Deciphering Urban Land Use Patterns in the Shenzhen–Dongguan Cross-Boundary Region Based on Multisource Data

Against the backdrop of coordinated development and regional integration in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area, China, the integration of Shenzhen and Dongguan has received increasing attention from both academia and the government. The cross-boundary area of the two cities has also shifted from being categorized as the development edge to becoming a key area, presenting more complex spatial and functional characteristics. This paper applies multi-source data to analyze the spatial characteristics and factors of influence in the Shenzhen–Dongguan cross-boundary region from the perspective of urban land use pattern evolution. The results showed that from 2008 to 2022, (1) the spatial structure presented a development trend from multi-core to axial, then to network, gradually breaking down the development barriers in the central region; (2) the function of regional land was transformed from a single type to a composite and mixed type, and the layout of commercial, public, green, and transportation land became more dispersed and balanced; (3) the cross-administrative boundaries of commercial land were exaggerated, and industrial land was widely transformed into composite industrial and commercial land, forming an integrated industrial belt; and (4) the overall increase in the mixing degree of land use functions indicated that the two regions were interconnected and integrated with each other, and the functional structure of the cross-boundary region was relatively more complete.