Analyzing the Decoupling between Rural-to-Urban Migrants and Urban Land Expansion in Hubei Province, China

Abstract

Rapid urbanization in China has caused a large number of rural-to-urban migrants (RUMs) and rapid urban land expansion (ULE). Understanding the relationship between RUMs and ULE has important implications for urban sustainable development. This study explored the spatial patterns of RUMs and ULE in Hubei Province from 2009 to 2014, and analyzed the relationship between the two using a decoupling model. The results show that: (1) a large proportion of the rural population migrated to urban areas in Hubei Province from 2009 to 2014, and the distribution of RUMs was uneven: developed areas attracted more RUMs than undeveloped regions; (2) the urban land in Hubei Province increased rapidly from 2009 to 2014, and the urban land use in Hubei Province was extensive and inefficient; (3) the decoupling types between RUMs and ULE in Hubei Province were dominated by expansive negative and weak decoupling; (4) according to the changes in per capita urban land area and decoupling types, the coordination relationship between RUMs and ULE in Hubei Province was divided into eight types, and while the relationship between RUMs and ULE in most areas were coordinated and beneficial to urban land intensive use, the rest were uncoordinated. Finally, reasonable implications for urban sustainable development and new land use policy were put forward.

The Relationship of Causal Factors Affecting the Future Equilibrium Change of Total Final Energy Consumption in Thailand’s Construction Sector under a Sustainable Development Goal: Enriching the SE-VARX Model

“…where ∆ is the lagged values of the first difference of the variable. Equations (11)- (13) show that the most appropriate form of equation is the Augmented Dickey-Fuller, as shown in Equation (14).…”

“…The results of the study demonstrate that the changes in value of the economic subsystem are the cause of changes in the ecology and construction land use (CLU) subsystems, while the changes of value of the ecology and CLU subsystems are the root cause of each other. In addition, Liu et al [13] explored the trends between Rural-to-Urban Migrants (RUMs) and Urban Land Expansion (ULE) in Hubei, China from 2009 to 2014 by applying a decoupling model. The study concluded that an irregularly distributed large percentage of the rural population was moving to urban areas, and that urban land use is both rising rapidly and is inefficient.…”

Evolution of Policy Concerning the Readjustment of Inefficient Urban Land Use in China Based on a Content Analysis Method

“…The urbanization rate and built-up area per capita have increased rapidly and are expected to peak in approximately 2020. Specifically, the built-up area per capita in 2014 was 127.02 square meters per person [6,7], showing that with the steady advancement of Chinese urbanization, the previous expansion-type development has proven to be unsustainable, the development mode of incremental planning based on spatial expansion has changed, and urban development planning has gradually shifted from incremental expansion to stock exploration [8][9][10][11]. The development model of inventory planning takes urban renewal as its driver, starting by improving public facilities, optimizing the structure of industrial land, accelerating urban transformation, and upgrading infrastructure [12].…”

Spatial Pattern of Forest Carbon Storage in the Vertical and Horizontal Directions Based on HJ-CCD Remote Sensing Imagery

“…The majority of related studies have focused on carbon storage in temperate and tropical forests in the north, whereas few have investigated the carbon density of subtropical forests [7,10,13,14], particularly forests in Hubei Province. Hubei Province is located in the climate zone that connects the subtropical zone to the warm temperate zone and is one of the regions that is highly sensitive to global climate change [18]. Evergreen coniferous, deciduous broadleaf, and mixed forests are widely distributed in this region [16].…”