Evaluating urban expansion and land use change in Shijiazhuang, China, by using GIS and remote sensing

This paper presents an integrated study of urbanization trends in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province of China, by using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The study explores the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban expansion from 1934 to 2001, and land use/cover change from 1987 to 2001. Temporally, urban expansion shows fast and slow growth stages, with the high-speed growth districts shifting to the east or west side of the city. The spatial patterns of urban growth can be categorized into three types: special objectives oriented type, social-political intervention type, and normal urban growth type. The remotely detected land use/cover change from 1987 to 2001 shows that the land use/cover was largely changed. The land use/cover conversion relationship implies that these changes are governed by urban expansion, which produces a force to drive the land use changes in search of a higher return. Lastly, the major factors influencing urban expansion and land use/cover change are also discussed. In general, the population, traffic conditions, industrialization, and policy are the major factors that influenced the urban expansion.