Remote Sensing and GIs for

Urban Growth Analysis in China

Shupeng Chen, Shan Zeng, and Chuangjle Xle

Abstract
The progress of urban remote sensing and GIS in China since
the early 1980s is reviewed. The first section introduces the
early applications of remote sensing to environmental monitoring and resources investigation, and outlines its achievements. The second section focuses on further analysis of urban
expansion from the point of view of spatial distribution patterns and temporal change, taking Beijing, Shanghai, and
Dongguan as examples. Urban GIS is discussed in the third
section. The regional differences of uGIS development in China
are detailed from south to north. As remote sensing and GIs
technologies develop, they will be combined for use in urban
planing and management.

Development of Urban Remote Sensing In the 20th Century

A city can be regarded as a hinged center of material flows,
energy flows, and information flows within a region. In other
words, it is a mixed complex of social and economic development, and regional resources exploitation, continuously promoting productivity levels and the standard of living in the
region. We may describe this as similar to the working of the
human kidney, which constantly outputs waste products and
replaces them with fresh products. Processes of urbanization
reflect not only the progress and development of regions, but
also mark regional cultures and civilizations of an epoch. Fating rapid change and a complicated urban system, we undoubtedly need to apply 20th century space and aerial techniques for
dynamic monitoring. Furthermore, only cities can meet the
needs of the high input-and-output talents and funds for GIs
and remote sensing applications.
In 1800,the number of urban residents represented only 2
percent of the total population of the world, while the number
had reached 10 percent by the beginning of 20th century.
Almost two-hundred years later, the urban population has
grown to over 3.2 billion, equally half of the global population,
and it increases by an average of 1,000,000 people per week.
Between 1970 and 1985, the number of people below the poverty line in urban areas increased by 22 percent, so that the
problem was more serious for those in urban areas.
In 1993, about 330-million urban residents lived in urban
areas of 16,000km2in China, the numbers of urban residents
having doubled from those of the 1970s. Today there are over
660 cities with residential populations of more than 500,000.
China is both a country with a huge population and an AsianPacific country with a rapidly developing economy. As urbanization processes are being accelerated and more and more
mega-cities are appearing, the Chinese population will increase from 1.2 billion to 1.6billion in the 21st century. Correspondingly, the urban population will reach 29 percent in 2020

State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environment Information Systems, Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING

and 47 percent in 2050 (Yang, 1996).We will then have to face a

series of environmental problems, such as a water resource crisis, increased air pollution, and waste treatment problems. We
will have to make a series of decisions, such as construction
planning and land management. All of these situations will
stimulate the promotion of geographic information systems
(GIS) and remote sensing monitoring to deal with present and
future urban problems.
Under China's extended open-door policy and the establishment of special economic regions, development zones, and
bonded duty zones throughout the country, regional development in coastal areas has advanced rapidly since the 1980s.
Four highly dense urban regions have gradually formed in the
Shandong Peninsula, the Liaodong (eastern Liaoning) Peninsula, the Beijing-Tianjing-Tangshanregion, the Yangtse River
Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. Sixteen mega-cities are distributed along 18,000kilometers of China's coastline, including
the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, along with
102 large-and medium-size cities and 278 small-size towns.
Meanwhile, four huge, densely populated urban areas are scattered along the 6,300-kilometerYangtse River. These include
Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chongqing. There are, however, few cities of such size in the wider western and middle
inland areas of China, with the exception of Zhengzhou, Xian,
and Harbin. The trend of urban distribution mentioned above
further enlarges the gap between both sides along the Tengchong-Aihui population distribution line.
In the early 1980s, aerial and satellite remote sensing techniques were applied to environmental monitoring, land resources investigation, and urban planning and management in
China. Tianjin was the first city to conduct an aerial remote sensing experiment. Land-use and land-cover maps were produced,
based on false-colorinfrared images. Meanwhile, environmental quality evaluation was conducted on air, water source and
float dust, and content of sulfur dioxide through aerosol Sampling and monitoring data of air pollution. The research results
were published in the Tianjin Atlas of Environment Quality
(Chen, 1986).This achievement had a positive effect on municipal engineering construction projects such as pollution protection of the Haihe River, crossroad planning, planting survival
rate, harbor deposit monitoring, and coastal zone development
with remote sensing data and maps. It also supplied a scientific
basis for the application for a World Bank loan for municipal
infrastructure construction. In 1985, NOAA AVHRR and Landsat
MSS images were used to evaluate the Ecology and Environment in the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshanregion (Fu and Cao,
1989).

Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing

Vol. 66, No. 5, May 2000, pp. 593-598.
0099-1112/00/6500-000$3.00/0
O 2000 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing

In 1983,aerial remote sensing was successfully applied to

tourism, land resources investigation, transportation, and heat
islands in Beijing. The results show, for example, that the
length of Great Wall sites should be extended from 276 km to
673 km, and the distribution of rubish heaps and the construetion sites between the second and the third ring roads were
illustrated. It provided a basis for allocating seven waste treatment facilities and also provided the site selection for the
Asian Olympic Game Park.
During 1985 and 1995,a series of investigations were carried out with aerial infrared remote sensing on ecological and
environmental issues for Taiyuan, Dalian, Guangzhou, and 90
other large- and medium-size cities in China. In Shanghai, for
instance, urban land-use patterns, heat-island effects, and parkland expansion rates were analyzed by means of Landsat TM
images. In Luoyang, Yichang, Suzhou, and other medium-size
cities, aerial photos and .SPOT images were used to produce reference maps for urban planning and infrastructure investment,
sponsored by the World Bank.
In order to carry out a sustainable development strategy,
utilize land reasonably, and preserve farmland, the State Land
Management Bureau organized remote sensing investigations
on the propriety of urban land use in large- and middle-size
cities throughout the country. The statistics from 66 cities show
that cities located in the eastern plains occupy huge amounts
of farmland while the proportions are lower in coastal cities or
hilly areas along rivers (Plate 1).This investigation will be
extended to cover more than 200 large and middle-size cities in
China by the year 2000.
The trend in urban GIs is gradually changing from an urban
dynamic monitoring system to construction of a long-term

urban information system. According to our primary study

(Chen et al, 1998),the trend started slowly, but developed rapidly in the southern coastal cities in China. Urban planning and
land-management information systems have been developed
for these cities. The large cities i n the Yangtse River Basin have
built their urban information systems into a public benefit supported by provincial governments, with the provision of services for related departments of planning and management.
For most large cities in the northern mainland of China, however, urban GIs, are still at the research and development stage,
or the experimental stage.
The waves of remote sensing and GIs development are generally harmonious with the level of productivity. Their spread
is advancing from south to north, in a fashion similar to that of
the modern democratic revolution and economic reforms in
China, Regional differences remain quite high. In order to continue making progress, we must be able to transmit modern
ideas, make reasonable rules, and foster effective outreach
policies.
With the development of urbanization and the increasingly
wide application of remote sensing and the Global Positioning
System (GPS), the technical theories of urban planning and
management are gradually being perfected based on GIS. They
are moving from the phase of scientific experiments to the
industrialization phase, and from governmental actions to
enterprise activities and socialization. The National Remote
Sensing Center of China carried out research on the criteria for
a resource and environmental information system in 1983.The
State Standard Bureau and State Mapping and Surveying
Bureau jointly established the standard for the urban information system in 1996.A set of monographs and teaching materi-

URBAN EXPANSION I N CHINA (1987 - 1997)

-,

r-

'.,

Repom

Expanson area (ha)

ID

sm

ram

-Clam

~ubmnnaanrp~h(*BLMIna

Plate 1. Urban expansion in China (original map scale of 1:25,000,000 reduced to 1:40,000,000).

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May 2000

PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING 81REMOTE SENSING

als about urban remote sensing and GIS have been available
since then (Gong, 1997; Song and Yeh, 1995).
In the 1990s, Chinese urban remote sensing continued to
move forward. Remote sensing data were used to trace the
course of urbanization and the history of urban evolution, and
to explore the pulse of urban development. This provided the
scientific basis for establishing an urban development plan. In
addition, multiple remote sensing data were used not only as
the main information source for updating the database of the
urban GIS, but also as the operating system for urban dynamic
monitoring.

Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Urban Growth

The development of Chinese cities has a long history, and there
are large regional differences. The construction of new urban
areas and the reconstruction of old zones continues with unprecedented speed. Many existing environmental problems
remain unsolved while more and more new problems have
come into being. Therefore,the applications of remote sensing
and GIs have become the focus of interest of both urban planning and management departments and experts of RS and GIs,
who wish to gain a deeper understanding of problems such as
urban-rural changes, landscape structure, and environmental
quality.
Beljlng Case
The first false-color infrared aerial photographs were taken
over Beijing in 1983. 'henty-seven thematic maps were made
from these photographs (Chen, 1986; Fu and Cao, 1989). Prof.
Dai Changda (Dai et a]., 1996) used TM images dated 26 September 1987,17 October 1989,25 October 1992, and 7 September 1994 to detect land-use change in Beijing. It was found that
the builtup area in Beijing increased about 39 percent from
1987 to 1994. New greenbelts were established in suburban
and rural areas. In 1987, parkland in Beijing and its eight satellite cities occupied &5 percent of the total area. This increased
to 16.93 percent in 1994. Obviously, this percentage is stillvery

