PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2010, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (11): 1433-1441.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2010.11.042

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impact of Site Factors on Expansion of Construction Land: A Case Study in the Pearl River Delta

YE Yuyao, ZHANG Hongou, LIU Kai, WU Qitao   

  1. Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou 510070, China
  • Received:2010-01-01 Revised:2010-07-01 Online:2010-11-25 Published:2010-11-25

Abstract:

In this study, we use three scenes of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images, including those of 1988, 1998 and 2006, to detect the expansion of construction land in the Pearl River Delta. And then we use the spatial analysis function of GIS to specify the impact of site factors on it, focusing on the effect of the landform and the distance from the city center, roads or coastlines. Firstly, we derived land cover maps from TM data by artificial visual interpretation method (AVIM). Then, we overlaid the distribution maps of construction land with the topographic map and analyzed the pattern of construction land expansion in the buffer zones around urban centers or along main roads and coastline. The results show that the site factors, such as the landform and the distance from the city center, roads or coastline, indeed have a prominent influence on the expansion of the construction land. Due to the centralization and diffusion of the city center, the expansion of construction land reaches its peaks at two spheres surrounding the city center. The inner one represents the development of suburbs, indicating the spilling over of the city center and the rapid development of the suburbs, while the outer one manifests the development of the industrial zones and the construction of the satellite cities in the outer suburbs, showing the pattern of urban expansion like leapfrog. Thus, suburb is the preferred location for construction land development and the construction land there expands most furiously, indicating the intense interaction between urban and rural areas and also reflecting the essence of the process of suburbanization in large cities. The influence of the distance from the roads or coastline reflects, in essence, the impact of the transportation accessibility on the expansion of construction land. From the quantitative analysis results, we can see the location close to roads or shoreline is the preferred location for construction land development, resulting in the distribution pattern of the construction land gathering along the roads or coastline. Landform also has an obvious influence on the expansion of construction land. Plain area is the preferred location for construction land development, and also the area for the high-quality farmland to agglomerate, therefore triggering the conflicts between the construction land developmet and farmland protection. In short, site factors act as the indicators for the expansion of construction land, leading it to expand to the location such as suburbs, plains as well as the areas nearby the roads or coastline. Site factors play an important role in indicating or restraining the expansion of construction land, determining the direction, scale, intensity and speed of the expansion of construction land.

Key words: construction land, site factors, The Pearl River Delta