Analysis of the Urban Expansion of Lianyungang and its Driving Force

The study on the urban expansion and proportion of the land use type occupied by the urban in the period of 27 years from 1978～2005 in Lianyungang city was carried out with the remote sensing thematic information extraction and spatial overlay techniques based on the multi-temporal remote sensing data,social and economic data and other assistant information.Moreover,the driving forces of the urban expansion in Lianyungang city was also analyzed.The result revealed that the speed of urban expansion in Lianyungang city was very quick.The urban area in 2005 was more than 4 times of that in 1978.The growth in different districts was obviously diversified.The arable land around the urban was the main occupied land use type due to the urban expansion.The result also showed that the main driving forces of urban expansion included the environment of approaching to the Yellow Sea and the high-speed economic development of Lianyungang city.