The Classification and Analysis of Areal Topology in Extended Metropolitan Area of Pearl River Delta
珠江三角洲都市经济区地域构成的判别与分析

With rapid economic globalization and urbanization, the competition between single cities has been converted into that of city-regions. The concept of Extended Metropolitan Region (EMR) appeared with the demand of national strategic development, and it has been widely accepted in regional planning and function-oriented zoning. Therefore, it is an important issue to study the classification and evolvement of areal topology of EMR for strengthening regional management and spatial planning. So far, few studies on feasible and scientific classification and identification method of areal topology have been developed. In order to identify the prominent problems and potential threat in the spatial use in the future, planners and policy-makers need improved methods for analyzing the areal topology of EMR. Based on the review of literature, this study presents classification method of areal topology with RS and GIS methods. Taking Pearl River Delta as an example, it discussed the detailed method and procedures of data-processing. Due to shortage and wasteful use of land the governments in Pearl River Delta are eager for alternative measures to control disordered use and spatial sprawl of urban land. It was found from this study that Pearl River Delta are undergoing large scale urbanization characterized by continuous sprawls between metropolises, scattered industrial spaces and living spaces along the main transportation line or around the central city, merging of similar kind of areal topologies. With the method, some rules of the areal topology and their spatial organizations of the Pearl River Delta EMR were identified. Furthermore, we proposed some countermeasures of spatial management and adjustment. This study showed the usefulness of combining remotely sensed satellite images with GIS analysis in monitoring and analyzing areal topology and landscape patterns. It also showed that remote sensing can be effectively used to study spatially explicit urban land-use policies. Furthermore, the application of satellite images and Google Earth enhanced the regional scale analysis that was not available by previous research on urban policies.