Identification and Utilization Efficiency Evaluation of Urban High-Intensity Development Areas Based on Floor Area Ratio—Oriented Region Growing

Aim: ing at the problems of identification and utilization efficiency evaluation of urban high-intensity development areas, and based on the general trend of urban spatial development from points to areas, this study proposes a method for identifying high-intensity development areas based on seed grid, which involves area growth, merging and segmentation, by drawing on the region growing method in image recognition. In this method, the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic of grid floor area ratio is used as the criterion to screen seed grids, and the region identification results are evaluated from the rationality of the geometric shape of the area and the independence of spatial relations. Furthermore, using gridded permanent population density, digital brightness of urban night-time lights, and point of interest (POI) density data, the utilization efficiency of high-intensity development areas is evaluated from the perspectives of population carrying capacity and industrial agglomeration. Finally, Shenzhen City is taken as an example to verify the proposed identification and utilization efficiency evaluation methods for high-intensity development areas. The results show that the proposed identification method has a good effect, and the identified high-intensity development areas have reasonable geometric shapes and independent spatial relations; in terms of utilization efficiency, the overall utilization efficiency of high-intensity development areas in Shenzhen is relatively low, especially the areas at the edge of the central district and non-central districts fail to attract population activities matching the intensity of construction.