Monitoring Land-Use Efficiency in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2000 to 2018

Abstract

Monitoring of the indicator Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11.3.1 is important for understanding the coordination between land consumption rate (LCR) and population growth rate (PGR). However, the spatiotemporal indicator SDG 11.3.1 changes at the urban agglomeration (UA) level, and the relationship between LCR and PGR in the prefecture-level cities from different UAs remains unclear. In this study, we monitored the spatiotemporal indicator SDG 11.3.1 in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) and its three major UAs (i.e., Chengdu–Chongqing (CC), the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River (MRYR), and the Yangtze River Delta (YRD)) for the periods 2000–2010, 2010–2015, and 2015–2018, using the space–time interaction (STI) method and Pearson’s method. Our major findings were as follows: (1) Compared with the world average of 1.28 for LCRPGR (i.e., ratio of LCR to PGR), except for the LCRPGR of the YRD (2000–2018) and CC (2000–2010), the LCRPGR of CC, the MRYR, and the YREB was lower than 1.28 during 2000–2018. (2) The gaps in both population and built-up area between the YREB and the three UAs did not narrow, but widened. (3) Compared with the LCRPGR in China, except for the LCRPGR of the YRD (2000–2018) and CC (2000–2010), the LCRPGR of the YREB increased from 1.21 to 1.23 between 2000–2010 and 2010–2015, and then decreased to 1.16 in 2015–2018, indicating that the relationship between LCR and PGR in the YREB is relatively stable. (4) A significant positive relationship (p < 0.001) was found between LCR and PGR in CC, the MRYR, the YRD, and the YREB. We conclude that the indicator SDG 11.3.1 is a helpful tool for evaluating land-use efficiency caused by the LCR and PGR at the UA level. Our results provide information support for promoting sustainable and coordinative development between LCR and PGR.

Land Use Efficiency Assessment under Sustainable Development Goals: A Systematic Review

“…Relative efficiency refers to calculating land use efficiency by comparing it with an excellent assessment unit [30], while absolute efficiency does not rely on any arbitrary assessment units. Both understandings of efficiency have been endorsed by researchers [53,94]. However, we find that the research on the relative efficiency of land use accounts for a larger proportion and is more popular.…”

“…Firstly, the total number of papers on efficiency assessment without land use classification accounted for the largest proportion, with 112 papers accounting for 53.85%. In this category, researchers conducted studies at various scales, such as global [53], urban agglomeration [48], river basin [94], megacity [51], provincial [95], municipal [91], and mountain town [96]. Of course, there were also explorations of land use efficiency in areas with unique characteristics, such as new districts [97], mining areas [98], and resourcebased cities.…”

Urban Distribution and Evolution of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from the Perspectives of Urban Area and Night-Time Light

“…Optimizing regional development in the YREB is a national strategy of the Chinese central government, and there have been a number of discussions on the urban issues in the YREB [17,28,29]. Urban size is viewed as an important indicator for regional development processes, and urban population [49,68] and urban area [69,70] are two commonly used measures for urban size.…”

“…Liu et al adopted the super efficiency SBM model to analyze urban land use efficiency in 11 provinces and cities in the YREB [28]. Wang et al used the space-time interaction method to explore the match between land expansion and population growth in the entire YREB and the major urban agglomerations [29].…”