Spatial-temporal Differences Of Construction Land Use Efficiency And Coupling Relationship Between The Efficiency And Urbanization Quality

Construction land is the location of human production and life, as well as an important safeguard for economic development. At present, with the advancement of industrialization and urbanization in China, the continuous expansion of construction land has resulted in considerable farmland conversions and ecological space occupations. Meanwhile, construction land use efficiency generally remains at a low level, indicating the ubiquity of land lavishness and extensive utilization. It is difficult to alleviate the conflicts between the supply and demand for construction land in the near future. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to improve the efficiency of construction land use in order to support sustainable and stable economic growth and to promote industrialization and urbanization.Centering around the theme of enhancing construction land use efficiency, it is essential to evaluate the efficiency first, analyze the spatial-temporal differences, identify underlying factors, and examine the coupling relationship between construction land use efficiency and urbanization quality. Built on these results, relevant strategies are further proposed to improve construction land use efficiency and promote harmonious development between construction land use efficiency and urbanization quality. The main contents and results are as listed as followed:(1) First of all, this study defines the concept of construction land use efficiency; and then, based on the comparison of existing assessment methods for construction land use efficiency, the SBM-undesirable model is selected to measure the construction land use efficiency.This model, which takes undesirable output into account, is compared with its counterpart in which undesirable output is not considered. Empirical results show that, the efficiency without considering undesirable output is greater than that considering undesirable output. In both models, the efficiencies of Beijing, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong are generally higher, whereas the efficiencies of Ningxia, Qinghai and Guizhou are relatively lower. In summary, the efficiency of construction land use is higher in the East of China than in central region, with the western region being the lowest.(2) The quantitative methods including Gini coefficient, Theil index, exploratory spatial data analysis and other methods are employed to analyze the characteristics of spatial-temporal evolution of construction land use efficiency from 1999 to 2008 in China. Empirical studies indicate an expanding tendency of the difference of construction land use efficiency among provinces in China. The intra-regional differences of construction land use efficiency are all expanding in all regions. The expansion of inter-regional difference is the main cause for total difference expanding. β convergence is not observed for the eastern and central region, nor China as a whole; however, it is found for the western region. The provinces with similar construction land use efficiency spatially clustered. Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces are in high efficiency zone, while Shanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces are in the low efficiency zone.(3) Based on documentary summary, this study also analyzes the impact of eight factors on construction land use efficiency, including economic development level, industrial structure, urbanization level, man-land relationship, fixed capital input, resource endowments, government influence and marketing level of land. Empirical studies suggest that, the spatial econometric model to the ordinary regression model, which further confirms the necessity of take spatial effect into account. The result from the spatial lag model shows that, the industrial structure, urbanization level, economic development level, man-land relationship, fixed capital input and resource endowments have significantly positive effects on the efficiency, while the impacts of government influence and the marketing level of land are positive but non-significant(4) This study investigates the relationship between the construction land use efficiency and urbanization quality from a theoretical perspective. Urbanization quality is evaluated using an index system. Spatial correlation and coupling coordination degree between the construction land use efficiency and urbanization quality are then analyzed with bivariate spatial autocorrelation index and the coupling coordination model.Empirical results indicate that, the efficiency of construction land use shows significant spatial autocorrelation with urbanization quality, and the coupling coordination degree is increasing for every province. Provinces with high coupling degree are mainly located in Yangtze River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, while provinces with low coupling degree are located in western regions.(5)This study proposes seven strategies to improve construction land use efficiency based on the analysis above.These strategies include:activating the stock land to promote construction land intensive use; adjusting industrial structure to improve construction landoutput level; transforming economic development mode to improve construction land devotion and output level; advancing urbanization and improving urbanization quality; increasing fixed capital input to improve the construction land output level; transforming government functions to promote the land market development; implementing regional differentiated strategies to improve the construction land use efficiency.