Abstract:
In the context of the carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality goals, scientifically measuring the land use efficiency of urban expansion areas, realizing zoning regulation, and revealing the differential effects of multidimensional factors on land use efficiency in different zones are highly important for cities to achieve a low-carbon transition. At present, relevant studies on urban land use efficiency are already very rich. However, three limitations remain be solved: mainstream measurement methods neglect the spatial heterogeneity of land use efficiency within cities, few studies comprehensively consider the differential impacts of multidimensional factors on land use efficiency, and there is a lack of locally adapted governance strategies for different types of urban patches at the micro scale. In view of this, taking Zhejiang Province as an example, the research methods primarily involve constructing a patch-scale model to measure land use efficiency in urban expansion areas from an “economy-environment” perspective, analyzing its spatial patterns using standard deviation ellipses, classifying it into four types based on a two-dimensional matrix coupled with the “economy-environment,” and exploring its influencing factors using the Geodetector. The results showed that: 1) The average economic efficiency of land use in Zhejiang Province was 0.74. High-value areas were concentrated in the intersection of four cities in northern Zhejiang and central Ningbo, while low-value areas formed multiple small and medium-sized clusters in southern Zhejiang. The average carbon emission efficiency was 0.77, forming a spatial pattern characterized by concentration in high-value areas and dispersion in low-value areas. 2) According to the matching relationship between the economy and carbon emission efficiency, urban expansion in Zhejiang Province can be classified into four types. The low-carbon development zones accounted for 59.12% of the total area and exhibited a block pattern of “large agglomeration and small dispersion.” The emission reduction and efficiency enhancement zones accounted for the lowest proportion (8.30%) of land area and were concentrated in the belt area composed of Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Zhoushan. The low-carbon demonstration zones were interwoven with the emission reduction and efficiency enhancement zones. The green transformation zones were mainly dominated by early urban expansion patches during the study period and were distributed in a centralized manner. This zone formed two large clusters centered on the urban areas of Hangzhou and Ningbo, with less distribution in the mountainous counties in southern Zhejiang. 3) The functional configuration elements had a significant impact on the economic efficiency of land use in low-carbon development, emission reduction and efficiency enhancement, and low-carbon demonstration zones. In the green transformation zone, transportation construction and public service elements exerted greater influence than did other zones. In terms of the carbon emission efficiency of land use, spatial structure elements had significant influences in the low-carbon development zones. The functional configuration was the core driving factor affecting the carbon emission efficiency of land use in the emission reduction and efficiency enhancement zones and green transformation zones. In the low-carbon demonstration zones, the impacts of transportation construction factors were relatively strong. In conclusion, urban multiple participants should implement corresponding measures tailored to different types of urban expansion areas to reasonably improve their economic efficiency while effectively reducing their carbon emission efficiency, thereby promoting low-carbon transformation in cities.