Spatial-temporal Characteristics of Urban Expansion in Shenyang from 2001 to 2014

Abstract

With the rapid improvement of the urbanization process in Shenyang, the urban construction land expands greatly, which makes the urban morphological characteristics change rapidly. In order to guide the city to develop in a more reasonable, healthy, and orderly direction, this article analyses the evolution of urban morphology in Shenyang. By selecting three different periods of satellite remote sensing images in 2001, 2006 and 2014. With the help of Remote Sensing manual interpretation method, the construction land data of the three years in the city are extracted. According to the fractal theory, the laws of urban development morphology are analysed, and the characteristics of urban morphological evolution are summarized. Results show that: 1) the area of urban built-up areas increased by 3.7 times from 2001 to 2014, with an average annual growth rate of 21%. The expansion direction is southwest and northeast. The main reason lies in the development and construction of the southwest side of the Yuhong District and the Shenbei New District.; 2) By analysing the quantitative indexes such as expansion intensity index, compactness index, boundary dimension index and shape index, it is found that the urban expansion of Shenyang is characterized by stages, and the expansion speed in 2006-2014 is significantly lower than that in 2001-2006. This phenomenon indicates that the internal structure of the city has stabilized and it has begun to focus on intensive development; 3) Shenyang has gradually formed a "one-axis, one-belt" urban spatial pattern, focusing on the coordinated and unified development of multiple centres.

Introduction

Rapid urbanisation has been a factor affectingcities negatively and irreversibly in developing countries (Chandrashekar and Aithal, 2021).With the acceleration of the urbanization process, the scale of the city has expanded rapidly, and a large amount of urban land has been used for real estate development (Moon, 2021). Vast populations have spread into cities and contributed to urban sprawl in China (Xu and Akita, 2021). The rapid increase in the urban population has aggravated the utilization of urban land resources (Chen and Akita, 2021). The unreasonable use and development have led to the gradual loss of control of the growth of urban land, the gradual destruction of the urban texture, and the unreasonable use of resources. The emergence of problems such as distribution will restrict the sustainable development of the city. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to adhere to the concept of new development, which requires us to have a new guiding direction for urban development in the new era. Studying the evolution process of urban form has important theoretical value and practical significance for building an orderly and ecological city. Overseas theories on the evolution of urban form were carried out earlier, and the research level was relatively deep, which played a certain guiding role in the research of urban form in my country. For example, Batty used fractal theory to simulate the growth process of cities (Batty and Longley, 1988), Frankhauser used fractal measure for several cities and used fractal theory to study complex urban form (Frankhauser, 1998). At present, there are certain achievements in the research on urban form in my country, but the research object is relatively single, mainly concentrated in the cities with relatively developed regional economy. For example, Liu and Lin (2018) combed and discussed the spatial expansion of residential land in Beijing, and Wang, Zhu et al. (2020) recognition and interpretation, etc.Relatively few studies have been conducted on other types of cities.

As the capital city of the industrial base in Northeast China, Shenyang has experienced rise, development, adjustment, and revitalization. The expansion of the city's scale and the improvement of its functions have caused continuous changes in the spatial structure, but it also highlights the more problems, such as space development uncoordinated and deteriorating ecological environment and the increasingly prominent contradiction between human and land development. This paper uses RS (Remote Sensing) and GIS (Geographic Information System) to explore and analyze the development and evolution of Shenyang's urban form, and further research on the driving mechanism of change, hoping to better guide and promote this Healthy, stable and orderly development of the city.

Methodology

The technical route of this paper is mainly divided into three parts. The first is data processing, including data pre-processing and construction land extraction, so as to meet the research needs. The second is index selection. In order to distinguish the characteristics of urban form, four quantitative indicators were selected to ensure the scientificity and accuracy of the results. Finally, according to the calculation and analysis of the index, combined with the development of Shenyang city in recent years (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Technology Roadmap

Overview of the Study Area

Shenyang is located in the southern part of northeast China and the middle part of Liaoning Province (longitude 122°25 'to 123°48', latitude 41°11 'to 43°2'). It is one of the national advanced equipment manufacturing bases. At the same time, as a famous historical and cultural city, it has a history of more than 2300 years with profound historical and cultural deposits. The city transportation is convenient, the formation of the "one ring five shooting" highway network, and Liaohe, Hunhe, Xiushui River and other water resources are very rich. The topography of Shenyang is mainly plain, and the mountains and hills are concentrated in the southeast. The relative elevation difference of the terrain is small, and the terrain slopes from northeast to southwest with both sides to the middle. By the end of 2019, Shenyang had a permanent resident population of 7.564 million, a regional GDP of 647.03 billion yuan, and a per capita GDP of 85,541 yuan.

