Dynamic change and evolutionary mechanism of city land leasing network—Taking the Yangtze River Delta region in China as an example

Mapping city networks has attracted scholarly attention in urban studies, while the relevant studies focusing on land elements are lacking. This study aims to address and fill this research gap by analyzing across-city land leasing relationships. Using Yangtze River Delta region (YRDR) in China as a case, we explore the dynamic change and evolutionary mechanism of city land leasing network based on urban land leasing data and temporal exponential random graph model (TERGM). The findings reveal that: 1) At the macro level, as the interconnections between cities in the YRDR grow stronger, the inter-city flow of land elements has become growingly convenient and accessible, there is a corresponding increase in the frequency of land use rights transfer between cities. This has led to the emergence of a more intricate and interconnected city land leasing network in the YRDR. 2) At the medium level, city land leasing network in the YRDR fosters land leasing communities within province boundary. Shanghai community is identified as the strongest community, which establish a compact relationship with a large number of cities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces. The province of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui have also foster communities with provincial capitals as the core, respectively. 3) At the individual level, Shanghai is the primary recipient city in terms of cross-city land leasing relationships, followed by provincial capital cities of Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei. 4) Significant effects, including endogenous structural effects, actor-relation effects, exogenous network effects, and time effects, could be found in the city land leasing network of the YRDR. The city land leasing network in the YRDR is influenced by endogenous structural factors such as popularity, transitivity, and connectivity. Cities with low economic development levels, strong land leasing intervention, high real estate development investment levels, and high land leasing prices are more likely to lease land to other cities. Cities with higher levels of economic development, higher levels of industrial structure upgrading, higher levels of real estate development investment, and higher land prices are more likely to lease land from other cities. Furthermore, cities within the same province or within Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations (YRDUR) are more likely to foster inter-city land leasing relationships, while the distance between cities negatively affects the establishment of inter-city land leasing relationships.