Urban Land Intensive Use Research Articles

Research on Urban Resilience from the Perspective of Land Intensive Use: Indicator Measurement, Impact and Policy Implications

Land intensive use reflects the spatial structure, agglomeration characteristics, and internal mechanisms of urban economic, social, and ecological system development, significantly impacting urban resilience. Based on panel data from 287 cities in China from 2010 to 2020, this paper measures the levels of land intensive use and urban resilience, and empirically examines the impact mechanism of land intensive use on urban resilience through baseline regression and panel quantile regression. The results reveal that: (1) During the study period, China’s urban land intensive use level has significantly improved. The land intensive use level shows a trend of “the strong become stronger, and the weak are always weak” and “high in the east and low in the west” spatial differentiation, while the urban resilience level showed a trend of accelerated “catching up” of low-resilience cities towards high-resilience cities and “high in the east and low in the west” spatial differentiation as well. (2) Land intensive use significantly promotes effect on urban resilience, and the effect depends on different conditions. (3) Among all dimensions of land intensive use, both land input intensity and land use benefits significantly promote urban resilience, while land use intensity shows an insignificant effect. (4) The impact of land intensive use on urban resilience demonstrates significant scale heterogeneity and geographic regional heterogeneity. Based on these findings, the paper proposes relevant policy suggestions for land intensive use aimed at improving urban resilience, offering guidance for promoting high-quality land use and sustainable urban resilience development.

The Carbon Emission Implications of Intensive Urban Land Use in Emerging Regions: Insights from Chinese Cities

Intensive urban land use is a strategy to enhance productivity and mitigate environmental challenges in emerging regions, but its relationship with carbon emissions needs further city-level investigation. This study investigates the impact of intensive urban land use on carbon emissions across 153 cities in China, thus employing the STIRPAT model with the ordinary least square (OLS) and geographical weighted regression (GWR) methods. The findings underscore the heterogenous influence of intensive urban land use on carbon emissions across China’s urban landscapes: (1) R&D investment intensity and population density show significant negative association with carbon emissions in general. (2) Capital investment intensity positively affects carbon emissions in low-income cities, R&D investment intensity shows negative effects on carbon emissions in middle-income cities, and population density emerges as a substantial factor in reducing carbon emissions in both middle- and low-income cities. (3) Capital intensity, labor intensity, and R&D investment intensity exert positive effects on emissions in middle China and negative influences in northeastern and southern China, whereas population density shows converse spatial effects. Based on the study’s results, tailored policy implications are provided for urban planning authorities in emerging regions.

A Preliminary Study on the Sustainable Development of High-Density Cities

In the process of development of high-density cities in China, it has become important to promote the intensive and compact use of urban land, explore the efficiency of land resource use, and create a dynamic environment that is mobile, convenient, and pedestrian-friendly. In order to address a series of challenges of high-density urban development, this paper mainly analyzes the high-density urban development patterns in Japan, and Singapore regions. The study concludes that three-dimensional cities and transit-oriented integrated development are the key strategies to achieve this goal. This paper explores trends and sustainable practices in high-density urban development. This paper sorts out the development framework of high-density cities and discusses the construction characteristics and development trends of contemporary high-density three-dimensional cities from the perspectives of land use, green building assessment, traffic management, and public participation. This paper compares the focus of different measures in different regions, as well as the intensive development of public space and vertical greening measures, which have certain reference values for the sustainable development of high-density cities in China.

Urban land use efficiency and its driving factors in ecologically fragile areas: the case of northwest China

ABSTRACT Urban land serves as the medium for urban economic and residential activity. The degree of intensive and efficient use of urban land and the coordinated growth of the economy and society are significantly impacted by utilization efficiency. Northwest China’s temperature, geography, water, and soil characteristics make less of the region suited for urban development. Thus, it is imperative to investigate Northwest China’s urban land use efficiency (ULUE). This study applies the efficiency loss model to highlight the discrepancy between the optimal and actual values of each input-output variable of the ULUE, and uses the Super-SBM model to compute the ULUE of 39 cities. Additionally, the internal driving elements of the ULUE are examined using the Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index. This study discovered that Northwest China had a low ULUE, with a modest upward trend seen between 2004 and 2018. The overall shape of the region was similar to an ‘N’ curve, with high efficiency values concentrated in the southeast of the region in 2018. When considering the agglomeration impact of urban agglomeration, these results are dependable. Moreover, the efficiency loss model discovered that pollution and wasteful resource usage were the main reasons behind the drop in ULUE in Northwest China. Finally, the GML index and its constituents revealed that the main force behind ULUE’s growth in Northwest China is technological developments. This research provides important policy implications for reducing the gap between eastern and western regions, supporting high-quality development in northwest China, and protecting and intensively using urban land.

