Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Urban Land-Use Transformation in the Rapid Urbanization of the Shanghai Metropolitan Area in the 1980s–2000s

Abstract

As one of the world's largest cities, Shanghai has undergone rapid urbanization over the past two decades. This process has been characterized by high intensity and extreme heterogeneity in its spatiotemporal dynamics, and it has been driven by various transformation processes of nonurban to urban land use. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics of this unique, rapid urbanization has not been adequately addressed, and the contribution of the urban transformation process to regional urbanization has likewise not been targeted. The present study aimed to examine the urbanization dynamics in Shanghai by measuring the magnitude and spatiotemporal heterogeneity of two major forms of urban land uses — high- and low-density constructed areas. The complexity in the urban transformation process and its contribution to regional urbanization were also investigated. Four time-successive Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image datasets were used, and a GIS-based gridding system combined with the urbanization intensity index was employed to measure and analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of urbanization in the Shanghai metropolitan area from 1987 to 2000. We identified 34 types of urban land-use transformation and compared their effects on urbanization based on area contribution and transformation frequency. A neighboring index was introduced to measure the spatial interactions among those types of urban land-use transformation and reveal the formation and evolution of urban land use in urbanization. We expect that our research can make a contribution in the monitoring and detection of urbanization using remote sensing and GIS approaches.