The characteristics of oasis urban expansion and drive mechanism analysis： a case study on Ganzhou District in Hexi Corridor, China

Ganzhou District is an oasis city in the Zhangye Municipality of Gansu Province,China.Based on multi-temporal TM and ETM satellite remote sensing data in 1985,1996,2000,and 2012,and by using corrected figures of land use status over the same periods,the spatial area of Ganzhou District since 1985 was extracted with statistical methods,and urban spatial expansion was measured by quantitative research methods.The characteristics of spatial expansion of Ganzhou District were analyzed by urban expansion rate,expansion intensity index,compactness,fractal dimension,and the city center shift method.The results showed that the built-up area of Ganzhou District increased by 3.46 times during 1985–2012.The expansion in 1985–1996 was slow,during 1996–2000 it was rapid,and during 2000–2012 it was at a high speed.This city mainly expanded to the northeast and northwest.Government decision making had a decisive influence on urban expansion.Initially the expansion was uniform,but later the local transportation,economy,resources,population,and national policies factors had an obvious influence on urban expansion.