Effects of the urban environment on the developmental stability, size and body condition of dice snakes (Natrix tessellata) living in artificial lakeside habitats

The expansion of urban areas leads to a decrease in natural habitats, resulting some species to live in urban environments. Novel environmental factors might influence their size, body condition and development stability. The environmentally induced developmental instability can be indicated by fluctuating symmetry, which means random deviations from perfect symmetry in bilaterally symmetric creatures.Our research aimed to explore the impact of various urbanization factors on snake populations within urban habitats. To achieve this, we examined how dice snake (Natrix tessellata) populations differ in their asymmetry, body condition and size in a lake characterized by highly modified lakeside habitats, intensive urban land use, and severe human disturbance. The average size, body condition and two asymmetry indices were determined for 25 dice snake populations around Lake Balaton in Hungary. The impacts of the urban environment were characterized by land use and local variables, and the risk of road kill was also estimated.Populations living in areas with a more intensive road network or near a main road showed more asymmetric traits. It is conceivable that pollutants from vehicle traffic lead to developmental disorders that manifest themselves in more asymmetric individuals. In addition, the body condition of snakes was negatively correlated with the area of the harbours, possibly due to the intensive boat traffic and human disturbance. Finally, populations living in more urbanized areas had larger body sizes meaning that despite its negative effects through pollution, anthropized areas can provide a suitable habitat for dice snakes.While urban artificial surroundings can function as suitable habitats, our results confirm that urban environmental factors have negative effects on dice snakes. Our findings indicate that the density of road networks and the proximity of roads have adverse effects on the developmental stability of urban snakes. This underscores the need to implement conservation actions to mitigate the negative effects of roads on biodiversity.

Impact of the intensive use of urban construction land on carbon emission efficiency: evidence from the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Urban construction land, as the main carrier of socioeconomic activities, is also a land type that is associated with large carbon emissions. This study uses statistical data of the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR) from 2006 to 2020 to examine the mechanism of the intensive use of urban construction land (IUUCL) on carbon emission efficiency (CEE) from the perspective of urban land resource utilization. The study shows that the capital-intensive and technology-intensive use of urban construction land can significantly increase CEE, while increased labor and energy intensification inhibits CEE. In addition, there is regional heterogeneity in the effect of the IUUCL on CEE. The external control factor industrial structure has the most obvious inhibiting effect on the CEE of the Wuhan urban circle, the intensive use of energy has become the crucial constraint on the carbon emission reduction of the city cluster around Poyang Lake, and the intensive use of science and technology is the key factor in realizing the green and low-carbon development of the Chang-Zhu-Tan city cluster. This study innovatively constructs a theoretical framework of IUUCL versus CEE and conducts a heterogeneous study on the CEE of intensive use of construction land from the perspective of urban agglomerations. By providing a better understanding of the intrinsic influence mechanism of both these processes, this study provides a new perspective for reducing carbon emissions.

Evaluation of Urban Commercial Land Use Intensification Based on Land Parcels: Taking Wuxi City as an Example

Intensive land use assessment is a key research topic in urban land use, and most of the existing studies focus on macro-level assessment. There is a lack of research on the micro-level assessment of intensive urban land use, especially at the parcel level. The objective of this research is to propose a method for the parcel-based evaluation of urban commercial land intensification. The study uses a multidimensional evaluation framework and index system, comprehensive evaluation, and spatially exploratory analysis of urban commercial intensive land use based on “building intensity, use efficiency, compatibility, and diversity”. The study finds that (1) the average value of intensive use of urban commercial land is 13.01, the standard deviation is 5.11, and the median value is 13, which generally indicate a medium level. (2) The degree of intensive use of commercial land has obvious characteristics of a high, medium, and low level. The study shows that when evaluating the degree of land use intensification at the parcel level, it is also necessary to consider the influence of the compatibility and diversity of external land use. The research results can provide a basis for spatial planning and the optimal design of urban land resources to improve urban vitality.

