land use and land cover changes in Beijing, the future development trends of the city and some concerned issues are also discussed in the paper. 1. Introduction Beijing is the capital of today s China, and also an ancient city with a long history of about 3000 years. It locates in the southwest border part of North China Plain, the total area is km 2, of which 38 per cent is plain (6390km 2 ), 62 per cent is mountainous region (see Fig.1). Under its jurisdiction, there are 10 districts and 8 counties (see Table 1) today. Table 1 The Administrative Divisions in Beijing (1990) Disrticts & counties Area(km 2 ) Districts & counties Area(km 2 ) Total City propers East district West district Chongwen district Xuanwu district Near suburbs Chaoyang district Fengtai district Shijingshan district Haidian district Outer suburbs Mentougou district Fangshan district Counties Changping county Shunyi county Tongxian county Daxing county Pinggu county Huairou county Miyun county Yanqing county Source: Series of Natural Resources in China, Beijing Volume, Beijing, China Environmental Science Press, 1995.

2 2 Fig.1 The Landform of Beijing 2. Changs of Administrative Divisions of Beijing in History Beijing originated more than 3000 years ago as the local economic and political center of Yan State, named Ji (located today s Guang Anmen in the southwest of the city s centre today). It had not been the national center until the periods of Sui and Tang Dynasty (7-10 centuries). It was during the periods of centuries (Liao and Jin Dynasties) Beijing gradually became the political and economic center of the nation from the accompaning capital of Liao Dynasties ( A. D.). Since then, Beijing started its national capital position of China. Its administrative area, however, had been changed in different dynasties. Today s governing area was settled in 1958 (see Table 2). With the historical development, Beijing has experienced fast or slow urban expansion since when it became the accompaning capital of Liao Dynasty. Liao Dynasty is the turning period for Beijing. Fig.2, Fig.3 and Table 3 briefly give us the development tendency of Beijing in the past more than 1000 years.

3 3 Periods Liao Dynasty ( ) Jin Dynasty ( ) Yuan Dynasty ( ) Ming Dynasty ( ) Qing Dynasty ( ) The Republic of China ( ) People s Republic of China (1949- ) Table 2 Governing Area Changes of Beijing in History unit: 10000km 2 Total governing Remarks area times larger than today s administrative area, Tangshan-Tianjin and some counties of Hebei province were included, but Yanqing county was excluded times larger than today s administrative area, Tianjin and some counties of Hebei were included, but Yanqing, Miyun and some parts of ShunyiTongxia counties were excluded times larger than today s area, Tianjin, some parts of Tangshan and some counties of Hebei were within the area, all of the counties of today s Beijing were included times larger than today s area, besides Yanqing county, all of today s counties were within the governing area, Tianjin, some parts of Tangshan, some counties of Hebei were included times larger than today s area, some parts of Tangshan Tianjin, some counties of Hebei were included, but today s Yanqing county was still excluded this figure is the one after 1928, only the city proper and near suburbs are within the administrative territory districts and 8 counties Source: Historical Atals of Beijing, editor-in-chief: Hou Renzhi, Beijing, Beijing Press, North Fig.2 The removal of the city proper in the northeast direction Note: Within the dotted line is roughly the traditional center of Beijing since Yuan Dynasty.

4 Fig.3 The expansion of the city proper Notes: 1. 9 km 2 city proper of Liao Dynasty ( ) 2. 22km 2 city proper of Jin Dynasty ( ) 3. 50km 2 city proper of Yuan Dynasty( ) 4. 62km 2 city proper of Ming, Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China, or today s so called Old City (1368-) km 2 central part of the city, the edge is roughly around the Third Ring Road km 2 central part of the city, the edge is roughly around the Fourth Ring Road km 2 programmed scope of the city From Fig.2, Fig.3 above and Table 3 below, we can see clearly that, a) Beijing originated from the southwest of Beijing Plain and gradully expanded in the direction of northeast; b) so far as the city center s expansion is concerned, about 500 km 2 of original farmaland, forestland, grassland, wetland and other land have been turned into urbanized areas in the past more than 1000 years; c) the history of Beijing s expansion could be divided into two periods, i.g. slow expansion period from Liao Dynasty to Qing Dynasty and fast expansion period from the Republic of China to the present days, which could be explained by the different society development phases. In the first period, the average speed of city proper expansion is 0.05 km 2 per year, however, in the latter period, the average figure is 4.95 km 2 per year, almost 100 times than that in the former period.

