Does regional cooperation constrain urban sprawl? Evidence from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

Regional cooperation is increasingly adopted by Chinese multiple governments as a panacea to crack the ineffcient urban land use that is induced by jurisdiction-based land management. Nevertheless, scant literature has examined how regional cooperation in economic, social and institutional spheres affects urban sprawl. Thus, this study develops a conceptual framework to unveil the nature, contents, and relationships between regional cooperation and urban sprawl. Empirically, we use social network analysis, landscape metrics, and panel data regressions to investigate the impacts of regional cooperation on urban sprawl in the GBA (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area), China from 2010 to 2018. We have found that cooperation on economic and social affairs is prominent in few cities, e.g., Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and cooperation on institutional affairs remains generally weak. Most cities in the GBA show an increasing compactness of urban development from 2010 to 2018. Furthermore, cooperation on economic and social affairs can constrain urban sprawl. This finding is attributed to joint industrial land development and co-building of infrastructures. Also, collaborated social infrastructures and events prevent urban sprawl through distributing in the city proper and enhancing mobility of labors and capitals. However, it is not the case for cooperation on institutional affairs. Institutional fragmentation in China’s regional planning has undermined the impacts of cooperation on institutional affairs, which is manifested by the failure of spatial planning.