National Natural Science Foundation Youth Project
Informal Housing Market-Driven Residential Spatial Characteristics and Evolution Mechanisms of Migrant Populations: A Case Study of Shenzhen’s Urban Villages

Project Summary:
Focusing on the housing challenges of migrant populations and using Shenzhen’s urban villages as a case study, this research investigates how informal housing markets drive the formation and evolution of migrant residential spaces. The project advances spatial theory by innovating in spatial typologies, driving force identification, methodological frameworks, and regional empirical validation, while enhancing theoretical and quantitative rigor in urban geography studies of informal settlements.

Key Objectives:

1. Residential Preference Modeling: Develop rental price models to identify migrant populations’ housing demand characteristics.

2. Market Dynamics Analysis: Construct an operational model of informal housing markets under transitional socio-economic conditions, analyzing stakeholder pressures, statuses, and response mechanisms.

3. Spatial Evolution Mechanisms: Decipher how socio-economic activities shape the material, social, and economic spatial features of migrant enclaves, tracing their differentiation and evolutionary trajectories.

4. Theoretical Synthesis & Optimization Strategies: Establish patterns for:

• Spatial distribution of rental prices and migrant density

• Development intensity gradients in migrant settlements

• Urban structural integration of informal housing clusters

• Evolutionary mechanisms under informal market dynamics
  Propose targeted spatial optimization strategies for migrant residential areas.

Academic Contributions:

• Bridges gaps in spatial justice and informal urbanization theory.

• Provides policy-relevant insights for inclusive urban governance and migrant housing equity.