Classification of the Land Cover of a Megacity in ASEAN Using Two Band Combinations and Three Machine Learning Algorithms: A Case Study in Ho Chi Minh City

Accurate classification of land cover data can facilitate the intensive use of urban land and provide scientific and reasonable data support for urban development. Rapid changes in land cover due to economic growth are occurring in the megacities of developing countries more and more. A land cover classification method with a high spatiotemporal resolution and low cost is needed to support sustainable urban development for continuous land monitoring. This study discusses better machine learning algorithms for land cover classification in Ho Chi Minh City. We used band combination 764 and band combination 543 of LANDSAT8-OLI image data to classify the land cover in Ho Chi Minh City by combining three machine learning algorithms: Back-Propagation Neural Network, Support Vector Machine, and Random Forest. We divided the land cover into six types and collected 2221 samples, 60% of which were used for training and 40% for validation. Our results show that using the band combination 764 combined with the Random Forest algorithm is the most appropriate, with an overall classification accuracy of 99.41% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.99. Moreover, it shows a more significant advantage regarding city-level land cover details than other classification products.

The Impact of Technology Innovation on Urban Land Intensive Use in China: Evidence from 284 Cities in China

How to improve the level of urban land intensive use (ULIU) has been of wide concern to academic circles. Technology innovation, as the internal driving force of economic development, has an important impact on ULIU. To clarify the impacts of technology innovation on ULIU, this study measures the ULIU level index of China from 2006 to 2019 from four dimensions: the input-output level of economic efficiency, the carrying capacity of ecological environment, the harmony of the man-land relationship and the rationality of relationships between regions. On this basis, as there are different production technologies and land use technologies between cities, the differences of ULIU in different regions are analysed. Using the spatial econometric model, this study empirically analyzes the impact of technology innovation on ULIU. In addition, considering the differences in geographical distribution, natural resource endowment and technological type, this study analyzes the heterogeneous impact of technology innovation on ULIU. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The level of ULIU and technology innovation in China is increasing year by year. The level of ULIU and technology innovation in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions. (2) From the spatial perspective, ULIU has a significant positive spatial spillover effect. (3) On the whole, technology innovation significantly improves the level of ULIU. (4) The impact of technology innovation in different regions, different types of cities and different types of technologies on ULIU is heterogeneous. Our results not only enrich the research on the relationship between technology innovation and ULIU, but also provide a reference for the formulation of relevant policies.

Spatial Relationship between the Residential Land Price and the Land Intensive use in Hebei Province

Using the exploratory spatial data analysis method to analyze the level of residential land price, and calculate the use level of urban land intensive use based on the PSR model, exploring the differences between the urban residential land price and land intensive spatial in the city of Hebei Province in 2019 and make relevant suggestions. The result shows (1) The land price level of urban housing is characterized by spatial differentiation of circle structure with Langfang city as the center and decreasing outward. (2) The overall level of urban land intensive use shows the spatial differentiation characteristics of high in the southeast and low in the northwest. (3) The spatial distribution of urban residential land price level is different from that of land intensive use level, and there is a situation that the land price level is high and the urban land intensive use level is low. (4) Because of the shortcomings in the development of land price and intensive land use, some suggestions are put forward from the overall perspective of the whole province and the specific situation of each city.

