[Spatiotemporal pattern and its driving forces of urban growth in Shenyang City]

By using time series Landsat TM satellite images and adopting GIS spatial analysis and landscape pattern analysis methods, this paper studied the spatiotemporal diversity of urban growth and the evolution of urban landscape pattern in Shenyang, and examined their driving forces. The results showed that in 1988-2004, the urban area in Shenyang increased persistently, and the growth intensity enhanced consistently, with the peaks occured in 2000-2004. The spatial differentiation of urban growth in the City was also distinct, with the southwest direction as the leading orientation, and the urban edges and different level economic development zones as the main growth areas. The urban landscape pattern became more and more complex, and the compactness index of urban development decreased. The evolution of urban landscape pattern was related to the characteristics of urban growth, which also showed spatiotemporal diversity. The urban growth and urban landscape pattern evolution in Shenyang were mainly attributed to the development of industrialization and the construction of different level economic development zones, the proper policies of local governments and the urban planning, as well as the development of traffic infrastructure.