Quantifying the coordinated degree of urbanization in Shanghai, China

Urbanization involves an array of coupling interactive processes. Consequently, its coordinated development consequently relies on the synchronous advancement of these involved processes. However, seldom studies have quantified the coordinated degree of urbanization by analyzing the coupling interactive relationships among the involved processes. This study assessed the coordinated degree of urbanization by quantifying four involved processes (demographic, social, economic and spatial) in Shanghai City (China) from 1952 to 2012. Results showed that demographic urbanization did not advance discontinuously and roughly presented a U-shaped trend. The social and economic urbanization progressed slowly before 1980 and then accelerated rapidly. The spatial urbanization kept an increasing trend through the 60 years. These four processes interacted with each other with a low coupling degree, and led to the uncoordinated development of urbanization in Shanghai. Specifically, the coupling coordination degree of urbanization increased between 1970 and 2000, but slowed down after the 2000s. To achieve coordinated urbanization development, the social urbanization should be given priorities. This study demonstrated an applicable framework to quantify the coordinated degree of urbanization using the quality and quantity data.