Abstract:

Making a study of the spatial and temporal pattern evolution and driving factors of land urbanization in Yangtze River Economic Belt, has the important theoretical and practical significance for new-type urbanization construction. This study measured the land urbanization level of 121 Prefecture-level cities in Yangtze River Economic Belt from1994 to 2014.By using the Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis（ESDA）to explore the spatio-temporal characteristics of the land urbanization. Discussing the driving factors with the method of Partial Least Squares Regression（PLS）.The results of the study showed that: Land urbanization level in Yangtze River Economic Belt revealed a growing trend as well，and showed the characteristics of periodic variation. The spatial differences of land urbanization in Yangtze River Economic Belt were mainly represented that as the core of the polarization, agglomeration trend of the land urbanization hot zones had taken on gradually decreasing from northeast to southwest. The land urbanization level in Yangtze River Economic Belt was affected by various factors, for example: economic performance, industrial structure, population scale, fixed assets investment, and regional factors.