WorldWideScience

Sample records for urban land conversion

  1. Modeling Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Conversion in Henan Province, China: An Integration of Land Use and Socioeconomic Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Jiang

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available China has experienced rapid urban expansion and agricultural land loss, and the land conversion has accelerated in central provinces since the mid-1990s. The goal of this paper is to examine the relative importance of socioeconomic and policy factors on the urban conversion of agricultural land in Henan Province, China. Using panel econometric models, we examine how socioeconomic and policy factors affect agricultural land conversion at the county level across three time periods, 1995–2000, 2000–2005, and 2005–2010. The results show that both urban land rent and urban wages are essential factors that positively contribute to the conversion of agricultural land. It is also found that per capita GDP is correlated with more urban development and agricultural land loss. Consistent with expectations, agricultural financial support is negatively correlated with agricultural land conversion, suggesting a policy success. Finally, the decomposition analysis illustrates that urban wages are the most influential positive factor and agricultural financial support is the most influential negative factor affecting the urban conversion of agricultural land.

  2. Influences of Different Land Use Spatial Control Schemes on Farmland Conversion and Urban Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Min; Tan, Shukui; Zhang, Lu

    2015-01-01

    Land use planning is always officially implemented as an effective tool to control urban development and protect farmland. However, its impact on land use change remains untested in China. Using a case study of Hang-Jia-Hu region, the main objective of this paper was to investigate the influence of different land use spatial control schemes on farmland conversion and urban development. Comparisons of farmland conversion and urban development patterns between the urban planning area and the non-urban planning area were characterized by using remote sensing, geographical information systems, and landscape metrics. Results indicated that farmland conversion in the non-urban planning area was more intensive than that in the urban planning area, and that farmland patterns was more fragmented in the non-urban planning area. Built-up land patterns in the non-urban planning area showed a trend of aggregation, while those in the urban planning area had a dual trend of fragmentation and aggregation. Existing built-up areas had less influence on built-up land sprawl in the non-urban planning area than that in the urban planning area. Built-up land sprawl in the form of continuous development in the urban planning area led to farmland conversion; and in the non-urban planning area, built-up land sprawl in the form of leapfrogging development resulted in farmland areal declines and fragmentation. We argued that it is a basic requirement to integrate land use plans in urban and non-urban planning areas for land use planning and management. PMID:25915897

  3. Influences of different land use spatial control schemes on farmland conversion and urban development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Min; Tan, Shukui; Zhang, Lu

    2015-01-01

    Land use planning is always officially implemented as an effective tool to control urban development and protect farmland. However, its impact on land use change remains untested in China. Using a case study of Hang-Jia-Hu region, the main objective of this paper was to investigate the influence of different land use spatial control schemes on farmland conversion and urban development. Comparisons of farmland conversion and urban development patterns between the urban planning area and the non-urban planning area were characterized by using remote sensing, geographical information systems, and landscape metrics. Results indicated that farmland conversion in the non-urban planning area was more intensive than that in the urban planning area, and that farmland patterns was more fragmented in the non-urban planning area. Built-up land patterns in the non-urban planning area showed a trend of aggregation, while those in the urban planning area had a dual trend of fragmentation and aggregation. Existing built-up areas had less influence on built-up land sprawl in the non-urban planning area than that in the urban planning area. Built-up land sprawl in the form of continuous development in the urban planning area led to farmland conversion; and in the non-urban planning area, built-up land sprawl in the form of leapfrogging development resulted in farmland areal declines and fragmentation. We argued that it is a basic requirement to integrate land use plans in urban and non-urban planning areas for land use planning and management.

  4. Determinants of Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Conversion in 25 EU Countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ustaoglu, Eda; Williams, Brendan

    2017-10-01

    Agricultural land conversion is resulting from ongoing complex interaction between the physical environment, policy settings and socio-economic factors. Case studies of the determinants of agricultural land conversion potentially contribute to the analysis of the main causes of land-use change. This can assist authorities and policy makers in understanding the relative importance of a wide range of factors on urban expansion and associated agricultural land-use change. This paper explores the determinants of agricultural land conversion to urban uses in the studied 25 European Union countries between 2000 and 2006. European-level as well as region-specific land-use changes are studied. The research is using the spatial data adapted from European Corine Land Cover maps of 2000 and 2006 and utilised other European sources regarding socio-economic, natural, geological, climate, and policy-related data. The differences in urbanisation processes observed in different regions in Europe emphasise the regional variations of urban conversion process of agricultural land use. This study identifies a combination of socio-economic drivers, policy-related factors, nature and location-based factors as key influences on agricultural land conversion processes in Europe. Specifically we found that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies were influential in curbing urbanisation and reducing agricultural land consumption.

  5. Determinants of Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Conversion in 25 EU Countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ustaoglu, Eda; Williams, Brendan

    2017-10-01

    Agricultural land conversion is resulting from ongoing complex interaction between the physical environment, policy settings and socio-economic factors. Case studies of the determinants of agricultural land conversion potentially contribute to the analysis of the main causes of land-use change. This can assist authorities and policy makers in understanding the relative importance of a wide range of factors on urban expansion and associated agricultural land-use change. This paper explores the determinants of agricultural land conversion to urban uses in the studied 25 European Union countries between 2000 and 2006. European-level as well as region-specific land-use changes are studied. The research is using the spatial data adapted from European Corine Land Cover maps of 2000 and 2006 and utilised other European sources regarding socio-economic, natural, geological, climate, and policy-related data. The differences in urbanisation processes observed in different regions in Europe emphasise the regional variations of urban conversion process of agricultural land use. This study identifies a combination of socio-economic drivers, policy-related factors, nature and location-based factors as key influences on agricultural land conversion processes in Europe. Specifically we found that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies were influential in curbing urbanisation and reducing agricultural land consumption.

