Urban Land Use Efficiency Research Articles

Urban land policy and urban land use efficiency: An analysis based on remote sensing and institutional credibility thesis

Ethiopia has an urban land lease policy in place to facilitate the transfer of land for residential, commercial and industrial purposes. Because of the lease policy, many cities have experienced significant expansion through massive conversion of agricultural land. Although the lease policy has been in place for nearly three decades, little is known about its effectiveness in promoting sustainable urban land use. This paper examines the effects of the lease policies on urban land use efficiency (ULUE). Building on the institutional credibility thesis, this paper investigated the performance of land institutions using the urban land use efficiency approach. Remote sensing data was used to investigate urban land use efficiency through spatiotemporal analysis of land use change. Analysis of satellite imagery was performed using ArcGIS. Moreover, quantitative and qualitative data from secondary sources were studied. The study findings show that in almost all study areas, urban land use efficiency is low, which is mainly reflected in the forms of land hoarding, land banking, illegal land grabbing, informal settlement, land use fragmentation and urban sprawl. A significant portion of the land transferred for various urban uses has remained vacant or underutilised for years, in direct violation of the provisions of the lease policy. This means that the lease policy has hardly been enforced to ensure efficient urban land utilization. This demonstrates the ineffectiveness (dysfunctionality) of the existing land institutions. It is concluded that some elements of the lease policy have evolved into an empty institution, i.e., a symbolic institutional arrangement that is largely ignored by socioeconomic and political actors.

Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Driving Mechanism of Urban Land Use Efficiency Based on T-DEA Model: A Case Study of Anhui Province, China

As China’s urbanization has shifted from high-speed to high-quality development, Urban Land Use Efficiency (ULUE) has become an important scale for evaluating urban connotative development. However, existing research has paid less attention to errors caused by different urban environmental factors and random disturbances in ULUE. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to eliminate the impact of environmental factors and random disturbances on ULUE measurement results by placing different cities under the same environmental conditions. First, a three-stage DEA envelopment analysis (T-DEA) model is introduced to calculate the ULUE of 16 prefecture-level cities in Anhui Province from 2001 to 2020. On this basis, the kernel density estimation model, gravity center model, and geographic detector models are used to study the spatial and temporal evolution and driving factors. The results show that (1) the ULUE increases nonlinearly with time, with an increase of 12.74%; (2) the overall peak of ULUE is on the rise, and changes from a single peak to a multi-peak, indicating that ULUE is constantly improving and that there is multi-level differentiation between different cities; (3) during the study period, the center of gravity of the ULUE value moved 22.66 km to the northwest; the overall moving distance was small, and the moving rate was slow; and (4) the influence of the interaction of double driving factors on ULUE is significantly greater than that of a single driving factor, and the factors of urban built-up area and degree of openness, as the key driving factors affecting ULUE, also have a degree of duality. In addition, to achieve efficient urban land use and to coordinate the environmental differences faced by different cities, the government must formulate systematic policies and development strategies considering the spatial characteristics of urban land use efficiency and the complexity of the driving factors.

Urban administrative hierarchy and urban land use efficiency: Evidence from Chinese cities

The allocation of administrative resources is of vital importance, especially when discussing the process of urbanization in China. Under the unique political and administrative systems found in China, it is the urban administrative hierarchy (UAH) that determines both the agglomeration model and the allocation process of urban resources. Based on the panel data of 281 cities in China from 2003 to 2017, a dynamic spatial panel model (DSPM) and a mediation effect model are used to investigate the effect of the UAH on urban land use efficiency (ULUE), both from a theoretical and empirical point of view. The study finds not only the higher the administrative level, the higher the ULUE, but also that improvements to the UAH can significantly improve ULUE. After considering a series of robustness tests, the research conclusion is held to be valid. This paper also finds that both public services and investment environment have significant mediation effects with respect to the UAH and ULUE, but financial subsidies and infrastructure have significant suppressing effects. The paper promotes the understanding of ULUE and reveals the economic significance of the administrative hierarchy in resource allocation in a more general sense.

