Basic Laws of Urban Space Development

This Chapter delves into a comprehensive exposition of the fundamental laws governing urban space development, beginning with the dimensions, locations, sequencing, and mechanisms inherent in urban spatial development. It introduced four primary laws: law of scale threshold, law of optimal location selection, law of unbalanced development, and law of self-organizing evolution. Throughout the discussion, we analyze and synthesize research findings across multiple disciplines including geography, urban planning, architecture, sociology, and ecology. This integration innovatively combines diverse explorations of spatial regularities from various angles such as regional and urban, internal and external, social and economic, as well as humanities and geography, achieving organic cohesion. Within the discourse of these four laws, the interactive relationship between planning and design is consistently emphasized. This enables a gradual and natural emergence of our understanding regarding the relationship between the laws governing spatial development and the roles of planning and design. Thus, urban spatial development adheres to its own inherent laws, with planning and design serving as interventions and guiding mechanisms.