Classification and Evaluation on Urban Sprawl Quality in Future Shenzhen Based on SOFM Network Model

Urban sprawl has become a significant part of the regional socio-economic progress since the 20th century. The growing demand for urban land brings the issue that urban sprawl caused increasingly prominent. Studies in aboard on urban sprawl are comparatively earlier, mainly including the concept deconstruction in multi-angle, the shape and path of urban sprawl, and the measure of urban sprawl and its impact evaluation. Domestic researches are relatively late, focusing on urban land expansion, urban land use change, urban form evolution and its driving mechanism by using RS and GIS techniques. In our study, the expansion of construction land was used to represent the urban sprawl. The future land-use pattern in Shenzhen City was simulated with a land-use evolution model. Then an urban sprawl quality evaluation system was established with indicators from respects of the sprawl speed and intensity, the landscape patterns, the social and economic benefits, and the ecological environment benefits. On this basis, we evaluate the differences on urban sprawl quality among different zones.