Mediating Effect and Suppressing Effect: Intermediate Mechanism of Urban Land Use Efficiency and Economic Development

The limited nature of land supply determines that improving land use efficiency is an inherent requirement for economic development. The aim of this study was to quantitatively examine its impact. Most current studies have explored the quantitative relationship between urban land use efficiency (ULUE) and economic development, but less attention has been given to the mechanism of action of both. In this study, we construct an analysis framework for the mechanism of ULUE in promoting economic development from three aspects: economic scale, economic structure, and economic quality, and we quantitatively investigate its impact on economic development and intermediate action mechanism through a mediating effect model on the basis of measuring ULUE by using a super-efficiency SBM-undesirable model. Based on the analysis of the panel data of 56 cities in the Yellow River Basin (YRB), the results show that, first, ULUE has formed an ideal positive driving effect on economic development, and its influence mechanism has obvious heterogeneity in cities with different geographical locations and resource endowments. Second, ULUE affects economic development through three channels: economic scale-up effect, economic structure optimization effect, and economic quality enhancement effect, and there are two different mechanisms of mediating effect and suppressing effect. Finally, variables such as investment intensity of urban construction land and social benefit act as suppressing effects, while variables such as economic output density of urban land, industrial structure, employment structure, economic benefit, and environmental benefit play partial mediating effects. These evidence-based findings can provide practical guidance for solving the dilemma of a lack of economic development momentum and inefficient land use in a country or region.

How Does New Energy Demonstration City Policy Promote Urban Land Use Efficiency in China? The Mediating Effect of Industrial Structure

As an effective measure to solve the dilemma of urban energy consumption and economic development, the new energy demonstration city (NEDC) policy in China could greatly promote the development of the new energy industry and urban economy. This study aims to explore how the NEDC policy effectively promotes the growth of urban land use efficiency (ULUE), an essential indicator of economic development, through the urban industrial structure. Based on the panel data of 285 Chinese cities during 2003–2019, this study took the NEDC policy as a quasi-natural experiment and employed the PSM-DID method and the mediating effect model to objectively evaluate its policy effects. We found that the NEDC policy could significantly promote the growth of the ULUE. Specifically, the ULUE has been significantly improved by 17.0%. The NEDC policy could also promote the ULUE indirectly through the mediating effect of industrial structure advancement (ISA), but the mediating effect of industrial structure rationalization (ISR) was not significant. Furthermore, the promotional effect of the NEDC policy on the ULUE has regional heterogeneity. Compared with eastern cities and high-innovation cities, central and western cities and medium-innovation and low-innovation cities can obtain much higher promotion effects. This study may provide some policy inspiration for policymakers to support low-corban and sustainable economic development and urban land use.

A novel approach to assess the urban land-use efficiency of 767 resource-based cities in China

China is accelerating the transformation and development of resource-based cities. Urban land-use efficiency is crucial for assessing land output capacity and regional development quality. Measuring the land-use efficiency of resource-based cities and determining its main factors help improve land-use efficiency and promote the transformation of resource-based cities. However, previous urban land-use efficiency studies of multi-source data and its driving factors have been insufficient. Therefore, according to this study's inherent characteristics of urban land use efficiency, a feasible analysis framework is built using multi-source remote sensing data. Three indicators are proposed: urban construction land intensity, urban nighttime light intensity, and urban point of interest (POI) density. We developed the urban land-use efficiency index (ULEI) to explore the spatial pattern of urban land-use efficiency in resource-based cities. We applied the ternary phase diagram to identify critical factors in the three criteria. The results show that land-use efficiency is generally low in resource-based cities at the county scale. According to the ULEI, the top and bottom resource-based cities have significant agglomeration. The southwest region has higher land-use efficiency, while the northern region has the opposite. Meanwhile, there are significant differences in the urban land-use efficiency of resource-based cities in different growth stages. Growing cities have the highest land-use efficiency, while recessionary cities have the opposite. In addition, resource-based cities with higher land-use efficiency tend to be more balanced among the three criteria. Our results show the approach's effectiveness, which provides objective and precise spatial information for urban land use at the county scale for resource-based cities, leading to more informed decision-making.

