Comparative Study on Intensive Land Use Evaluation of Cities and

Comparative Study on Intensive Land Use Evaluation of Cities and
Development Zones in China
CUI Haining, ZHANG Pengtao
College of Rural and Urban Construction, Agricultural University of Hebei, P.R.China, 071001
[email protected]
Abstract: Due to the different evaluation objects, there are differences in the expression of the concepts
between the intensive land use evaluation of cities and that of development zones. But in China they
share a common evaluation purpose, that is, to change the original extensive utilization to promote the
tapping of existing potentials, prevent unreasonable expansion and to achieve the optimal allocation of
land resource. In the evaluation indicator system, the intensive land use evaluation of cities focuses on
the combination of social, economic and ecological benefits; however, the corresponding evaluation of
development zones lays emphasis on economic benefits and the management performance of the
development zone. As to the evaluation methods, Multi-objective Comprehensive Analysis Method is
used most commonly, but there is a certain defect in determining ideal scores and weights. In addition,
no matter how to express the evaluation results, it is difficult to achieve the regional comparison and
time series analysis. Evaluation methods need to be further improved and innovated.
Keywords: City, Development zone, Intensive land use, Intensive land use evaluation, Comparative
study, China
1 Introduction
At present China is in the important period of strategic opportunities of economic and social
development. Land resource utilization is facing enormous pressure from space and environment, and
the conflict between land supply and demand becomes more prominent. Extensive land use and
inefficient management emerging in the process of economic and social development seriously hamper
the socio-economic development and urgently require intensive land use. Since the 1990s, many
Chinese experts and scholars have conducted researches on the intensive land use and its evaluation,
particularly on non-agricultural land. In 2008, Regulations for Intensive Land Use Evaluation of
Development Zones (for Trial Implementation) (later referred to as Regulations), was promulgated and
implemented, according to which, China has embarked on a nationwide intensive land use evaluation of
development zones. Despite the fact that the land of cities and development zones belongs to
non-agricultural land, there are certain differences in goals, methods and indicators of intensive land use
evaluation. Only when we have a clear understanding of the similarities and differences between them
and explore their own advantages and disadvantages on above basis can intensive land use evaluation be
made more scientific to serve the land use and land management more effectively.
2. Concepts of Intensive Land Use of Cities and Development Zones
Under the premise of reasonable allocation of land resource and optimization of land use structure,
intensive use of urban land is a process in which the land use efficiency and benefits can be improved to
make good economic benefits, social benefits and ecological benefits through increasing land
investment, improving management and giving full play to the potential of land use [1]. The intensive
land use evaluation of cities, based on its content, combines the implementation of urban planning and
the requirements of urban development, constructs evaluation indicator systems of intensive land use to
evaluate the current urban land use efficiency and benefits, and then proposes means and measures of
further improving them [2].
Based on complying with relevant laws, policies and plans, the intensive land use of development zones
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is a development and operation mode which can continuously improve the use efficiency of land and the
economic benefits of development zone through increasing land investment, improving management
and tapping the land use potential. Through the establishment of evaluation indicator system and the
utilization of model, the intensive land use evaluation of development zones is aimed at evaluating the
intensive land use level and potential of development zones and, under a certain level of science and
technology and socio-economic development proposing measures of further improving land use benefits
and efficiency of development zones.
3. Comparison of Evaluation Purposes of Intensive Land Use of Cities and
Development Zones
The basic purpose of intensive land use evaluation of cities is to change the extensive use status of urban
construction land and to change the development pattern of outward expansion in order to achieve the
combination of the outward expansion and internal potential exploitation and to realize the efficient use
and optimal allocation of urban land [3]. Intensive land use in cities does not mean high-intensity use. We
must take into account the unification of economic, social and environmental benefits, and meet the
living and producing demands of city residents.
