Monitoring Three-Decade Expansion of China’s Major Cities Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Images

As the largest developing country, China has experienced dramatic urban expansion since the “reform and opening-up” policy started at the end of the 1970s. In this paper, we monitor three decades of urban expansion in China’s 36 major cities, based on the spectral mixtu...

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Main Authors: Yao Shen, Huanfeng Shen, Qing Cheng, Liwen Huang, Liangpei Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-02-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/3/491
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spelling doaj-8d42b5afdd0b48a3b308bc5425fda6d92020-11-25T02:33:56ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922020-02-0112349110.3390/rs12030491rs12030491Monitoring Three-Decade Expansion of China’s Major Cities Based on Satellite Remote Sensing ImagesYao Shen0Huanfeng Shen1Qing Cheng2Liwen Huang3Liangpei Zhang4School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, ChinaSchool of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, ChinaSchool of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, ChinaChangjiang River Scientific Research Institute, Changjiang Water Resources Commission, Wuhan 430015, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, ChinaAs the largest developing country, China has experienced dramatic urban expansion since the &#8220;reform and opening-up&#8221; policy started at the end of the 1970s. In this paper, we monitor three decades of urban expansion in China&#8217;s 36 major cities, based on the spectral mixture analysis of remotely sensed satellite images. The results demonstrated that these major cities have expanded by 5.85 times from 1986 to 2015, with 15.51 km<sup>2</sup> average expansion area per city per year. We found the urban expansion trajectories showed three different modes, i.e., exponential, linear and s-shaped, which were closely related to the city development level. In the old city zones, however, there was an interesting common tendency of the impervious surface area (ISA) first increasing and then decreasing, which could be largely attributed to the phenomenon of urban village reconstruction in China&#8217;s cities. Based on the Granger Causality Test (GCT), the interaction between urban ISA and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (GDPPC) suggested that the former was the driver of the latter. Meanwhile, taking the Yangtze River as the division between north and south China, there exists a north&#8722;south territorial differentiation for the interaction between ISA and total population at the year-end (TP).https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/3/491urbanizationsatellite remote sensingurban expansion trajectoriesurban villagenorth-south differentiation
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Yao Shen
Huanfeng Shen
Qing Cheng
Liwen Huang
Liangpei Zhang
spellingShingle Yao Shen
Huanfeng Shen
Qing Cheng
Liwen Huang
Liangpei Zhang
Monitoring Three-Decade Expansion of China’s Major Cities Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Images
Remote Sensing
urbanization
satellite remote sensing
urban expansion trajectories
urban village
north-south differentiation
author_facet Yao Shen
Huanfeng Shen
Qing Cheng
Liwen Huang
Liangpei Zhang
author_sort Yao Shen
title Monitoring Three-Decade Expansion of China’s Major Cities Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Images
title_short Monitoring Three-Decade Expansion of China’s Major Cities Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Images
title_full Monitoring Three-Decade Expansion of China’s Major Cities Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Images
title_fullStr Monitoring Three-Decade Expansion of China’s Major Cities Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Images
title_full_unstemmed Monitoring Three-Decade Expansion of China’s Major Cities Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Images
title_sort monitoring three-decade expansion of china’s major cities based on satellite remote sensing images
publisher MDPI AG
series Remote Sensing
issn 2072-4292
publishDate 2020-02-01
description As the largest developing country, China has experienced dramatic urban expansion since the &#8220;reform and opening-up&#8221; policy started at the end of the 1970s. In this paper, we monitor three decades of urban expansion in China&#8217;s 36 major cities, based on the spectral mixture analysis of remotely sensed satellite images. The results demonstrated that these major cities have expanded by 5.85 times from 1986 to 2015, with 15.51 km<sup>2</sup> average expansion area per city per year. We found the urban expansion trajectories showed three different modes, i.e., exponential, linear and s-shaped, which were closely related to the city development level. In the old city zones, however, there was an interesting common tendency of the impervious surface area (ISA) first increasing and then decreasing, which could be largely attributed to the phenomenon of urban village reconstruction in China&#8217;s cities. Based on the Granger Causality Test (GCT), the interaction between urban ISA and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (GDPPC) suggested that the former was the driver of the latter. Meanwhile, taking the Yangtze River as the division between north and south China, there exists a north&#8722;south territorial differentiation for the interaction between ISA and total population at the year-end (TP).
topic urbanization
satellite remote sensing
urban expansion trajectories
urban village
north-south differentiation
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/3/491
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AT liwenhuang monitoringthreedecadeexpansionofchinasmajorcitiesbasedonsatelliteremotesensingimages
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