Multidimensional Evaluation of Urban Land-Use Efficiency and Innovation Capability Analysis: A Case Study in the Pearl River Delta Region, China

With China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization, sustainable urban development is one of the most significant challenges that the country will face in the future, and the rational evaluation and improvement of urban land-use efficiency (ULUE) are becoming crucial for land and urban development. Existing studies rarely examine ULUE, and there is a dearth of urban land use analysis in terms of different functions, regional differences in levels of development, and innovation capacity. Therefore, we take the Pearl River Delta (PRD), China’s economic and innovation center, as our research target and propose a new framework to analyze its comprehensive ULUE. First, we summarized the patterns of land-use change in the PRD region as a whole along with nine major cities from 2000 to 2020 on the basis of data from the China Land Survey. Then, we constructed a multidimensional evaluation model for ULUE and analyzed the spatial differences and causes of multidimensional performance in nine major cities. Finally, we calculated the innovation capability index of the PRD region and established a coupling coordination–evaluation model to analyze the coordination relationship between innovation capability and urban land use. The three main findings of this study are as follows. (1) The growth rate of urban land in the PRD region as a whole exhibited stage differences. (2) The comprehensive ULUE in the PRD urban agglomeration was high, and the spatial variability of functional performance in each dimension was obvious. (3) The level of coordination between innovation capability and urban land use in the PRD region was high, and the coupled coordinated development exhibited a decreasing spatial distribution pattern. Thus, the PRD region mainly relies on the cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou to drive innovation development of the region.

Study on the Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Urban Spatial Morphological Features

Based on the Landsat remote sensing images of the fourth phase of Xi'an, the land use data of ENVI interpretation and classification are used to extract the boundaries of Xi'an's built-up areas, and the urban spatial analysis method based on GIS is used to comprehensively analyze the evolution characteristics of urban space in Xi'an in the past 30 years. The research results show that the built-up area in Xi'an has been expanding rapidly since 2000, mainly in the form of extension, the shape of the built-up area tends to expand in all directions, and the overall compactness is low, and the efficiency of urban land use is significantly reduced. The overall development presents spread trend.

Improvement Pathways for Urban Land Use Efficiency in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration at the County Level: A Context-Dependent DEA Based on the Closest Target.

One of the most effective ways to achieve sustainable land use and the regional coordinated development of urban agglomerations lies in improving the urban land use efficiency (ULUE) of both large, medium, and small cities and small towns. However, in previous studies, less attention has been paid to pathways for potential improvement, especially at the county level. The main purpose of this paper is to examine potential improvement paths for the ULUE at the county level in urban agglomerations, while attempting to provide more practical targets for improvement and formulate more reasonable improvement steps for inefficient counties. Therefore, a total of 197 counties in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (BTHUA) in 2018 were taken as examples to build a context-dependent data envelopment analysis (DEA) model based on the closest target. In addition, by utilizing methods such as the significant difference test and system clustering analysis, the shortest path and steps to achieve efficiency were identified for inefficient counties, and the characteristics of improvement paths at different levels were summarized. Furthermore, improvement pathways were compared for two dimensions: administrative type and region. The results showed that the causes of polarization for ULUE at different levels were mainly reflected in more complex targets to be improved in the middle- and low-level counties than at high levels. Improving environmental and social benefits was essential to achieving efficiency in most inefficient counties, especially at the middle and low levels. The improvement paths for inefficient counties between different administrative types, as well as the prefecture-level cities, were heterogeneous. The results of this study can provide a policy and planning basis for improving urban land use. This study is of practical significance in accelerating the development of urbanization and the promotion of regional coordination and sustainable development.

