An alternative model for evaluating the balance of carrying capacity between functional urban infrastructures

Urban infrastructures commonly include four types of functional infrastructures: traditional infrastructures, greenspace infrastructures, water infrastructures, and connective infrastructures. They work as an integrated system for supporting sustainable urban development. It is therefore important for having a proper method to help understand whether there is a balance between functional urban infrastructures' carrying capacities (FUICC). This paper introduces an alternative model named FUICC Catastrophe Model (FCM) to evaluate the balance of carrying capacity between various urban infrastructures. The development of the model FCM adopts Mean-Variance Analysis (MVA) technique and Catastrophe Progression Method (CPM) collectively. The application of FCM is demonstrated by using the empirical data collected from 35 cities in China. The research findings suggest that: 1) the difference in carrying capacity of each functional infrastructure between the sample cities is significant; 2) the difference in the degree of balance between FUICC is also significant between the sample cities; 3) the sample cities are classified into four categories, namely, acceptably balanced, less balanced, poorly balanced, and unbalanced. 4) the balance performance between FUICC among Chinese cities is characterized with polarization; 5) the balance performance of carrying capacity between functional urban infrastructures is generally poor in China, 40% of the sample cities achieving acceptable performance.