On the Characteristics of Housing Spatial Structure and Location Selection of Residential Communities: A Case Study of Wuhan City

With the deepening of the housing system reform in China, the residential spatial structure has gradually
assumed a complex shape along with its tremendous changes in Wuhan city. It is very crucial and necessary to
show the city’s housing spatial structure in order to guide the city’s housing development and administration.
Based on current statistic data and field survey, this paper tries to open up the spatial law of residential
communities of Wuhan city, by means of GIS, from the quantitative and empirical points of view.
As far as housing spatial structure is concerned, the three characteristics on the spatial development of
residential communities are identified: (1) the housing is stretching towards surroundings with ring and
wedged structure; (2) residential communities distribution in urban district is concentrating; (3) on the other
hand, the amount distribution of residential communities in the suburbs are examined, mainly along main
traffic lines.
Meanwhile, based on the above analysis of the housing spatial structure, the characteristics on residential location selection of residential communities are also put forward: (1) residential communities development
and distribution are mainly concentrated along main traffic lines to obtain more convenient location; (2)
moreover, a great many of residential communities have distributed around some lakes and along Yangtze or
Hanjiang River. So, it is thought much of gradually for the whole city’s residents to obtain the better
accessibility and surroundings.