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第一次全国地理国情普查工作已基本完成,需要对所获取的地理国情监测数据进行空间统计分析,以得到地理国情的时空分布模式、演变规律及发展趋势,形成地理国情信息和知识。地理国情监测生成的基础数据源,可用于土地资源集约利用、城乡及城市群协调发展、生态环境保护等问题的空间智能决策分析,但目前有效的模拟分析工具还比较缺乏。笔者提出的地理模拟优化系统（GeoSOS）理论框架,耦合了地理过程模拟预测和空间优化,为上述研究提供了有利的理论支持和实用工具。为进一步方便与GIS进行无缝的链接,本文提出了基于ArcGIS插件的GeoSOS以方便进行高效的地理模拟分析。并以快速城市化地区的城市扩张与生态保护研究为例,通过在地理国情信息分析中的应用,得到了一些重要的发现。模拟结果显示,按照现在的发展趋势,广东省优化开发区域在2020年其土地开发强度将超出规定的约束指标,并发现各区域均存在大量城乡建设用地占用生态保护压力等级高和较高地块的现象,而基于土地开发强度和生态保护双重约束的城镇化扩张能够在满足约束指标的同时获得更紧凑的景观格局。表明GeoSOS及其ArcGIS插件可以成为地理国情信息分析的有利工具,并给出了今后需解决的问题和发展方向。

The urban expansion process in China from the 1970s to 2013 was retrieved based on remote sensing and GIS technology. With the latest zoning method used as reference, annual expansion area per city, urban expansion type, and fractal dimension index were employed to analyze the Chinese urban expansion characteristics and its spatial difference from the aspects of urban expansion process, influence of urban expansion on land use, and urban spatial morphological evolutions. Results indicate that 1） under the powerful guidance of policies, urban expansion in China went through six different stages, and cities in the eastern region entered the rapid expansion period the earliest, followed by cities in the central, northeastern and western regions; 2） cultivated lands and rural settlements and industrial traffic lands were the important land sources for urban expansion in China; the influence of urban expansion on land use in the eastern region was the strongest, followed by the central, northeastern and western regions; 3） urban spatial morphology tended to be complex and was directly related to the adopted spatial expansion mode. Infilling expansion became the main urban expansion mode in the western region first, then in the central and northeastern regions, and finally in the eastern region. This study establishes the foundation for an in-depth recognition of urban expansion in China and optimization of future urban planning.

Urban expansion models are useful tools to understand urbanization process and have been given much attention. However, urban expansion is a complicated socio-economic phenomenon that is affected by complex and volatile factors involving in great uncertainties. Therefore, the accurate simulation of the urban expansion process remains challenging. In this paper, we make an attempt to solve such uncertainty through a reversal process and view urban expansion as a process wherein the urban landscape overcomes resistance from other landscapes. We developed an innovative approach derived from the minimum cumulative resistance （MCR） model that involved the introduction of a relative resistance factor for dif- ferent source levels and the consideration of rigid constraints on urban expansion caused by ecological barriers. Using this approach, the urban expansion ecological resistance （UEER） model was created to describe ecological resistance surfaces suitable for simulating urban expansion and used to simulate urban expansion in Guangzhou. The study results demon- strate that the ecological resistance surface generated by the UEER model comprehensively reflects ecological resistance to urban expansion and indicates the spatial trends in urban expansion. The simulation results from the UEEIR-based model were more realistic and more accurately reflected ecological protection requirements than the conventional MCR-based model. These findings can enhance urban expansion simulation methods.

Urbanization in China has expanded at an unprecedented speed since the declaration of ＂Reform and Open Policy＂ and presented many challenges. Unbalanced regional development, appearance of super megacities and concomitant problems, and conflicts between urbanization and cultivated land protection are three critical problems that Chinese urbanization has to face. To develop new plans for foreseeable future urbanization in China, it is critical to understand the evolving history of cities across China. This study maps urban expansion of 60 typical Chinese cities based on large amount of remote sensing data and the labor-intensive image interpretation method, in order to understand the history of urban expansion from the 1970s to 2013. Results showed that area of cities expanded 5.23 times compared to their area in the 1970s. Urban expansion in China accelerated three times （1988-1996, 1999-2006, and 2009-2011） and decelerated three times （1997-1998, 2007-2008, and 2012-2013） over the 40 years. The urban area of South China expanded most significantly 9.42 times, while the urban area in Northeast China expanded only 2.37 times. The disparity among different administrative ranks of cities was even greater than （3.81 times） the differences among different regions. Super megacities have been continuously expanding at a fast rate （8.60-fold）, and have not shown obvious signs of slowing down. The proportion of cultivated land among the land sources for urban expansion decreased to a small extent in the 1990s, but cultivated land continues to be the major land source for urban expansion. Effective future urbanization needs controlling the expansion scale of large cities and reasonably developing medium and small cities, as well as balancing regional development.

The change of impervious surface area (ISA) can effectively reveal the gradual process of urbanization and act as a key index for monitoring urban expansion. Experiencing rapid growth of the built environment in the 2000s, urban expansion of Beijing has not been fully characterized through ISA. In this study, Landsat TM images of Beijing in 2001 and 2009 were obtained, and the eight-year urban expansion process in Beijing was analyzed using the ISA extracted by means of the vegetation-imperious surface-soil (V-I-S) model. From the spatial variation in ISA, the ring structure of urban expansion in Beijing was significant during the study period, with decreasing urban density from the city center to the periphery. In the ring road analysis, the most dramatic changes of ISA were found between the fifth ring and the sixth ring. This area has experienced the most new residential development, and is currently the main source of urban expansion. The typical profile lines revealed the directional characteristics of urban expansion. The east-west profile was the most urbanized axes in Beijing, while ISA change in the east-north profile was more significant than in the other five profiles. Moreover, the transition matrix of ISA levels revealed an increase in urban density in the low density built areas; the Moran′s I index showed a clear expansion of the central urban area, which spread contiguously; and the standard deviational ellipse indicated the northeast was the dominant direction of urban expansion. These findings can provide important spatial control guidelines in the next round of national economic and social development planning, overall urban and rural planning, and land use planning.

