Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Urban Expansion along the Guangzhou–Foshan Inter-City Rail Transit Corridor, China

Abstract

Understanding the urban expansion process along inter-city rail transit corridors is critical to regional integration of city groups. Though numerous studies have considered the influences of rail transit on land use and urban form, most have focused on local station areas or intra-city urban structures. Few studies have examined the effects and dynamic process along inter-city rail transit corridors at a regional scale. In this study, multi-remote sensing images, landscape metrics and gradient analysis were combined to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban expansion and regional structural changes along the GuangFo inter-city Metro in the Pearl River Delta, south China. We introduced Thiessen Polygon into quadrat zoning for landscape gradient analysis, and clearly revealed the spatial variations of landscape changes along the metro transect. The regional expansion stage and inter-city structural changes were further detected based on the theoretical framework of diffusion-coalescence growth. This study revealed that during its construction the GuangFo Metro significantly impacted urban expansion at the urban fringes. Before construction the urban patches became irregular and fragmented as the gradient moved from city centers to city fringes. Influenced by the GuangFo Metro, the urban patches expanded and consequently coalesced into a homogenous urbanized area, which indicated that coalescence was the dominant expansion stage and the regional structure become more aggregated. This suggested that the inter-city rail transit has played an important role in promoting the integration of the GuangFo metropolitan region.

A spatial‐adjacency‐based approach for analyzing urban landscape structure

“…The results indicate that transportation connection had high contributions to the dynamic patterns of urban expansion. This was consistent with the results reported for Jiuquan City (Xie, Gong, Sun, Gou, & Xie, ), Beijing City (Mo, Wang, Zhang, & Zhuang, ; Zhao, Zheng, Yuan, & Zhang, ), and Foshan City (Li et al, ) in China.…”

Quantifying the Spatial Integration Patterns of Urban Agglomerations along an Inter-City Gradient

“…A large number of the world's population has settled in urban areas; this figure is projected to increase to approximately 6.3 billion by 2050 [1]. Due to city-centered regional development and industrialization, the spatial evolution of urban land will be characterized by alternating processes of diffusion and coalescence, which will inevitably lead to urban agglomeration [2,3]. Urban agglomerations, also defined as megalopolises or metropolitan areas, are an advanced form of spatial organization for cities, characterized by contiguous areas of constantly developed urban territories with increasing economic interconnection [4].…”

“…These studies analyzed urban structure or changes in land use near transit stations; however, research on the integration characteristics of urban agglomeration along an inter-city rail network are rare. Li et al analyzed the spatial heterogeneity and urban structural changes along the Guangzhou-Foshan inter-city rail network, revealing the metropolitan coalescence process and the significant impact of rail transit on urban expansion at the urban fringes [2]. However, their research did not consider the interactions between landscape ecology and urban agglomerations along the inter-city rail transit corridor.…”

Simulating and Predicting the Impacts of Light Rail Transit Systems on Urban Land Use by Using Cellular Automata: A Case Study of Dongguan, China

“…The development of Light Rail Transit systems (LRTs) can be divided into four stages, namely the pre-planning, planning, construction, and operation stages [18,23,55]. Time series of remote sensing images are helpful for monitoring land use changes over different periods.…”

“…To assess the impacts of LRT development on surrounding urban land use, we also need to build a two-sided buffer because LRTs mainly exert impacts on land use within a certain proximity [23,24,26]. Previous studies related to the cases in Chinese cities have indicated that a 2 km buffer is quite suitable for quantifying the LRT impacts on land use [13,14,55]. Nevertheless, such impacts may vary significantly across regions, economic zones, and policy regime, and we should analyze the gradual transition of land use changes to better determine the buffer size.…”