Spatio-Temporal Evolution Characteristics, Development Patterns, and Ecological Effects of “Production-Living-Ecological Space” at the City Level in China

Effective production, living, and ecological space allocation is essential for advancing territorial policy optimization and improving the sustainability of land resource use. Based on the theory of the “production-living-ecological” space (PLES), the present study uses the spatial transfer matrix model, the coupling degree model, and ecosystem service value measurement to analyze the changes in the number and structural characteristics of the PLES and the evolution pattern of development in 336 cities in China from 2000 to 2020 and to evaluate the resulting ecological effects. The results are as follows: the living space is growing; the agricultural production space is decreasing; and the ecological space has been decreasing and then increasing. The evolution of the city space structure has five distinct patterns of development. Cities in the southeast with high urbanization rates have shifted from the pure economic expansion development pattern to the coordinated diversified development pattern. In contrast, the cities in the northeast and northwest, where ecological space accounts for an absolute proportion, still prefer the economic expansion development pattern. There is still a struggle between the “impulse of local development” and the “objective of central coordination”. The development patterns of ecological protection and the coordinated diversified development patterns have higher ecological effects among the five development approaches, confirming the effectiveness of the territorial spatial planning policy under the coordinated development objective. Meanwhile, the optimization of future spatial planning policies should consider not only the rational allocation of space but also the quality development of space