Nonlinear Relationships Between Economic Development Stages and Land Use Efficiency in China’s Cities

Xue Luo, Weixin Luan (), Qiaoqiao Lin, Zun Liu, Zhipeng Shi and Gai Cao
Additional contact information
Xue Luo: School of Maritime Economics and Management, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Weixin Luan: School of Maritime Economics and Management, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Qiaoqiao Lin: School of Maritime Economics and Management, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Zun Liu: School of Maritime Economics and Management, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Zhipeng Shi: School of Maritime Economics and Management, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Gai Cao: School of Maritime Economics and Management, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: Land use efficiency (LUE) serves as a crucial nexus between economic development and sustainable resource management, directly influencing urban production–consumption systems. While economic development stages (EDSs) reflect a region’s environmental carrying capacity and profoundly affect LUE, the specific mechanisms governing this relationship remain unclear. In this study, we combined multi-source data to portray the spatiotemporal patterns of EDSs and LUE in 276 Chinese cities from 1995 to 2020, and we identified the nonlinear effects of EDSs on LUE. Based on the fine-scale LUE, it is confirmed that the older the age of urban land generation, the higher the LUE, laying a theoretical foundation for subsequent research. Simultaneously, the EDS continues to be upgraded, with approximately 70% of cities reaching the post-industrialization stage or higher by 2020. The results of partial dependency plots (PDPs) revealed that the EDS has a positive impact on LUE. From the perspective of different urban scales, the higher the EDSs of supercities, type I large cities, type II large cities, and type II small cities, the greater the positive impact on LUE, whereas the impact patterns at other urban scales follow an inverted U-shape. These findings carry important implications for sustainable spatial development, particularly in optimizing land resource allocation to assist the shift to more efficient production systems and responsible consumption patterns.

Keywords: land use efficiency; economic development stages; nighttime light images; urban scales (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/9/1699/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/9/1699/ (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:9:p:1699-:d:1729930

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 ().