A large share of urban land is dedicated to commercial and industrial activities. While this is considered key for economic development, the contribution of such areas to urban expansion has also been strongly criticised from environmental and societal perspectives. Clearly, the interrelations between economic activity and land use are highly relevant to planning and policy development. Yet relatively little is known about patterns of commercial and industrial land at the level of city regions and their effect on economic development.

The goal of this contribution is to present an empirical approach for analysing the development of commercial and industrial land within city regions and to place this in a socio-economic context. We argue that land provision at suitable (i.e. central) locations has a positive effect on employment. To test this hypothesis, we investigate relevant land use changes by analysing processed topographic land use data and location by centrality in regional road networks, using the example of city regions in southern Germany for the period 2006–2018.

Our results reveal regional patterns of distinct spatial and socio-economic trends that indicate suburbanisation processes and the emergence of polycentric patterns. While employed is closely correlated with absolute change in land in both large and small regions, the correlation between location and employment decreases with the size of regions. The results confirm the viability of the chosen approach to illuminate processes within functionally-interlinked city regions and promote a discussion of cause-effect relationships between the provision of commercial/industrial areas and employment.

很大一部分城市土地用于商业和工业活动。虽然这被认为是经济发展的关键，但这些地区对城市扩张的贡献也受到了环境和社会角度的强烈批评。显然，经济活动和土地利用之间的相互关系与规划和政策制定高度相关。然而，对于城市区域层面的商业和工业用地模式及其对经济发展的影响，人们知之甚少。

这篇文章的目标是提出一种实证方法来分析城市区域内商业和工业用地的发展，并将其置于社会经济背景下。我们认为在合适（即中心）位置提供土地对就业有积极影响。为了验证这一假设，我们以 2006 年至 2018 年德国南部城市地区为例，通过分析处理后的地形土地利用数据和区域道路网络中心位置来调查相关土地利用变化。

我们的研究结果揭示了不同空间和社会经济趋势的区域模式，这些趋势表明郊区化过程和多中心模式的出现。虽然就业与大小区域的土地绝对变化密切相关，但区位与就业之间的相关性随着区域的大小而降低。结果证实了所选择的方法在阐明功能相互关联的城市区域内的过程的可行性，并促进了对商业/工业区提供与就业之间因果关系的讨论。