Multiscale analysis of the correlation patterns between the urban population and construction land in China

The relationship between the urban population and urban construction land is an important indicator for assessing urbanization quality. With the rapid growth of urban population and the drastic expansion of urban construction land, human-land contradictions have become a major factor restricting the sustainable development of cities. This paper analyzes the coordination relationship between the urban population and urban construction land at the national, provincial and provincial-capital scales in China in recent years. The results show that the expansion rate of urban construction land in China is generally faster than the growth rate of the urban population, resulting in an overall discordant human-land relationship. Although the regional differences in the uncoordinated allocation of urban population and urban expansion gradually narrowed from 2010–2017, there was still mismatch among provinces. The relationship between the urban population and urban construction land trends was mainly coordinated at the provincial scale and uncoordinated at the provincial capital scale. By combining the coordination degrees at the provincial and provincial-capital scales, we identify six combined development types and analyze the combined characteristics of urban population growth and urban construction land expansion. It is necessary to formulate differentiated policies to guide urban population development and urban construction land use at different scales. These findings provide a theoretical basis for alleviating the human-land contradiction and achieving sustainable urban development.