sustainability Article Characterizing Factors Associated with Built-Up Land Expansion in Urban and Non-Urban Areas from a Morphological Perspective Zhonghao Zhang 1,2,3,4, Rui Xiao 2,*, Weixuan Yu 2 ID , Yue Liu 2, Meng Lin 2 and Meng Wang 5 1 Institute of Urban Studies, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China;
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[email protected] (M.L.) 3 Key Laboratory for National Geographic Census and Monitoring, National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geo-Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China 4 Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 73000, China 5 Wuhan Planning & Design Institute, Wuhan 430014, China;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +86-182-7182-7900 Received: 10 July 2017; Accepted: 4 August 2017; Published: 10 August 2017 Abstract: In this paper, built-up land expansion patterns and the associated factors were characterized in urban and non-urban areas across the Wen-Tai region of eastern China. Fractal dimension can be used as a reliable indicator of the complexity of built-up land form, and the increasing trend of fractal dimension indicated a more complex, dispersed pattern of built-up land in urban areas. Spatial regression models were quantitatively implemented to identify the indicators influencing the variation of fractal dimensions. Our findings suggested that the fractal dimension of built-up land forms was positively correlated to the patch density and elevation when built-up land expansion was more concentrated.