The basic purpose of intensive land use evaluation of development zones is to change the unreasonable
expansion of development zones and the situation of extensive land use to achieve the goal of cultivated
land protection without influence on the construction development zones and to promote the optimal
allocation of land resource and at the same time to establish an efficient and intensive land use model in
development zones to use land more efficiently.
Thus, despite the different objects of the intensive land use of cities and development zones, they share a
common purpose: to change the original conditions of extensive land use, promote the tapping of land
use potentials, prevent unreasonable expansion and to achieve the optimal allocation of land resource.
But they have a certain difference in evaluation purpose also. As cities are the integration of production
and living and involves a variety of land-use types, taking into account the residents’ production and
living, the intensive land use evaluation of them pays more attention to the combination of economic,
social and ecological benefits than that of development zones, and gives a larger weight to the indicators
of affecting social and environmental benefits.
4. Comparison of Intensive Land Use Evaluation Indicator Systems
Intensive land use indicator system refers to an indicator cluster, which is made up of a series of
indicators, which are used to measure the land use efficiency and land use benefits [3]. Based on these
indicators and certain methods, intensive land use situations of certain regions can be reflected from
different angles. The construction of evaluation indicator system should reflect not only the universality
but also the individuality of intensive land use of cities and development zones. The evaluation of
intensive land use is the status evaluation of land use efficiency and use benefits. As far as the
Multi-objective Comprehensive Analysis Method is concerned, the basic process of the intensive land
use evaluation of cities and development zones is the same as each other. First, we should make clear the
evaluation purpose and objects. Second, we should identify the indicators which influence and reflect
the degree of intensive land use and then construct evaluation indicator system. Finally, we should use
models to sum up all the indicator scores to get a comprehensive score which reflects the level of
intensive land use.
4.1 The construction of evaluation indicator system of intensive land use of city
Evaluation indicator system of intensive land use generally contains three levels: targets, sub-targets and
indicators. Targets are broken down into several sub-targets and sub-targets consist of indicators.
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Because of different locations and natures of cities, intensive land use standards are different, so the
construction of indicator system should be treated separately in process of evaluation. Besides, there are
more land-use types within cities, so the evaluation should also take into account the actual use of land
and establish different evaluation indicator systems for different types of land. Zoning study have been
made in some researches urban region has been divided into industrial zones, commercial zones or
residential zones and separate indicator systems been established [4,5]. The evaluation targets and
sub-targets of the three kinds of zone are the same but the difference lies in the selection of evaluation
indicators. Some indicators in the three systems are shared, such as floor area ratio, infrastructure
completion degrees, land utilization ratio and building density. Different indicators reflect different
characteristics of different types of zone. Residential zones emphasize indicators related to residents’
lives, such as completion degree of service facilities, the rate of public green land and the realization
level of housing prices, etc.; commercial zones lay stress on commercial aggregation, the realization
level of commerce land prices and the turnover per unit area, etc.; industrial zones attach more
importance to the average land output, average land benefits and taxes, average land investment
amounts and the level of reaching the standard in sewage disposal, etc..
When carrying out the evaluation of intensive land use of cities, we can also establish a unified indicator
system, that is, there will be no land zoning, only comprehensively considering the actual use of land as
[6-11]
determining the indicator weight
. The same as the systems of the evaluation after zoning, the
evaluation targets without zoning are mainly divided into the degree of intensive land use, the level of
[
intensive land use and land use benefits 11]. Sometimes the evaluation targets are divided into the
constraint degree of intensive land use, the degree of intensive land use and the trend of intensive land
[6,7,10]
use
. Or they can be divided into the population aggregation degree, the economic activities
aggregation degree and the coordination degree of ecological environment [9]. Sub-targets are refined on
the basis of targets. The evaluation indicators mainly include the completion level of infrastructure,
green rate, building density, population density, convenient traffic degree, output intensity of fixed assets
input, etc.
