DEA Analysis for the Efficiency of Land Use Structure in Cities and Towns

the purpose of the study is to judge the rationality of urban land use structure from new perspectives and by new methods. Method of DEA was employ ed. The results are: (1) the effectiveness of land use structure in coastal citi es is not as good as that in inland cities (2) inappropriate land use structure in cities of different grades varies (3) the efficiency of land use structure in high-grade cities is higher than that in low-grade cities (4) more land is used for roads and squares in downtown area of counties than needed. Therefore, factors as history, social economic development have to be taken into account to judge if urban land use structure is rational or not. It is inappropriate to co mpare cities in China to cities abroad without considering local conditions. DEA method is a good at assessing the efficiency of land use structure in cities an d towns in a quantitive way. Criteria for land use structure of cities and towns are proposed