Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Habitat International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/habitatint Spatiotemporal patterns of urban sprawl and its relationship with economic development in China during 1990–2010 Charlie Zhang a,* , Changhong Miao b , Wenzhong Zhang c , Xiaohong Chen d a Department of Geography & Geosciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA b Center for Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development & College of Environment and Planning, Henan University, China c Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China d Institute of Geographic Sciences, Harbin Normal University, Harbin, China ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Spatial analysis Urban sprawl China Population density Economic development Compact urban growth ABSTRACT Given the fact that China has been experiencing rapid urbanization since the 1980s, limited empirical research has analyzed the spatial patterns of urban land expansion across Chinese cities using national data sets. This article attempts to explore evidence of urban sprawl and its relationship with levels of economic development using novel geospatial data on urban area boundaries and development densities for all Chinese cities. Different from existing studies, we used a decomposition approach to examine the differences between the 1990 urban boundaries and their newly developed suburbs (1990–2010) in population density and road intersection density, two key characteristics of urban sprawl. The main results show that Chinese cities have experienced dramatic increases in built-up areas but substantial decreases in development densities in the newly urbanized areas in comparison to their inner city counterparts, signifying concrete evidence of urban sprawl. Moreover, results from regression analyses indicate that a city's economic development level was positively related to urban land ex- pansion after controlling for confounding factors, largely due to the nature of China's land-centered urbanization and economic development strategies. Findings from this article can help raise awareness about the staggering reality of urban land expansion across Chinese cities and urge urban planners and policymakers to tighten their rural-to-urban land conversion systems and curb urban sprawl. 1. Introduction Best-known as an American phenomenon, urban sprawl is mainly characterized by poorly planned, low-density development occurring in the fringes of cities and metropolitan areas (Bruegmann, 2006; Harvey & Clark, 1965). Urban sprawl started to lose momentum in the U.S. and other developed countries in recent decades due to the skyrocketing costs and detrimental consequences of sprawling growth (e.g., waste of farmland, environmental degradation, construction of massive infra- structure, traffic congestion, public health concerns, residential segre- gation, etc.) in comparison to compact development (Brueckner, 2000; Hasse & Lathrop, 2003; Laidley, 2015). However, as China rapidly ur- banizes since the 1990s, numerous anecdotal observations have sug- gested that Chinese cities have been repeating the same mistakes of urban sprawl as American municipalities have made decades ago (Bosker, 2014; Kuang et al., 2014; Yew, 2012). Latest research suggests that the overall growth rate of urban built- up areas nationwide has exceeded that for urban population over the last two decades (Gao et al., 2016; Kuang et al., 2016; Ma, He, & Wu, 2016). Rampant urban development has occurred in the outskirts of virtually every city and town, encroaching into precious farmland that is extremely important for sustaining China's large population. More appallingly, a massive construction boom across the country in recent years has left abundant housing, factories, commercial facilities, and new urban districts with inexcusably low occupancy rates, known as ‘ghost cities/towns’ (Campanella, 2012; Day et al., 2013; Hsing, 2006; Liu & Salzberg, 2012; Yue, Zhang, & Liu, 2016). Dramatic urban land expansion in China is not only driven by economic development and market forces as it is in the United States and other Western countries (Barry, 1980; Brueckner, 2000; Deng et al., 2010; Tian, Ge, & Li, 2017; Zhang, 2000), but also attributable to government planned urbanization (Fang & Pal, 2016). Unprecedented rapid economic growth, rising incomes and massive rural-to-urban migration in China inevitably incur immense increase in urban built-up areas and push urban boundaries outward. However, it is also non- negligible that the loose rural-to-urban land conversion system in China https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2018.07.003 Received 11 February 2018; Received in revised form 31 May 2018; Accepted 9 July 2018 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: c.zhang@louisville.edu (C. Zhang), chhmiao@henu.edu.cn (C. Miao), zhangwz@igsnrr.ac.cn (W. Zhang), chenxh440@163.com (X. Chen). Habitat International xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0197-3975/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Zhang, C., Habitat International (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2018.07.003