Evolution Process and Land Use/Land Cover Response of Urban–Rural Space in Wuhan under Polycentric Structure

Polycentric development facilitates urban–rural spatial reshaping and land use/land cover (LULC) protection. Previous studies have predominantly focused on urban areas, with spatial delineation methods biased towards the macro-level, lacking a holistic perspective that situates them within the urban–rural spatial framework. This study proposes a spatial delineation framework that is applicable to the polycentric structure, taking into account the social, economic, and natural characteristics of urbanization. It employs semivariance analysis and spatial continuous wavelet transform (SCWT) to analyze the effects of polycentric development on the urban–rural space of Wuhan from 2012 to 2021 and applies a land use transition matrix, landscape indices, and bivariate spatial autocorrelation to quantify the responses and differences of LULC within urban–rural space. The results indicate that 600 m × 600 m is the best scale for exhibiting the multidimensional characterization of urbanization. The polycentric structure alleviates the compact development of the central city, and it drives rapid expansion at the urban–rural fringe, exacerbating the spatial heterogeneity in LULC change pattern, spatial configuration, and urbanization response within urban–rural spaces. The overall effects of urbanization on LULC are relatively weak along the urban–rural gradient, experiencing a transition from positive to negative and back to positive. This study employs a novel spatial delineation framework to depict the polycentric transformation of metropolitan areas and provides valuable insights for regional planning and ecological conservation in the urban–rural fringe.