  6. Land Politics under Market Socialism: The State, Land Policies, and Rural–Urban Land Conversion in China and Vietnam

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    Hoang Linh Nguyen

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of rural–urban land conversion policies in China and Vietnam, and examines the ideology of the state in land policymaking under a market socialism environment. It argues that land policies in both countries include ambiguous boundaries, which allow the socialist state to legitimize its politico-administrative power in land management and retain strong intervention capacity in the land market. In addition to similarities, land policies in China and Vietnam show significant differences in terms of the ownership of rural land and related legislation on land expropriation and transactions. Together, these distinctions cause divergent impacts on the interests and motivations of multiple stakeholders in rural land conversion. It is further observed that the state in both countries is characterized by dynamic, complex, and self-coordinated institutional systems, in which multiple levels of government have different driving forces and strategies in land development. The internal structure of authority in rural–urban land conversion between the multiple levels of government is readjusted by the regulatory land control of the central government.

  7. Agricultural land for urban development : The process of land conversion in Central Vietnam

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Phuc, Nguyen Quang; Westen, A. C M van; Zoomers, Annelies

    Since the 1990s, Vietnam's progressive integration into the global market economy has triggered major economic and social transformations. In spatial terms, these are marked by a massive conversion of agricultural land for industrial and urban development. While this process has attracted

  8. Agricultural land for urban development: The process of land conversion in Central Vietnam

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nguyen, C.P.; Westen, A.C.M. van; Zoomers, A.

    2014-01-01

    Since the 1990s, Vietnam’s progressive integration into the global market economy has triggered major economic and social transformations. In spatial terms, these are marked by a massive conversion of agricultural land for industrial and urban development. While this process has attracted

  9. Tree Productivity Enhanced with Conversion from Forest to Urban Land Covers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Briber, Brittain M; Hutyra, Lucy R; Reinmann, Andrew B; Raciti, Steve M; Dearborn, Victoria K; Holden, Christopher E; Dunn, Allison L

    2015-01-01

    Urban areas are expanding, changing the structure and productivity of landscapes. While some urban areas have been shown to hold substantial biomass, the productivity of these systems is largely unknown. We assessed how conversion from forest to urban land uses affected both biomass structure and productivity across eastern Massachusetts. We found that urban land uses held less than half the biomass of adjacent forest expanses with a plot level mean biomass density of 33.5 ± 8.0 Mg C ha(-1). As the intensity of urban development increased, the canopy cover, stem density, and biomass decreased. Analysis of Quercus rubra tree cores showed that tree-level basal area increment nearly doubled following development, increasing from 17.1 ± 3.0 to 35.8 ± 4.7 cm(2) yr(-1). Scaling the observed stem densities and growth rates within developed areas suggests an aboveground biomass growth rate of 1.8 ± 0.4 Mg C ha(-1) yr(-1), a growth rate comparable to nearby, intact forests. The contrasting high growth rates and lower biomass pools within urban areas suggest a highly dynamic ecosystem with rapid turnover. As global urban extent continues to grow, cities consider climate mitigation options, and as the verification of net greenhouse gas emissions emerges as critical for policy, quantifying the role of urban vegetation in regional-to-global carbon budgets will become ever more important.

  10. Tree Productivity Enhanced with Conversion from Forest to Urban Land Covers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brittain M Briber

    Full Text Available Urban areas are expanding, changing the structure and productivity of landscapes. While some urban areas have been shown to hold substantial biomass, the productivity of these systems is largely unknown. We assessed how conversion from forest to urban land uses affected both biomass structure and productivity across eastern Massachusetts. We found that urban land uses held less than half the biomass of adjacent forest expanses with a plot level mean biomass density of 33.5 ± 8.0 Mg C ha(-1. As the intensity of urban development increased, the canopy cover, stem density, and biomass decreased. Analysis of Quercus rubra tree cores showed that tree-level basal area increment nearly doubled following development, increasing from 17.1 ± 3.0 to 35.8 ± 4.7 cm(2 yr(-1. Scaling the observed stem densities and growth rates within developed areas suggests an aboveground biomass growth rate of 1.8 ± 0.4 Mg C ha(-1 yr(-1, a growth rate comparable to nearby, intact forests. The contrasting high growth rates and lower biomass pools within urban areas suggest a highly dynamic ecosystem with rapid turnover. As global urban extent continues to grow, cities consider climate mitigation options, and as the verification of net greenhouse gas emissions emerges as critical for policy, quantifying the role of urban vegetation in regional-to-global carbon budgets will become ever more important.