Urban intensive land use and enterprise emission reduction: New micro-evidence from China towards COP26 targets

Energy saving and emission reduction are key elements in promoting global sustainable development. From the perspective of urban land resource utilization, this study examines how the intensive use of land resources affects enterprise emission reduction and the mechanism through which it achieves this impact. Based on land use raster data from 2000 to 2017, an urban intensive land use indicator for China is constructed from the “land concentration and continuity” perspective, which is then combined with the 2001–2014 Chinese industrial enterprise database and enterprise pollution emission database for regression analysis. The results show that the intensive use of urban land resources significantly reduces the intensity of enterprise pollution emissions. Moreover, this result remains robust after a series of tests, including substitute variables, elimination of endogeneity, and limited samples. The mechanism test proves that the emission reduction effect of urban intensive land use can be realized through two transmission channels—scale and technology effects. Further heterogeneity analysis results show that central cities and large enterprises benefit more from the intensive use of urban land to promote enterprise emission reduction. This study uses high-resolution land raster data innovatively to construct an accurate urban intensive land use index and theoretically evaluates the impact, mechanism, and heterogeneity of intensive land use on enterprise emission reduction in China. This study thus not only fills an existing theoretical research gap, but also helps promote the mechanism between the intensive use of urban land resources and the green development of enterprises.

Does new-type urbanization curb haze pollution? A case study from China.

The rapid urbanization process has led to a high concentration of population and economic activities in urban space, thus leading to severe environmental pollution. The concept of new-type urbanization has been proposed in China to combat the pollution associated with urbanization. This study analyzes the interaction effect of new-type urbanization with land, industry, and technology on haze pollution, using Chinese provincial-level panel data, and employs a STIRPAT model with interaction terms for empirical testing. The results find that new-type urbanization can significantly reduce the national haze pollution level; meanwhile, the optimization of intensive urban land use level, industrial structure, and technological innovation can interact with it to promote haze reduction, and there is regional heterogeneity. The improvement of intensive urban land use and industrial structure in the central region will significantly enhance the haze reduction effect of new-type urbanization, while the improvement of technological innovation in the west will instead weaken its haze reduction effect, and the interaction in the eastern region is not significant. This research provides a theoretical basis for better implementation of new-type urbanization construction and effective promotion of green and sustainable urban development.

The Impact of Development Zones on China’s Urbanization from the Perspectives of the Population, Land, and the Economy

The sustainable development of urbanization is a necessary condition for China to realize modernization. Considering the importance of urbanization to China’s future development and the advantages of development zones in promoting urbanization, it is necessary to quantify the impact of establishing development zones on urbanization development. Using the difference in difference (DID) model, this study takes the panel data of 235 cities in China from 1990 to 2017 to evaluate the policy effects of setting up development zones on urbanization from the perspectives of the population, land, and the economy. The results show that the development zone policy in the overall panel exerts a significant negative impact on land urbanization and a significant positive impact on economic urbanization but exerts no significant impact on population urbanization. The regression results of sub-regions show significant regional differences in the impact of development zones on urbanization. In the eastern region, the development zone policy has promoted the intensive use of urban construction land. For the central and western regions with weak development foundations, development zones play an important role in attracting the population and upgrading industries while reducing the intensive use of construction land. This study provides urban-level empirical evidence for evaluating the urbanization effects of development zone policies and puts forward policy recommendations for development zone construction to promote high-quality urbanization in China.

Factors influencing vertical urban development at the parcel scale: The case in Brisbane, Australia

Increasing urban density has become an important focus in mitigating the adverse impacts of urban sprawl. A common way to increase urban density is the development of multi-story residential housing, or vertical urban development (VUD). Compared to low-rise detached housing, VUD has been purported to be more effective in mitigating the adverse impact of urban sprawl. This paper examines factors influencing VUD through a case study of Brisbane, Australia. Three types of housing developments – low-rise detached houses, low-rise apartments, and medium- to high-rise apartments – are explored, with the latter two types classified as VUD. Building on the literature that suggests a range of environmental, socio-demographic, built environment, and planning regulations factors driving or constraining VUD, our study further explores how land parcel size and parcel change over time either through parcel amalgamation or subdivision as factors driving VUD. The findings show that parcel size and parcel amalgamation are key factors leading to VUD, particularly in the form of medium- to high-rise apartment development. On the other hand, land use upzoning alone does not appear to be sufficient to drive VUD. Our study enriches the understanding of the scale effects of land parcels and zoning regulation on vertical urban development, and contributes to parcel-based land use planning policies that are targeted at more intensive urban land use.

