Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Urban–Rural Construction Land Transition and Rural–Urban Migrants in Rapid-Urbanization Areas of Central China

Abstract

Rapid urbanization accompanied with socioeconomic transformation in China has resulted in significant changes in urban–rural construction land and human–land relationships. Understanding the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban–rural construction land transition (URCLT) and rural–urban migrants (RUMs) is significant for the coordinated development of urban and rural areas. This research analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of URCLT and its decoupling relationship with RUMs in a case study of Hubei Province, central China, for the period of 2009–2016. The results corroborate the following: (1) the rapid growth of urban construction land and slow growth of rural construction land have resulted in the increasing proportion of urban construction land, (2) changes in per capita construction land indicate that urban construction land use is not intensive, and the extensive use of rural construction land is serious, and (3) the decoupling type of rural construction land transition and rural out-migrants is dominated by strong decoupling, whereas that of urban construction land transition and urban in-migrants is dominated by expansive negative decoupling. The relationship between URCLT and RUMs is not coordinated in most areas of Hubei Province. Such results provide an important premise for constituting feasible policies for urban–rural construction land regulation and sustainable urbanization.