IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v12y2023i2p321-d1045558.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Distribution and Evolution of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from the Perspectives of Urban Area and Night-Time Light

Author

Listed:
  • Huimin Xu

    (School of Economics, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430048, China
    School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China)

  • Shougeng Hu

    (School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China)

  • Xi Li

    (State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China)

Abstract

Research on urban development patterns and urban sprawl in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) has received wide attention. However, existing research has always made use of statistical data, which are not often available. Considering the high availability of satellite data, this study attempts to combine two satellite-acquired indexes, including urban area and night-time light, to evaluate the urban development of the YREB during 2012–2019. The methods included using growth index, rank-size law, and the Markov transition matrix, as well as constructing urban night-time light density and unbalanced index of night-time light, derived from the Gini Index. Some important patterns were revealed. Firstly, the three reaches (Upper Reaches, Middle Reaches, and Lower Reaches) in the YREB have all shown rapid growth in urban area and night-time light, and they all have increased in urban density. Secondly, from the perspective of regional disparity, the Upper Reaches have the highest growth rate of the urban area, while the Middle Reaches have the highest growth rate of night-time light; and the Upper Reaches have more urban sprawl, while the Middle Reaches have shown more compact growth. Thirdly, higher urban density is related to more balanced development across cities. Our study suggests new knowledge can be obtained by combining the two indexes for understanding urban development in the YREB.

Suggested Citation

  • Huimin Xu & Shougeng Hu & Xi Li, 2023. "Urban Distribution and Evolution of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from the Perspectives of Urban Area and Night-Time Light," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:2:p:321-:d:1045558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/2/321/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/2/321/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eaton, Jonathan & Eckstein, Zvi, 1997. "Cities and growth: Theory and evidence from France and Japan," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 443-474, August.
    2. Gu, Qiwei & Wang, Hongqi & Zheng, Yinan & Zhu, Jingwen & Li, Xiaoke, 2015. "Ecological footprint analysis for urban agglomeration sustainability in the middle stream of the Yangtze River," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 318(C), pages 86-99.
    3. Huimin Xu & Hutao Yang & Xi Li & Huiran Jin & Deren Li, 2015. "Multi-Scale Measurement of Regional Inequality in Mainland China during 2005–2010 Using DMSP/OLS Night Light Imagery and Population Density Grid Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-31, September.
    4. Hualin Xie & Zhenhong Zhu & Bohao Wang & Guiying Liu & Qunli Zhai, 2018. "Does the Expansion of Urban Construction Land Promote Regional Economic Growth in China? Evidence from 108 Cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Tian, Yuan & Sun, Chuanwang, 2018. "A spatial differentiation study on comprehensive carrying capacity of the urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 11-22.
    6. J. Vernon Henderson & Adam Storeygard & David N. Weil, 2012. "Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 994-1028, April.
    7. Moura, Newton J. & Ribeiro, Marcelo B., 2006. "Zipf law for Brazilian cities," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 367(C), pages 441-448.
    8. Hankey, Steve & Marshall, Julian D., 2010. "Impacts of urban form on future US passenger-vehicle greenhouse gas emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 4880-4887, September.
    9. Liu Yang & Bingyang Han & Zhili Ma & Ting Wang & Yingchao Lin, 2022. "Analysis of the Urban Land Use Efficiency in the New-Type Urbanization Process of China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-22, July.
    10. Yang Zhong & Aiwen Lin & Zhigao Zhou & Feiyan Chen, 2018. "Spatial Pattern Evolution and Optimization of Urban System in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China, Based on DMSP-OLS Night Light Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-14, October.
    11. Haroldo V Ribeiro & Milena Oehlers & Ana I Moreno-Monroy & Jürgen P Kropp & Diego Rybski, 2021. "Association between population distribution and urban GDP scaling," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, January.
    12. Yang Li & Hua Shao & Nan Jiang & Ge Shi & Xin Cheng, 2018. "The Evolution of the Urban Spatial Pattern in the Yangtze River Economic Belt: Based on Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, August.
    13. Gastwirth, Joseph L, 1972. "The Estimation of the Lorenz Curve and Gini Index," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 54(3), pages 306-316, August.
    14. Aura Reggiani & Peter Nijkamp, 2015. "Did Zipf Anticipate Spatial Connectivity Structures?," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 42(3), pages 468-489, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hasan Engin Duran & Andrzej Cieślik, 2021. "The distribution of city sizes in Turkey: A failure of Zipf’s law due to concavity," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 1702-1719, October.
    2. Christian Düben & Melanie Krause, 2021. "Population, light, and the size distribution of cities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 189-211, January.
    3. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    4. Arshad, Sidra & Hu, Shougeng & Ashraf, Badar Nadeem, 2019. "Zipf’s law, the coherence of the urban system and city size distribution: Evidence from Pakistan," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 513(C), pages 87-103.
    5. repec:esx:essedp:729 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Vera Shanshan Lin & Yuan Qin & Tianyu Ying & Shujie Shen & Guangming Lyu, 2022. "Night-time economy vitality index: Framework and evidence," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(3), pages 665-691, May.
    7. Fernández-Rosales, Iván Yair & Angulo-Brown, Fernando & Pérez-Campuzano, Enrique & Guzmán-Vargas, Lev, 2020. "Distance distributions of human settlements," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Michel DIMOU & Alexandra SCHAFFAR & Zhihong CHEN & Shihe FU, 2008. "LA CROISSANCE URBAINE CHINOISE RECONSIDeReE," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 27, pages 109-131.
    9. Bosker, Maarten & Brakman, Steven & Garretsen, Harry & Schramm, Marc, 2008. "A century of shocks: The evolution of the German city size distribution 1925-1999," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 330-347, July.
    10. Seiffert, Sebastian, 2015. "The Role of Economic Geography in Subnational African Development," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113186, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Klein, Alexander & Leunig, Tim, 2013. "Gibrat’s Law and the British Industrial Revolution," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 146, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    12. Corral, Leonardo R. & Schling, Maja, 2017. "The impact of shoreline stabilization on economic growth in small island developing states," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 210-228.
    13. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Keola, Souknilanh & Silaphet, Korrakoun & Yamanouchi, Kenta, 2022. "Estimating the impacts of international bridges on foreign firm locations: a machine learning approach," IDE Discussion Papers 847, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    14. Bruce Taylor & Tabatha Wallington & Sonja Heyenga & Ben Harman, 2014. "Urban Growth and Climate Adaptation in Australia: Divergent Discourses and Implications for Policy-making," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(1), pages 3-21, January.
    15. Zhonghua Cheng & Xiaowen Hu, 2023. "The effects of urbanization and urban sprawl on CO2 emissions in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1792-1808, February.
    16. Beyer, Robert C.M. & Franco-Bedoya, Sebastian & Galdo, Virgilio, 2021. "Examining the economic impact of COVID-19 in India through daily electricity consumption and nighttime light intensity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    17. Boslett, Andrew & Hill, Elaine & Ma, Lala & Zhang, Lujia, 2021. "Rural light pollution from shale gas development and associated sleep and subjective well-being," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Igor Fedotenkov, 2020. "A Review of More than One Hundred Pareto-Tail Index Estimators," Statistica, Department of Statistics, University of Bologna, vol. 80(3), pages 245-299.
    19. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    20. Han, Yi & Wu, Mingqin, 2024. "Inter-regional barriers and economic growth: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    21. Clarke, Philip & Van Ourti, Tom, 2010. "Calculating the concentration index when income is grouped," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 151-157, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:2:p:321-:d:1045558. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.