Spatiotemporal evolution of urban landscapes in Chinese historic water towns (1918–2021)

Abstract

This study explores the spatiotemporal evolution of urban landscapes in 19 Chinese historic water towns in the northern Zhejiang plain. Utilising historical maps and remote sensing images, we derived 2-D morphological patterns from town ground plans in 1918, 1969, 2000, and 2021 to represent urban landscape fractions (buildings, lands, and waters). Morphology-based landscape metrics reveal three distinct periods of urban landscape dynamics over the past century: stabilisation (1918–1969), accelerated growth (1969–2000), and high-speed growth (2000–2021). Our findings present a diminishing role of rivers in shaping land fragments and urban riverscapes, behind which is the weakening conventional water-human relationship during water towns’ modern urbanisation. The results offer insights into shifting water town landscape patterns and regional landscape heterogeneity, prompting further considerations of hydrology-oriented urban design and planning to conserve historic urban landscapes.

Keywords:

• Landscape evolution
• urban morphology
• Chinese historic water town
• town plan

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate rather valuable comments and suggestions from reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [51878593], the Centre for Balance Architecture, Zhejiang University under Grant [KH-20212946], the Artificial Intelligence Key Technologies R&D Program of Hangzhou under Grant [2022AIZD0057], the Strategic Research and Consulting Project of Chinese Academy of Engineering under Grant [2022-XZ-51], the Soft Science Research Plan Project of Zhejiang under Grant [2024C35003], the Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project of Zhejiang under Grant [24NDQN042YB], the Scientific Research and Nurturing Foundation of Hangzhou City University under Grant [J-202308], and the Foundation of Hangzhou Federation of Humanities & Social sciences under Grant [2023HZSL-ZC011].

Notes on contributors

Yuan Sun

Yuan Sun is a postgraduate student majoring in environmental science in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The University of Manchester. She is also a research assistant at the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, where she gained a master’s degree in architecture. Her major research interests are urban climate adaptation, landscape architecture and Earth system modelling.

Yiqun Wu

Yiqun Wu is a postdoctoral researcher at the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China, and the College of Art and Archaeology, Hangzhou City University. He is also a research assistant at the Beautiful Hangzhou Environmental Planning and Architectural Design Research Centre, and College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University. His research focuses on the sustainable development of landscape architecture, urban and rural living settlements, and settlement geography.

Huifang Yu

Huifang Yu is an associate professor at the College of Art and Archaeology, Hangzhou City University. Her research interests include living environment studies, green building, and sustainable development.

Yonghua Li

Yonghua Li is a professor at the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, at Zhejiang University. She also leads research projects at the Centre for Balance Architecture, Zhejiang University, and the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Zhejiang University Co., Ltd. She published several papers on urban landscapes and heritage conservation.