ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Urban Transportation Systems and Mobility
Changes in land use and ecological landscape patterns along national integrated transport corridors in China
Lyu Di 1
Zihuang Si 2
Zhao Yu 3
Haoyu Hu 4
1. School of Urban Planning and Design, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen, China
2. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
3. ollege of Architecture and Unban Planning, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
4. Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
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Abstract
Land use changes along China's ten vertical and ten horizontal integrated transport corridors play a crucial role in influencing social well-being, implementing national strategies and fostering sustainable development. This study delves into the transformations in land use and ecological landscape patterns within these corridors, utilizing land use data spanning four periods from 1990 to 2020. Our findings reveal several key insights. Firstly, the transport corridors are markedly stimulating the expansion of urban construction land along the route. Notably, the ten verticals align with production-centric characteristics, while the ten horizontals exhibit ecological tendencies, aligning with national land spatial development strategies. Secondly, the evolution of land development along the corridors follows a distinctive fast, slow and rapid three-step trend. The spatial development trend displays anti-distance attenuation, with the most pronounced effect observed in the attenuation of water bodies. Thirdly, the land landscape pattern along the corridors undergoes a shift from regular aggregation to fragmentation and dispersion. Construction land exhibits increased fragmentation, disorder, and agglomeration, whereas arable land and grassland display heightened fragmentation, regularity, and dispersion. This transformation is further delineated across three spatial autocorrelation range intervals: 0–1 km, 1–15 km and 15–30 km. Building upon these findings, we put forward policy recommendations to foster the coordinated development of integrated transport corridors and land use. We aim to provide decision support for spatial governance of the national territory, contributing to the sustainable development of both transport infrastructure and land use.
Summary
Keywords
China, integrated transport corridors, land use, landscape pattern, ten verticals and ten horizontals
Received
16 September 2025
Accepted
06 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Di, Si, Yu and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Lyu Di; Zihuang Si
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.