The Hefei metropolitan area is located in the Yangtze River Delta,and is one of the six major metropolitan areas of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration.It is an important hub with rapid socio-economic development.However,due to the weak development foundation of various urban areas in the Hefei metropolitan area,with the exception of Hefei City,their development varies and the level of urban development and expansion varies.In order to explore the evolution law of the urban form of the Hefei metropolitan area and reveal the form status from 2012 to 2021,NPP-VIIR night light remote sensing data was used to extract the data of the Hefei metropolitan area in 2012,2014,2016,2018,2020 and 2021,and the reference comparison method was used to extract the urban built-up areas of the Hefei metropolitan area and calculate the expansion speed,Analyze the dynamic changes in urban expansion in the Hefei metropolitan area from 2012 to 2021 based on relevant construction data such as expansion intensity and expansion rate.The results indicate that(1)the accuracy of extracting built-up areas is relatively high,which can reflect the actual development situation of urban built-up areas in the Hefei metropolitan area.Urban expansion gradually changes from high-level to gentle expansion,and the center of gravity of the metropolitan area gradually swings towards the direction of the jurisdiction of Hefei City.(2)During the research period,Hefei has always been the first city in the metropolitan area,presenting an inverted V shape.The total and average intensity of nighttime lighting in various cities show an increasing trend.(3)The Jiefu Index indicates that,except for a few cities,other cities in the urban agglomeration have relatively sufficient development and ideal urban scale levels.(4)Hefei has become a stable hot spot area with certain radiative driving capacity,but the overall radiative driving capacity is still insufficient within the entire metropolitan area.Hefei should fully leverage its own advantages,coordinate the entire region,and assist in the development of the metropolitan area.