China’s urban land use has shifted from incremental expansion to inventory eradication. The traditional extensive management mode is difficult to maintain, and the fundamental solution is to improve land use efficiency. Xi’an, the largest central city in Western China, was selected as the research area. The super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and Malmquist index method were used to measure the land use efficiency of each district and county in the city from the micro perspective, and the spatial-temporal change characteristics and main influencing factors of land use efficiency were analyzed, which not only made up for the research content of urban land use efficiency in China’s underdeveloped areas, but also pointed out the emphasis and direction for the improvement of urban land use efficiency. The results showed that: (1) The land use efficiency of Xi’an reflected the land use intensive level of the underdeveloped areas in Western China, that is, the overall intensive level was not high, the gap between the urban internal land use efficiency was large, the land use efficiency of the old urban area and the mature built-up area was relatively high, and the land use efficiency of the emerging expansion area and the edge area was relatively low. (2) Like the eastern economically developed areas, the land use efficiency of western economically underdeveloped areas was generally on the rise, while Xi’an showed the U-shaped upward evolution characteristics, and there were four types of changes in the city, that is, highly intensive, medium intensive, high–medium–low-intensive, and intensive–extensive. (3) Various cities should configure resources and optimize mechanism to improve their land use efficiency based on economic and social development. During the study period, Xi’an showed the law of evolution from the south edge area and the emerging expansion area to the main urban area. (4) The improvement of technological progress was the main contribution factor of the land use efficiency in underdeveloped areas of China, and the low-scale efficiency was the main influence factor that caused low land use efficiency. In future urban land use, efforts should be made to optimize and upgrade technology and strictly control the extensive use of land.
Evaluation and Optimization of Urban Land-Use Efficiency: A Case Study in Sichuan Province of China