City History and Multi-Scale Spatial Masterplanning

中国正在以前所未有的速度城市化。机遇与风险并存。在此，我们建议建立一个国际研究网络，将英国的研究人员与中国的一流大学聚集在一起，讨论共同的兴趣，并制定英中合作研究和学术交流的建议。在适当的情况下，该网络还将包括来自澳大利亚和美国的主要国际研究人员。这个网络是受到上海北部东滩生态城发展的启发而形成的一小群相关网络之一。它涉及两个相关的主题：中国和欧洲城市的历史发展，以及从当地到整个大都市区的尺度空间总体规划。这些主题往往由不同的学者群体进行研究，但我们认为，将各个领域结合起来会有很多收获，因为就城市化而言，历史的教训对当前的设计、规划和政策形成有很多借鉴意义。同样，将西方和亚洲的历史以及工业化和城市扩张的经验联系起来也是有益的。这个网络的中心焦点将是调查城市空间结构与社会文化的关系。规划的这一方面目前被认为是创建可持续社区的核心，跨文化比较研究的好处是显而易见的。在这里，我们将研究空间分析和建模方法的使用，以便为跨文化和历史比较提供一个共同的基础。通过这种方式，我们将研究分析技术在城市设计、规划和政策形成中的应用。

China is urbanising at an unprecedented rate. This brings both opportunities and risks. Here we propose an international research network to bring together UK researchers with the leading universities in China to discuss common interests and formulate proposals for Anglo-Chinese collaborative research and academic exchange. The network will also include leading international researchers from Australia and the USA where appropriate. This network forms one of a small group of related networks inspired by the Dongtan Eco-city development north of Shanghai. It addresses two related topics / the historical development of Chinese and European cities, and spatial masterplanning at scales ranging from the local place to the whole metropolitan area. These topics tend to be researched by different groups of academics, however we believe there is much to be gained by bringing fields together since the lessons of history have much to bring to current design, planning and policy formation so far as urbanisation is concerned. Equally, there is benefit in bridging between western and Asian history and experience of industrialisation and urban expansion. A central focus of this network will be to investigate the way that urban spatial structure relates to social cultures. This aspect of planning is currently seen to be a central to the creation of sustainable communities and is one where the benefit of cross cultural comparison in research is clear cut. Here we will investigate the use of spatial analysis and modelling methodologies to allow a common basis for cross cultural and historical comparison. In this way we will investigate the application of analytic technologies in urban design, planning and poloicy formation.