This research aims to advance our understanding towards forest transition, which is about the shift from net deforestation to net reforestation over a given area during certain period, through a case study of a western city in China from 1990 to 2015. Three main contributions are made to the theory and practice of forest land management.

Rapid urban sprawl is a key characteristic of the current urban land use changes in China. It leads, however, to inefficient land use and spatial imbalance. This paper conducts a quantitative analysis of the urban land use efficiency (ULUE) at a provincial scale in China, based on the SBM-GPA integration model, and using the datasets of 31 province-level regions (provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions) in Chinese mainland from 2008 to 2017.

Tension and conflict are endemic to any upgrading initiative (including basic infrastructure provision) requiring private land contributions, whether in the form of voluntary donations or compensated land acquisitions. In informal urban contexts, practitioners must first identify well-suited land for public infrastructure, both spatially and with careful consideration for safeguarding claimed rights and preventing conflicts.