Urban sprawl has been at the center of current debate on urban structure. Compared to the rich literature on urban sprawl in Western cities, relatively little is known about whether Chinese urban expansion is excessive or inefficient. This paper provides an integrated analysis of two seemingly contradictory phenomena in China’s urban development in recent two decades, namely development zones a...

the theory of urban ecology is based on explaining urban spatial structure, studying and describing the reciprocal relationship between human societies in the urban areas and the environment, as well as analyzing the circumstances of urban population segregation and production of everyday life spaces. to study and explain urban ecological structure of mashhad, the case study of the article, we ...

Along with its economic reform, China has experienced a rapid urbanization. This study mapped urban land expansion in China using high-resolution Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper data of 1989/1990, 1995/1996 and 1999/2000 and analyzed its expansion modes and the driving forces underlying this process during 1990-2000. Our results show that China's urban land increased by 817...

Urban expansion often occurs on croplands. However, there is little scientific understanding of how global patterns of future urban expansion will affect the world's cultivated areas. Here, we combine spatially explicit projections of urban expansion with datasets on global croplands and crop yields. Our results show that urban expansion will result in a 1.8-2.4% loss of global croplands by 203...

Since the Chinese government carried out the reform and opening up policy, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture has experienced rapid urbanization and dramatic land use change. This research aims at analyzing urban expansion in Xishuangbanna and its impact on the land use pattern using combined methods, including radar graph, the gradient-direction method and landscape metrics. Seven land us...

Detailed studies on the spatiotemporal patterns of urban agglomeration in the Middle Yangtze River Basin (MYRB) are rare. This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization in the MYRB using multi-temporal remote sensing data circa 2000, 2008 and 2016 integrated with geographic information system (GIS) techniques and landscape analysis approaches. A multi-level analysis of the rate...

The human pressure on natural ecosystems and protected areas is steadily increasing. Urban growth is undeniably and irreversibly converting natural habitats as it is constantly expanding with population growth. In this study we analyze the urban expansion of mega city Calcutta over four time-steps (1975, 1990, 2000, 2010) as an example of expansion over time and threat to the surrounding enviro...

Urban land expansion in China has attracted considerable scholarly attention. However, more work is needed to apply spatial modeling to understanding the mechanisms of urban growth from both institutional and physical perspectives. This paper analyzes urban expansion in Shanghai and its development zones (DZs). We find that, as nodes of global-local interface, the DZs are the most significant c...