User:Finley808/Urbanization in China

According to Bai et al., there are five characteristics of an urban system. The first is that urban areas exchange resources openly with the world outside of the area. One example is when food from farms or gardens are brought into a city for urban dwellers to eat in restaurants or pick up at grocery stores. The second characteristic is that cities are “complex, self-organizing, adaptive, and constantly evolving,” (Bai et al. 218). Urban areas have lots of different kinds of people and businesses, and are constantly seeing a change in who is where in the city. Cities often end up organized with different types of people in different areas. People tend to flock towards people with similar interests or life goals. Urban areas have many people who are able to adapt to situations, and can assist each other when something happens to negatively affect the community. The third characteristic according to Bai et al is that there are multiple agencies. These agencies work both inside and outside the boundaries of the urban area. Agencies work with customers who live and work within the urban area, but also do business with agencies or people living farther away. The fourth characteristic is that urban areas are “embedded” in larger structures that contain the urban area itself. In China, the urban areas are still a part of China, and fall under the Chinese government. The cities themselves are not freestanding structures apart from the country as a whole. The fifth and final characteristic is that there can be intended and unintended consequences of cities. One big unintended consequence is the environmental impact of urbanization.

Urban areas in China have a higher energy consumption than the rural areas of the country. Carbon emissions are increasing more quickly than urban areas can deal with it, causing carbon intensity in urban areas to increase as well. According to Bai et al., research around environmental changes has focused on cities and how they are affected. However, in recent years, the research has started to look more towards solutions for the urban areas instead of only focusing on the problems.