City History and Multi-Scale Spatial Masterplanning

中国正以前所未有的速度城市化。这既带来了机遇，也带来了风险。在这里，我们建议建立一个国际研究网络，将英国研究人员与中国的一流大学聚集在一起，讨论共同利益，并制定英中合作研究和学术交流的建议。该网络还将酌情包括来自澳大利亚和美国的领先的国际研究人员。这一网络是受上海北部东滩生态城发展项目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地区的空间总体规划。这些话题往往由不同的学术团体研究，但我们相信，将各个领域聚集在一起会有很多好处，因为就城市化而言，历史教训对当前的设计、规划和政策形成有很大帮助。同样，在西方和亚洲工业化和城市扩张的历史和经验之间架起桥梁也是有益的。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联系方式。规划的这一方面目前被认为是创建可持续社区的核心，也是研究中跨文化比较的好处显而易见的方面。在这里，我们将调查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.