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Case Study: Shanghai

Shanghai is a coastal modern megacity in East China, with an

area of 6340.5 square kilometers and a population of about
24 million. Since China’s reform in the late 1970s, Shanghai,
the country’s largest and most modern city, has experienced
rapid urbanisation and expansion.

Causes

Following liberation from Japanese occupation, there was

mass in-migration as those previously displaced by civil wars
and the Japanese returned.

Those living in urban areas were entitled to welfare and

subsidies. This made urban areas very attractive and in- Changes in Shanghai’s urban landscape
migration accelerated (this then became unmanageable so
stricter controls were introduced and people were sent
away).

During Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1960s) the emphasis was on increased industrial activity and
population control measures. At the same time many of the city’s youth and skilled workers were
forced to move out to rural outposts in an attempt to increase the output of the periphery, resulting
in under-urbanisation. After Chairman Mao’s rule ended, Shanghai was free to grow again as policies
favoured foreign investment. The educated youth and their families were free to return. The
population growth rate increased to 3.8% between 1985 and 1993.

Shanghai has also become a magnet for illegal immigrants. The influx of ‘floating population’ (as they
live there temporarily) caused hyper-urbanisation in the area, now making up a fifth of Shanghai’s
population and posing one of the biggest threats to the city in terms of planning for housing and
other services.

Rural-urban migration has made dominant contributions to urban population growth as many of
these temporary migrant workers are farm workers made obsolete by modern farming practices and
factory workers, laid off from inefficient state-run factories. They include men and women and
couples with children. Men often get construction jobs while women work in cheap-labour factories.

Impacts

The addition of the floating

population caused population
density to double from 1970-
2010. It is estimated that there
are around 9 million floating
population in Shanghai.
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Living conditions have steadily improved in Shanghai. Since 1990, housing space per capita has more
than doubled. Improvements are also noticeable in the quality of the urban environment, with the
area of urban parks and woods multiplying almost sevenfold, covering over 35% of the urbanised
area of Shanghai. Despite these improvements, nearly half of households experience overcrowding,
and a further 16% suffer from severe overcrowding.

Due to rapid economic development, Shanghai has experienced fast rates of change in land use and
land cover, and this change is mainly urban expansion and cultivated land reduction.

It is estimated that the mean surface temperature over Southeast China has increased by 0.05oC per
decade due to the impact of urbanisation in the area. Furthermore there has been a growth of urban
heat island (UHI) in Shanghai, driven by the increase in area of buildings and paved roads, number of
operating buses and expansion of the population. Although, the urban green system launched by
Shanghai government has, to a certain extent, reduced the heat island.

A huge increase in the number of vehicles on the roads has led to an increase in NOx pollution.

Urban expansion has led to the replacement of natural vegetation cover with paved surfaces,
causing a decrease in native plant species.