Influence Mechanism of Polycentric Spatial Structure on Urban Land Use Efficiency: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Under the background of green development, the spatial structure of urban agglomerations (UA) has an important impact on urban land use efficiency (ULUE), but few studies have explored the impact mechanism between the two. This research explores the impacts of polycentric development on ULUE of UA, using data for 140 cities in China's top ten key UA covering the period from 2004-2019. The linkage between polycentric development and ULUE is explored by estimating models of determinants of ULUE. This research also examines the mechanism of the polycentric spatial structure of UA on ULUE by using a moderated mediation model. The main findings of the research can be concluded as below. The eastern UAs show a mostly polycentric spatial structure, whereas the central and western UAs show a weak polycentric spatial structure. The polycentric spatial structure of UA has a positive impact on ULUE. An inverted U-shape curve depicts the relationship between the polycentric spatial structure of UA and ULUE. However, the mediating variables, integration of industrial structure and factor mobility have a positive and partially mediating effect between the polycentric spatial structure of UA and ULUE. The infrastructure level has a positive U-shaped regulation effect, in which the impact coefficient of transport infrastructure is more significant. These findings provide empirical evidence for the coordinated development of China's regional space planning and ULUE.

Spatiotemporal impacts of urban structure upon urban land-use efficiency: Evidence from 280 cities in China

The looming challenge of global land scarcity entails shaping urban structure towards more efficient land use. To figure out how urban structure affects urban land-use efficiency (ULUE), this study first establishes a ULUE assessment method by applying the Super-SBM DEA model, and then characterizes the urban structure via two metrics of monocentricity and aggregation, and further employs GTWR model to examine the spatiotemporal impacts of urban structure upon ULUE. By setting up a four-year dataset for 280 Chinese cities, we found that urban structure does play significant implications for ULUE improvement and its impacts manifest explicit spatial-temporal variations in the context of urban China. The monocentric urban structure poses generally positive effects, while such driving effects saw a decrease in East and Central China in contrary to an increase in West China. Aggregation of urban structure poses a bidirectional (driving and suppressing) effect, while a drop in its driving effects and a growth in its suppressing effects are captured. Accordingly, from a monocentricity-aggregation bi-dimensional perspective, tailor-made urban planning strategies are recommended for improving individual city's ULUE. We tend to argue that land use policies need to be dynamically adjusted given the spatially varying and temporally evolving impacts of urban structure upon ULUE.

Exploring the coupling coordination and key factors between urbanization and land use efficiency in ecologically sensitive areas: A case study of the Loess Plateau, China

• Exploring the coordination characteristics of UR and ULUE based on CCD model and GWR model. • Constructing a comprehensive evaluation index system of urbanization and land use efficiency. • Analyzing the multi-level key factors of CCD between UR and ULUE in the Loess Plateau. • Providing a case study for urban planning and urban large-scale construction engineering in ecologically sensitive areas. With the acceleration of rapid urbanization and industrialization, the contradictory relationship between urbanization construction and urban land use becomes increasingly prominent. Exploring the complex dynamic relationship between urbanization (UR) and urban land use efficiency (ULUE) is conductive to new-type urbanization construction and ecological environment protection. The urbanization subsystem consists of four aspects, including demographic urbanization, economic urbanization, spatial urbanization, and social urbanization. ULUE was measured by SBM model, the coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) and geographically weighted regression model (GWRM) were adopted to explore the CCD and its spatial effect of thirty-nine cities in the Loess Plateau from 2010 to 2019. The empirical results showed that there was a significant imbalanced development difference of CCD between UR and ULUE, the comprehensive development of urbanization subsystem lags the urban land use efficiency subsystem, and the hot spots are concentrated in the northwest areas and the cold spots are concentrated in the south areas. Additionally, urban carbon emission, population density, and total fixed asset investment have significant negative spatial effects on CCD, urban road construction has positive spatial impact on CCD. These findings and conclusions can provide decision-making information reference for urban planning and urban large-scale construction engineering in ecologically sensitive areas.

Correlation between Spatio-Temporal Evolution of Habitat Quality and Human Activity Intensity in Typical Mountain Cities: A Case Study of Guiyang City, China.