  11. Modelling carbon dynamics from urban land conversion: fundamental model of city in relation to a local carbon cycle

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    Schellnhuber Hans-Joachim

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The main task is to estimate the qualitative and quantitative contribution of urban territories and precisely of the process of urbanization to the Global Carbon Cycle (GCC. Note that, on the contrary to many investigations that have considered direct anthropogenic emission of CO2(urbanized territories produce ca. 96–98% of it, we are interested in more subtle, and up until the present time, weaker processes associated with the conversion of the surrounding natural ecosystems and landscapes into urban lands. Such conversion inevitably takes place when cities are sprawling and additional "natural" lands are becoming "urbanized". Results In order to fulfil this task, we first develop a fundamental model of urban space, since the type of land cover within a city makes a difference for a local carbon cycle. Hence, a city is sub-divided by built-up, „green" (parks, etc. and informal settlements (favelas fractions. Another aspect is a sub-division of the additional two regions, which makes the total number reaching eight regions, while the UN divides the world by six. Next, the basic model of the local carbon cycle for urbanized territories is built. We consider two processes: carbon emissions as a result of conversion of natural lands caused by urbanization; and the transformation of carbon flows by "urbanized" ecosystems; when carbon, accumulated by urban vegetation, is exported to the neighbouring territories. The total carbon flow in the model depends, in general, on two groups of parameters. The first includes the NPP, and the sum of living biomass and dead organic matter of ecosystems involved in the process of urbanization, and namely them we calculate here, using a new more realistic approach and taking into account the difference in regional cities' evolution. Conclusion There is also another group of parameters, dealing with the areas of urban territories, and their annual increments. A method of dynamic forecasting

  12. A meta-analysis of global urban land expansion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seto, Karen C; Fragkias, Michail; Güneralp, Burak; Reilly, Michael K

    2011-01-01

    The conversion of Earth's land surface to urban uses is one of the most irreversible human impacts on the global biosphere. It drives the loss of farmland, affects local climate, fragments habitats, and threatens biodiversity. Here we present a meta-analysis of 326 studies that have used remotely sensed images to map urban land conversion. We report a worldwide observed increase in urban land area of 58,000 km(2) from 1970 to 2000. India, China, and Africa have experienced the highest rates of urban land expansion, and the largest change in total urban extent has occurred in North America. Across all regions and for all three decades, urban land expansion rates are higher than or equal to urban population growth rates, suggesting that urban growth is becoming more expansive than compact. Annual growth in GDP per capita drives approximately half of the observed urban land expansion in China but only moderately affects urban expansion in India and Africa, where urban land expansion is driven more by urban population growth. In high income countries, rates of urban land expansion are slower and increasingly related to GDP growth. However, in North America, population growth contributes more to urban expansion than it does in Europe. Much of the observed variation in urban expansion was not captured by either population, GDP, or other variables in the model. This suggests that contemporary urban expansion is related to a variety of factors difficult to observe comprehensively at the global level, including international capital flows, the informal economy, land use policy, and generalized transport costs. Using the results from the global model, we develop forecasts for new urban land cover using SRES Scenarios. Our results show that by 2030, global urban land cover will increase between 430,000 km(2) and 12,568,000 km(2), with an estimate of 1,527,000 km(2) more likely.

  13. Estimating the Effects of Conversion of Agricultural Land to Urban Land on Deep Percolation of Irrigation Water in the Grand Valley, Western Colorado

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    Mayo, John W.

    2008-01-01

    The conversion of agricultural land to urban residential land is associated with rapid population growth in the Grand Valley of western Colorado. Information regarding the effects of this land-use conversion on deep percolation, irrigation-water application, and associated salt loading to the Colorado River is needed to support water-resource planning and conservation efforts. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) assessed deep percolation and estimated salt loading derived from irrigated agricultural lands in the Grand Valley in a 1985 to 2002 monitoring and evaluation study (NRCS M&E). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Colorado River Salinity Control Forum and the Mesa Conservation District, quantified the current (2005-2006) deep percolation and irrigation-water application characteristics of 1/4-acre residential lots and 5-acre estates, urban parks, and urban orchard grass fields in the Grand Valley, and compared the results to NRCS M&E results from alfalfa-crop sites. In addition, pond seepage from three irrigation-water holding ponds was estimated. Salt loading was estimated for the urban study results and the NRCS M&E results by using standard salt-loading factors. A daily soil-moisture balance calculation technique was used at all urban study irrigated sites. Deep percolation was defined as any water infiltrating below the top 12 inches of soil. Deep percolation occurred when the soil-moisture balance in the first 12 inches of soil exceeded the field capacity for the soil type at each site. Results were reported separately for urban study bluegrass-only sites and for all-vegetation type (bluegrass, native plants, and orchard grass) sites. Deep percolation and irrigation-water application also were estimated for a complete irrigation season at three subdivisions by using mean site data from each subdivision. It was estimated that for the three subdivisions, 37 percent of the developed acreage was irrigated (the balance

  14. Urbanization and Land Use Changes in Peri-Urban Area using Spatial Analysis Methods (Case Study: Ciawi Urban Areas, Bogor Regency)

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    Cahya, D. L.; Martini, E.; Kasikoen, K. M.

    2018-02-01

    Urbanization is shown by the increasing percentage of the population in urban areas. In Indonesia, the percentage of urban population increased dramatically form 17.42% (1971) to 42.15% (2010). This resulted in increased demand for housing. Limited land in the city area push residents looking for an alternative location of his residence to the peri-urban areas. It is accompanied by a process of land conversion from green area into built-up area. Continuous land conversion in peri-urban area is becoming increasingly widespread. Bogor Regency as part of the Jakarta Metropolitan Area is experiencing rapid development. This regency has been experienced land-use change very rapidly from agricultural areas into urban built up areas. Aim of this research is to analyze the effect of urbanization on land use changes in peri-urban areas using spatial analysis methods. This research used case study of Ciawi Urban Area that experiencing rapid development. Method of this research is using descriptive quantitative approach. Data used in this research is primary data (field survey) and secondary data (maps). To analyze land use change is using Geographic Information System (GIS) as spatial analysis methods. The effect of urbanization on land use changes in Ciawi Urban Area from year 2013 to 2015 is significant. The reduction of farm land is around -4.00% and wetland is around - 2.51%. The increasing area for hotel/villa/resort is around 3.10%. Based on this research, local government (Bogor Regency) should be alert to the land use changes that does not comply with the land use plan and also consistently apply the spatial planning.

