While cellular automata (CA) has become increasingly popular in land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) simulations, insufficient research has considered the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of urban development strategies and applied it to constrain CA models. Consequently, we proposed to add a zoning transition rule and planning influence that consists of a development grade coefficient and traffic facility coefficient in the CA model to reflect the top-down and heterogeneous characteristics of spatial layout and the dynamic and heterogeneous external interference of traffic facilities on land-use development. Testing the method using Nanjing city as a case study, we show that the optimal combinations of development grade coefficients are different in different districts, and the simulation accuracies are improved by adding the grade coefficients into the model. Moreover, the integration of the traffic facility coefficient does not improve the model accuracy as expected because the deployment of the optimal spatial layout has considered the effect of the subway on land use. Therefore, spatial layout planning is important for urban green, humanistic and sustainable development.
Land-use suitability assessment for urban development using a GIS-based soft computing approach: A case study of Ili Valley, China