5 5 Table 3 The Expansion of the City Proper and Population Growth in Beijing since Liao Dynasty unit: km 2, persons Periods Total Population density Population of city Area of Population population of Beijing (person) proper city proper density of city proper Liao Dynasty ( ) Jin Dynasty ( ) Yuan Dynasty ( ) Ming Dynasty ( ) Qing Dynasty ( ) , * * * Sources: 1. History of Urban Construction in China, Tonji University, Beijing, China Construction Industry Press, Historical Population Geography of Beijing, Han Guanghui, Beijing. Peking University Press, Design Materials for Urban Planning of Beiping, complied by Beiping Municipal Public Affairs Bureau, Beijing Statistical Yearbook Beijing Statistical Bureau, Beijing, China statistical Publishing House, Notes: Figures for the area of city proper in 1947,1985 and 1997 are the built area in different periods. 3. The Land Use and Land Cover Changes of Beijing in the Past 100 years In the past 100 year, there are two important political events happened to China, the Revolution of 1911 and the Revolution of These two revolutions could be taken as the important motive forces to the modernization of China. The land use and land cover changes of Beijing during the past 100 years are the most striking in its development history. The land use and land cover change process of Beijing could be also divided into two phases by the two Revolutions. In the first phase from the Revolution of 1911 to the second Revolution of 1949, China entered into its modernization development times, but Beijing was still not able to construct a modernized city due to the very difficult political situation as warlord wars, removal of the national capital to Nanjing in 1928, foreign invasion and cicil war, and its very weak economic ability. So, the development of Beijing in the phase was slow. So far as the urban completed area is concerned, it was only about 100 km 2 in 1949, 38km 2 larger than that in Qing Dynasty, the expansion speed was merely 0.76 km 2 per year averagely, 19 per cent of the average figure of 3.95 km 2 per year in the latter phase. Rapid land use and land cover changes of Beijing in this century happened in the second period from 1949 to the present. The most striking thing in land use and land cover changes of Beijing since 1949 is the rapid urbanization, particularly the expansion of city center (see Table 4).In the past almost 50 years the average expansion of the city center is 8.1 km 2 per year, besides the average figures 7.2 km 2 between 1949 and 1980, 7km 2 from 1994 to 1997, which are lower than the average figure from 1949 to 1997, the other three figures are higher than the average one from 1949 to 1997, from which we may conclude the period from is the fastest expansion period for Beijing s urbanization.

6 6 Table 4 Expansion of Completed Area in Beijing since Completed area of the city Average expansion speed per year between the two years State requisition land for urban construction Sources: Beijing Statistical Yearbook, Beijing, The Investigation and Study for the Social and Economic Development Planning. Institute of Environment Protection Science of Beijing, unpublished, Land Resources in Beijing, Municipal Land Management Bureau of Beijing, unpublished, Note: 8.1 is the average figure of city expansion per year from unit: km 2 Not only the fast expansion of city center, the urbanization in Beijing suburbs (near and outer suburbs) and outer counties is also a very important event in the past 50 years, especially since 1980 s. In 1953, there were only 38 small towns within the territory of Beijing, but there are 14 satellite towns(county seats are included), 78 established small towns and 26 developing areas, the(expansion of those towns and developing areas has occupied large amount of land (see Table 5). From the above discussion, we can roughly estimate that, owing to urban expansion of the city center and satellite or established towns in the rural areas of Beijing, the total completed area is km 2 up to date, accounting for 7.4 per cent of Beijing s total area. According to some studies, the developed area within the city center and the near suburbs (ChaoyangFengtai, Shijingshan and Haidian)was 623.9km 2, which is larger than the official completed area of 488.1km 2 in Officially, these kinds of developing areas are not considered in the calculation of urban built areas, but so far as the urbanization process is concerned, land use in the construction for urban use or for other purposes which changes the former land use state ought to be considered land-use change. Table 5 Satellite Towns, Established Small Towns and Developing Areas in Beijing (1990) Items Number Land Use Area of Construction Satellite towns Established small towns (Figure in 1993) Developing areas in (planned area in 1994) the outer suburbs Total Source: Land Resources in Beijing, 1997, unpublished. unit: km 2

