Mega-urban agglomeration usually means a cluster of cities, including a core megacity and at least three large cities, as the basic components in a specified area.

At present, there are five mega-urban agglomerations in China, including Yangtze River Delta agglomeration, Pearl River Delta agglomeration, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei agglomeration, middle reaches of Yangtze River agglomeration and Chengdu-Chongqing agglomeration.

However, these regions have been facing increased coercion between resources and the eco-environment in their development.

Prof. FANG Chuanglin from Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his team develop an intelligent decision support system using a spatiotemporal dynamic coupling model for sustainable development of mega-urban agglomerations.

They carried out systematic theoretical analysis of the interactive coupling mechanisms and coercing effects between urbanization and the eco-environment in mega-urban agglomerations.

Researchers investigated the interactive coercion intensities between internal and external elements, and the mechanisms and patterns of local couplings and telecouplings in mega-urban agglomeration systems.

Based on space simulation and GIS technology, they build an integrated intelligent decision support system for the interactive couplings between urbanization and the eco-environment in mega-urban agglomerations (UDSS).

Constructing a theoretical framework of the interactive couplings between urbanization and the eco-environment, they further analyze the non-linear coupled relationships and coupling characteristics of the interaction between various natural and human elements in mega-urban agglomerations.

In future, they will build a framework of the interactive couplings between urbanization and the eco-environment with multi-scale, multi-technology and multi-agent integrations as a mega-urban agglomeration is an open, complex giant system.

Schematic diagram of the interactive coupling mechanisms between urbanization and the eco-environment(Image by FANG Chuanglin)

Related study has been published in the Journal of Geographical Sciences(FANG Chuanglin, ZHOU Chenghu, GU Chaolin, CHEN Liding,LI Shuangcheng4. A proposal for the theoretical analysis of the interactive coupled effects between urbanization and the eco-environment in mega-urban agglomerations. Journal of Geographical Sciences 2017, 27(12): 1431-1499. DOI: 10.1007/s11442-017-1445-x).