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4.2 The construction of evaluation indicator system of intensive land use of development zone
Though there are many land-use types in any development zone, the nature of development zone
determines that the industrial use is the main land-use type. According to the Regulations, there is no
distinction of use when developing the evaluation indicator system and one set of indicator system is
commonly used. The main evaluation targets are the land use status, land use efficiency and land
management performance.
The land use status includes three sub-targets: land development degree, land use structure situation and
land use intensity. The evaluation indicators include land supply rate, land completion rate,
comprehensive floor area ratio, investment intensity of fixed assets, etc. Besides, hi-tech development
zones should also take into consideration the land use rate of hi-tech industries. The land use efficiency
refers to input-output efficiency of industrial land within development zone, including industrial land
input intensity and output intensity. High-tech zones should also consider high-tech industrial land use
intensity. Land management performance includes two sub-targets: land use supervisal performance and
marketization degree of land supply. The evaluation indicators consist of land disposal rate of expired
project land, disposal rate of idle land, land compensated use rate and land acquisition ratio in market.
As to the construction of indicator system, there are three differences between the intensive land use
evaluation of cities and development zones listed as follow:
(1) The evaluation of intensive land use of cities mainly considers the intensive land use level of the
whole city at the macroscopical level. Sometimes the development zone is included in urban area in
some relative research results. At present, the intensive land use evaluation of development zones tends
to stay at the mesoscopical level and generally speaking the development zone is treated as a special
region of a city.
(2) The indicator system of intensive land use evaluation of cities is used to comprehensively measure
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the land use level of cities by studying the urban social factors, economic factors and ecological factors.
The evaluation indicators not only include explicit indicators (land input level, floor area ratio, building
coefficient, etc.), but also include any hidden indicators (indicators concerning ecological environment
and environmental protection). Because of the particular establishing purpose of development zones, the
intensive land use evaluation of them tends to focus on the use of explicit indicators which are mostly
involved in economic factors. Therefore, there is large room for the study of hidden indicators. In
development zones the main land-use type is industrial one and the location of it is at the intersection
part of rural and urban areas. Thus, the influence of land use on the environment and the residents or
producers cannot be ignored.
(3) In the evaluation of intensive land use of cities different indicator systems can be established
respectively based on land-use types and focus on different aspects [4,5. In development zones the main
land-use type is industrial use and only one set of indicators is commonly used according to The
Regulations. Besides, less attention has been paid to the land management performance in the intensive
use evaluation of urban land, but in the intensive land use evaluation of development zones land
management performance is singled out as the main target, with the supervisal performance of land use
and land supply marketization degree as the two sub-targets.
5. Comparison of Evaluation Methods of Cities and Development Zones
The evaluation of intensive land use of cities can adopt a variety of methods, such as the Analytic
Hierarchy Process [12], Clustering Analysis [13], Principal Component Analysis [14], Multi-objective
Comprehensive Analysis [6-8,15,16] etc., of which the Multi-objective Comprehensive Analysis Method is
used most frequently. According to the Regulations, the evaluation of intensive land use of development
zones commonly adopts Multi-objective Comprehensive Analysis Method. Therefore, the rest of this
article compares the evaluation of cities and development zones mainly aiming at this method. As to this
method, firstly the evaluation indicator system must be established firstly. Then reasonable approaches
are used to determine indicator ideal scores and to carry out indicator standardization. Meanwhile the
weight of each indicator is determined according to its importance degree. Secondly, the summation of
products of indicator score after standardization and its weight score is calculated, from sub-targets to
targets, from bottom to top, till the comprehensive land intensity score is figured out which is used to
reflect the degree of intensive land use.
5.1 The determination of ideal score of evaluation indicator
Influenced by the geographical location, industrial structure, level of development, culture and many
other factors, cities vary in many aspects. Therefore, in the intensive land use evaluation of them, each
evaluation indicator does not have a unified ideal score. Generally, according to the conditions on a
regional basis and the classification, we put cities into region to determine the ideal target score [9]. The
ideal scores can be determined according to national or local standards, or the maximum score standard
of similar cities, or the relevant standards of similar cities of countries at similar development stages, or
using Delphi Method. All above methods need to be compared and selected aim at each indicator. So
generally the determination of different types of indicators uses different approaches.
