Town and Construction Land Growth of Changshu City
常熟市城镇用地扩展分析

The tempo-spatial processes of the construction land, which includes urban area, town area and unattached industrial land area in Changshu city are analyzed in detail. The Landsat TM/ETM satellite images, which were respectively acquired in August 1984, October 1988, June 1994, May 2000 and July 2002, are used to digitize the area of the needed land use type with the help of GIS, which is also the main tool for analyzing the town and construction land growth data. The results are as follows: (1) the growth intensity of the common towns is less than one of the administrative towns, but the area of the common towns is not reduced. (2) The growth speed of the construction land is being accelerated, but spatial pattern of growth is not balanced and is dispersive. (3) The industrial strip and the uninterrupted zone of town is being engendered, the kernel of which is the city area and sub-kernel is Xingang town. (4) The growth of construction land is transforming from the city proper and its surrounding area to the towns along the Yangtze River. (5) The economic growth with high speed has always been one of the most important factors affecting land growth, and the correlative policies directing the economic growth run through the town land growth from beginning to end.