Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Urban Construction Land in Resource-Exhausted Cities: An Empirical Study of Puyang, China

Resource-depleted cities face challenges of land structure imbalance and ecological environmental degradation, necessitating relevant research. Clarifying the land use evolution path and exploring the rationality of urban expansion are of significant importance for the sustainable development of resource-depleted cities. This study employs a comprehensive approach utilizing the land use transfer matrix, expansion intensity, expansion speed, and the equal fan analysis method to investigate the evolution characteristics of construction land in Puyang, a typical resource-exhausted city in China, from 1990 to 2020. Additionally, it identifies the driving factors based on a comprehensive approach combining the variance inflation factor (VIF), grey relational analysis, and Pearson correlation analysis. The main findings include the following: (1) From 1990 to 2020, the cultivated land area in Puyang decreased by 181,296 hectares, while the newly added construction land amounted to 24,846.30 hectares, primarily converted from cultivated land. (2) Puyang comprises five counties and one district. Among them, Hualong District exhibited the highest expansion intensity, speed, and area, whereas Taiqian County showed the lowest. This disparity is attributed to resource-centered land development and utilization. (3) From 1990 to 2020, urban expansion in Puyang primarily concentrated in the northeast direction, exhibiting a concentric outward expansion pattern. (4) Socioeconomic factors positively influenced the expansion of construction land, with the “year-end total population” having the most significant impact. Conversely, land use and natural resource factors negatively impacted construction land expansion, with “cultivated land area” being the most prominent. Additionally, policy and institutional frameworks played a regulatory and restrictive role in the evolution of construction land, while topography and location served as fundamental conditions for urban expansion. This study provides methodologies for sustainable development research in resource-exhausted cities and offers a foundation for land use planning research in resource-based regions of China.