Identifying Driving Forces of Built-Up Land Expansion Based on the Geographical Detector: A Case Study of Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Yongwei Liu, Xiaoshu Cao and Tao Li
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Yongwei Liu: School of Business, Ludong University, Yantai 264025, China
Xiaoshu Cao: Institute of Transport Geography and Spatial Planning, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China
Tao Li: Institute of Transport Geography and Spatial Planning, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 5, 1-17

Abstract: Understanding the driving forces behind built-up land expansion is crucial in urban planning and management. Using the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration as research area, four landscape metrics were used to analyze landscape characteristics of urban expansion from 1990 to 2015. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to study the characteristics of built-up land expansion, while geographical detector was employed to identify the driving forces of urban land growth and their interactions. The results show the extent of built-up land has been increasing, the structure has become more complex, the level of fragmentation has been increasing, and the aggregation degree is in decline. The built-up landscape index shows spatial heterogeneity occurring in the core and peripheral towns of cities, as well as in the core and peripheral areas of the entire region. Also, changes in the built-up landscape index indicate increased spatial aggregation occurring in the past 25 years. Results from the geographical detector show natural, socio-economic, and transportation-related factors have substantial influence on built-up land expansion. Elevation, slope, population density, change in population density, and road network density were shown to have high influencing power. The influencing powers of slope and change in population density were also found to be different from other factors, highlighting their important role in urban development. Also, there were two types of interactions found, enhance nonlinear and enhance bivariate interactions, indicating the compounding influence of interactions between significant determinants. This study provides a new perspective and methodological approach in evaluating the driving forces behind built-up land expansion and their interactions.

Keywords: built-up land expansion; landscape metrics; spatial autocorrelation; geographical detector; pearl river delta urban agglomeration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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