Dynamic changes in urban land spatial inequality under the core-periphery structure in urban agglomerations

Relatively coordinated development among cities can typically promote the integration of the whole urban agglomeration, while urbanization of land has been found important to economic development in developing countries. Numerous studies have measured the urban land expansion in urban agglomerations. However, urban land spatial inequality under a specific spatial structure remains poorly understood. Here, we combined the β-convergence model and the core-periphery structure to explore the dynamic changes in urban land spatial inequality in urban agglomerations. The Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) in China was selected as the study area. Indicators of urban land have been applied in conjunction with a modified conditional β-convergence model, while the existence of the core-periphery structure was tested by analyzing coefficients of the control variable. The results show that although the spatial inequality of urban land area had decreased during 2000–2020, the whole YRDUA had still shown an obvious core-periphery structure. Compared with urban land area, the spatial inequality of urban land economic density and population density had decreased more rapidly, and the core-periphery structure was less obvious. Our findings can help to improve our current understanding of urban agglomeration and serve as a scientific reference for the coordinated development of urban agglomerations.