low. The transportation network has rapidly expanded into the

suburbs. The third and fourth ring roads were legible on the TM
images. In 1987 there were about 20 roads connected with
these two main roads. In 1994, however, there were more than
100. Thus, traffic accidents and traffic jams increased significantly. Bei-jing is one of the few major world cities without a
river. In the 1980s the area of public water surface was only 5.9
km2.This went up to 20 km2in the 1990s, the increase being
mainly the result of an increase in the number of fishponds in
the area.
Research by Prof. Gu (Gu, 1997) revealed the trends of
Beijing dynamic change. The commercial downtown areas
declined and needed full reconstruction. For example, 31
supermarkets were constructed in 1995, while 60 supermarkets were reconstructed in the 1996 to 1997 time period. Landuse patterns in the inner city are changing. In 1998,35 towns
and industrial zones were constructed in the outer suburbs, distributed in a ring whose radius extended some 20 to 70 km
from the city center. Three-hundred fifty-eightindustrial enterprises inside the third ring road, which occupy 40,000 m2,are
being moved out to the suburbs in rapid succession. A large
number of villas and recreational villages are being constructed
in the outer suburbs.

Shanghai Case
The first aerial photographs were taken over Shanghai in 1947
at a scale of 1:8,000. Since 1984, aerial infrared photography
surveying has been carried out ten times, at scales ranging from
1:10,000to 1:35,000.All these photographs were widely used
in the investigation of city construction; water, air, and waste
pollution; urban parklands; ecological environment and land
use; as well as archaeology and disaster research (Sun and
Zhou, 1994). For example, remote sensing photos and images
acquired in 1993-1994 were used during extant land investigation and mapping. All the results were used in the modification of master urban planning for Shanghai (Mei, 1992).
Through the survey and research, we obtained all the neces-

Changes of Landuse in Shanghai (1947- 1996)

Plate 2. Built-up area expansion in Shanghai (the light colored areas represent the built-up area).

PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING 81REMOTE SENSING

May 2000

595

sary data regarding construction density and dangerous house

distribution. At the same time, the research analyzed the geometric scales of urban roads, public parking lots, and the speed,
density, and flow of vehicles. A general environmental quality
assessment model of the Pudong District was established based
on land use, parklands, dumping of solid waste, pollution of
surface water, and distribution of feedlots. A three-dimensional
simulation of urban parkland growth was conducted. The ecological and economic benefits of existing parklands were
assessed. The urban heat island, as well as the type and distribution of land surface, was studied.
At the same time, the progress and regularity of Shanghai's
urbanization in the past half century were studied. Using
14,000 aerial photos, ten Landsat MSS images, ten Landsat TM
images, and some SPOT images, we discovered that the built-up
area in Shanghai had expanded from 91 km2in 1947 to 364 km2
in 1996 (plate 2). The rGe of increase was not uniform over the
years and the region, as listed in Table 1.The rate was 3.43 km2
per year from 1949 to 1964,1.31 k d per year from 1964 to
1979, and 10.33 km2per year from 1979 to 1996. For example,
the Pudong District expanded only 25 km2from 1947 to 1988
before opening, averaging 0.61 km2per year. After opening in
1989,the Pudong District expanded to 78 km2in 1993,96 km2
in 1996,totally 57 km2,with an average of 8.14 km2per year.
Dongguan

Dongguan City is a case of the fastest development in the Pearl

River Delta (Yeh and Li, 1996; Yeh and Li, 1997; Li, 1997). It
was found, through analysis of TM images, that about 21,285.7
km2of farmland were used for urban construction from 1988 to
1993. The TM images were also used to classify the land-use
types and the changes among the different types. When evaluating land resources, the near-infrared and infrared bands were
used to establish the NDVI vegetation index. The index was
modified, based on soil and topographic slope data, to calculate
the regional agricultural suitability. Through the suitability
analysis, the land resources in Dongguan were divided into
seven levels, and each land parcel was assigned an agricultural
loss value. Overlaying the suitability map with the administrative boundary, the agricultural loss for each town and village
can be calculated.