  15. The response of the terrestrial biosphere to urbanization: land cover conversion, climate, and urban pollution

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    K. Trusilova

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available Although urban areas occupy a relatively small fraction of land, they produce major disturbances of the carbon cycle through land use change, climate modification, and atmospheric pollution. In this study we quantify effects of urban areas on the carbon cycle in Europe. Among urbanization-driven environmental changes, which influence carbon sequestration in the terrestrial biosphere, we account for: (1 proportion of land covered by impervious materials, (2 local urban meteorological conditions, (3 urban high CO2 concentrations, and (4 elevated atmospheric nitrogen deposition. We use the terrestrial ecosystem model BIOME-BGC to estimate fluxes of carbon exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere in response to these urban factors.

    We analysed four urbanization-driven changes individually, setting up our model in such a way that only one of the four was active at a time. From these model simulations we found that fertilization effects from the elevated CO2 and the atmospheric nitrogen deposition made the strongest positive contributions to the carbon uptake (0.023 Pg C year−1 and 0.039 Pg C year−1, respectively, whereas, the impervious urban land and local urban meteorological conditions resulted in a reduction of carbon uptake (−0.005 Pg C year−1 and −0.007 Pg C year−1, respectively. The synergetic effect of the four urbanization-induced changes was an increase of the carbon sequestration in Europe of 0.058 Pg C year−1.

  16. Simulating the conversion of rural settlements to town land based on multi-agent systems and cellular automata.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yaolin; Kong, Xuesong; Liu, Yanfang; Chen, Yiyun

    2013-01-01

    Rapid urbanization in China has triggered the conversion of land from rural to urban use, particularly the conversion of rural settlements to town land. This conversion is the result of the joint effects of the geographic environment and agents involving the government, investors, and farmers. To understand the dynamic interaction dominated by agents and to predict the future landscape of town expansion, a small town land-planning model is proposed based on the integration of multi-agent systems (MAS) and cellular automata (CA). The MAS-CA model links the decision-making behaviors of agents with the neighbor effect of CA. The interaction rules are projected by analyzing the preference conflicts among agents. To better illustrate the effects of the geographic environment, neighborhood, and agent behavior, a comparative analysis between the CA and MAS-CA models in three different towns is presented, revealing interesting patterns in terms of quantity, spatial characteristics, and the coordinating process. The simulation of rural settlements conversion to town land through modeling agent decision and human-environment interaction is very useful for understanding the mechanisms of rural-urban land-use change in developing countries. This process can assist town planners in formulating appropriate development plans.

  17. Geomorphic effects of rural-to-urban land use conversion on three streams in the Central Redbed Plains of Oklahoma

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Ranbir S.; Marston, Richard A.

    2006-09-01

    This research evaluates the impact of rural-to-urban land use conversion on channel morphology and riparian vegetation for three streams in the Central Redbed Plains geomorphic province (central Great Plains ecoregion) of Oklahoma. The Deep Fork Creek watershed is largely urbanized; the Skeleton Creek watershed is largely rural; and the Stillwater Creek watershed is experiencing a rapid transition from rural to urban land cover. Each channel was divided into reaches based on tributary junctions, sinuosity, and slope. Field surveys were conducted at transects in a total of 90 reaches, including measurements of channel units, channel cross-section at bankfull stage, and riparian vegetation. Historical aerial photographs were available for only Stillwater Creek watershed, which were used to document land cover in this watershed, especially changes in the extent of urban areas (impervious cover). The three streams have very low gradients (channel banks, but have incised into red Permian shales and sandstone. The riparian vegetation is dominated by cottonwoods, ash, and elm trees that provide a dense root mat on stream banks where the riparian vegetation is intact. Channels increased in width and depth in the downstream direction as is normally expected, but the substrate materials and channel units remained unchanged. Statistical analyses demonstrated that urbanization did not explain spatial patterns of changes in any variables. These three channels in the central Redbed Plains are responding as flumes during peak flows, funneling runoff and the wash-load sediment downstream in major runoff events without any effect on channel dimensions. Therefore, local geological conditions (similar bedrock, cohesive substrates and similar riparian vegetation) are mitigating the effects of urbanization.

  18. Simulating the Conversion of Rural Settlements to Town Land Based on Multi-Agent Systems and Cellular Automata

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yaolin; Kong, Xuesong; Liu, Yanfang; Chen, Yiyun

    2013-01-01

    Rapid urbanization in China has triggered the conversion of land from rural to urban use, particularly the conversion of rural settlements to town land. This conversion is the result of the joint effects of the geographic environment and agents involving the government, investors, and farmers. To understand the dynamic interaction dominated by agents and to predict the future landscape of town expansion, a small town land-planning model is proposed based on the integration of multi-agent systems (MAS) and cellular automata (CA). The MAS-CA model links the decision-making behaviors of agents with the neighbor effect of CA. The interaction rules are projected by analyzing the preference conflicts among agents. To better illustrate the effects of the geographic environment, neighborhood, and agent behavior, a comparative analysis between the CA and MAS-CA models in three different towns is presented, revealing interesting patterns in terms of quantity, spatial characteristics, and the coordinating process. The simulation of rural settlements conversion to town land through modeling agent decision and human-environment interaction is very useful for understanding the mechanisms of rural-urban land-use change in developing countries. This process can assist town planners in formulating appropriate development plans. PMID:24244472

  19. The changing patterns of cropland conversion to built-up land in China from 1987 to 2010

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ju, H.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, X.; Wu, W.; Wang, X.; Zuo, L.

