Village-Level Land Use Expansion and Zoning Effects in Zhangzhou, China

1662 villages in Zhangzhou City, China, are tracked across eight years from 1995 to 2020. The dataset contains variables for land area, distances to features like water and roads, elevation, and a binary treatment variable indicating zoning status. It was created by ENVIDAT to analyze the causal effect of land use planning policies on built-up land expansion.

Use Cases

• Estimate the causal effect of zoning (Treated variable) on built-up land expansion (BuLE) using difference-in-differences models.
• Analyze how geographic features like distance to city center (Dis2city) and elevation (Elevation) correlate with land expansion patterns.
• Model spatial spillover effects by examining the relationship between a village's built-up land and that of its neighbors (Nei_Built_).
• Assess the intensity of zoning policy impact by correlating the percentage of zoned land (Intensity) with expansion outcomes (BuLE).

Strengths

• Panel data covering 1662 villages across 8 distinct time points from 1995 to 2020.
• Includes 15+ specific variables per observation, enabling multi-faceted geospatial and policy analysis.
• Designed for causal inference, explicitly defining treatment (Treated) and outcome (BuLE) variables.

Limitations

• Sample size is limited to a single Chinese city (Zhangzhou), reducing generalizability.
• Temporal coverage is sparse with non-annual intervals after 2010 (e.g., 2013, 2015, 2018).
• Data structure and potential missing values are not described, which may complicate analysis.

Provenance

Source

ENVIDAT, associated with a research study on land use planning.

Collection Method

Village-level administrative and geospatial data, likely from government sources, analyzed with propensity score matching and difference-in-differences models.

Time Range

1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020

Freshness

Data last updated in 2022, with temporal coverage ending in 2020.

Geography

Zhangzhou City, China.