Abstract

China has been through a period of remarkable urban sprawl since the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, with the highest urbanization occurring in the coastal zones. Sustainable urban development requires a better understanding of the spatiotemporal characteristics of urbanization. This study systematically explored urban sprawl in Chinese coastal cities with a visual interpretation method from 1979 to 2013. The results show that urban built-up areas kept increasing at a faster pace during the study period (i.e., increased about 9-fold in 34 years), especially in the first decade of the 21st century. Spatially, urban sprawl intensity generally peaked in the urban fringe. Urban built-up areas expanded mostly at a cost to cultivated land and non-urban built-up land, and became more irregular and less compact through the study period. Land-use policies, economic development levels, port developments and locations are all closely related with urban sprawl in these port cities. The results also suggest that improving the utilization efficiency of urban land and coordinating the development of city and port are necessary and important for sustainable development in coastal cities.

Highlights

  • Urban land sprawl and population migration from rural to urban areas have resulted in rapid global urbanization over the last several decades [1]

  • The urban areas of the other port cities were all below 1000 km2

  • We explored the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban sprawl in Chinese port citieIsninthtihsestpuadsyt,sweveeeraxlpdloerceaddeths.eOspvaetriaoltle, umrpboarnabl uchilat-ruapctearriesatiicns tohfeusrebcaitniesspkraewptliinncCrehaisninesgeaptoarftacsitteiers inpathcee pinastthseevsetruadlydepceardioeds., Oesvpeeracilal,lulyrbianntbhueilfti-rustpdaerecaadine tohfestehecit2i1esstkceepnttiunrcyre. aTshinegreatwaafsasatnerepaarclieeirn thaeccsetluedraytipoenrioodf,uersbpaenciaslplyraiwn lthienfitrhset dseocuatdhe coofatshteal21zsotnceenbtuecrayu

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Summary

Introduction

Urban land sprawl and population migration from rural to urban areas have resulted in rapid global urbanization over the last several decades [1]. The urban population is expected to rise to more than 60% in developing countries and 80% in developed regions by 2050 [2]. Drastic urbanization has generated many challenges and problems. It can affect the urban environment and climate at local or global scales, bring about traffic jams, decrease employment opportunities, and jeopardize biodiversity [5,6,7]. As a developing country and the most populous country, China experienced a dramatic increase (+230%) in urban area from the 1990s to 2010 [8,9]. It is imperative to monitor urbanization because a long record of urban land use change is of significant value for future urban planning and management [10]

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