摘要：As the product of natural process, land is an essential but nonrenewable resource for humankind. Urban land use efficiency directly reflects the coupling between urban systems and land use systems. It also serves as the key indicator for measuring land productivity and regional development quality. In this study, the land use efficiency of 65 county-level cities in the Yellow River Basin has been measured by applying the Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) and Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis methods. It makes up for the deficiency and defect of the existing research. The result indicates that in 2000~2018, the overall urban land use efficiency in 65 prefecture-level cities is unbalanced, with significant gaps between cities with high efficiency and low efficiency. In 2000~2018, the average urban land use efficiency in these 65 cities shows a tendency of declining. In 2000~2018, the spatial distribution of land use efficiency of these 65 cities indicates significant positive correlation, featured by the clustering of regions with high (low) efficiency. In terms of the spatial distribution of urban land use efficiency in the Yellow River Basin, it is marked by apparent spatial clustering. Specifically, from east to west, from coastal areas to inland regions, from downstream to upstream, the urban land use efficiency differs from high value areas to low value areas. On the whole, it is featured by high value in the east and low value in the west, while declining from downstream to upstream.
