1. Introduction
In the middle and late 20th century, the phenomenon of urban sprawl intensified in the west. Led by the idea of functional zoning, single land use was common, and residents mostly relied on cars to travel, which led to energy waste and urban centre decay. As a way to improve the convenience of residents’ daily travel, mixed land use has gradually received attention. It is believed that urban mixed-use development can improve the efficiency of land use and the quality of life for residents. Therefore, a combination of different functions (such as residence, business, office, entertainment, etc.) is advocated in urban planning to reduce commuting demands and improve community accessibility and convenience [
1,
2]. The rise of urban renewal and sustainable development movements in the United States and European countries has led mixed land use to be recognized as an important tool for enhancing urban vitality and achieving urban sustainability. The definition, measurement indicators, methods, and impact of mixed land use have become the focus of academic research.
Most scholars believe that the core idea of mixed land use is to emphasize the integrated development of multiple functions in cities to meet diverse human development needs [
3,
4,
5]. Some scholars also note that the core concept of compact cities is to promote moderate mixed land use [
4,
6,
7]. Furthermore, mixed land use has been proposed as an important means of implementing low-carbon city strategies [
8]. The development of high-density land use along transportation corridors is one of the basic characteristics of intensive cities [
9]. Therefore, compact cities, low-carbon cities, and intensive cities are closely associated with the idea of mixed land use.
The degree of land use mixing is one of several important indices for measuring regional land use development patterns and land use structures. Previous measurements mostly focused on the diversity of land use types and used single indicators such as Shannon’s entropy to calculate the degree of land use mixing [
10,
11,
12]. Although the quantity or proportion of land types forms the basis of the degree of land use mixing, a reliance solely on land use diversity as a measurement indicator has limitations in understanding the connotation of the degree of land use mixing and fails to achieve spatial optimization objectives. Talen [
13] noted that the study of land use mixing degree at the neighbourhood scale should consider the adjacent locations and mutual influence of different land uses. The interactions between different land use types should also be considered [
14,
15]. Based on these considerations, the concept of compatibility has been proposed; compatibility is the basis of the degree of land use mixing, and mixing incompatible land types can cause spatial and behavioural chaos. Therefore, the compatibility between land use types is included in the calculation of the land mixed use index [
16,
17].
Previous studies have mainly focused on the relationship between mixed land use and travel behaviour, suggesting that mixed land use patterns can help reduce travel distances, thus decreasing average travel time and reliance on private cars. Mixed land use is also beneficial for developing a diversified urban transportation system that accommodates multiple modes of transportation [
18,
19]. Therefore, some scholars used “accessibility” to reflect the proximity degree of different land use types and then measured the mixing degree of land use [
20]. Generally, in areas with a high mixing degree of land use, the multiple land types required by residents’ daily lives are generally close together, so the degree of land use mixing can be represented by assessing the walking environment [
18,
21]. Conversely, pedestrian flows can also be estimated based on the mixing degree of land use [
22]. In recent years, the relationships between mixed land use and public health, urban crime [
23], urban housing prices and rents [
24] have gradually been favoured by scholars.
Traditional mixed land-use research focuses on either a single spatial scale or a single time scale. However, in terms of space, mixed land use is multi-scale, including plot or block scale, subdistrict scale and city scale, and any single spatial scale measurement is not comprehensive. In terms of time, mixed land use is dynamically changing, and any single time point measurement may ignore the stage characteristics of its evolution. Another research direction in recent years involves combining time and space to simulate the mixed land use structure and its dynamic change, accounting for the land use interaction and geographical scale performance. By introducing land use interaction and geographic scale as well as a temporal element of land use mixing, Gehrke and Clifton [
25] established the research agenda for a spatial-temporal land use mix measure to evaluate the impact of land use mix on travel behaviour and assess more temporal policies. Liang et al. [
26] developed a mixed-cell cellular automata (CA) (MCCA) to simulate the spatio-temporal dynamics of mixed land use structures, and enable mixed land use research to leap from static analysis to dynamic simulation. By combining time and space, this new approach provides a more comprehensive understanding of the degree of land use mixing and its complexities over time, allowing for a better analysis of the interactions and patterns between different land use types.
