Evaluation and Optimization of Urban Land-Use Efficiency: A Case Study in Sichuan Province of China

Abstract

In the recent 10 years, China’s housing prices and land prices have risen rapidly, resulting in precious land resources, thus restricting the development of the cities. How to effectively measure urban land-use efficiency and how to optimize it has become a stumbling block on the road of sustainable development in China. This article focuses on the vital province in southwest China—Sichuan Province, which is facing the problem of insufficient land-use efficiency and uses the data of 32 cities from 2003 to 2018 to carry out the research. Based on the measurement results of urban land-use efficiency in Sichuan Province and its temporal and spatial evolution characteristics, this paper uses the SDM model to verify that the land-use efficiency can be optimized from the three aspects of innovation, industrial structure, and economic connections. The conclusion shows: (1) There is a weak decoupling relationship between urban land use and economic development in Sichuan Province. The urban land-use efficiency has the characteristics of polarization of more than two ends and less in the middle, but the gap is gradually reduced; (2) Time series level, urban land-use efficiency in various regions is increasing, and potential benchmark technology progress is the main reason for the increase; (3) At the spatial distribution level, urban land-use efficiency has spatial autocorrelation, forming an obvious “center-periphery” distribution pattern; (4) Innovation, economic connection, and industrial structure optimization can promote the improvement of land-use efficiency, and economic connection has a positive spillover effect on the land-use efficiency of surrounding areas. Accordingly, this study puts forward some targeted suggestions on improving urban land-use efficiency in Sichuan Province.