Does the Exhaustion of Resources Drive Land Use Changes? Evidence from the Influence of Coal Resources-Exhaustion on Coal Resources-Based Industry Land Use Changes

Analyzing the spatial-temporal changes of resources-based industrial land is essential to the transformation and development of resources-exhausted cities. In this paper, we studied coal resources-based industrial land use changes and their driving factors in a typical coal resources-exhausted city, Anyuan District, Pingxiang city. The changes between coal resources-based industrial land and other land-use types were analyzed. The logistic regression models were applied to identify the main driving factors and quantify their contributions to coal resources-based industrial land-use changes during the two periods of 2003-2008 and 2008-2013. The results show that coal resources-based industrial land declined by 34.37% during the period 2008-2013 as coal resources were being exhausted. Altitude, distance to roads, distance to town, population density change, fixed-asset investment per area change, and GDP per capita change drove coal resources-based industrial land-use changes. However, the patterns of the driving effects differed, and even the same factors had different influences on coal resources-based industrial land-use changes during the two periods. The changes in the driving factors can be seen as responses to socioeconomic transformation and development in the city, which is experiencing the exhaustion of coal resources. As a result of the comprehensive effects of these driving factors, coal resources-based industrial land use has changed in complex ways.