The Effect of Urban-Suburban Interaction on Urbanization and Suburban Ecological Security: A Case Study of Suburban Wuhan, Central China

In developing countries like China, urbanization is still occurring at a rapid pace. During urbanization, the urban land expands drastically, which makes suburbs the most affected area facing urban expansion. The land transition has proven to threaten the function and security of ecosystems, and therefore the topics of suburban land transition and ecological security have raised much attention. However, the urban-suburban interaction, which is one of the basic characteristics of suburbs, has been insufficiently considered. The urban-suburban interaction is developed based on the flows of people, materials, and information between urban and suburban areas, and it essentially reveals the relationship between human activities and land-use optimization. To fill the research gap, this study adopts a case study of Wuhan city, and first quantifies the urban-suburban interactions from a symbiotic perspective, and investigates rural residents and public buses to verify the estimated interactions. The results show that there is obvious heterogeneity in urban-suburban interactions in different suburban towns. Correlation analysis and geographic weight regression are then applied to demonstrate the relationship between the urban-suburban interaction and urbanization in the suburbs. Additionally, urbanization potential in the suburbs is estimated. Then, a suburban ecological security assessment is conducted by a “pressure-status-response” (PSR) model, and the urbanization potential that is estimated based on urban-suburban interaction is integrated as a “pressure” indicator. The comparison between the suburban ecological security assessment results based on considering and not considering urban-suburban interaction demonstrates the importance of considering urban-suburban interaction. This study contributes to the understanding of the complicated relationships of urban-suburban socio-economic, spatial, and ecological environments, and offers suggestions for suburban planning and ecological protection.