Spatial Patterns and Dynamic Mechanisms of Urban Land Use Growth
城市土地利用扩展的空间模式与动力机制

Through carrying out a systematical review on the research progress of various Western academic schools on spatial patterns and dynamic mechanisms of urban land use growth, this paper highlights that its focus has shifted from summarizing spatial evolutionary models to exploring dynamic mechanisms during the decision making process of land development, from free land market to smart growth management. Historical experiences at home and aboard demonstrate that, while the monopoly administrative allocation system would force urban land use development to become an affiliated part of administrative powers and result in inefficiency and inequality, the free market mechanism would probably push urban land development to become an growth machine solely controlled by the motivation of profit making and deliberately destroy un renewable resources and amenable ecological environment. Therefore, in order to realize sustainable urban development and coordinate the conflicts among urban development, conservation of cultivated land, and construction of ecological environment, China should, on one side, continue to accelerate its reform on urban land use system to significantly increase the importance of the market mechanism on urban land development, and establish an equal and efficient supervising mechanism on the operation of urban land market, on the other side, strengthen the macro management function of the Governmental agencies and rationally control urban land use growth motivated by the market mechanism through various growth management policies.