Evaluation of Waterfront Resources Exploitation Based on the Differential Rent Theory:A Case Study of Zhenjiang City
基于级差地租理论的岸线资源开发价值评价——以镇江市为例

The T-shape of China land exploitation is generally formed by two waterfront lines. The first one is located in the east of the continent along the west of the Pacific Ocean, and the other is along the Yangtze River across the country which has been called the Golden Watercourse. A reasonable and optimized implication of the Yangtze River waterfront resources is now of great importance as the demand for living, production, and recreation is increasing. In this paper, a new research framework regarding the evaluation of exploitation and implication of waterfront resources based on the differential rent theory is proposed. The authors introduced the classical differential rent theory to this study. Synthesized analysis on the influence of natural conditions, location qualification, and agglomeration externality to the differential rent of waterfront resources was performed within the framework and using ArcGIS spatial analysis. All factors under consideration represent the supply and demand of the waterfront that is suited for building ports. To begin with, ecological preservation is taken into consideration. Waterfront where the most important ecological functioning zones, e.g., the source of drinking water, the core of nature reserve, and famous scenic sites are located is defined as zero differential rent. The portion of the waterfront can only be used for ecological preservation purposes. Second, waterfront that is not zero differential rent is then to be valuated by costs of port construction by natural conditions, including water depth, stability, and the area. In the meanwhile, the potential profit of the ports to be constructed is considered one feature in the rank evaluation of the non-zero differential rent waterfront. Influencing factors are traffic accessibility and industrial agglomeration. As a result, the evaluation rank is of both spatial and temporal meaning formed by sections of waterfront. We investigated Zhenjiang City in Jiangsu Province within this framework. Zhenjiang maximizes economic, social, and ecological benefits, and coordinated the relationship between exploitation and conservation. Evaluation results demonstrated that waterfront of the zero differential rent was discriminated in the first place, and then the evaluation rank of the rest of the waterfront resources was assessed. The waterfront sections of high rank are suggested to be exploited only when there is a high profit. Low rank sections will not be exploited until natural conditions and the economic environment become improved. The spatio-temporal exploitation sequences of the waterfront resources in Zhenjiang were consequently defined in a reasonable way. This paper provides a basis for optimized exploitation of waterfront resources.