Grey Correlation Analysis between Urban Built-Up Area Expansion and Social Economic Factors: A Case Study of Hangzhou, China

This study aims to analyze the effects and impacts of the main factors of urban built-up area expansion in Hangzhou, which can provide a reference to urban policy makers and urban planners on how to make a rational plan to develop the sustainable city. The study mapped Hangzhou urban built-up areas in different periods based multispectral scanner (MSS), thematic mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper-plus (ETM+). according the grey correlational degree analysis between urban built-up area expansion and the main social economic factors in Hangzhou, the results show that the sequence of the factors is non-agricultural population, on-campus college students, the industrial output value, GDP and the total investment in fixed assets, and it indicate that non-agricultural population play a key role to control the scale of urban space ，and the increasing number of on-campus college students promote Hangzhou urbanization.