Abstract: It is crucial for the development of oasis cities in arid inland river basin to explore the coupled relationship between land use benefits and urbanization. A case study on the coupling mechanism between urban land use benefits and urbanization was carried out in Liangzhou,Wuwei in the Shiyang River Basin using the coupling harmonious degree model and gray relation analysis model. The results showed that the indexes of social,economic and ecological benefits of land use and population,economic,social,urban space and lifestyle urbanization were all in a significant increase in Liangzhou,Wuwei during the period from 2002 to 2012. There were the linear increments in the indexes of land use benefits,urbanization and comprehensive evaluation,and the growth rate of land use benefits was higher than the urbanization index. The index of coupling mechanism between urban land use benefits and urbanization in the study area was increased from 0.273 6 to 0.907 0,the status of coupling mechanism became gradually from a moderate disorder to a good coordination,and the coupling coordination could be divided into 3 stages,i.e. the recession,transition and coordinated development. There was a mutual driving relationship between urban land use benefits and urbanization,a significant positive effect of economic benefits of land use on urbanization,and also a significant positive effect of urbanization on the land use benefits from the aspects of social (population) and economic factors. The results had a certain referring significance for the development of all the oasis cities in the Shiyang River Basin and even those in arid area.

Key words: land use benefit, urbanization, coupling harmonious degree model, gray relation analysis model, Wuwei, Shiyang River Basin