Spatial Pattern of “City-Brown-Green” in Resource-Exhausted Cities: A Case Study of Huangshi City, Hubei Province

During the transformation process of resource-exhausted cities, the relocation of heavy industry and closure of massive mining sites result in a large number of brownfields, which face the challenge of being regenerated into new functions. Green space has been an important end use for brownfields transformation and continues to be a frontier research subject in recent years. The relationship among the city, the brownfields and the green space is studied and the spatial pattern of “city-brown-green” is proposed. In the exemplary resource-exhausted city of Huangshi, a total of 555 brownfield sites are identified through analyzing multi-source data. The spatial and locational characteristics of various types of brownfields are summarized. The coupled spatial pattern of “city-brown” is observed, whose structure and evolution process are identified. Through analyzing the spatial pattern of “brown-green”, it can be concluded that a great number of brownfields occupy critical nodes in major ecological patches, corridors and planned green space in Huangshi. Brownfields have great potential to be transformed into green space, and it is critical to analyze the spatial characteristics and the pattern of “city-brown-green” at a regional scale to facilitate smart decision-making process of brownfields regeneration and to construct a more ecological and functional urban green system.