Abstract
Relatively little attention has been paid to examining the spatial expansion features of cities at various tiers at the regional level in China, especially those located in central and western regions of the country. Based on Landsat satellite imagery from four years—1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010, this paper investigates the spatio-temporal pattern of urban land expansion and its influencing factors in the Wuhan Urban Agglomeration (WUA) in central China. The research found that the total area of urban land expanded from 203.66 km2 in 1980 to 1370.07 km2 in 2010, and that urban land areas increased by 423.82, 167.42, and 574.93 km2 in the periods 1980–1990, 1990–2000, and 2000–2010 respectively, exhibiting significant fluctuation between the different periods studied. Geographically, this spatial expansion pattern was characterised by conspicuous concentrations and regional imbalances across the overall study period. Whilst these spatio-temporal differences were found to be closely related to industrialisation, urban population growth, land-use policies, urbanisation guidelines (governmental plans and regulations addressing urbanisation), and national development strategy, the dominant mechanisms driving those differences varied over time. In response, the paper presents an urban-rural and regional integration strategy, with the aim of avoiding economic gaps and the inefficient utilisation of various resources in the urban agglomeration areas.
Highlights
China has experienced rapid rural-urban transformation since the economic reforms and “open-door policy” initiated in 1978 [1,2]
The UEII is calculated using the following Equation: UEII i where UEIIi stands for urban expansion intensity index of unit i, ULAIt and ULAtI are the area of urban land at time t2 and t1, respectively, TLAi is the total area within the administrative county boundary i, and Δt is the study period (i.e., t2 − t1)
It can be concluded that the dynamic patterns of urban land expansion in the Wuhan urban agglomeration (WUA) region is significantly different from those metropolitan areas in the eastern region of China
Summary
China has experienced rapid rural-urban transformation since the economic reforms and “open-door policy” initiated in 1978 [1,2]. Statistical data shows that the share of China’s total land area, urban population, gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, and energy consumption that is currently concentrated in urban agglomerations is 21.1%, 51.4%, 78.8%, 98.1%, and 70.4%, respectively [7]. In another 20–30 years, urban agglomerations in China will account for as much as 60% of the nation’s population, 70% of its investment and 80% of the national economy. It is of great significance that research be undertaken which is able to accurately acquire information about the spatial expansion of urban land in relation to urban agglomerations, and reveal the factors and dynamic mechanisms of spatial expansion
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