    2017-12-01

    With the rapid urbanization, industrialization and rural area construction in China, the expansions of built-up land encroached upon a large amount of cropland, and thus placed great challenges on national food security. Previous studies have primarily been focused on the whole effects of built-up land expansion, however, the individual effect of different types of built-up land (urban areas, rural settlements and industrial/transportation land) on cropland loss remains unclear. Based on land use maps interpreted from remote sensing imagery in 1987-2010, we illustrated the spatio-temporal patterns of the speed and the structure of cropland conversion to built-up land. Then, we quantitatively measured the influence of different built-up land on cropland loss from three aspects: the contribution of built-up land expansion to cropland loss, the dependence of built-up land expansion on cropland loss and the conversion's impacts on cropland quality. It was found 42,822 km2 of cropland were converted into built-up land in China, accounting for 43.8% of total cropland loss during 1987-2010. Before 2000, the expansion of rural settlements had the largest influence on cropland loss, however, urban growth showed a greater impact on cropland loss after 2000. Although the effects of rural settlements expansion decreased, rural settlements still saw the highest percentage of the loss of traditional cropland which is generally in high quality. In addition, the impacts of industrial/transportation land expansion increased dramatically and was mainly distributed in major food production regions. These changes were closely related to the economic restructuring, urban-rural transformation and government policies in China. These findings demonstrate that Chinese cropland conservation in both amount and quality should focus not only on finding a reasonable urbanization mode, but also solving the "hollowing village" problem and balancing the industrial transformations in the future.

  20. Urban land teleconnections and sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seto, Karen C.; Reenberg, Anette; Boone, Christopher G.; Fragkias, Michail; Haase, Dagmar; Langanke, Tobias; Marcotullio, Peter; Munroe, Darla K.; Olah, Branislav; Simon, David

    2012-01-01

    This paper introduces urban land teleconnections as a conceptual framework that explicitly links land changes to underlying urbanization dynamics. We illustrate how three key themes that are currently addressed separately in the urban sustainability and land change literatures can lead to incorrect conclusions and misleading results when they are not examined jointly: the traditional system of land classification that is based on discrete categories and reinforces the false idea of a rural–urban dichotomy; the spatial quantification of land change that is based on place-based relationships, ignoring the connections between distant places, especially between urban functions and rural land uses; and the implicit assumptions about path dependency and sequential land changes that underlie current conceptualizations of land transitions. We then examine several environmental “grand challenges” and discuss how urban land teleconnections could help research communities frame scientific inquiries. Finally, we point to existing analytical approaches that can be used to advance development and application of the concept. PMID:22550174

  1. Land use change and conversion effects on ground water quality trends: An integration of land change modeler in GIS and a new Ground Water Quality Index developed by fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shooshtarian, Mohammad Reza; Dehghani, Mansooreh; Margherita, Ferrante; Gea, Oliveri Conti; Mortezazadeh, Shima

    2018-04-01

    This study aggregated Land Change Modeller (LCM) as a useful model in GIS with an extended Groundwater Quality Index (GWQI) developed by fuzzy Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making models to investigate the effect of land use change and conversion on groundwater quality being supplied for drinking. The model's performance was examined through an applied study in Shiraz, Iran, in a five year period (2011 to 2015). Four land use maps including urban, industrial, garden, and bare were employed in LCM model and the impact of change in area and their conversion to each other on GWQI changes was analysed. The correlation analysis indicated that increase in the urban land use area and conversion of bare to the residential/industrial land uses, had a relation with water quality decrease. Integration of LCM and GWQI can accurately and logically provide a numerical analysis of the possible impact of land use change and conversion, as one of the influencing factors, on the groundwater quality. Hence, the methodology could be used in urban development planning and management in macro level. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  2. Monitoring forest/non-forest land use conversion rates with annual inventory data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francis A. Roesch; Paul C. Van Deusen

    2012-01-01

    The transitioning of land from forest to other uses is of increasing interest as urban areas expand and the world’s population continues to grow. Also of interest, but less recognized, is the transitioning of land from other uses into forest. In this paper, we show how rates of conversion from forest to non-forest and non-forest to forest can be estimated in the US...

  3. Urban land planning in Serbia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zeković Slavka L.

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, the capitalization, urban land management and planning routine have been explored. The focus dwells on the praxis and urban planning perspectives as a link and means for realizing the public interest in space and the role of 'urban transplants' as a lever of urban development. It has also been pointed to a certain discrimination of the property status and property rights through the category of 'public interest', which is articulated by way of urban planning. The unfairness of the existing planning system towards private property and 'taxation' of entrepreneurial activities is evident, especially in urban land use i.e. installing the height of the land rent. It is expected that urban planning is competent upon the background of societal democratization, privatization and introduction of market institutions where the perspectives shift towards democratic transformation, the regulatory role and protection of property rights and different actors’ interests in using urban land. The conclusion is that changes in the management of urban land are required with recommendations to consider public-private sector partnerships.

