The study looked at how cities in China, like Dalian, are using more land as they grow bigger. They wanted to see how urbanization affects the land being used. By looking at data from 1994 to 2005, they found that the more a city grows, the more it changes agricultural land into city areas. This change doesn't just come from urbanization but also shows how the city is developing in terms of society, economy, and the environment. In Dalian, the researchers found that as the city grows, the land use changes a lot. They also discovered that factors like economic growth, population size, balanced development in different areas, and environmental investments play a big role in deciding how the land is used during urbanization.