According to the Regulations, ideal scores of the intensive land use evaluation of development zones
can be determined by the Target Score Method, Trend Estimation, Advanced Experience Approximation
Method and Delphi Method. In practice, the determination of ideal scores must also consider the grade
of development zones.
5.2 The comparison of the calculation of indicator scores
There are two calculation methods of indicator scores in intensive use evaluation of urban land. The first
method is using reasonable methods to determine the indicator ideal score which then is divided into a
number of intervals representing different grades that are given certain values. Comparing each indicator
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value to indicator intervals can determine the indicator score of each [7,10,17]. Take urban sewage
treatment rate, one of the indicators reflecting environmental quality status, for example. Suppose its
ideal score is 1 and is divided into 5 intervals, namely indicator score 1, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4 and 0.2, each
corresponding to the actual sewage treatment rate of 90%-100%, 70%-90%, 50%-70%, 30%-50% and
20%-30%. If the sewage treatment rate of a city is 85%, its indicator score is then 0.8. The second
method is, after determining indicator ideal score, to take the realization score as the indicator score
when indicator is standardized (indicator standardization here means that indicator value is compared to
ideal score and the ratio is used to describe the realization degree of the indicator) [16,18].
In development zones the calculation of the indicator score adopts Indicator Standardization Method,
that is, the second method mentioned above.
5.3 The comparison of the weight’s determination
The weight in the intensive land use evaluation of cities is generally determined by Delphi Method,
Factors Paired Comparison Method [7] and AHP [8,19]. Two methods can be combined to use, such as the
Delphi Method and AHP combined [16,18], Factors Paired Comparison Method and Delphi Method [10].
However, in determining process urban land use types must be considered first, especially in the
conditions that the indicator system is established respectively according to different land-use types. The
same indicator may have different influence on residential districts, commercial districts or industrial
districts, so have different weight.
According to the Regulations, in the intensive land use evaluation of development zones indicator
weights can be determined by Delphi Method, Factors Paired Comparison Method, AHP and other
methods, that is, to determine the weight the above methods are optional. The determination of indicator
weight should be combined to the reality of development zones and refers to the indicator factor’s
influence on the intensive land use and to the land use status of development zones.
5.4 The calculation of comprehensive score of intensity
After the indicator score of intensive land use of city is determined, the comprehensive score of intensity
can be calculated using Weight Sum Models.
Due to the three-tier structure (target sub-target indicator) of the evaluation indicator system, after
the indicator score of the intensive land use evaluation is determined, the comprehensive score of
intensity can be got through calculating weight sum from bottom to top and from sub-targets to target.
Steps are as follows:
—
—
n
F = ∑ ( Fi × w i )
(Formula 1)
i=1
(Note: The above formula can be applied to multiple measurement steps.
）
(1) The calculation of sub-target score: in formula 1, F is the sub-target score, Fi is the indicator score of
the indicator i, Wi is the weight of the indicator i, n is the number of indicators.
(2) The calculation of target score: in formula 1, F is the target score, Fi is the sub-target score of the
sub-target i, Wi is the weight of the sub-target i, n is the number of sub-targets.
(3) The calculation of the comprehensive score of intensity: in formula 1, F is the comprehensive score
of intensity, Fi is the target score of the target i, Wi is the weight of the target i, n is the number of
targets.
The intensive land use evaluation of development zoned is also using the above model to figure out the
score of evaluation sub-target and target and then the comprehensive score of intensity according to
respective weights.
6. Comparison of Comprehensive Evaluation Results of Intensive Land Use of
Cities and Development Zones
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In the evaluation of intensive land use of development zones the comprehensive score of intensity is
calculated and is taken as evaluation result. The score represents the degree of intensive land use. In
theory, this comprehensive score is between 0 and 1. The higher the score is and the closer it is to 1, the
higher the intensive land use degree of development zones is.