The acceleration of the urbanization process brings about the expansion of urban land use, while changes in land-use transformation affect the urban habitat quality, and land-use change brings a threat to regional sustainable development. Against such a backdrop, the assessment of land use on the habitat quality and the relationship between the intensity of human activities is becoming a hot spot in terms of the current land use coordinated with habitat quality. Based on the land-use data of Guiyang in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020, the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of habitat quality in the study area, combined with the spatial correlation between human activity intensity and habitat quality, were hereby analyzed using the InVEST model. The impact of human activity intensity on habitat quality was correspondingly analyzed. The results show that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the habitat quality level in Guiyang remained stable without drastic changes, but the changes showed hierarchical distribution and were scattered, mainly reflected in the urban expansion areas of the urban-rural fringe and the key areas of industrial development, and the ecological environment quality fluctuated in a small range. (2) From 2000 to 2020, the intensity of human activities in Guiyang was mainly affected by the relatively concentrated distribution, featuring obvious and significant changes. From 2010 to 2015, the high-impact area surrounded the Guanshan Lake New Area, and the regional habitat quality presented a downward trend. In 2020, the high-impact area of the main urban area and the key industrial development zone was expected to be formed, while the low-impact area was still distributed in forest areas with complex natural conditions. (3) From 2000 to 2020, there was a significant positive correlation between human activity intensity and habitat quality in Guiyang, and such a spatial correlation was weak from 2000 to 2005. The period from 2015 to 2020 witnessed the rapid development of urban construction in Guiyang, human construction activities continue to affect the urban habitat quality. The results show that the intensity of human activities on the promoting function of land use, and the dependencies between them should be considered at the same time, and that explorations on the influence of human activities on land-use intensity and habitat quality of space link are crucial to improving the efficiency of urban land use and ecological environment protection, as well as the coordination between land use and the sustainability of urban development.

Comparative framework for spatially explicit urban growth modeling for monitoring urban land-use efficiency and sustainable urban development (SDG 11.3.1): a study on Kolkata metropolitan area, India

The present study attempts to model the spatiotemporal urban growth of the Kolkata metropolitan area (KMA), India, in a comparative modeling framework using three (remote sensing and geographic information system) RS-GIS integrated techniques, namely stochastic-choice Markov-chain (STCHOICE), cellular automata-Markov (CA-MARKOV), and multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLPNN) coupled with Markov-chain approaches intending to monitor land-use efficiency defined by United Nations for sustainable urban development in KMA. In order to find out the best modeling approach, each of the three techniques is engaged in modeling KMA’s growth, and the model thus obtained is employed to predict future growth. The MLPNN (Kappa = 0.9025) appears to be a considerably better approach as compared to the other two approaches: CA-MARKOV (Kappa = 0.6941) and STCHOICE (Kappa = 0.5392). The MLPNN simulated urban growth for 2036 reveals that the urban built-up cover is expected to be about 55% from that of 31% in 2016 due to the significant conversion of other land covers. The study reveals that urban and peri-urban areas do not have a similar pattern of land consumption and land-use efficiency in KMA. The central KMA reflects better land-use efficiency due to the compact built-up growth compared to the periphery reflecting leapfrog growth as a result of rapid urban sprawling. HIGHLIGHTS Predicted future urban growth in Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA) using comparative modeling framework Monitored urban land use efficiency (SDG 11.3.1) for sustainable urban development in KMA The study reveals that urban and peri-urban land consumption and land use efficiency are different Identified most influential driving factors from the selected factors responsible for the spatial pattern of urban expansion in KMA

