Spatial heterogeneity analysis and driving forces exploring of built-up land development intensity in Chinese prefecture-level cities and implications for future Urban Land intensive use

Economic growth is inseparable from the input of land elements, and built-up land is the most important category of land elements. Its spatial distribution and influencing factors play an important role in regional development and economic growth. The built-up land development intensity is a direct reflection of the degree of regional land use and economic scale benefits. During different periods and different geographical locations, the distribution of built-up land shows certain stage characteristics and regional differences. Taking prefecture-level cities within China (totaling 285 geospatial units) as the study area, this study applied spatial correlation, standard deviational ellipse, and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) modeling to investigate the spatial heterogeneity of the influencing factors of the built-up land development intensity from 2006 to 2016. The results found: during 2006-2016, the spatial deviation of the built-up land development intensity in China was significant, and showed an increasing trend, specifically demonstrating a from agglomerated to balanced pattern. The hotspots were spatially agglomerated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and southeast coastal areas, whereas coldspots of particularly low development intensity were concentrated in areas such as Heilongjiang, Ningxia, Sichuan, and Gansu. The influence of government regulation and control on the spatial patterns of the built-up land development intensity in China gradually strengthened, although the degree of influence of the various explanatory variables on the built-up land development intensity differed among regions throughout China. This study can help support the development of land use and development policy to support more even development throughout similar to China.