Land-use suitability analysis for urban development in Beijing

Area of Science:

• Urban planning
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Spatial analysis

Background:

• Mega-city planning requires robust land-use suitability analyses.
• Existing methods may not fully integrate opportunity and constraint factors.
• Effective land-use mapping is crucial for sustainable urban development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an Urban Development Land-use Suitability Mapping (UDLSM) approach.
• To apply the UDLSM approach to map urban development suitability in Beijing.
• To identify leading factors influencing land-use suitability and conflicts.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Multi-criteria Evaluation (MCE) methods: Ideal Point Method (IPM) and Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA).
• Integrated opportunity criteria (MCE) and constraint criteria (Boolean union) to create suitability maps.
• Performed sensitivity analysis and indirect validation through map comparisons.

Main Results:

• The UDLSM approach demonstrated high agreement (91%) between IPM and OWA methods.
• Suitable areas for urban development in Beijing constitute 28% of the total area, decreasing towards the periphery.
• Identified 70% of existing development land as suitable, revealing key influencing factors.

Conclusions:

• The UDLSM approach is a robust and reliable method for mega-city land-use suitability mapping.
• The study provides valuable insights for Beijing's long-term urban development planning.
• Recommendations are offered to enhance future urban development strategies.