Before the 1990s, Shenyang as an essential industrial base in China, the speed of urban development is constantly improving, and the urban scope is also constantly expanding. Since 1990, due to the increasingly severe institutional and structural contradictions in the economy, the aging of industrial equipment and technology has led to a gradual decline in industrial competitiveness, a more prominent contradiction in employment, and a widening gap with the developed coastal areas. Faced with a series of urban problems, such as resource depletion brought by industrial development and pressure of economic transformation, the speed of urban development began to slow down. Therefore, the government proposed to revitalize the old industrial base in Northeast China and other strategic decisions.

Data Source and Preprocessing

The data in this study are all from the website of China Geospatial Data Cloud. Because of bare ground spectral characteristics and to study the city construction land that is not through the water, there are many similarities, in order to more convenient and better distinguish between the two, this article selects the third phase of Landsat satellite remote sensing data (Table 1), and select the lush vegetation is 6 to 9 months, the imaging quality of high and low cloud cover or a satellite image of 0.

In this study, LandsatTM/ETM+OLI remote sensing image data from 2001, 2006 and 2014 were used. The specific time of imaging of all remote sensing image data from 2001 to 2014 is: September 28, 2001, August 17, 2006, and August 7, 2014. The track numbers of all remote sensing image data are 119/31, which is the area covered by Shenyang city. In the case of little cloud cover and no cloud cover, the spatial resolution is 30 meters. In the thermal infrared band, the resolution is mainly 30 meters and 60 meters according to the difference of different types of influence.

Table 1. Remote sensing image profiles in three years

Satellite sensor	Track number	Imaging time	Spatial Resolution (m)	Get Time	Average Cloud Cover (%)
Landsat ETM+7	119/31	Sep 28, 2001	30/60	2:16’:35”	0.01
Landsat 7 ETM SLC-off	119/31	Aug 17, 2006	30/60	2:21’:37”	0
Landsat 8 OLI_TIRS	119/31	Aug 7, 2014	30/30	2:28’:09”	0.4

Since the data of the original remote sensing satellite image will be affected by the wave change, radiation resolution and other aspects during the acquisition, in order to accurately and accurately obtain the scope of urban construction land in the recent three years, the image needs to be preprocessed. It mainly includes band synthesis, radiometric correction, image cropping, etc.

Figure 2. Built-up areas in different years

After geometric correction, pop-pop fusion and cutting processing, the data within the administrative scope of Shenyang City was obtained. Then, the remote sensing image was interpreted by man-machine interpretation method to extract urban construction land. After removing small patches, the scattered patches with an area of less than 0.1 cun² were proposed. Refer to the relevant urban planning map and Google Earth satellite map, the urban boundary was partially modified to obtain the built-up area scope of the three years (Figure 2). In the figure, pink is the built-up area in 2001, green is the built-up area in 2006 and blue is the built-up area in 2014. After that, the area and perimeter were calculated respectively, and then the strength, compactness, fractal dimension and shape index of the expansion index were analyzed (Chu, 2007).

Research Methods

Fractal Theory

The fractal theory method is relatively new and widely used at home and abroad. It is a typical "non-linear science". The research object usually takes broken, irregular, and complex geometric forms as the research object. Many scholars apply it to the study of urban morphology. In the past, good research results have been obtained (Boyce and Clark, 1964). The early successful application of fractal theory in foreign countries can also show that this theory has theoretical feasibility and practical guidance in the study of urban morphology.

1. (1)   Expansion strength index.

It is used to indicate the expansion scale and trend of a certain type of urban land in a certain period of time. The essence of the urban land expansion intensity index is to standardize its annual average expansion speed according to the land area of each spatial unit, so that different urban land has Comparability (Liu, Wu et al., 2000), the formula is:

$R=\frac{U_b-U_a}{U_a}\times \frac{1}{T}$ ……………………………………………. (1)

In the formula, R represents the expansion intensity index of the city at the end of the study, Ua represents the construction land area of the city at the beginning of the study, Ub represents the construction land area of the city at the end of the study, and T is the time interval between the beginning and the end of the study.

1. (2)   Compactness index.