A NOVEL USE OF LATENT CLASS MODELLING TO UNDERSTAND THE HETEROGENEITY OF URBAN LAND USE EFFICIENCY IN CHINA

Abstract. Urban and regional development disparity is a salient issue for both developed and developing countries, and increasing development control brings the efficiency of urban land use to the forefront. Understanding the heterogeneity of urban land-use efficiency is therefore important for balancing growth-oriented land supply and sustainable development. However, two research gaps can be identified from existing studies. Firstly, the disparities of urban land-use efficiency are usually multi-faceted, the measurement of which is thus a major challenge. Secondly, a systematic investigation of land-use efficiency and the associated geographical heterogeneity using multidimensional, longitudinal measurements seems limited. Therefore, this paper presents a novel latent class modelling method for understanding the pattern of such heterogeneity using purposely constructed, repeated cross-sectional measurements, including local government revenue density and employment density. Using data of 272 prefecture-level Chinese cities, our model first identifies the level of urban land-use efficiency can be split into three distinct cities groups based on the performance in 2017. To further investigate the change of the efficiency over the years (2012–2017), two separate models have been applied and a total of five latent groups among Chinese cities are identified with distinct development patterns. This modelling approach represents a viable method for assessing the land-use efficacity, both statically and over time, across a large number of cities of varying development stages. Policy implications are drawn.

A systematic coupling analysis framework and multi-stage interaction mechanism between urban land use efficiency and ecological carrying capacity

Since urban land use efficiency (ULUE) bridges urbanization and economic efficiency while ecological carrying capacity (ECC) is the basic natural endowments support, the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between ULUE and ECC represents a combination of resource-intensive and environment-friendly, which can serve as an effective tool to evaluate sustainable development. We first quantified ULUE and ECC by super-efficiency DEA, DPSIR framework, and entropy-TOPSIS from a coupling perspective, attempting to compensate for the lack of clarity regarding urban sustainability constraint factors in the holistic perspective. On this basis, we formulate an integrated coupling coordination analysis framework comprising temporal and spatial characteristics, disorder diagnosis and interaction mechanism to synthesize the current scattered research directions into a logically clear framework and serve as a guide for future research on coupling. Moreover, to extend the macroscopic mechanism to a microscopic level at a theoretical level and facilitate more effective and sustainable urban management practices, this paper highlights a detailed multi-stage coupling mechanism corresponding to different stages of urban development, deriving an urban sustainable development spiral upward model. The results indicated that the CCD between ULUE and ECC exhibits a significant clustering pattern accompanied by a spatial spillover effect, which was closely related to economic development level and natural resource endowment. Besides, the disorder factor in the eastern Jilin province was ULUE while the western was ECC. Furthermore, the ULUE will take precedence over ECC breaking the old balance, in which technological innovation is the internal driving factor. These findings also illustrate the analysis framework and coupling mechanism mentioned in this paper can act as a nexus between interdisciplinary perspectives to enhance our understanding of changing social-ecological systems, thus serving urban sustainable development.

Analysis of the Urban Land Use Efficiency in the New-Type Urbanization Process of China's Yangtze River Economic Belt.

The accelerated urbanization process in China has caused a shift in the urban land use structure. The Chinese government has issued ‘the National New-type Urbanization Plan’ focusing on the rational use of resources, which is of great significance for the intensification and sustainability of land use. In promoting the construction of the new-type urbanization (N-TU), enhancing the urban land use efficiency (ULUE) is crucial to regional coordinated development. This study uses panel data from 2011 to 2020 for 11 provinces (cities) in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) and adopts the super efficiency (SE) slacks-based measure (SBM) model with undesirable outputs and the entropy weight method to calculate the ULUE and N-TU levels. The study uses the System generalized method of moment (Sys-GMM) to study the N-TU’s impact on the ULUE empirically. The results indicate: (i) the overall trend of new-type urbanization level is gradually increasing and has the characteristics of uneven spatial distribution between provinces. (ii) The ULUE shows a fluctuating upward trend during the studied period. (iii) The N-TU and its subsystems have significant positive effects on the ULUE. Overall, this study aims to explore the relationship between the N-TU and ULUE enriching the theoretical analysis and empirical research in related fields, thus helping decision makers in the assessment and design of policy recommendations.

