An Exploration of a Synthetic Construction Land Use Quality Evaluation Based on Economic-Social-Ecological Coupling Perspective: A Case Study in Major Chinese Cities

Recently, with the rapid increase of urban population and industrial agglomeration, the price of construction land has increased, and construction land has become increasingly scarce. Therefore, how to improve the construction land use quality (CLUQ) becomes more and more important. The purpose of the study is to evaluate CLUQ in China’s major cities and to analyze the dominant obstacle factors for quality improvement in order to provide policy advice for construction land management. This study adapts the data from 2014 to 2016 and constructs the evaluation framework of CLUQ involving economic quality, social quality, and ecological quality of construction land to evaluate and analyze CLUQ with the synthetic evaluation model, coupling evaluation model, and obstacle diagnosis model (ECO model). This study shows that the synthetic CLUQ of 23 cities out of 36 major cities in China shows a general increasing state. The economic quality of 26 cities out of 36 major cities in China has increased, while the social and ecological quality of 20 out of 36 major cities in China has decreased. In terms of spatial characteristics, the synthetic quality in the east and southwest of China is relatively high; in terms of spatial trend, the synthetic quality in longitude increases from west to east, and it shows an inverted U-shaped state in latitude. Moreover, economic development is the main obstacle factor for the improvement of CLUQ in Hohhot, Lanzhou, Urumqi, and Changchun. Social development results in the CLUQ lagging in Beijing, Guiyang, Shanghai, Xining, and Chongqing. Ecological development has a negative impact in that of Harbin, Qingdao, and Wuhan. Furthermore. The improvement of CLUQ lies in the coupling and coordinated development of economic, social, and ecological quality. For those with a low coupling degree, the targeted suggestions are given for different types based on city’s quadrant distribution.