Effects of urban land intensive use on carbon emissions in China: spatial interaction and multi-mediating effect perspective.

Land intensive use is important for sustainable land use while carbon emission is a constraint to achieve carbon neutrality; they are closely related and committed to sustainable socioeconomic development. The spatial interactions and complex mechanisms between them make it difficult to clarify their relationship precisely. This paper combines the spatial Durbin model and mediating effect model to describe the effects of urban land intensive use (ULIU) on carbon emissions (CEs) for 30 provinces in China during 1995-2018. An inverse U-shaped relationship between ULIU and CEs is proved while considering the spatial interaction. All the provincial observed values of ULIU are less than the inflection point of the curve, which means that the improvement of the ULIU will cause more CEs. Meanwhile, ULIU has multi-indirect effects on CEs, with urbanization and industrial structure upgrading playing mediating roles in the mechanism. The spatial spillover effects of CEs per unit area on the neighboring provinces are negative, indicating that the interregional influence cannot be ignored. These findings have theoretical and practical significance as they reveal the multi-effects of ULIU on CEs. To realize carbon emission reduction effectively, more attention should be paid to improving the intensity of the urban land and strengthening the regional cooperation.

Spatial effects and influencing factors of urban land intensive use in the Yangtze River Delta under high-quality development

To integrate the concept of high-quality development into urban land use, this paper explores the spatial-temporal pattern characteristics of urban land intensive use (ULIU) in the Yangtze River Delta with a constructed evaluation index system, the comprehensive evaluation model and exploratory spatial data analysis based on the spatial panel data of 41 cities from 2010 to 2020. The paper also analyzes the spatial effects and influencing factors of ULIU with the spatial Durbin model and partial differential method. The results demonstrate that: 1) The ULIU in the Yangtze River Delta generally showed consistent growth from 2010 to 2020. However, there was significant spatial differentiation among different regions, as the land intensive use level was higher in cities along the Yangtze River and coastal cities around Hangzhou Bay, while relatively lower in the mountainous and hilly cities in Zhejiang and southwestern Anhui. 2) The ULIU level showed significant positive global spatial autocorrelations, while its local spatial characteristics mainly included four types dominated by high-high agglomeration and low-low agglomeration from 2010 to 2020. 3) Economic development, industrial structure and infrastructure could remarkably promote the ULIU of both local and neighboring cities. Scientific and technological innovation could significantly enhance the ULIU of local cities; population urbanization and government financial pressure showed significant negative effects on the ULIU of local cities; while all the above three factors had insignificant effects on the ULIU of neighboring cities. These findings are of great significance for revealing the internal mechanism underlying the spatial effect of land intensive use and provide some guidance for improving the level of ULIU in the Yangtze River Delta from the perspective of regional cooperation.

Verifying the Synthesized Effects of Intensive Urban Land Use on Quality of Life, Ecology, and Urban-Land-Use Scale in China

Intensive urban land use has been proposed as a method to promote sustainable development in the context of rapid urban sprawl. However, a consensus has not been reached on whether this approach is beneficial for ecology and compatible with suitable living conditions. Exploring this issue in China will help promote high-quality development. Extant research has mainly explored the effects of intensive urban land use on quality of life, ecology, and urban-land-use scale separately, while a synthesized analysis in this regard is lacking. In the light of this, we establish an analysis framework by which to verify the effects of intensive urban land use on the three aspects, using data from China spanning 2005–2019, subjected to structural equation modeling. The results show that intensive urban land use has varying degrees of positive effects on quality of life, ecology, and urban-land-use scale. It had no strong effect on the three items initially, while quality of life was significantly optimized by 2010, and ecology was markedly improved from 2015. However, there was a trend toward shrinking living space and sprawling urban areas. The corresponding suggestions are formulated for policy makers to improve intensive urban-land-use policy.

