Spatio–Temporal Heterogeneity of Urban Expansion and Population Growth in China

Abstract

Urbanization has become one of the hot issues of global sustainable development, and is mainly characterized by urban population growth and construction land expansion. However, the inharmonious development of urban expansion and population migration has brought serious challenges to urban planning and management. China is the largest developing country in the world, and the urbanization process has accelerated over the past decades. In this paper, decoupling analysis was used to demonstrate the spatio–temporal relationship between urban expansion and population growth in 321 prefecture–level cities in China, providing a reference basis for sustainable development. The results showed that China’s population, total GDP, and construction land area increased from 1990 to 2018. The rate of construction land expansion was larger in the eastern coastal and western regions than in the northeastern and central regions, but the population growth rate was not significantly different among these regions. According to the decoupling analysis, the relationships of population–GDP, construction land–GDP, and population–construction land were mainly weak decoupling, indicating that both the population growth and the construction land expansion lagged behind the economic development, and the population growth lagged behind construction land expansion. In addition, the results were analyzed based on China’s four economic regions. Population and construction land area changes in the northeastern provinces experienced a shift from weak decoupling to expansive negative decoupling, then presented a strong decoupling. The decoupling state of population–construction land in the west region was relatively stable. The relationship between population and construction land in the central regions was mainly weak decoupling, and some cities developed into strong decoupling. The relationship between population and construction land in the east region experienced a shift from strong decoupling to weak decoupling, then demonstrated expansive negative decoupling, mainly manifested in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta urban agglomerations. Therefore, the northeast region should take measures to promote regional population growth while reasonably controlling the expansion of construction land, the west region should focus on ecological protection and moderately attract population, the central region should control their population development and reasonably allocate land, and the east region should pay attention to and solve the citizenship problem of migrant workers in second–tier and third–tier cities when promoting new urbanization.

Temporal trends in lung cancer mortality and years of life lost in Wuhan, China, 2010-2019

“…It is no doubt that the risk of lung cancer death will increase once the elderly population becomes more vulnerable to lung cancer risk factors (air pollution or tobacco exposure, etc.) ( 21 ).…”

Urban Sprawl and Haze Pollution: Based on Raster Data of Haze PM2.5 Concentrations in 283 Cities in Mainland China

“…Relevant studies therefore need to build models in this theoretical framework, which corroborates existing studies that have found different effects of urbanization development-related indicators on haze pollution in different cities, regions and stages. Finally, the urbanization in mainland China is characterized by a lag in population urbanization and a lack of coordination between the two, which has led to many problems in the economic development of mainland China (Liu et al, 2021b), and therefore the impact of the lack of coordination between population urbanization and land urbanization on haze pollution needs to be discussed, which has not been analyzed in depth in the literature.…”

“…The inconsistency between population urbanization and land urbanization is essentially the unreasonable structure and allocation of factors (Lei et al, 2022). And in China, this inconsistency is particularly evident in the rapid urbanization of the land (Liu et al, 2021b), that land are over-allocated to cities and labour become relatively scarce. This distorted allocation of factors has led to extensive land use, which is useless for economic efficiency and environmental protection.…”

Multifractal Characteristics Analysis of Spatial State of Prefecture-Level Cities in China

“…These changes have become an elemental driving force for social development, generating substantial spatiotemporal changes (Liang et al, 2021 ; Chen, 2010a ; Qu et al, 2019 ; Long et al, 2010 ; Yu et al, 2007 ). Meanwhile, owing to the high uniformity of urban and rural development within Chinese prefecture-level cities, a prefecture-level city is often considered a regional complex that integrates urban and rural areas (Liu et al, 2021 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2020 ; Tu and Long, 2017 ; Zhao, 2013 ). Spatial correlations in domestic prefecture-level cities drives similarities and differences in the urban–rural integral landscape among prefecture-level cities.…”

“…Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (since the early 2010s), China’s economy had been in a state of rapid growth. Specifically, the development of leading industries, primary industries, and the bubble economy played a significant role in facilitating the rapid development (Liu et al, 2021 ; Duan et al, 2017 ; Wu et al, 2014 ). In the early 2010s, the development of Chinese prefecture-level cities was generally evolutionary; it was both ordered and chaotic.…”