Delineating and Characterizing the Metropolitan Fringe Area of Shanghai—A Spatial Morphology Perspective

Abstract

The metropolitan fringe area is of great significance to a city’s future growth. However, relatively little attention has been paid to delineating and characterizing the metropolitan fringe area from a spatial morphology perspective, which contributes to the planning and design of metropolitan fringe areas. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a morphology–based method to delineate the metropolitan fringe area and investigate the characteristics of its spatial morphology. Drawing upon a large–scale dataset on the spatial morphology of Shanghai, this study finds that the metropolitan fringe area is generally circular in shape and is dominated by residential, industrial, agricultural and forestry land. The metropolitan fringe area accounts for 24.65% of the total area of Shanghai and is mainly located between its outer ring and suburban ring areas. The distributions of spatial characteristics of the metropolitan fringe area suggest that the area has a relatively lower level in terms of building height, building density, and development intensity. Furthermore, the metropolitan fringe area of Shanghai contains five key spatial elements, including residential and industrial clusters, shadow spaces accompanying clusters, corridor lines, green wedges, and surfaces. The interaction of the five spatial elements lays the foundation for the prototype of the spatial structure of the metropolitan fringe area of Shanghai, which is of great significance to understanding the heterogeneity within the metropolitan fringe area in terms of the distribution of spatial morphological characteristics. Such heterogeneity also needs to be considered in the planning and design of the metropolitan fringe area.