Research on the Measurement of Urban Sprawl with a Multi-Factor Indicator in the Context of Rapid Urbanization in China

This paper attempts to create a multi-factor urban sprawl indicator containing population, economy, land use, and infrastructure by using statistical data, and empirically measures the urban sprawl level of 69 cities in China between 2000 to 2014. It then analyzes the results from regional and periodic perspectives, and divides urban sprawl into four types as well as discusses their characteristics. The main conclusions are:(1) the multi-factor indicator is applicable to measure China’s current urban sprawl level;(2) urban sprawl of large and medium-sized cities is becoming serious, while this trend has been eased in recent years;(3) the urban sprawl level and trend of large and medium-sized cities obviously differ from each other in regional perspective;(4) different types of urban sprawl present different sprawl structural characteristics.