Spatio-temporal Patterns and Driving Forces of Urban Land Expansion in China during the Economic Reform Era

• Published in: Ambio Vol. 34; no. 6; pp. 450 - 455
• Main Authors: Liu, Jiyuan, Zhan, Jinyan, Deng, Xiangzheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sweden Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 01.08.2005; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accuracy; Agricultural land; Case studies; Central business districts; China; Cities; Datasets; Demographics; Economic growth; Economic reform; Economics; Environmental policy; Land cover; Land development; Land economics; Land management; Land use; Land use change; Landsat; Landsat satellites; Mapping; Remote sensing; Urban areas; Urban growth; Urban Population; Urban sprawl; Urbanization; China
• ISSN: 0044-7447; 1654-7209
• DOI: 10.1579/0044-7447-34.6.450

Along with its economic reform, China has experienced a rapid urbanization. This study mapped urban land expansion in China using high-resolution Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper data of 1989/1990, 1995/1996 and 1999/2000 and analyzed its expansion modes and the driving forces underlying this process during 1990–2000. Our results show that China's urban land increased by 817 thousand hectares, of which 80.8% occurred during 1990–1995 and 19.2% during 1995–2000. It was also found that China's urban expansion had high spatial and temporal differences, such as four expansion modes, concentric, leapfrog, linear and multi-nuclei, and their combinations coexisted and expanded urban land area in the second 5 y was much less than that of the first 5 y. Case studies of the 13 mega cities showed that urban expansion had been largely driven by demographic change, economic growth, and changes in land use policies and regulations.