Urban Planning and Management Informatlon Systems

Guamou Urban Planning and Management InformatlonSystem

The development of the Guangzhou urban planning and management information system was based on a large numbers of
aerial photographs, including more than 2,000 digital orthophoto maps at 1:2,000 scale covering the city (Dai, eta]., 1997).
The system's purpose was to investigate hydrology and greenbelts and to identify any buildings not meeting regulations.
With the support of the system, a strategic development plan for
the period from 1991 to 2010 was put forward (Huang, 1997),
including the structure of urban develo~ment,land-use atterns, enkronmental protection, and p&er supply. ~ r othe
i
scientific viewpoint, four factors will be considered ( S . Chen,
Conception of the "threshold analysis" of urban development.
Through a comprehensive threshold analysis within a GIS,the
area for urban development can be divided into different grades

Year
Built-up Area (km2)
Increased Area
Rate of Increase

596

May 2000

at certain thresholds, in order to evaluate the conditions of

various development directions and the distribution of urban
functions. The analysis results show that areas such as the
Baiyun Mountain in Guangzhou city and the Pearl River alluvial
plain with certain natural thresholds cannot be used as construction land. The existing developed area has several grades
of thresholds, and great development potential will lie in the
eastern part of the city.
Development of protection and planning information systems
for historic cities includes information about the environmental
landscape, cultural relics and historic sites, modern outstanding
buildings, and old trees. There are more than 200 cultural relics
and 300 old trees registered into the system.
Establishment of the database of underground pipelines covering more than 300km2 has been established to realize office
automation of pipeline planning and implementation through
comprehensive query, network profile analysis, and pipeline
design.
Models of urban growth and land value increment. A theory of
six stages and a concept of three impetuses are put forward,
which form the basis of the model.
Urban Remote Senslng In Chongqlng Clty

Chongqing became a provincial-level municipality in 1997

with an area expanding from 23,000 km2to 82,000 km2,and
covering 80 percent of the Three Gorges reservoir area. Chongqing is facing arduous problems such as rebuilding the old
industrial bases, assisting with migration resulting from the
Three Gorges Dam project, and protecting the environment.
Therefore, remote sensinn and G I technolonies
~
are of meat
value in helping to solve h e problems of cit; reconstruction,
farmland misuse, deforestation, and water and soil loss.
1:60,000-scaleaerial false-color infrared photography with
a swath width of 15 km was taken in the area along the Yangtze
River in 1984. Infrared photography at a 1:60,000 scale of city
areas and 1:10,000-scaleof 772 km2of suburban areas was taken
again in from 1992 to 1995. MSS images were also used to investigate urban landforms in 1989, and the development of an
urban geographic information system began in 1996. The system has been put into operation to provide basic information
for regional planning and urban construction.
Town Development for Migration in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area

The world-renowned Three Gorges Dam is now under construction. After completion, the reservoir will cover an area of
1084km2.Two cities, 11counties, 111towns, and 1,599 factories need to be moved out. About 32,000ha of farmland, forest,
and river shoals will be submerged and 1.2 million residents
will have to be re-located(Chen and Wei, 1999). In order to
manage this unparalleled huge migration, satellite and airborne
remote sensing, GPS, and GIs technologies have been used to
supervise the status and dynamic change information.
At the beginning of the project evaluation, land resources
in the reservoir area were investigated using satellite and airborne remote sensing, and an atlas of the Yangtze River Three
Gorges ecological environment was published (Y. Chen, 1999).
Immediately following government approval of the project
in May 1993, several teams were organized to devise the plans
for the emigrations that were to take place in the Three Gorges
reservoir area in Fengjie, Wushan, and Badong counties, based
on several time phases such as pre-closure of dam in 1997, and
the second phase of emigration in 2003 (Wang, 1998; Wang,

1947

1958

1964

1979

1984

1988

1993

1996

91.6

127.4
35.8
3.25

150.1
22.7
3.78

169.6
19.5
1.30

188.1
18.5
3.7

215.7
27.6
6.9

241.2
25.5
5.1

364.0
122.8
40.93

PHOTOORAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING

1999).Based on the new generation of multi-sources remote

sensing data, GPS, and field observation, the project management information system was built up. This system has been
put into full use.