  4. The Urban Land Question, Land Reform and the Spectre of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The country's urban land reform mechanism, that is, land restitution, has so far been very marginal in making urban land or property available to the landless and/or homeless people. As a result, since 2014, the country is facing new aggressive extrajudicial land occupations in urban areas spearheaded by the ultra-left ...

  5. Urban land grab or fair urbanization? : Compulsory land acquisition and sustainable livelihoods in Hue, Vietnam

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nguyen Quang, P.

    2015-01-01

    Urbanization often goes hand in hand with a growing demand for housing, urban infrastructure and other facilities that are necessary for sustainable urban development. This has created numerous pressures on land, especially in peri-urban areas where land, traditionally used for agriculture, is still

  6. Detecting agricultural to urban land use change from multi-temporal MSS digital data. [Salt Lake County, Utah

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ridd, M. K.; Merola, J. A.; Jaynes, R. A.

    1983-01-01

    Conversion of agricultural land to a variety of urban uses is a major problem along the Wasatch Front, Utah. Although LANDSAT MSS data is a relatively coarse tool for discriminating categories of change in urban-size plots, its availability prompts a thorough test of its power to detect change. The procedures being applied to a test area in Salt Lake County, Utah, where the land conversion problem is acute are presented. The identity of land uses before and after conversion was determined and digital procedures for doing so were compared. Several algorithms were compared, utilizing both raw data and preprocessed data. Verification of results involved high quality color infrared photography and field observation. Two data sets were digitally registered, specific change categories internally identified in the software, results tabulated by computer, and change maps printed at 1:24,000 scale.

  7. Analysis and Modeling of Urban Land Cover Change in Setúbal and Sesimbra, Portugal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yikalo H. Araya

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available The expansion of cities entails the abandonment of forest and agricultural lands, and these lands’ conversion into urban areas, which results in substantial impacts on ecosystems. Monitoring these changes and planning urban development can be successfully achieved using multitemporal remotely sensed data, spatial metrics, and modeling. In this paper, urban land use change analysis and modeling was carried out for the Concelhos of Setúbal and Sesimbra in Portugal. An existing land cover map for the year 1990, together with two derived land cover maps from multispectral satellite images for the years 2000 and 2006, were utilized using an object-oriented classification approach. Classification accuracy assessment revealed satisfactory results that fulfilled minimum standard accuracy levels. Urban land use dynamics, in terms of both patterns and quantities, were studied using selected landscape metrics and the Shannon Entropy index. Results show that urban areas increased by 91.11% between 1990 and 2006. In contrast, the change was only 6.34% between 2000 and 2006. The entropy value was 0.73 for both municipalities in 1990, indicating a high rate of urban sprawl in the area. In 2006, this value, for both Sesimbra and Setúbal, reached almost 0.90. This is demonstrative of a tendency toward intensive urban sprawl. Urban land use change for the year 2020 was modeled using a Cellular Automata based approach. The predictive power of the model was successfully validated using Kappa variations. Projected land cover changes show a growing tendency in urban land use, which might threaten areas that are currently reserved for natural parks and agricultural lands.

  8. Inventory and change detection of urban land cover in Illinois using Landsat Thematic Mapper data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cook, E.A.; Iverson, L.R.

    1991-01-01

    In order to provide information about urban forests and other vegetative land cover in Illinois cities, Landsat TM data from June 17, 1988, were classified for the Chicago metropolitan region and five urban areas of central Illinois. Ten land cover classes were identified, including three types of forestland, cropland, two grassland categories, two urban classes, water, and miscellaneous vegetation. The cities inventoried have a significantly higher proportion of forests and forested residential areas than the surrounding rural areas because of preservation measures and accruement of tree cover from landscaping. Short-term change in land cover for the Chicago region was also assessed by postclassification comparison of the 1988 data with similarly derived data from a June 3, 1985, TM scene. The largest single category of change in the six-county area was cropland to urban land use. A majority of cover loss was conversion of forested tracts to residential areas, and forest cover increase was negligible. 16 refs

  9. Study on temporal and spatial variations of urban land use based on land change data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Ping; Liu, Yanfang; Fan, Min; Zhang, Yang

    2009-10-01

    With the rapid development of urbanization, demands of urban land increase in succession, hence, to analyze temporal and spatial variations of urban land use becomes more and more important. In this paper, the principle of trend surface analysis and formula of urban land sprawl index ( ULSI) are expatiated at first, and then based on land change data of Jiayu county, the author fits quadratic trend surface by choosing urban land area as dependent variable and urbanization and GDP as independent variables from 1996 to 2006, draws isoline of trend surface and residual values; and then urban land sprawl indexes of towns are calculated on the basis of urban land area of 1996 and 2006 and distribution map of ULSI is plotted. After analyzing those results, we can conclude that there is consanguineous relationship between urban land area and urbanization, economic level etc.

