Spatial evaluation of land urbanization level and process in Chinese cities

The land urbanization plays an increasingly important role in China's rapid and sustained urbanization process. However, the process was not explicit and has not become an alternative method for measuring land urbanization level. In this context, this paper proposes concepts and measurement methods of land urbanization rate(LUR) for measuring land urbanization level. Meanwhile, thresholds of LUR are studied. Then, based on area of urban construction land of Chinese 656 cities in 2000 and 2010, spatial pattern of land urbanization dimensions, level, absolute process and relative process are evaluated in the aspects of the area of urban construction land, LUR, urban land expansion area(ULEA), and urban land expansion rate(ULER). Finally, contributions of nine types of urban construction land to land urbanization process are evaluated.The results show that:(1) the general land urbanization rate of Chinese cities has doubled in the past decade. Meanwhile, the spatial pattern has changed from pyramid- ranked distribution to keyless distribution. The eastern cities in China have larger urban construction land and larger urban areas than other cities, which both result in the lower land urbanization rates;(2)Provincial capital cities and coastal urban agglomerations have the largest ULEA, and the differentiation patterns of ULEA are featured by both spatial agglomeration and urban administrative level. ULER presents spatial differentiation between coastal urban agglomerations and other cities. In addition, the larger cities present more significant land urbanization process;(3)Residential land and industrial land were the two prime types of land expansion in China's land urbanization process from 2000 to 2010. The larger the city is, the more significant driving effect of industrial development is. In central and western regions and small and medium- sized cities of China, the major type of land expansion is residential land, while in coastal urban agglomerations and main traffic axis, the main type of land expansion is industrial land.