China’s Transport Land: Spatiotemporal Expansion Characteristics and Driving Mechanism

The literature about changes in land use includes many studies of global sustainable development goals, while studies of transport land expansion have been relatively scarce. In this paper, we present an analysis of the spatiotemporal characteristics of transport land expansion in China’s 31 provinces from 2009 to 2017, applying the spatial Dubin model to identify the factors that influenced changes in per capita transport land area (PCTLA). The eastern and western regions have continued to lead the nation in terms of the total area dedicated to transport land. The expansion speed of transport land in the central and western regions, however, has been faster than in the eastern and northeast regions. As for PCTLA, the western region had the greatest amount and the central region the least. Further, PCTLA showed significant spatial autocorrelation. Economic development, government regulations, industrial structure, and the extent of opening up and urbanization had significant positive impacts on PCTLA, while the development of railway freight had a negative impact. This paper concludes with some policy suggestions for optimizing transport investment, accelerating the adjustment of industrial structure and transport structure, and implementing high-quality urbanization. The results should be of interest to those involved in the sustainable development of transport systems.