7 7 4. The Consequences of Land-use Changes of Beijing in Historical Process In historical development of Beijing, human activities had changed the original forest land in the mountains, swamps in the plains of Beijing mainly into arable land for the production of rice, wheat and some other species, and also turned the original landscape into large cities or small towns. So, our ancestry had remained us the highly artificial landscape at the beginning of the century, but mainly for agricultural use. On the basis of this landscape, Beijing started its rapid industrialization and urbanization expansion since the middle period of the century, and greatly changed the remained landscape. The main consequences of the modernization (mainly reflected by industrialization and urbanization) of Beijing are the sharply decrease of arable land (see Table 6) and the structural land-use change in distribution, such as vegetable land change, but increase of per capita land use of urban construction, particularly since 80 s(see Table 6 and Table 8). Table 6 Arable Land Changes of Beijing units: mu, persons Area of arable Land Total of the population Arable land area per capita Sources:1. The Statistical Data of Society and Economy of Beijing Municipality , Beijing Statistical Bureau, Beijing, China Statistical Press, Beijing Statistical Yearbook, Beijing, Note: One Chinese mu is 1/15 ha. Table 7 Distribution Changes of Vegetable Field in Beijing since Total area of Beijing Area in near suburbs Area in outer suburbs Sources: 1. Series of Natural Resources in China, Beijing Volume, Beijing Land Resources in Beijing, 1997, unpublished unit:10000ha Table 7 shows clearly that the area of vegetable land has experienced up and down fluctuation since 1980, but a continuously decrease in the near suburbs. There are two things need to be noticed, one the vegetable fields have removed from city districts and near suburbs to the outer suburbs due to the expansion of the city center from 1980 to 1985, which increased the area in the outer suburbs; another is the decrease of vegetable land in the outer suburbs from 1985 to 1992, this is because of the urbanization expansion in the outer suburbs since In one word, urban expansion both in the center of Beijing and in the rural areas has driven the structural changes and then the inevitable shrinking of agricultural land. Table 8 Per Capita Construction Land Use Changes of the City Proper since Per capita constructive land use unit:m 2

8 8 The urbanization of the city center and the towns in rural of Beijing has changed the agricultural land use structure and decreased the total arable land, but has not influenced the agricultural product, on the contrary, agricultural products have been increased greatly since 1949 because of the technological improvement and intensive input and land use (see Table 9). Table 9 Outputs of Grain and Vegetable in Beijin Total grain output Total vegetable output Sources: Beijing Statistical Yearbook, Beijing Survey of National Economy and Society Development of Beijing , Beijing, Beijing Society and Economy Statistical Data , Beijing, Historical Data for Provinces, Municipalities and Autonomous Regions, , Beijing, unit: tons 5. The Reflections on the Driving Forces in Land Use and Land Cover Changes of Beijing in the Past There are various viewpoints of the driving forces to the land use and land cover changes. Based on the specific situation in land use and land cover changes of Beijing in the past, we may try to give a brief summary about the driving forces in land use and land cover changes of Beijing from a theoretic point of view. The important ones are mainly the following fours: 1) Ideological Changes The social ideologies in ancient China were quite different from that in modern China. In ancient China, there were not any modernization motives in the general social ideologies based on agricultural economy and rural life. This phenomenon coheres with the slow urbanization of Beijing. But with the gradual spread of western social ideas and life style, particularly urban life style, or industrialization and modernization since 1840, the revolution of 1911 changed greatly the traditional and general social idealogies, especially after the Revolution of 1949, modernization became the general social ideology, the changes of social ideologies not only have promoted the social economy development, but also given impetus to the urbanization of China, particularly the accelerated expansion of large cities,like Beijing. 2) Population Growth The population in Beijing has been increased more than 7 times since the beginning of the century, and 2.6 times since With the changes in general social ideologies of government and populace, the great demand of such huge population for more comfortable urban residence does need a rapid and massive urbanized areas, which in reality has promoted the urbanization expansion of Beijing. 3) Policy Changes The policies in landholding system, agricultural development stratigies, agricultra management systems have also been greatly changed since 1949, particularly since the reform in 1978 in rural areas. Those policy changes have have contributed to the rapid urbanization expansion in rural areas of Beijing as well. 4) Economic Power Since 1949, the economic power of Beijing has been greatly increased, in 1949, its GDP was 270 million yuan, but 1810 million yuan in 1997, 6.7 times than that in The increase of GDP not only improved the input in the urban