  10. Urban Land-Cover Change and Its Impact on the Ecosystem Carbon Storage in a Dryland City

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yan Yan

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Lack of research into the complexity in urban land conversion, and paucity of observational data of soil organic carbon (SOC beneath impervious surface area (ISA limit our understanding of the urbanization effects on carbon (C pools in dryland cities. Employing Landsat TM images acquired in 1990 and 2010, a hybrid classification method consisting of Linear Spectral Mixture Analysis and decision tree classification was applied to retrieve the land cover (water, ISA, greenspace, cropland, and remnant desert of the largest dryland city in China—Urumqi. Based on vegetation carbon (VEGC and SOC density data determined through field observations and literature reviews, we developed Urumqi’s C pool maps in 1990 and 2010, and assessed the urbanization impacts on ecosystem C. Our results showed that ISA tripled from 1990 to 2010 displacing remnant desert and cropland. The urban landscape, especially the greenspaces, became obviously fragmented. In 2010, more than 95% of the urban ecosystem C was SOC, 48% of which under the ISA. The city lost 19% of C stock from 1990 to 2010. About 82% of the ecosystem C loss was caused by the conversion of remnant desert and cropland into ISA, mainly in the northern city.

  11. Land use change and its driving forces toward mutual conversion in Zhangjiakou City, a farming-pastoral ecotone in Northern China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Chao; Xu, Yueqing; Sun, Piling; Huang, An; Zheng, Weiran

    2017-09-14

    Land use/cover change (LUCC), a local environmental issue of global importance, and its driving forces have been crucial issues in geography and environmental research. Previous studies primarily focused on major driving factors in various land use types, with few explorations of differences between driving forces of mutual land use type conversions, especially in fragile eco-environments. In this study, Zhangjiakou City, in a farming-pastoral ecotone in Northern China, was taken as an example to analyze land use change between 1989 and 2015, and explore the driving forces of mutual land use type conversions using canonical correlation analysis. Satellite images and government statistics, including social-economic and natural data, were used as sources. Arable land, forestland, and grassland formed the main land use structure. From 1989 to 2015 forestland, orchard land, and construction land significantly increased, while arable land, grassland, unused land, and water areas decreased. Conversions from grassland to forestland; from arable land to orchard land, forestland and construction land; and from unused land to grassland and forestland were the primary land use changes. Among these, the conversion from grassland to forestland had the highest ranking. Average annual precipitation and per capita net income of rural residents positively affected the conversion of arable land to forestland and unused land to grassland. GDP, total population, and urbanization rate contributed most significantly to converting arable land to construction land; total retail sales of social consumer goods, average annual temperature, and GDP had important positive influences in converting arable land to orchard land.

  12. Spatial pattern of agricultural land conversion in West Java Province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maryati, S.; Humaira, A. N. S.; Pratiwi, F.

    2018-03-01

    Population growth has an implication on increasing demand for land. The demand for built-up area is filled by land conversion, mostly from agricultural land. On the other hand, population growth requires an increase in food production as well as land for agriculture. Conversion of agricultural land can threaten the availability and food security. The purpose of this study is to identify the spatial pattern of changes in agricultural land in West Java Province as input to improve food security condition in this province. Descriptive statistics and spatial analysis were used to analyse the area of agricultural land, conversion of agricultural land, and spatial pattern of changes in agricultural land in West Java Province. The data used is time series data in the period of 2005-2014. The result of analysis shows that there are still areas with a high percentage of agricultural land in West Java Province. The rate of conversion of agricultural land varies widely. Cities or regions with very high land conversion rate tend to concentrate in metropolitan areas.

  13. Urban Land Use Classifcation Linked to Planning Management

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    QI Dongjin; ZHOU Jianyun; SHI Ke

    2012-01-01

    By analyzing the applicability of the new Code for Classification of Urban Land Use and Planning Standards of Development Land from the angle of planning management,this paper points out the conflicts between the planning and land use management institutions.Referring to the experience of land use control in the US and the UK through zoning and case law respectively,this paper puts forward that the urban land use classification should take into consideration the characteristics of the actual urban planning system and the possibility of mixed land use due to the uncertainty of urban development,and be linked to the institutions of planning and land supply management.

  14. Estimating changes in urban land and urban population using refined areal interpolation techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zoraghein, Hamidreza; Leyk, Stefan

    2018-05-01

    The analysis of changes in urban land and population is important because the majority of future population growth will take place in urban areas. U.S. Census historically classifies urban land using population density and various land-use criteria. This study analyzes the reliability of census-defined urban lands for delineating the spatial distribution of urban population and estimating its changes over time. To overcome the problem of incompatible enumeration units between censuses, regular areal interpolation methods including Areal Weighting (AW) and Target Density Weighting (TDW), with and without spatial refinement, are implemented. The goal in this study is to estimate urban population in Massachusetts in 1990 and 2000 (source zones), within tract boundaries of the 2010 census (target zones), respectively, to create a consistent time series of comparable urban population estimates from 1990 to 2010. Spatial refinement is done using ancillary variables such as census-defined urban areas, the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) as well as different combinations of them. The study results suggest that census-defined urban areas alone are not necessarily the most meaningful delineation of urban land. Instead, it appears that alternative combinations of the above-mentioned ancillary variables can better depict the spatial distribution of urban land, and thus make it possible to reduce the estimation error in transferring the urban population from source zones to target zones when running spatially-refined temporal areal interpolation.