Empirical investigation of urban land use efficiency and influencing factors of the Yellow River basin Chinese cities

This article evaluated the urban land use efficiency (ULUE) of 57 cities in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) from 2005 to 2017 with the super epsilon based measure (Super-EBM) model, analyzed its difference characteristics and evolution trend by using the Theil index and kernel density function, revealed its spatial correlation by Moran index and LISA clustering, and also explored its influencing factors by the Tobit model. The results show that the ULUE of the YRB first declined and then increased, with the highest in the upstream areas, followed by the downstream areas, while the lowest in the middle reaches of the YRB. The ULUE in the YRB presented the characteristics of continuous distribution, and the ULUE in the cities south of the Yellow River was significantly higher than that in the cities north of the Yellow River. Secondly, the imbalance of ULUE in the YRB was aggravated, and the difference between groups was small while the difference within the group was absolutely dominant. The imbalance of ULUE in the midstream areas of the YRB dominated the whole basin. Thirdly, the ULUE of the YRB had a significant spatial correlation. In 2017, the local spatial correlation was mainly low-low aggregation, and the clustering area was concentrated in resource-based cities in Shanxi Province. Finally, the impact of economic development on ULUE in the YRB presented a "U" curve relationship. The proportion of secondary industry, population density, introduction of foreign capital, innovation level and traffic facilities can significantly promote the ULUE in the Basin, while land urbanization and environmental regulation had a negative impact on the ULUE of the YRB. This paper is important to realize the intensive use of urban land and achieve high-quality development in the YRB.

Functional Responses of Phytoplankton Assemblages to Watershed Land Use and Environmental Gradients

Watershed land-use changes have been identified as major threats to lake fauna, subsequently affecting ecosystem functioning. In this study, the functional-based approach was used to examine the effects of land use and environmental changes on phytoplankton communities in four selected lakes in Northeast China. We also identified the sensitive functional traits as indicators of environmental stressors. The integration of RLQ analysis with the fourth-corner approach significantly identified five of 18 functional trait categories, including flagella, filamentous, unicellular, mixotrophic, and chlorophyll c, as potential indicators to changes in watershed land-use intensity and environmental gradients. Significant relationships between traits and land use and water quality highlighted the consequential indirect impact of extensive agricultural and urban development on phytoplankton via allochthonous nutrient inputs and various contaminants. In addition, the functional richness of phytoplankton assemblages generally increased along with surface area and forests, but decreased along with intensive agricultural and urban land use, implying that functional homogenization may cause a reduction in ecosystem productivity and reliability to land-use intensity. Given the superior performance of the functional-based approach, our findings also highlighted the importance of the application of both the biological traits and functional diversity index in monitoring programs for lake ecosystems.

Urban Land Use Transitions and the Economic Spatial Spillovers of Central Cities in China’s Urban Agglomerations

Urbanization and land use transformation are typical characteristics of China in recent decades. Studying the effects of urban land use transitions (ULUT) on the economic spatial spillovers of central cities (ESSCC) can provide a reference for China to optimize cities’ land space layout and promote their coordinated development. Based on the direct and indirect effects of ULUT in central cities on the production factors and economic growth in other cities, this paper reveals the mechanisms underlying the influence of ULUT on ESSCC. Then, we usethe expanded geographical distance-weighted spatial Durbin model with the panel data of 152 Chinese urban agglomeration cities from 2003 to 2016 to empirically test it. The results show that, since 2003, the rate of urban land expansions, the level of urban land intensive use (ULIU), the degree of land marketization, and the urban land prices in China have increased substantially; and the proportionate supplies of industrial land, commercial land, and residential land have decreased. Moreover, ULUT between cities have significant spatial autocorrelations. The current ULUT have positive but small effects on ESSCC. Among them, ULIU has the greatest promotion effects on ESSCC. The impacts of ULUT on ESSCC vary greatly among urban agglomerations. The ULUT in central cities indirectly enhance the ESSCC, which mainly depend on the positive effects of ULUT on enterprise investment, infrastructure investment, labor and technological efficiency and the spatial spread effects of these production factors. This is the main intermediate mechanism by which the ULUT in central cities enhance the ESSCC. Continuing to strengthen ULIU, promote the improvement of land marketization, and establish and improve the coordination mechanism for the economic development of urban agglomerations will help to strengthen the ESSCC in urban agglomerations. The results provide evidence for how the Chinese government can enhance the ESSCC and promote the coordinated development of cities through ULUT under new urbanization.