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As the national center for politics and culture, Beijing’s urbanization level is very high. Many policies within the proposed Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region coordinated development plan affect the expansion of urban land. Therefore, it is very important to predict urban land use changes in Beijing for planning and management purposes. In this paper, we integrated of MAS (multi-agent system) and CA (cellular automata) to simulate new satellite towns construction and ecological sensitivity impact on land use change. Physical and social driving factors were used in the combined model. The MAS involved the actions of three types of agent: regional authorities, property developers, and residents. The study used the CA model to simulate the neighborhood effects of urban land use, and the MAS model to simulate agents’ decisions. The new satellite towns and an ecological sensitivity analysis were embedded in the model to simulate the impact of decision making by the Beijing government on urban land expansion. Based on the land use data of 2005, the urban land area in 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025 was predicted using the CA-MAS model. Urban expansion occurred faster during 2015–2025 than during the previous 10 years. Three land use types, i.e., cropland, woodland, and rural residential land, were the major sources of urban expansion. With respect to government decision making, the satellite towns were the priority areas of urban development, and urban development was restricted in ecologically sensitive areas. The New Districts of Urban Development were projected to become the main areas of future urban expansion in Beijing. The area designated for urban expansion around the ecologically sensitive areas was small. The results demonstrate that satellite towns and ecological sensitivity have large impacts on urban expansion. The results of this study will help to protect ecologically sensitive land, while enabling harmonious expansion of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A contribution index was proposed to evaluate contributions of urbanization to UHI. [•] Urban land as the most important contributor increases regional LST. [•] The role of cropland and forest has a diurnal inter-conversion. [•] The LST–NDVI relationships verify significantly the reliability of the contribution index. [•] Vegetation partition is an effective approach to regulating urban thermal environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The morphology of a city affects its ecological and socioeconomic functions, and thus how a city is spatially structured has important bearings on urban sustainability. The paper analyzes the spatial pattern of Beijing in relation to its urban functions. Our results show that the 6 concentric ring-roads in Beijing provide a basic framework for the city''s overall spatial pattern, and also give its apparent resemblance to the classic concentric zone theory. The paper identifies 5 concentric zones for Beijing based on a suite of urban functions. However, there are significant differences between the urban spatial pattern of Beijing and that depicted in the classic concentric zone theory. The study sheds new light on the urban morphology of one of the major Chinese cities, and provides needed information for developing plans to diffuse urban functions in Beijing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]