Traditional measurement methods often use the Shannon diversity index or an entropy-based weighted land use mix index to reflect the degree of land use mixing [
10]. In recent years, new approaches have emerged for measuring the degree of land use mixing or simulating the dynamic evolution of mixed land uses. These include the weighted land use mix index [
22], mixed-cell CA (MCCA) [
26], information entropy of land use structure (IELUS) [
27] and multilabel (ML) convolutional neural network CA (ML-CNN-CA) model [
28]. These approaches provide more advanced and nuanced ways to measure the mixing degree of land use or simulate the complex dynamics of mixed land uses.
Overall, although scholars have realized that mixed land use is a multidimensional concept that goes beyond any single index and have attempted to quantitatively measure mixed land use from different angles, the focus has remained on the aspects of mixed land use and building complexity or the dimensions of distance, quantity and attributes. To date, no standardized measurement index system or method has been established to evaluate the spatial distribution of mixed land use at urban or regional scales [
2,
10]. On the other hand, compared to those on mixed urban land use, few studies on mixed rural land use and its influencing factors have been conducted [
29]. In addition, due to a lack of methodological guidance and policy support, the practical application of the mixed land use model is hindered.
Research on the relationship between land use and carbon dioxide emissions has yielded abundant results. First, regarding land use types, Dalal and Allen [
30] found that a decrease in vegetation area leads to reduced carbon storage and absorption through photosynthesis. Research on Urumqi City showed that transportation land, grassland, and garden land had the highest correlations with total and per capita carbon dioxide emissions, and intensity of carbon dioxide emissions between 2001 and 2015, while construction land had a significant association with carbon dioxide emissions [
31]. Second, considering land use structure, a study on the Sichuan Basin found that carbon dioxide emissions and land use structure were spatially autocorrelated [
32]. The information entropy of land use structures positively influenced the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions exhibited positive spillover effects, while changes in land use structure did not have a significant regional impact on surrounding areas. It was suggested that potential threshold areas for the impact of land use structure changes on carbon dioxide emissions may exist. Third, in terms of spatial relationships, a study indicated a significant positive spatial correlation between the recessive land use morphology in an advanced situation and the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions. The output and intensity of land use showed stronger positive correlations with carbon dioxide emissions than the input of land use and changes in land property rights [
33]. Some researchers have also focused on the relationship between urban spatial structure and carbon dioxide emissions [
34]. Fourth, with respect to the factors influencing carbon dioxide emissions, existing studies have identified population size, industrial structure, energy structure, technological development, and concentration of construction land as major factors. However, previous research has paid less attention to the potential relationship between the mixed land use and carbon dioxide emissions. Li et al. [
27] found that the relationship between information entropy of land use structure and CO
2 emissions presents a positive U-shaped curve. However, they only use a single index, information entropy of land use structure, to measure mixed land use.
Development zones serve as the main carriers of both the industrial economy and energy consumption and offer important experimental fields for mixed land use. The adoption of development zones as the research object to explore the relationship between mixed land use and carbon dioxide emissions has good representativeness and practical value. The research objectives of this paper are as follows: (1) clarify the meaning of mixed land use, construct an evaluation index system for mixed land use, and measure and analyse the selected research areas accordingly; and (2) estimate the overall carbon dioxide emissions of the development zones, construct a coupling model to analyse the relationship between mixed land use and carbon dioxide emissions, and reveal the differences among different types of development zones. This paper provides a reference for improving the mixing degree of land use and reducing carbon dioxide emissions in development zones.
4. Discussion
4.1. The Relationship between Location and Mixed Land Use Is Diverse and Heterogeneous
Our research found that, among the four dimensions of mixed land use, there is a strong correlation between accessibility and land use mixing degree, that is, location is an important factor affecting the mixing degree of land use in development zones. However, the relationships between the other three factors and location showed significant heterogeneity.
Overall, although the degree of diversity and compatibility is not closely related to location, most development zones show the opposite result of compatibility and diversity; that is, diversity is high, but compatibility is relatively low. For example, the Caohejing High-Tech Development Zone and Shanghai Zhujing Industrial Park have high land use diversity but low compatibility. The land use diversity of the Shanghai Chemical Industry Development Zone is low, but the compatibility is high. To some extent, this also reflects that in the initial stage of site selection and construction of development zones in China, it is difficult to ensure the compatibility of land use types while improving diversity, perhaps due to insufficient consideration of the impact on the surrounding land. In the early stage of China’s reform and opening up to the world, both environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment in economic construction were missing, let alone the compatibility assessment of land use.
