Spatiotemporal Coupling Characteristics Between Urban Land Development Intensity and Population Density from a Building-Space Perspective: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Xiaozhou Wang, Lie You and Lin Wang ()
Additional contact information
Xiaozhou Wang: School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Lie You: School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Lin Wang: School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: As China shifts from rapid to high-quality development, urban growth has exhibited allometric patterns. This study evaluated land use efficiency from the perspective of architectural space, focusing on 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2010 to 2020. A land development intensity index was constructed at both the provincial and municipal levels using the entropy weight method, integrating floor area ratio, building density, and functional mix. The spatiotemporal characteristics of land development intensity and population density were analyzed, and a coordination coupling model was applied to identify mismatches between land and population. The results reveal: (1) Temporally, the imbalance of “more people, less land” in the Yangtze River Delta diminished. Spatially, leading regions exhibit a diffusion effect. Shanghai showed a decline in both population density and development intensity; Zhejiang maintained balanced development; Jiangsu experienced accelerated growth; and Anhui showed signs of catching up. (2) Although the two indicators showed a high coupling degree and strong correlation, the coordination degree remained low, indicating poor quality of correlation. The land-population relationship demonstrated a fluctuating pattern of “strengthening–weakening” over time. Shanghai exhibited the highest coordination, while more than half of the cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui still needed optimization. (3) Unlike previous findings that linked such patterns to shrinking cities, in this transformation stage, the number of cities where land development intensity exceeded population density continued to grow in advanced regions. This study first applied 3D building data at the macro scale to support differentiated spatial policies.

Keywords: development intensity; population density; coupling coordination degree; Yangtze River Delta (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/7/1459/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/7/1459/ (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:14:y:2025:i:7:p:1459-:d:1700748

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 ().