Typological research on the spatial forms of small towns in the Pearl River Delta, China

After the reform and opening, it has experienced a rapid growth of rural industrialisation, towns have undergone dramatic reconstructions in the Pearl River Delta region. The forms present the characteristics of peri-urbanization, which is usually defined as 'small towns' in Chinese academic. Nowadays, the research on its forms roughly summarises them as mixed urban and rural areas. In fact, the spatial forms of small towns in the Pearl River Delta have various differences, forming a great variance from "big industrial towns" to "small rural towns". This paper aims to analyse the spatial diversity of small towns in the Pearl River Delta by typo-morphology. First, this paper analyses the characteristics of four types of plane units in small towns in the Pearl River Delta. Second, taking the complexity of plan units as the clue, the paper summarises four types of morphological regions in small towns, Pearl River Delta region: Old Town, Old Village, Industrial Accretion, and Living Accretion. Finally, the paper divides small towns in PRD into 3 types and 9 subtypes through the analysis of spatial expansion.