Integrating the empirical models of benchmark land price and GIS technology for sustainability analysis of urban residential development

• The paper integrates the empirical model and GIS to evaluate the benchmark land price.
• The sustainability analysis can be developed considering the impacts of benchmark land price and sustainability indicators.
• 2D density maps and 3D data views are created based on the geographic data and benchmark land prices.
• The methodology assists evaluation of residential development both in time and space.

There has been enormous land use change taking place in China since 1978 followed by impacts on the environmental, social and economical conduct of the society. Benchmark land price as the key indicator to evaluate the performance of urban land use provides guidelines for land use rights selling and transferring in order to overcome lack of market data and experiences in land transaction. The purpose of this study is to develop a sustainability analysis of urban residential development mainly considering the impacts of benchmark land price and the variations of urban land use with a case study of Nanjing city in JiangSu province of China. The integration of empirical models, GIS technology and 3D data visualization were proposed to be an integrated tool that is able to examine the spatial distribution of land price differences and provide important conceptual insights into the spatial effects within urban land markets. Furthermore, the simulation results obtained in empirical models were combined with land use variations to provide important sustainable insights into the developing trend of benchmark land price in recent years and further explain for the Decision Maker and urban planners whether urban areas develop sustainably or not.