There is a certain correlation between land use intensity and location in development zones. Within the outer ring road, the land use intensities of the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone and Xuhui area of the Caohejing High-Tech Development Zone are higher. However, outside the outer ring, the utilization intensity of the development zone varies from high to low. The main reason is that the intensity of land use is related to the establishment time of the development zone. The development zones established earlier have a relatively high utilization intensity; they include the Minhang area in the Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone (1986), the Xuhui area in the Caohejing High-Tech Development Zone (1984), Shanghai Xinghuo Industrial Park (1984) and the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone (1990). The Lingang area of the Shanghai Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone and the Minhang area of the Caohejing High-Tech Development Zone are new expansion areas, so the current land use intensity is relatively low.
4.2. Can Diversity Be Used as a Key Index to Measure the Mixing Degree of Land Use?
Land use diversity is the main measure of traditional mixed land use [
46,
47]. First, as early as more than half a century ago, diversity has been used as one of the indicators of urban vitality [
48], and it has a similar effect on urban development with the mixing degree of land use. Second, its calculation method is simple and the data are easy to obtain. However, our measurement results show that there is no strong interaction between diversity and mixing degree of land use. In other words, diversity is not the key factor affecting the mixing degree of land use. For example, the land use diversities of the Minhang area of the Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone and the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone are low, but their mixing degrees of land use are high; on the contrary, the land use diversities of the Lingang area of the Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone, the Minhang area of the Caohejing High-Tech Development Zone, and Shanghai Zhujing Industrial Park are high or relatively high, but their mixing degrees of land use are low or relatively low. This indicates that there is no consistent corresponding relationship between the two. Although our research sample is limited, we can at least conclude that using a single index of land use diversity to measure the multi-dimensional land use mixing degree has obvious one-sidedness.
4.3. “Low Degree of Mixing” Does Not Mean That the Overall Structure of the Development Zone Is Unreasonable
Among the seven sample development zones, the land use mixing degree of the Shanghai Chemical Industry Development Zone is the lowest, mainly because it is restricted by the characteristics of leading industries. However, its spatial layout is mainly urban production space, and the ecological spatial distribution is relatively uniform. The leading industry of the Shanghai Chemical Industry Development Zone is the petrochemical industry, which is prone to accidental explosions, so enterprises should not be overly concentrated and need to retain a certain buffer area. The diversity, accessibility and utilization intensity of land use are all affected by this factor to a certain extent; thus, the development level of industry-city integration cannot be compared with other industrial parks and needs to be treated differently. Therefore, the quality of the land use mixing degree should not only be judged according to the size of the value; it should also account for the particularity of industrial categories. In other words, a low degree of mixing does not mean that the overall structure of the development zone is unreasonable.
4.4. The Relationship between Mixed Land Use and Carbon Dioxide Emissions
The results of this study show that there is a significant interaction between land use mixing degree and carbon dioxide emissions in most development zones of Shanghai, that is, increasing land use mixing degree can help reduce the total amount and intensity of carbon dioxide emissions. Of course, the relationship between land use mixing degree and carbon dioxide emissions is not fixed, it is not only related to the leading industrial characteristics of the development zones, but also closely related to the development stage of the development zones. In other words, the relationship between the two may be diverse and complex, and does not simply lead to a unified conclusion. The research results of this paper are basically consistent with those of some scholars. Zhong et al. [
49] studied the relationship between urban traffic carbon emissions and land use in Changchun city, and the results showed that improving land use intensity and increasing land mixed use can reduce traffic carbon emissions, and the implementation effect of increasing land diversity is better than that of improving land use intensity. Tan et al. [
50] also confirmed that CO
2 emissions from passenger transport in traffic analysis zones (TAZs) at the community level in Shenzhen international low-carbon city were associated with mixed land use. The research results of Xu et al. [
51] demonstrated that the land use mixing degree and the decoupling state of CO
2 emissions in the Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos-Yulin urban agglomeration have spatial and temporal heterogeneity.