Relationship between Urban Land Use Efficiency and Economic Development Level in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region

Due to limited land resources, it is necessary to balance urban economic development and efficient land use. Clarifying the relationship between the two is crucial to improving both economic efficiency and land use efficiency. Considering the undesirable output of urban land use, this paper adopts a super efficiency SBM model to quantify the urban land use efficiency (ULUE) of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region from 1999 to 2019, and analyzes the relationship between ULUE and economic development level (EDL) by combining the Tapio model and the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model. The results show the following: (1) During the study period, the ULUE showed a fluctuating upward trend on the temporal scale, with the lowest and highest inflection points occurring in 2002 and 2018, respectively, and a distribution pattern of “high in the southeast and low in the northwest” on the spatial scale. (2) The decoupling relationship between ULUE and EDL showed repeated fluctuations between decoupling and coupling states on the temporal scale, but the overall showed a transition trend from decoupling state to coupling state. On the spatial scale, from north to south, there were a strong decoupling state (SDS), weak decoupling state (WDS), strong decoupling state (SDS), and weak decoupling state (WDS) in order, showing a regular interval repetition distribution pattern. (3) The relationship between ULUE and EDL showed an EKC “U-shaped” curve, that is, ULUE decreases first and then increases with the increases in EDL. The results of this study can provide a reference for the coordinated and sustainable development of the BTH region.

The Impacts of Regional Cooperation on Urban Land-Use Efficiency: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta, China

Urban land-use efficiency (ULUE) has been increasingly recognized as an issue of land-use management across the world in the last century as the globe experienced unprecedented rapid urban expansion. However, although a large body of studies was dedicated to analyzing the driving forces of ULUE, literature was rarely focused on the impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE. To bridge the knowledge gap, we used the Chinese trailblazer of regional cooperation–Yangtze River delta (YRD)—as a case to reveal the impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE. Social network analysis and a super efficiency SBM model with undesirable outputs were used to measure regional cooperation and ULUE, respectively. Furthermore, the impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE were examined by using the geographically and temporally weighted regression model. The results show that regional cooperation in the YRD strengthened from 2009 to 2016, among which Shanghai was the core node city in the YRD. Only seven cities maintained good ULUE with a stable trend during 2009–2016. The regression results indicated the positive impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE, which was more evident in the southern cities of the YRD. The potential mechanism to explain the impacts of regional cooperation on ULUE includes co-building transportation facilities and joint development zones. These findings provide insightful implications for improving ULUE by strengthening regional cooperation in Chinese cities.

Multi-Scenario Simulation of Production-Living-Ecological Space in the Poyang Lake Area Based on Remote Sensing and RF-Markov-FLUS Model

With industrialization and urbanization, the competition among land production, living, and ecological (PLE) spaces has intensified. Particularly in ecological reserves, competition among various types of land use restricts the coordinated development of PLE space. To explore spatial sustainable development, this study starts from a PLE spatial perspective, based on Landsat long time series images. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) and landscape index analysis were selected to monitor the spatial and temporal land use and landscape pattern changes in the Poyang Lake region (PYL region) from 1989 to 2020. The RF-Markov-FLUS coupled model was used to simulate spatial changes in 2030 under four scenarios: production space priority (PSP), living space priority (LSP), ecological space priority (ESP), and an integrated development (ID). Finally, the goal-problem-principle was used to enhance PLE space. The results showed that: (1) production space and ecological spaces decreased in general from 1989 to 2020 by 3% and 7%, respectively; living space increased by 11%. (2) From 1989 to 2020, the overall landscape spread in the Poyang Lake (PYL) area decreased, connectivity decreased, fragmentation increased, landscape heterogeneity increased, and landscape geometry became more irregular. (3) Compared with the other three scenarios, the ID scenario maintained steady production space growth in 2030, the expansion rate of living space slowed, and the area of ecological space decreased the least. (4) Spatial pattern optimization should start with three aspects: the transformation of the agricultural industry, improving the efficiency of urban land use, and establishing communities of “mountains, water, forests, fields, lakes and grasses”. The results provide scientific planning and suggestions for the future ecological protection of Poyang Lake area with multiple scenarios and perspectives.