An Evaluation of Urban Land Use Performance Based on the Improved TOPSIS Method and Diagnosis of Its Obstacle Indicators: A Case Study of Chongqing

Evaluation of urban land use performance and diagnosis of its obstacle indicators would be greatly helpful for sustainable land use. Most of cities are facing problems of extensive use of urban land. In order to promote the intensive use of urban land, this paper introduces a concept of urban land use performance and establishes a theoretical model to assess the land use performance. The evaluation index system was built with the indices of land use input level, land use degree, land use benefit, and land use sustainability, consisting of 14 evaluation indices. As urban land use is a complex multi-objective system, in the light of multi-objective making, the method of TOPSIS is used. It defines a measure in the target space, measuring the level of the target close to the ideal solution and away from the negative ideal solution. The Improved TOPSIS and obstacle degree model were jointly used. Based on investigation data of urban land use and social and economic statistic data, we calculated urban land use performance and its obstacle indicators of Chongqing Municipality. Results show that 1) the urban land use performance was gradually increasing, with the performance index increasing from 0.1866 to 0.7707 during the period 1997-2007. The degree of land use performance generally experienced three stages, i.e., low performance, medium performance, and good performance; 2) the obstacle degree of land use ecological sustainability was maximum, especially per capita green area. After 2005, the obstacle degree of the input level of land was maximum, especially per-land number of employees; and 3) in the long run, the land use degree was found to be the major factor affecting land use performance. The obstacle degree of land use degree and land input level increase by an annual average of 9.66% and 1.47%, respectively, but the obstacle degree of land use benefit and land use ecological sustainability decrease by an annual average of 3.00% and 1.44%, respectively. Finally, we put forward the main path to improve urban land use performance, including transformation of economic growth modes, development of the circular economy and clean production, promotion of urban development and utilization of the three-dimensional space, development of rail transportation, improvement of the urban environment and the urban living environment, and establishment of a dynamic management system of barriers factors.