Spatiotemporal Pattern and Driving Factors of Urban Sprawl in China

Xin Zhang and Jinghu Pan
Additional contact information
Xin Zhang: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Jinghu Pan: College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: Urban sprawl is a complex phenomenon related to abnormal urbanization, and it has become a key issue of global concern. This study aimed to measure urban sprawl in China and explore its spatiotemporal patterns and driving factors. Based on 343 Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above, remote sensing-derived data from 2000 to 2017 were used to calculate the urban sprawl index (USI). The evolutionary trend and spatiotemporal pattern of urban sprawl in China were then analyzed using trend analysis and exploratory spatiotemporal data analysis, and Geodetector was applied to investigate the factors driving the changes. The results show the following. ① Moderate or high urban sprawl development occurred in China from 2000 to 2017. In terms of spatial distribution, the USI was high in northwest China and low in southeast China. ② The local spatial stability of the USI gradually decreased from southeast to northwest and northeast. USI had strong spatial dependence. No significant spatiotemporal transitions in urban sprawl were observed, and the spatial pattern was stable with strong spatial cohesion. ③ The gross regional product (GRP) of the tertiary industry, the total GRP, and investment in real estate development have been the most important factors affecting sprawl in cities at the prefecture level and above in China.

Keywords: urban sprawl; spatiotemporal pattern; driving factor; Geodetector; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/11/1275/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/11/1275/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:11:p:1275-:d:684001

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().