Transit oriented development among metro station areas in Shanghai, China: Variations, typology, optimization and implications for land use planning

Transit Oriented Development (TOD), the integration of transport system with land use, has gained considerate priorities in planning strategies towards urban sustainability. To accrue a better overall leverage of the benefits arising from TOD practice, it is necessary to explore the variations and typology among TODs. This paper extends the classic ‘node (transport) – place (land use)’ model by incorporating the oriented characteristics that represent the morphological and functional ties between transport and land use. The model is applied to the case of Shanghai, China. Fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) is used to construct the indicators system of each dimension (node, tie and place) in the model and typology among TODs is divided by SOM (self-organizing map). We find that the TOD index value declines from the urban center to the outskirts of the city obviously. Four typologies are identified among TODs, including the Integrated (all high node, tie and place index value), the Functionally place-developed (low node index value and high tie and place index value), the Morphologically node-developed (high node index value and low tie and place index value) and the Dispersed (all low node, tie and place index value). Based on the evaluation, we put forward an optimization plan for the areas with low TOD index values, which are consistent with the planned lines under construction. All the methods demonstrated in this study are easy to perform and can be widely applied to the assessment of TOD typologies worldwide. This study produces some generalized knowledge that are useful for implementing TOD practice within land use planning.