Spatial and temporal change in urban-rural land use transformation at village scale-A case study of Xuanhua district, North China

This paper aims to investigate the spatial patterns, temporal processes and driving mechanisms of urban-rural land use transformation (URLUT). Empirical study of Xuanhua district of Hebei province from 1996 to 2012 showed that urban-rural land use transformation index (URLUTI) decreased linearly with increasing distance to central downtown (DCD), and the gap between central and edge areas increased during 1996–2012. Spatial autocorrelation showed an accelerating clustered pattern, and the hot spots shifted from decentralization to centralization and then back to decentralization. Industrialization and urbanization were the basic driving factors of URLUT, and local, regional and national social and economic transformation deeply and widely affected its development. The study highlights that the regional development should implement correct urban-rural transformation strategy and plan according to its location and nature resources conditions, and obey the spatial laws of urban-rural transformation for improving the efficiency of land use and promoting urban-rural integration. Furthermore, the government’s intervention to economic development should be reduced and let the market play more roles in the allocation of resources.