A Comparative Study of Urban Expansion in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan from the 1970s to 2013

Zengxiang Zhang,Na Li,Linping Yang,Fang Liu,Xiao Wang

doi:10.3390/rs8060496

Abstract

Although the mapping of spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion has been widely studied, relatively little attention has been paid to detailed comparative studies on spatiotemporal patterns of urban growth at the regional level over a relatively longer timeframe. This paper was based on multi-sensor remote sensing image data and employs several landscape metrics and the centroid shift model to conduct a multi-angle quantitative analysis on urban expansion in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan (Jing-Jin-Tang) in the period from 1970–2013. In addition, the impact analysis of urban growth on land use was adopted in this research. The results showed that Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan all experienced rapid urbanization, with an average annual urban growth rate of 7.28%, 3.9%, and 0.97%, respectively. Beijing has especially presented a single choropleth map pattern, whereas Tianjin and Tangshan have presented a double surface network pattern in orientation analysis. Furthermore, urban expansion in Beijing was mainly concentrated in Ring 4 to Ring 6 in the northwest and southeast directions, whereas the major expansion was observed in the southeast in Tianjin, primarily affected by dramatic development of Binhai New Area and Tianjin South Railway Station. Naturally, the urban expansion in Tangshan was significantly influenced by the expansion of Beijing and was primarily southwestward. The hot-zones of urbanization were observed within the ranges of 7–25 km, 6–18 km, and 0–15 km, accounting for 93.49%, 89.44% and 72.44% of the total expansion area in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan, respectively. The majority of the newly developed urban land was converted from cultivated land and integrated from other built-up land over the past four decades. Of all new urban land in the Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan, more than 50% was converted from cultivated land, and there was a general tendency for smaller cities to have higher percentages of converted land, accounting for 50.84%, 51.19%, and 51.58%, respectively. The study revealed significant details of the temporal and spatial distributions of urban expansion in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan and provided scientific support for the collaborative development of the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) regions.

Highlights

Unprecedented urbanization, characterized by demographic shifts from rural to urbanized areas and urban land expansion, has taken place globally in the past several decades [1,2,3]
Over the past four decades, Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan have undergone rapid urbanization (Figure 5), which can be seen from the continuous expansion of their urban land, and the area of the three cities has increased by 1152.84 km2, 467.22 km2, and 98.71 km2, respectively
Type and had obvious differences among periods: the rate of expansion was slow at 7.83 km2 per year in the period from 1973 to 1987; in the late 1980s; the increasing demand for urban land; under the effect of the policy of reform and opening up in China; resulted in an annual average rate of urban expansion of 37.24 km2 during 1987–1998; affected by the Asian financial crisis; the expansion significantly slowed down in the late 1990s; during 2000–2003; the average annual expansion reached the pinnacle; 83.19 km2 ; whereas the expansion speed slowed down again during 2003–2013

Summary

Introduction

Unprecedented urbanization, characterized by demographic shifts from rural to urbanized areas and urban land expansion, has taken place globally in the past several decades [1,2,3]. Scientists have paid increasing attention to urban expansion and consequential impervious surface growth and their impacts on biogeochemical cycles and biological diversity at local, regional and global scales [15]. Some of the problems associated with urban expansion include climate change [16,17,18,19,20], arable land loss [21], wetland destruction [22,23] and air and water pollution [24]. These problems lead to a reduced quality of life in both urban and rural societies [25]. It is critically important to properly characterize urban sprawl before developing a comprehensive understanding of the causes and effects of urbanization processes in diverse areas such as urban planning, water and land resource management, marketing analysis, and service allocation [9,27]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion