The spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion have attracted worldwide attention and have been generalized into several prevalent hypotheses, such as the diffusion–coalescence hypothesis and the three-growth-type hypothesis. Although many studies have examined the applicability of these hypotheses, long-term research and evidence are still lacking. This study incorporated a compiled dataset of multisource remote sensing images and historical maps covering nine snapshots of the urban built-up area from 1914 to 2018 to monitor the urban expansion process in Hangzhou, China. A fractal analysis of the area–radius relationship was employed for areal demarcation to explore the heterogenous patterns across different intra-city spatial extents. The results show that (1) Hangzhou has experienced a turbulent period of primitive urbanization in the pre-reform era and a consecutive period of market-oriented urbanization after the economic reform; (2) the urban expansion pattern characterized by landscape metrics demonstrates the existence of multiple alternations between diffusion and coalescence phases with peculiarities across different intra-city spatial extents; (3) the analysis of urban growth types documents a consistent predominance of edge-expansion with wax and wane between infilling and leapfrogging; and (4) institutional reform, industrial development, and administrative division adjustment are the main drivers of urban expansion in Hangzhou. Our findings suggest that effective planning policies need to be raised to curb urban sprawl. Differentiated planning strategies should be proposed to accommodate unique conditions in different urban subregions. The integrated-analysis approach based on multisource remote sensing images and historical maps establishes a feasible pathway for long-term urban research.

Assessing the sustainability of urban development, including road changes, is increasing from year to year and requires clear indicators for robust decision-making tools to gain knowledge across regions. This study conducts the selection of transportation routes over a longer period as an example to evaluate the sustainability of historical official routes in achieving economically cost-efficient operation and maintenance. Official ways in the Qiantang River Basin connected the Jiangnan region, the economic center of China, with surrounding provinces were assessed. During the past six hundred years, the official road network in this area gradually simplified, evolving from valley roads to river banks, which covered longer distances. However, this transformation lacks a systematic explanation. By applying the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with geographic information system (GIS), quantitative analysis was gained and the results are as follows: (1) Among the influencing factors, the weights of transportation cost and population related to economic needs are 39.54% and 29.52% respectively, with a combined total of 69.06%. (2) The official road network is often designed for governing the people, but in places such as the Qiantang River Basin, economic logic superseded political imperatives, becoming the dominant factor in reshaping the official ways. (3) In the pre-industrial era characterized by limited technological capacity, the physical environment had a greater impact on economic costs, ultimately reshaping the spatial configuration of official route networks. Overall, the evolution of official routes reflects the decline in their military-political function, driven by sustained peace and long-term decline in strategic position. The evolution of the official ways in the Qiantang River Basin reveals the importance of economic benefits in road selection.