The Heterogeneous Impact of High-Speed Railway on Urban Expansion in China

Abstract

High-speed railway (HSR) promote the efficient flow of the population and materials between cities and have profoundly affected urban economic development in China. However, there is currently limited research about how HSR influences urban expansion, especially related to the variable impacts on different urban agglomerations, different size cities, and the conversion of non-urban land to urban land. In this study, from two levels of regional heterogeneity and type heterogeneity, a multi-stage difference-in-differences (multi-stage DID) model and land use remote sensing data are used to investigate these research areas. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The first opening of HSR had a more significant role in promoting urban expansion than HSR frequency, but several years after opening, HSR no longer promotes urban expansion. (2) The opening of HSR only played a significant role in promoting urban expansion in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei. HSR frequency had a significant role in promoting urban expansion in the Yangtze River Delta. (3) The opening of HSR had no significant impact on urban expansion for different size cities, and HSR frequency only had a significant negative impact on urban expansion of small cities. (4) The first opening of HSR led to urban expansion dominated by the occupation of cultivated land. Cities in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia mainly converted barren land and vegetation cover to urban land after the first opening of HSR. In northeast China, the first opening of HSR made the conversion of vegetation cover and cultivated land to urban land roughly equivalent in size. The results of this study are helpful to understand the impact of the first opening of HSR and the scale of conversion of different types of non-urban land into urban land on urban expansion. In the era of HSR, these findings provide a valuable reference for regional planning and preventing the disorderly expansion of cities.

Current problems in developing the new silk road from China to Europe

“…Lin, S., Dhakal, P.R., and Wu, Z. hold the same opinion in their works, noting at the same time that high-speed rail helps to eliminate the "economic gap" between cities [4]. This opinion is also supported by the works of Xuehui Yang, Shanlang Lin, Jiaping Zhang and Minghua He, as well as He, D., Chen, Z., Zhou, J., Yang, T., Lu, L [5,7]. Wang L and Huang Y also join the general view of the great impact of high-speed rail development in their work, but highlight how high-speed rail encourages the concentration of people around large stations and generally placing them in previously unpopulated areas [12].…”

Relationships between Landscape Patterns and Hydrological Processes in the Subtropical Monsoon Climate Zone of Southeastern China

“…During recent decades, urban expansion also happened in some forest regions for most watersheds. This was reasonable, as urban development had extended to the surrounding rural areas first in most regions, which had large areas of agricultural land and forest land [65][66][67]. In addition, conversions between agricultural land and forest land were relatively greater.…”

“…For better soil erosion prevention, some sloped agricultural land was abandoned and converted into forest land, whereas some flat forest land was converted into agricultural land to preserve the amount of agricultural land and promote guaranteed crop production. rural areas first in most regions, which had large areas of agricultural land and forest land [65][66][67]. In addition, conversions between agricultural land and forest land were relatively greater.…”

Transportation infrastructure and eco-environmental quality: Evidence from China’s high-speed rail

“…First, compared with non-high-speed rail cities, the opening of HSR will generally bring about urban land expansion and promote land urbanization [ 21 , 22 ]. Looking from the perspective of land use structure change, the construction of the HSR will affect the eco-environmental quality, for example, the HSR opening leads to the conversion of vegetated land and cropland to urban land [ 23 ]. The reason is that in most Chinese cities, HSR stations are newly built and mostly located in the suburbs.…”