The compactness consensus proposed by Batty is used to characterize the discrete characteristics of urban built-up areas. In the formula, BCI represents the compactness index, A represents the built-up area area, and P represents the perimeter of the built-up area outline. The BCI value is between 0-1, the larger the value, the more compact the shape, and the compact value of the circle is 1.

$BCI=\frac{2\sqrt{\mathrm{\text{πA}}}}{P}$ ……………………………………………. (2)

1. (3)   Fractal dimension.

The irregularity of urban morphology fits the advantages of fractal theory in the study of complex morphology. The fractal dimension indexes for urban land use include: boundary dimension, radius dimension, grid dimension, information dimension, correlation dimension, etc (Chu, 2007). For studying a single land type in urban built-up areas, the boundary dimension is more appropriate:

$D=\frac{2\mathrm{\text{ln}}（\frac{P}{4}）}{ln\left(A\right)}$ ……………………………………. (3)

In the formula, D is the boundary dimension, A represents the area of the built-up area, and P represents the perimeter of the built-up area. The value of fractal dimension lies between 1 and 2. When the value of D is larger, the city boundary is more complicated and the stability is worse. The expansion of the urban form is dominated by external expansion.

1. (4)   Shape index.

It originated from the research of Boyce and Clark (1964), and its formula is:

$SBC={\sum }_{j=1}^n|\left(\frac{r_i}{{\sum }_{i=1}^n{r}_i}\right)\times 100-\frac{100}{n}|$ …………………….. (4)

SBC is the shape index, r_i is the radius from the dominant point to the boundary of the built-up area, and n is the number of radii with the same angle difference. After calculation, the shape index of a perfect circle is 0, and the narrower the shape, the larger the index value.

Equal Fan Analysis

In order to study the expansion characteristics of construction land in different directions and different periods in Shenyang in different periods in recent years, a more common equal fan analysis method was chosen. Taking Qingnian Street and Daxi Road, that is, the intersection of Metro Line 1 and Line 2 as the center, setting an appropriate radius can completely cover the edge of the built-up area. Divide it into 16 fan-shaped areas with equal angles and sizes (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Urban morphology and fan classification of Shenyang city from 2001 to 2014

Research Result

Changes in the area of urban built-up areas

In recent years, the urban land use in Shenyang has grown extremely rapidly. Figure 4 shows the changes in the built-up area. Figure 5 shows that the built-up area of Shenyang in 2001 was 282.16 km², accounting for 2.1% of the city's total area; by 2014, the built-up area was 1055.77 km², accounting for 8.2% of the total area, an increase of 119.8% over 2006, and the average annual expansion rate is 15%. On the whole, the built-up area of Shenyang City continued to grow from 2001 to 2014, and its expansion rate is also increasing year by year (Figure 4 and Figure 5).

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of urban expansion in Shenyang from 2001 to 2014

Figure 5. Changes of urban built-up area and proportion in Shenyang City from 2001 to 2014

Urban Sprawl Characteristics

Since 2001, the scale of Shenyang's urban built-up area has been in a trend of rapid expansion, and has certain phase characteristics. Its characteristics are shown in Figure 6 and Table 2. It can be seen that from 2001 to 2006, the built-up area of Shenyang City increased significantly, and its spatial growth rate was 14%; its expansion direction was mainly to extend to the southwest and northeast. The southern and northern expansions are relatively small; from 2006 to 2014, the built-up area in the city showed an overall upward trend. The southwest and northeast also formed two expansion wings, but the expansion rate slowed down to 15% at this time. Overall, during 2001-2014, Shenyang City saw rapid growth in urban construction land, and there was a surplus of construction land; as the population grew and construction land in the city became tense, although the urban sprawl rate has slowed down, it is still It is in a state of expansion, and the overall situation is showing a strong growth first and then a slow expansion (Figure 6 and Table 2).

Figure 6. Radar map of urban expansion of Shenyang City in different periods

Table 2. Statistics of Shenyang expansion intensity from 2001 to 2014

Index	2004-2006	2006-2014
Space growth rate(%)	14	15
Urban sprawl intensity(R)	0.14	0.15
The population density(person/km²)	527	592
Population growth rate(%)	2.86	15.63

Urban External Morphological Characteristics

The three indicators of compactness, fractal dimension and shape index are used to measure the urban land in Shenyang. The result shows:

1. (1)   Compactness Index.