Based on the global land cover data at 30 m resolution （GlobeLand30） in the year 2000 and 2010, the urban expansion process of 320 cities in China was analyzed using lognormal regression, and the expansion model were established. Three metrics were presented for the models, including the peak position, the full width at half maximum, and the skewness. It was found that the three metrics could reveal different patterns of the urban expansion process of cities with different sizes. Specifically, cities with larger size tend to expand outward strongly, and their expansion intensity and influence are likely to be higher. Moreover, most cities＇ expansion occurs around the urban core with spatially limited influence. In addition, it was also found that the city＇s expansion intensity is related to the city size. These results showed that the lognormal regression model could describe the distribution of urban expansion with effectiveness and robustness.

As the ′economic engines′ of China,coastal cities have developed and expanded considerably since the 1970 s.In this study,information on the urban expansion process of Chinese coastal cities from the 1970 s to 2013 was retrieved.Through the analysis of stage characteristics,spatial expansion modes,influences on land use,centroid shifts,and spatial morphological evolutions,the spatial differences of coastal urban expansion were revealed.Results indicate that 1） the expansion stages of southern coastal cities are more complex than those of northern coastal cities,and the expansion ranges and speeds of the former are far higher than those of the latter;2） the spatial expansion of southern coastal cities mostly adopt a single mode,whereas northern coastal cities mostly adopt a mixed mode;3） significant spatial differences in the occupations of different land sources exist between the south and the north along the coastline;4） the centroid of coastal cities tends to migrate toward the coastline,and the centroid shift distances of southern coastal cities are clearly higher than those of northern coastal cities;and 5） the spatial morphology of southern coastal cities tends to be compact,whereas that of northern coastal cities tends to be loose.Policies have a powerful significance in terms of guiding urban expansion and its spatial differences in coastal cities.Urban expansion in coastal cities will encounter new opportunities and challenges under the guidance of new types of urbanization strategies.

Since the mid-twentieth century, most cities worldwide have undergone a rapid expansion in urban land use. Along with the expansion, several problems, such as excessive loss of prime agricultural land and increasing traffic congestion have arisen. Thus, understanding and measurements of the expansion scale and its speed are crucial to planners and officials during urban planning and management processes. To measure such geographic phenomena, Shannon first devised entropy theory, and then Batty developed it into spatial entropy. The recently developed spatial entropy model, which was used to measure ur- ban sprawl, introduced area to represent spatial asymmetry. However, most models did not consider spatial discretization, par- ticularly the impact of distance. This study attempted to construct an integrated gravity-spatial entropy model to delineate dis- tance and spatial diffusion impacts on population distribution. Then, we tested the model using Shanghai＇s temporal land use and community statistical data. Application results for the new gravity-spatial model show that it is a useful tool for identifying spatial and temporal variations of urban sprawl.

If urban sprawl is to be avoided in China in the next ten years, it is not only crucial to understand the overall history, current status, and future trends of urban expansion there, but also these differences, and this is presently lacking. In this study, remotely sensed images with approximately 30 m spatial resolution were used to quantitatively assess the spatial and temporal patterns of urban expansion of 60 Chinese cities (1973–2013). Urban-expansion-process curves of the cities studied were drawn using annual expansion area as an indicator. Curve similarity analysis generated four basic process modes of urban expansion in China. These included cities that: 1) peaked around 2004 and then decelerated; 2) peaked around 2010 and then decelerated; 3) showed sustained acceleration, and 4) showed continued deceleration. Four basic process modes represented cities under different levels of development stage. Geographic location was found to be the most related characteristic to urban expansion process. Regional development policies at the national level in each region also showed highly temporal consistency with fluctuation characteristics of urban expansion process. Urban characteristic such as population size and administrative level were not found to be significantly related to urban expansion-process modes. Understanding the basic process-mode categories well is extremely important for future regional-balance planning and development of macroeconomic policies.

Urban sprawl is threatening the limited highly fertile land in the Nile delta of Egypt. Landsat TM satellite images of 1984, 1992 and ETM＋ of 2006 have been used to study the impact of urban sprawl on agricultural land of the Northern Nile delta, Egypt. Vis- ual interpretation using on screen digitizing and change detection techniques were applied for monitoring the urban sprawl. Combining the land capability map and the urban thematic layer using GIS made it possible to point out the risk of urban expansion on the expense of the highly capable soil class. The results show that a total expansion of urban area amounted to 689.20 km2 （6.3% of total area） dur- ing the study period 1984-2006. The urban expansion during the 1984-2006 was on the expense of the most fertile soils where, the high capable soils （Class I） lost 247.14 km2 （2.26 % of total area） and the moderate capable soils lost 32.73 km2 （0.3% of total area）, while the low capable soils lost only 57.39 km2 （0.53% of total area）. The urban encroachment over the non capable soils was very limited during the study period 1984-1992, where 7.33 km2 only was lost. The pattern of urban sprawl has been changed during the 1992 to 2006 whereas much larger area （50.64 km2） of the non capable soils was converted to urban. It can be concluded that the urban sprawl is one of the dominant degradation process on the land of Nile Delta.