New Trends in Urban Remote Sensing and Information Systems

Urban Database Updatlng by Using High Spatlal Resolution Satelllte Images

The atlas Space View of Hong Kong, published in 1999 (Chen et

al., 1999),consists of high-resolution images such as the Russian COSMOS (2 meters), French SPOT-4 (10 meters), Canadian
RADARSAT (10 meters) satellite images, and Chinese scientific
experience satellite images (3 meters). These images and their
corresponding interpretation maps vividly depict the achievement of Hong Kong urban development programs, providing
first-hand data for updating the urban database. The four new
towns of Quanwan, Shatin, Tunmen, and Dapu have developed
into satellite towns. Yuen Long, Fanling, and Sheung Shui are
also rapidly developing. The development of these new towns
provides a great amount of land, with a well-developed infrastructure for industry and business, and more space for an
improved residential environment in Hong Kong. Thematic
maps such as vegetation types and vegetation index, land use
and land cover, nature reserves, and natural disasters were
made from these images.
Aerial Three-Dlmensional Remote Senslng for Dynamlc Monitoring of Urban
Environment and Cadastral Surveying

Towards the end of the 1960s,the Chinese central government

drew up a plan for remote sensing technology in China. Since
then, research and development of remote sensing sensors have
been included in the National Five-Year plans. The new
remote sensing technologies have been applied to resource
exploration and environmental monitoring. For example, the
dy;lamic three-dimensional aerial remote-sensing irdager,
developed by the academician Xue Yongqi and Professor Li
Shukai's team, was used to acquire three-dimensional urban
remote sensing images under the integration technologies of
GPS, laser telemetery, and imaging spectral cell matching just
before the return of Macao to Chinese sovereignty in December
1999 [refer to page 591 of this issue).
The Application of Resource Satelllte Remote Senslng Images to Urban Planning
and Management

Urban growth is not an isolated phenomenon. Cities and their

satellite towns are influenced by and dependent upon each
other. For example, the growth of a mega-city may promote or
impede the development of adjacent cities. Annexation and
amalgamation between cities forms group cities or city cycles.
Satellite remote sensing again becomes a higher-level hotspot
for regional town planning. Current satellite image data with
medium spatial resolution will continue to play an important
role.
In the early 1990s, Landsat TM and MSS images were used
during town systems research in China. The images were used
to calculate the populated areas in the North China plain, the
Yangtze and Pearl river deltas, the LiaoDong peninsula, and
the Sichuan basin. A cell-based population density map was
produced. This method is especially applicable to the population census in northwest China where the population is sparse.
In October 1999,China and Brazil cooperatively launched the
BERS-1 resource satellite. The satellite has two multi-spectral
scanners with spatial resolutions of 19.5 meters and 80 meters,
respectively. We will use them to acquire data about the latest
national town development in order to revise the layout of
town systems for the twenty-first century.

Acknowledgment
The referred literature, data, and images are from the China
Ground Station of Remote Sensing Satellite, the Institute of
PHOTOORAMMETRIC ENOINEERINO & REMOTE SENSING

Remote Sensing Applications, the State Key Laboratory of

Resources and Environmental Information Systems, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the city planning departments
and information centers of the Ministry of Construction. Special
thanks are given to Professor Mei Anxin of the East China Normal University, Prof. Huang Wei of the Guangzhou City Planning Bureau, Professor Lin Hui of the Chinese University of
Hong Kong, and Professor Anthony Yeh of the University of
Hong Kong, as well as many other scientists and engineers who
have made great contributions to the remote sensing urban
monitoring of China and geographic information systems. The
author hopes that this short paper will further illuminate this
complex and important subject.

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Practical Applications in the

~eospatialInformation
je Island Convention CenterNestin Providence
Providence, Rhode Island

ASPRS and ACSM are back together to sponsor this

Fall 2000 conference in New England. The conference is
designed for surveyors, mappers, photogrammetrists,
and GlS practitioners. The program will offer practical
application workshops where participants will be able to tailor
their conference experience to their individual professional
needs and interests. In addition to the workshops, there will
be an exhibit hall, state luncheons, a contest for the best
municipal GlS system in New England, a clam bake, and more.
For continually updated information, check the
ACSM-ASPRSPRSFa112000
website at www.asprs.org.

ponsored by: ASPRS: The Imaging & Ueospatial Information Society

American Congress on Surveying and Mapping
Connecticut Association of Land Surveyors
Maine Society of Land Sunreyors
Massachusetts Association of Land Surveyors and Civil Engineers
New Hampshire Land Surveyors Association
sland Society of ~rofessionaiLand Surveyors
ACSM New England Sectlon
ASPRS New England Reglon

Images courtesy of Rhode Island

Cleographlc Information Systems.
www.edc.url.edu/gfs.

598

M a y 2000

PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING