Spatiotemporal Decoupling between Population and Construction Land in Urban and Rural Hubei Province

In urban and rural areas under rapid urbanization, a proper understanding of the relationship between population and construction land use is important for regional sustainable development. The decoupling method is a particularly useful way to examine this relationship. However, the decoupling method only considers the current relationship between population and construction land, ignoring the initial status in the base year. Based on an improved decoupling model, vector land-use data (1:10,000 scale) from two National Land Investigations, and demographic data from the China Statistics Bureau, this paper analyzes population and construction land use change patterns as well as the types of coupling in urban and rural Hubei. The results better reflect the relationship between population and construction land use. The outcomes show that from 2009 to 2014, both the urban population and urban construction land use increased while the rural population decreased as rural settlement land use expanded. In 61 counties, the relationship between the urban population and construction land use showed expansive negative decoupling; that is, the growth rate of urban population was less than the growth rate of the urban construction land use. In 72 counties, the relationship between the rural population and rural settlement land showed a strong negative decoupling; that is, the rural population decreased while the rural settlement land use increased. The relationship between the urban–rural population and construction land use can be divided into eight types. Only nine counties are somewhat coordinated, while the other counties were all uncoordinated. Suggestions are provided by comparing per capita urban construction land and per capita rural settlement land in the base and current years with the national standard and considering the coupling types for population and construction land use change in urban and rural settings. Finally, we discuss approaches to optimize urban–rural space organization and promote coordinated urban–rural development.