Table 3. Urban land use growth and compactness index from 2001 to 2014

Index	2001	2006	2014
Perimeter(km)	972.536	1713.77	5323.44
Compactness index（BCI）	0.061	0.045	0.022

It can be seen from Table 3 that during the period from 2001 to 2006, the urban periphery compactness index of Shenyang was far less than 1, and was in a decreasing trend, but the rate of decrease showed a gradual trend, indicating that the overall shape of the city diverged to Compact process. The compactness indexes in 2001 and 2006 were 0.061 and 0.045. The rate of decline is 5.25%, respectively, indicating that although the area of built-up land in the city has been increasing, the links between the various land patches are not close enough, and the urban form is relatively loose. The degree of utilization is low. From 2006 to 2014, the compactness decreased from 0.045 to 0.022. The rate of decline is 6.39%, Although the value increased, from the perspective of time span and speed, the decline rate slowed down obviously, and the degree of compactness increased significantly, indicating that the intensity of land use increased during this period, all kinds of land in the city gradually connected into one area, and the land patches became more and more compact. Urban development is not only focused on expansion, but also on internal agglomeration.

1. (2)   Fractal Dimension.

Table 4. Statistical table of urban land use growth and boundary dimension from 2001 to 2014

Index	2001	2006	2014
Fractal dimension(D)	1.33	1.34	1.24

Boundary dimension can describe the complexity of urban boundary and reflect the change of land use status quo and the degree of land use disturbance. It can be seen from Table 4 that from 2001 to 2014, the boundary dimension of Shenyang City was less than 1.5, indicating that the shape of the city showed a neat and regular trend. During 2001-2006, the boundary dimension of the city increased by 0.01. The growth indicates that the built-up area in the city is mainly expanded, and the degree of land use interference is more obvious. During the period 2006-2014, the boundary dimension of the city has dropped from 1.34 to 1.24, indicating that Shenyang City has gradually stabilized the development of the city at this stage, seeking steady development in the expansion, rather than simply expanding the area of the city’s impervious surface. During this period, the urban development strategy and development direction of Shenyang were gradually established, and the planning of the whole city gradually became mature, and the city began to develop in a more reasonable and orderly direction. Spatial planning plays an important role in achieving efficient and sustainable development in cities (Jain, 2019). The purpose of spatial planning is to create a more reasonable land use and improve its functional relationships, balancing the two needs of environmental protection and development to achieve the goal of sustainable development of nature, society and economy (Liu, Shiu et al., 2021). We find that main functional area planning played a role in achieving the main functions and controlling the population of Beijing (Gao, Tan et al., 2019).

1. (3)   Shape Index.

Table 5. Statistical table of urban land use growth and shape index from 2001 to 2014

Index	2001	2006	2014
Shape index (SBC)	16.94	26.82	15.94

It can be concluded from Table 5 that during 2001-2006, the shape index of the construction land expansion in Shenyang City increased from 16.94 to 26.82, indicating that the urban form during this period was long and narrow, and its expansion direction was mainly in the southwest and southwest. The northeast direction shows that during this period, all aspects of urban development are still in the preliminary stage, and the understanding of the future development of the city is not clear and mature enough, and the free expansion and development of construction land in the city is allowed; in 2006-2014, the shape index shown has decreased again. Comparing Figures 2 and 3, it shows that the development of the city during this period did not only develop in a specific direction. The area of the built-up area began to expand evenly, gradually getting rid of the long and narrow shape. The morphology, the distribution and expansion of the impervious surface of the entire city generally showed a uniform development stage, indicating that during this period, the construction of the central area of the city was gradually saturated, and the construction direction was mainly concentrated in the peripheral areas of the city.

Discussion and Conclusion

This article uses remote sensing technology, ArcGIS technology platform as support, fractal theory as a medium, and refers to historical planning maps and economic statistics over the years to make a certain quantitative and qualitative analysis of the urban development pattern of Shenyang since the 21st century. Through relevant analysis, it is found that the following conclusions are drawn:

1. (1)   The entire urban form of Shenyang is in the process of gradual development and improvement, and the expansion speed in recent years has gradually changed from strong growth to a slow expansion. From the perspective of the overall development form and state of the city, from 2001 to 2006, it was mainly based on extensive expansion. From 2006 to 2014, it began to pay attention to the saturation and agglomeration degree of the urban development form, and gradually found the internal structure and function of the city. The part of other concerns has been transformed into an intensive expansion method.
2. (2)   The built-up area of Shenyang has gradually formed a spatial pattern of "one axis and one belt", one axis refers to the central axis of the Golden Corridor of Qingnian Street, and the other area is the Hunnan landscape and cultural development zone. The opening of Shenyang Metro Line 1 and Line 2 has gradually connected the major land patches into small areas. From 2001 to 2014, although the urban compactness of Shenyang City has been on a downward trend, the speed has slowed down, indicating that the urban form at this stage has gradually stabilized, which is conducive to the formation of a multi-centre city development model and the construction of the core functions of a national central city. The district lays a solid foundation.
3. (3)   The expansion of Shenyang's urban form is in a non-equilibrium state. Due to the various factors affecting the urban form and the different constraints in each direction, Shenyang's urban expansion can be roughly divided into two stages: During 2001-2006, Shenyang's urban expansion was mainly southwest and south. On the southwest side of Yuhong District, the central area of Sujiatun, and the area south of the Hunhe River. This is due to the construction of a large number of key projects in Yuhong District in 2006. The development of real estate, logistics parks, and industrial areas has been particularly rapid. In addition, the central area of Sujiatun and the south of Hunhe River, with the construction of the economic development zone, the land use is patchy. Harmony functions are gradually being organized and improved; the expansion direction from 2006 to 2014 is mainly in the northeast direction. This is because Shenbei New District vigorously promotes strategic emerging industries, and coupled with the construction of the university town, the scope of land use continues to expand.

Policy recommendations: In the process of formation and development of each city, the deterioration of its form and the irrational internal structure of the city will appear. For this reason, the expansion of the built-up area of Shenyang in recent years and the problems that have arisen, Put forward the following development suggestions:

1. (1)   From 2001 to 2014, the urban built-up area of Shenyang City has been growing in intensity. The urban built-up area has increased by 3.7 times, with an average annual growth rate of 21%, which is much faster than the population growth rate, and the city has been in an unreasonable state. Expansion state. As for Beijing, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, population is the main driving factor for urban land expansion, followed by innovation and development of industrial structure. Therefore, in future urban development, it is necessary to consider population growth and distribution, formulate scientific and reasonable land planning policies, improve land use efficiency, and rationally plan and arrange Shenyang's urban planning.
2. (2)   Pay attention to the coordinated development of various regions in the city to prevent "spreading the pie" growth. With the gradual optimization and adjustment of the industrial structure, it is necessary to develop the superior resources of each region, vigorously develop modern service industries and high-tech industries, promote the diversification of regional functions, and strive to transform to a coordinated multi-centre development model.

At present, there are abundant research achievements on urban expansion. For example, the evolution of residential land is used to identify urban expansion patterns (Liu and Lin, 2018). The spatial econometric method is used to explore the regional evolution pattern from five social factors (Wang, Zhu et al., 2020). The historical forms of cities are comparatively studied by spatial clustering (Liu, Wu et al., 2000). To explore the relationship between urban form development and sustainable transportation (Chen and Felkner, 2020); The historical development of Suzhou was traced through literature search, aerial photography and social investigation (Yang, 2021).The scholars perform robust regressions on sustainable transport indicators and urban form elements using the case of the U.S. State of Florida (Li and Kinoshita, 2020). Examples are given to show how this new science illustrates the real-time city, as well as the structure and functional boundaries of a city, while future practice and further exploration of this new science in urban planning and policy making are explored (Batty, 2021).The density is regarded as one of the elements of urban form, and certain measurement methods are usually adopted in the research (Soltani, Gu et al., 2020).

In this paper, Shenyang is an old industrial city as the research object, with fractal theory as the theoretical support, using RS remote sensing manual interpretation of three different periods of remote sensing images, while using Arc GIS technology platform to analyse various dimensions and other quantitative indicators, so as to summarize the characteristics of urban development at the present stage. Therefore, different analysis methods should be adopted for different cities, and quantitative indicators should be selected according to the characteristics of cities. Although this paper has done some quantitative analysis on urban form, there are still many shortcomings, such as ignoring the impact of land use types such as arable land and forest land on the urban form change of Shenyang, which will be further improved in the future research.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, F. M. and M. L.; methodology, F. M.; software, F. M.; investigation, F. M.; resources, F. M.; data curation, F. M.; writing—original draft preparation, F. M.; writing—review and editing, F. M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Ethics Declaration

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of the paper.

Funding

This research was funded by the Basic scientific research fees of central universities in China(DUT20RC(3)063).

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