Human-environment interactions in China: Evidence of land-use change in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region

摘要

This paper aims to investigate human-environment interactions in the Chinese context by studying land-use change in terms of agglomeration of human activities. The research is based on theories showing that resource flows agglomerate differently in the spatial dimension. The paper creates the urban-rural linkage index and decomposes the study area into three parts: urban, peri-urban and periphery areas. Research findings show that urban areas tend to experience faster arable land and built land change than the peri-urban and periphery areas. The findings also indicate that in the Chinese context of fast urbanization and economic growth, resource flows like people, capital, goods and information tend to agglomerate in the urban areas, followed by the small towns and medium cities, as well as the rural peripheries.