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Rural residential concentration was one of the important tasks of the “Three Concentrations” strategy implemented in the suburbs of Shanghai in the mid-1990s. The aims of this paper are to comprehensively evaluate the process, pattern and effects of residential concentration in the suburbs of Shanghai over the past 20 years, clarify the direction and focus of development, and propose suggestions for existing deficiencies. Based on remote sensing images and statistical data, the implementation and effects of the rural residential concentration strategy from 1990 to 2015 were analysed using landscape indexes and geospatial analysis. The results are as follows: (1) according to the changes in the landscape pattern and spatial structure, the trends in population concentration in the suburbs of Shanghai are obvious. (2) Before 1995, the trend of population diffusion was conspicuous. After 1995, the period of population diffusion gradually shifted to a period of population agglomeration. The rate of population concentration increased rapidly from 2000 to 2010 and then became moderate after 2010. (3) In 1990, most of the rural residential areas were distributed within 14–52 km of the city centre, the distribution of residential area in each ring was relatively uniform, and the overall distribution was scattered and uniform. By 2015, the rural population gradually converged in the inner suburbs, and the centralized distribution gradually changed to within 16–32 km of the city centre. (4) In 1990, most of the rural residential areas were located north-northwest, southeast, and southwest of the People’s Square. By 2015, the areas southwest and southeast of the People’s Square became the focus of rural residential distribution. These findings provide a useful reference for future rural planning and construction.
