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Urban agglomerations (UAs) in China play a vital role in the distribution of productive forces and constitute the most dynamic and potentially rich core areas for future economic development. However, the rapid economic growth and highintensity interactions seen in relation to these areas, results of the high population densities and aggregation of industries in UAs, also pose significant ecological threats to the environment. This paper attempts to analyse changing trends in the inputoutput efficiency of UAs in China based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The paper investigates the DEA efficiency of UAs with different population sizes and geographical locations, explores the relationship between the elements that make up a decomposed model of efficiency and compares the efficiency performance of China's UAs with that of 35 central cities. Moreover, the exogenous factors determining the input-output efficiency of UAs, the question of how to improve UAs' efficiency performance, as well as the focus of future research are also discussed. A number of valuable implications have been drawn from the study, which may be helpful to the task of understanding more deeply the high-density aggregation effects of UAs in China.

Abstract:Relatively little attention has been paid to examining the spatial expansion features of cities at various tiers at the regional level in China, especially those located in central and western regions of the country. Based on Landsat satellite imagery from four years-1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010, this 1980-1990, 1990-2000, and 2000-2010 respectively, exhibiting significant fluctuation between the different periods studied. Geographically, this spatial expansion pattern was characterised by conspicuous concentrations and regional imbalances across the overall study period. Whilst these spatio-temporal differences were found to be closely related to industrialisation, urban population growth, land-use policies, urbanisation guidelines (governmental plans and regulations addressing urbanisation), and national development strategy, the dominant mechanisms driving those differences varied over time. In response, the paper presents an urban-rural and regional integration strategy, with the aim of avoiding economic gaps and the inefficient utilisation of various resources in the urban agglomeration areas. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2014, 6 4724

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