Spatial-temporal characteristics and determinants of land urbanization quality in China: Evidence from 285 prefecture-level cities

• Published in: Sustainable cities and society 2018-04, Vol.38, p.70-79
• Main Authors: Zhang, Wenjing, Wang, Mark Yaolin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Driving force; Land urbanization quality; Spatial auto-regressive models; Spatial-temporal analysis; Sustainable land use
• ISSN: 2210-6707; 2210-6715
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2017.12.011

•This study contributes to research on the land – growth – environment nexus.•The study provides spatial-temporal analysis of land urbanization quality(LUQ) in the 285 prefecture-level cities.•The path of LUQ in 285 prefecture-level cities fits in the waves of urban development and land use policy in the country.•Identified driving forces of LUQ in six national urban agglomerations.•Over the past decade, local governments behavior has more influence on LUQ in cities with relative low level of development. This study contributes to research on the land–growth–environment nexus by putting emphasis on assessing the quality of land urbanization using our evaluation index system from four aspects: suitability of land urbanization, social, economic and ecological benefits of urban land use. By employing Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA), this paper concerns the spatial-temporal characteristics of land urbanization quality(LUQ) in the 285 prefecture-level cities over the past decade. In analyzing the determinants of LUQ, this paper starts from addressing the driving forces of LUQ in six urban agglomerations from the perspective of economic development, land market and local governments’ behavior. The results indicate that land urbanization in China has relatively positive spatial autocorrelation with significant agglomeration effect. The path of LUQ in 285 prefecture-level cities fits in the waves of urban development and land use policy in the country. Moreover, the levels of urban land marketization and economic growth are the most common determinants while local governments behavior mostly influence the western region of China. These findings may suggest that development of urban agglomeration needs to be further promoted and more emphasis of New-type urbanization should be given to improve the urban layout and morphology.