Mapping Local Climate Zones and Their Long-Term Changes in 105 Major Chinese Cities from 2000 to 2025

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Abstract
Rapid urban growth has transformed the three-dimensional structure and land cover composition of Chinese cities, yet long-term local climate zone (LCZ) changes remain insufficiently resolved at fine spatial scales. We mapped all 17 standard LCZ classes for 105 major Chinese cities in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025 at a 30 m resolution. A unified random forest framework implemented on Google Earth Engine integrated Landsat imagery with spectral, topographic, building, vegetation, and ancillary land cover information. Overall accuracy ranged from 83.88% to 88.71% across the six mapping years. The mapped urban area increased from 2.14 × 104 to 5.86 × 104 km2, with the strongest relative growth shifting from eastern toward central and western China. Although the built-class area more than doubled, its share declined from 68.61% to 53.27%, while the proportion of vegetated-class area increased from 20.47% to 39.51%. LCZ D, LCZ 9, and LCZ A contributed most to the overall increase, whereas LCZ 8 declined in proportional importance. All moisture regions shifted toward more balanced built–vegetated configurations. Dryland cities, however, retained more bare surfaces and less woody vegetation than humid and transitional cities. These maps reveal both a common national trajectory and climate-conditioned regional differentiation, providing a basis for urban-climate assessment and climate-sensitive planning.
Funding Information
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (42471411)

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