Identification and Mechanisms of Regional Urban Shrinkage: A Case Study of Wuhan City in the Heart of Rapidly Growing China

Abstract

Urban shrinkage has been witnessed often throughout the history of Western cities and occurs concurrently with population loss, economic decline, neighborhood decay, and other profound changes to urban spaces and the built environment. Unlike in the Western context, urban shrinkage in China has occurred concurrently with rapid urbanization and urban growth, marking a relatively new urban phenomenon, known as regional urban shrinkage, that has recently emerged in large Chinese cities and metropolitan areas. This study aims to better understand regional urban shrinkage by identifying such shrinkage and exploring its mechanisms in Wuhan, a megacity in Central China. Drawing on population data, land-supply data, and night-time light data, this study first identifies areas of regional urban shrinkage through the dimensions of demography, land use, and economy and then conducts a qualitative investigation of Wuhan’s Qingshan District as a pilot study to explore the mechanisms and causality of regional urban shrinkage from the perspectives of antiglobalization, industrial transformation, and capital circuits. This study expands the research paradigm of urban shrinkage in the Western context to Eastern society by contributing an empirical study conducted in China and broadens current scholarship by focusing on the complexity, contextualization, and localization of urban shrinkage.