According to final comprehensive score, the intensity of land use of cities is generally classified as
several levels in order to reflect more directly the degree of intensive land use [7,10,17,18,20]. For an
example if 1 stands for 100% intensity, 0 stands for complete extensive use, then comprehensive scores
≥0.85, 0.75 0.85, 0.60 0.75, <0.60 respectively correspond to four statuses intensive land use,
moderate intensity of land use, low degree of intensive land use and extensive land use. If the
comprehensive intensity score of a city was 0.82, then the degree of intensive land use of this city is
moderate intensity. This method transforms quantitative values into qualitative description, easy to
understand. But this method is comparatively subjective and lack of sufficient and convincing evidence
in interval division and level description. There is another conclusion model of the intensive land use
evaluation of cities, that is, only to calculate comprehensive score of intensity and not to set specific
levels, which is the same as that of development zones [11-13].
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7. Conclusion
In view of the city's function and the diversity of urban land use patterns, the intensive land use of cities
must follow the principle of integrating economic, social and ecological benefits, so the goal of
intensive land use evaluation is not only to promote the land use efficiency. However, development
zones presently lay more emphasis on land use efficiency and economic benefits while pays less
attention to the ecological and social benefits of land use. In accordance with the fact that the land in
development zone is mainly of industrial use and lies rural-urban fringe there are many land-use types
coexisting, the ecological and social benefits of land use should be emphasized in future evaluations of
intensive land use. At present, the evaluation indicators of development zones mainly involve economic
benefits and land management performance. Therefore, in building evaluation indicator system of
development zones, the experience of indicator system construction in intensive land use evaluation of
cities should be studied and evaluation indicators that can reflect ecological and social benefits of land
use should be added. Only the indicator system is constructed like this can it represent the integration of
economic, social and ecological benefits. However, the evaluation of intensive land use of cities
sometimes even includes development zone in geographical scope and has an extensive coverage in the
construction of indicator system, considering social, economic and ecological factors. But it is lack of
relevant indicators of land management performance. To achieve the intensive use of urban land, there
must be sound operating and management modes to improve land management performance and help
raise the intensity level of urban land use. Therefore, the intensive land use evaluation of cities should
also learn from the evaluation system construction experience of development zones to complement
indicators reflecting urban land management to promote urban land use management and improve
management performance.
For the evaluation methods, the intensive land use evaluation of cities mainly uses Multi-objective
Comprehensive Analysis Method. This round of intensive land use evaluation of development zones in
China has also adopted this method. Although the method adopted has been compared and selected, the
selection of ideal scores and the determination of weights have more subjectivity in process of
evaluation, which leads to the corresponding results with subjectivity.
The comparability of evaluation results is essential. Through the horizontal comparison, i.e. the regional
comparison, we can find out the gap between different cities or between development zones in aspects
of intensive land use level and of evaluation indicators. This kind of comparison can help cities or
development zones of lower intensive use level find out their problems and then solve them. Through
vertical comparison, i.e. the time series analysis, cities and development zones can summarize the
experiences and achievements over the years so that they can develop relevant guidelines and policies
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for the future. To establish a comparable basis is the key part of achieving the horizontal and vertical
comparison of the evaluation results, and is also an important issue in intensive land use evaluation in
the future.
With the development of economy and society as well as the innovation of technology in China, the
social requirements for intensive land use of cities and development zones will be further enhanced and
requirements for intensive land use evaluation will be further improved. The evaluation of intensive land
use of cities and development zones requires innovation in methods, in construction of indicator system,
in result expression and in application. The relevant study is of great theoretical and practical
significance.
：
Author in brief and Acknowledgments
(1) CUI Haining, female, postgraduate student of land resource management; (2) Zhang Pengtao
(corresponding author), male, Doctor, associate professor. Research area is land evaluation and
management.
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