Spatiotemporal Decoupling between Population and Construction Land in Urban and Rural Hubei Province

Chengcheng Wang,Xuesong Kong,Yanfang Liu,Jiwei Li

doi:10.3390/su9071258

Abstract

In urban and rural areas under rapid urbanization, a proper understanding of the relationship between population and construction land use is important for regional sustainable development. The decoupling method is a particularly useful way to examine this relationship. However, the decoupling method only considers the current relationship between population and construction land, ignoring the initial status in the base year. Based on an improved decoupling model, vector land-use data (1:10,000 scale) from two National Land Investigations, and demographic data from the China Statistics Bureau, this paper analyzes population and construction land use change patterns as well as the types of coupling in urban and rural Hubei. The results better reflect the relationship between population and construction land use. The outcomes show that from 2009 to 2014, both the urban population and urban construction land use increased while the rural population decreased as rural settlement land use expanded. In 61 counties, the relationship between the urban population and construction land use showed expansive negative decoupling; that is, the growth rate of urban population was less than the growth rate of the urban construction land use. In 72 counties, the relationship between the rural population and rural settlement land showed a strong negative decoupling; that is, the rural population decreased while the rural settlement land use increased. The relationship between the urban–rural population and construction land use can be divided into eight types. Only nine counties are somewhat coordinated, while the other counties were all uncoordinated. Suggestions are provided by comparing per capita urban construction land and per capita rural settlement land in the base and current years with the national standard and considering the coupling types for population and construction land use change in urban and rural settings. Finally, we discuss approaches to optimize urban–rural space organization and promote coordinated urban–rural development.

Highlights

With rapid economic development and population growth, urbanization has become a global phenomenon, especially in developing countries, such as China [1,2]
Rapid urbanization has had a significant influence on the relationship between population and land in Hubei Province
The results show that the construction land area increased significantly and that the growth rate of urban construction land was much greater than that of rural construction land during the five years

Summary

Introduction

With rapid economic development and population growth, urbanization has become a global phenomenon, especially in developing countries, such as China [1,2]. Some plots of rural construction land, which are reclaimed into arable land, and plots of urban land, which are planned to be used for urban development, consist of project area of “construct new while demolish the old” [14]. This ensures that the total area of land used for construction does not increase, prevents the quantity and quality of farmland from decreasing, and leads to rational land-use patterns

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion