Understanding the Diversity of Urban-Rural Fringe Development in a Fast Urbanizing Region of China

The territories between urban and rural areas, also called urban-rural fringe, commonly present inherent instability and notable heterogeneity. However, investigating the multifaceted urban-rural fringe phenomenon based on large-scale identification has yet to be undertaken. In this study, we adopted a handy clustering-based method by incorporating multidimensional urbanization indicators to understand how the urban-rural fringe development vary across space and shift over time in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration, China. The results show that (1) the growth magnitude of urban-rural fringe areas was greater than urban areas, whereas their growth rate was remarkably lower. (2) The landscape dynamics of urban-rural fringe varied markedly between fast-developing and slow-developing cities. Peripheral sprawl, inter-urban bridge, and isolated growth were the representative development patterns of urban-rural fringe in this case. (3) Urban-rural fringe development has predominantly occurred where cultivated land is available, and significant inter-provincial differences and tendency shifts have been found in the land cover change processes therein. Our findings indicate that the urban-rural fringe development should be considered as a stage-dependent and place-specific process. This work extends previous knowledge by unraveling the diversity of urban-rural fringe in a fast urbanizing region, and can provide insights into reorienting the spatial planning and land use management within the urban-rural interface.