A Novel Indicator for Assessing the Spatial Sustainability of Cities in Developing Countries - A Case Study of Xi’an City

The geographical dimension of urbanization is of major importance in depicting the influences of urbanization on the development of a city, since complex social-ecological systems interact in a multitude of ways at many spatial scales across time. This research introduced an indicator for assessing the spatial sustainability of a city from the perspective of landscape ecology, to provide a reasonable way for quantifying the spatial dynamic of the urban area of a city and how close the pattern of urban expansion close to a ‘compact’ way. A case study has been done in Xi’an. With the application of remote sensing technology, landscape ecology and other necessary software, the spacial sustainability of Xi’an from 1988 to 2010 were calculated, the rapid urbanization in Xi’an has significantly promoted the spatial sustainability of city from 1988 to 2000 and 2006 to 2010, whereas exerted negative effects on the spatial sustainability of the city from 2000 to 2006.