Construction of sustainable spatial structure of resource-exhausted cities

Sustainable development is an urgent task that resource-exhausted cities are facing. The role and potential of urban spatial structure (USS) in achieving environmental, economic and social sustainability of resource-exhausted cities is vital. The first part of this paper discusses the basic connotation of sustainable USS and set up a framework for it which includes the urban spatial form (USF) and the urban functional organization (UFO) in three interdependent dimensions: economic sustainability, social sustainability and environmental sustainability. In the second part, the characteristics and problems of the USS of Liaoyuan city are analyzed. In the end, merging theoretical framework and empirical analysis, the ways of USS optimization for Liaoyuan city in urban and regional scale are put forward.