Abstract
The urbanization level in China has increased rapidly since beginning of the 21st century, and the monitoring and analysis of urban expansion has become a popular topic in geoscience applications. However, problems, such as inconsistent concepts and extraction standards, low precision, and poor comparability, existing in urban monitoring may lead to wrong conclusions. This study selects 337 cities at the prefecture level and above in China as research subjects and uses high-resolution images and geographic information data in a semi-automatic extraction method to identify urban areas in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. City size distribution patterns, urban expansion regional characteristics, and expansion types are analyzed. Results show that Chinese cities maintained a high-speed growth trend from 2000 to 2015, with the total area increasing by 115.79%. The overall scale of a city continues to expand, and the system becomes increasingly complex. The urban system is more balanced than the ideal Zipf distribution, but it also exhibited different characteristics in 2005. Urban areas are mostly concentrated in the eastern and central regions, and the difference between the east and the west is considerable. However, cities in the western region continuously expand. Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou are the four largest cities in China. Approximately 73.30% of the cities are expanding in an extended manner; the urban form tends to be scattered, and land use efficiency is low. The new urban areas mainly come from cultivated land and ecological land.
Highlights
The urban population is increasing with the development of urbanization, along with the rapid expansion of urban areas [1]
The internal space structure promotes compact and intensive urban development and efficient green development to solve the blind expansion of cities, faster land urbanization than population urbanization, extensive and inefficient land construction, urbanization and industrialization mismatch, urban spatial distribution, and unreasonable scale structures [4]
A city size distribution model was verified, urban expansion regional characteristics were analyzed at three main levels, i.e., the city, province and region levels, and expansion types were analyzed
Summary
The urban population is increasing with the development of urbanization, along with the rapid expansion of urban areas [1]. The internal space structure promotes compact and intensive urban development and efficient green development to solve the blind expansion of cities, faster land urbanization than population urbanization, extensive and inefficient land construction, urbanization and industrialization mismatch, urban spatial distribution, and unreasonable scale structures [4]. Research on urban overall spatial patterns from static expressions and dynamic analyses are in multiple scales, such as land parcels, blocks, functional areas, cities, urban agglomerations, regions, countries, and the world. The current study uses a semi-automatic method to extract urban area using high-resolution remote sensing imagery and geographic information data. Urban landscape and form characteristics, geographical knowledge, and a series of standardized rules were combined to generate high-precision and consistent urban areas of 337 cities in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. A city size distribution model was verified, urban expansion regional characteristics were analyzed at three main levels, i.e., the city, province and region levels, and expansion types were analyzed
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