9 9 capital constructions, but also increased the input in the technological improvements, particularly the improvement in agricultural production. From Tab.10, we can see the growth of the input and the improvement of production condition in Beijing since 1978.The technological improvement has given a very strong support to urbanization of Beijing, because, technological improvement has met the increasing food demand of the population, though the decrease of agricultural land happened at same time. Table 10 Investment in Rural Fixed Assets and the Production Conditions of Agriculture in Beijing Investment in rural fixed assets (100 million yuan) Power of agricultural machinery (10000 kw) Consumption of chemical fertilizers (10000 tons) Rural electricity consumption (10000 kwh) Productive fixed assets per rural households (yuan) Source: 98 Beijing Statistical Yearbook, Beijing, The Future Urban Expansion of Beijing Compared to the international metropolis like Tokyo, Beijing is not a large city, as far as the completed area is concerned, only around half of Tokyo. With the economic development and population growth in future, Beijing will continue keeping the tendency of expansion in direction of northeast, where can provide Beijing with more space of further development. The government planning area of 1040km 2 made in 1983 for the city may not meet the need of the city s expansion. According to some planning studies, in 2000, the area of city center will be 500 km 2, area of satellite towns will be 200km 2, and the central towns will be 40km 2, the total area will be about 750km 2. In 2010, 610 km 2 for city center, 250 km 2 for satellite towns and 60km 2 for the central towns, total area will be 904 km 2. * But, according to the discussion above, we can notice in the total territory of Beijing (the city centersuburbs and counties), the urbanized areas or the areas where have been changed the land use for urban or industrial purposes has been around 1200 km 2, which has exceeded the planned area. As for the future, we still need a further study in detail. References 1) Beijing Statistical Bureau, Survey of National Economy and Society Development of Beijing, , Beijing, * Land Recources in Beijing 1997, unpublished.

10 China Statistical Publishing House, (1987). 2) Beijing Statistical Burean, Beijing Society and Economy Statistical Data , Beijing, China Statistical Publishing House, (1991). 3) Beijing Municipal Land Management Bureau, Land Resources in Beijing, unpublished, (1997). 4) Compiled by Beiping Municipal Public Affairs Bureau, Design Materials for Urban Planning of Beiping, (1947). 5) Compiled by Beijing Statistical Bureau, 98 Beijing Statistical Yearbook, China Statistical Publishing House, (1998). 6) Editor-in-chief: Hou Renzhi, (1988): Historical Atlas of Beijing, Beijing, Beijing Press,. 7) Han Guanghui, (1996): Historical Population Geography, Beijing, Peking University Press,. 8) History of Urban Construction in China, Tongji University, Beijing, China Construction Industry Press, (1982). 9) Series of Natural Resources in China, Beijing Volume, Beijing, China Environmental Science Press, (1995). 10) State Statistical Bureau, Historical Data for Provinces, Municipalities and Autonomous Regions , Beijing, China Statistical Publishing House, (1990). 10