  15. Effects of Urbanization-Induced Cultivated Land Loss on Ecosystem Services in the North China Plain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei Song

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Since the implementation of market oriented economic reform in 1978, China has been on the track of rapid urbanization. The unprecedented urbanization in China has resulted in substantial cultivated land loss and rapid expansion of urban areas. The cultivated land loss due to urbanization not only threatens food security in China, but has also led to ecological system degradation to which close attention should be paid. Therefore, we examined the effects of the conversion from cultivated to urban areas on the ecosystem service in the North China Plain on the basis of a net primary productivity based ecosystem service model (NESM and a buffer comparison method. Cultivated land loss due to urbanization in the North China Plain led to a total loss of ecosystem service value of 34.66% during the period 1988–2008. Urban expansion significantly decreased the ecosystem service function of water conservation (–124.03%, nutrient cycling (–31.91%, gas regulation (−7.18%, and organic production (–7.18%, while it improved the soil conservation function (2.40%. Land use change accounted for 57.40% of the changes in ecosystem service and had a major influence on the changes in nutrient cycling and water conservation. However, climate change mainly determined the changes in gas regulation, organic production, and soil conservation.

  16. Urban Land Use Efficiency and Coordination in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaodong Yang

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Due to the focused pursuit of economic growth in the process of the large-scale urban development of China, the phenomena of low land use efficiency and discordance of land use induce unwanted economic, social, and environmental costs. This paper presents a comprehensive study of urban land use efficiency and of the degree of land use coordination of 33 cities in China, using theoretical analysis, data envelopment analysis, principal component analysis, the coordination coefficient method, and four-quadrant analysis. The findings of this study suggest a gradually increasing proportion of land use efficiency from eastern to central and western regions of China, coinciding with China’s pattern of socioeconomic development. No correlation was found between high levels of urban land use efficiency and the degree of land use coordination; however, a significant correlation was found between low land use efficiency and low degrees of land use coordination. Rational land use planning and policy design can effectively improve both urban land use efficiency and coordination.

  17. Unlocking Land Values to Finance Urban Infrastructure : Land-Based Financing Options for Cities

    OpenAIRE

    George E. Peterson

    2008-01-01

    Raising capital to finance urban infrastructure is a challenge. One solution is to 'unlock' urban land values - such as by selling public lands to capture the gains in value created by investment in infrastructure projects. Land-based financing techniques are playing an increasingly important role in financing urban infrastructure in developing countries. They complement other capital fina...

  18. Land expropriation in urbanizing China

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Hui; Zhu, Pengyu; Chen, Xiao Qing

    2017-01-01

    A driving force of urban development is “accumulation by dispossession” which occurs through expropriation, privatization, and commodification of land. While the macro theory is now well refined, there is still much we do not know about how the underlying processes occur and how they shape economic...... development and urbanization. In this study, we analyze 2009 survey data of land expropriation cases across 12 Chinese cities, and find that expropriation takes different forms leading to specific outcomes. In half the cases, local governments followed central government policies requiring them to pay...... undermines urban development leading to social instability....

  19. Understanding Informal Urban Land Market Functioning in Peri ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Understanding Informal Urban Land Market Functioning in Peri-urban Areas of Secondary Towns of Rwanda: Case Study of Tumba Sector, Butare Town. ... Land price is negotiable and varies greatly based on the land size and its specific location and is higher than the reference land price. Land right transfer is evidenced ...

  20. Monitoring Urban Land Cover/land Use Change in Algiers City Using Landsat Images (1987-2016)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouchachi, B.; Zhong, Y.

    2017-09-01

    Monitoring the Urban Land Cover/Land Use change detection is important as one of the main driving forces of environmental change because Urbanization is the biggest changes in form of Land, resulting in a decrease in cultivated areas. Using remote sensing ability to solve land resources problems. The purpose of this research is to map the urban areas at different times to monitor and predict possible urban changes, were studied the annual growth urban land during the last 29 years in Algiers City. Improving the productiveness of long-term training in land mapping, were have developed an approach by the following steps: 1) pre-processing for improvement of image characteristics; 2) extract training sample candidates based on the developed methods; and 3) Derive maps and analyzed of Algiers City on an annual basis from 1987 to 2016 using a Supervised Classifier Support Vector Machine (SVMs). Our result shows that the strategy of urban land followed in the region of Algiers City, developed areas mostly were extended to East, West, and South of Central Regions. The urban growth rate is linked with National Office of Statistics data. Future studies are required to understand the impact of urban rapid lands on social, economy and environmental sustainability, it will also close the gap in data of urbanism available, especially on the lack of reliable data, environmental and urban planning for each municipality in Algiers, develop experimental models to predict future land changes with statistically significant confidence.

  1. Urban land acquisition and social justice in Ethiopia | Mengie ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In this work, the author argues that the existing urban land acquisition system of Ethiopia has resulted in social injustice by denying the poor from access to urban land; and creating discriminatory environment while enforcing the new lease system. Keywords: access to land, land lease, social justice, tenure security, urban ...

  2. Projecting land-use and land cover change in a subtropical urban watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    John J. Lagrosa IV; Wayne C. Zipperer; Michael G. Andreu

    2018-01-01

    Urban landscapes are heterogeneous mosaics that develop via significant land-use and land cover (LULC) change. Current LULC models project future landscape patterns, but generally avoid urban landscapes due to heterogeneity. To project LULC change for an urban landscape, we parameterize an established LULC model (Dyna-CLUE) under baseline conditions (continued current...

  3. Land Conversion, Social Impacts, and Legal Remedies ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Land Conversion, Social Impacts, and Legal Remedies: Understanding the Role of Community Paralegals in Addressing Impacts of Land Use Change in Asia. This project addresses the ... Pays d' institution. United States. Site internet.

  4. Liberalizing rural-to-urban construction land transfers in China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tan, Rong; Wang, Rongyu; Heerink, Nico

    2018-01-01

    China's land market is characterized by a dual urban-rural system, with the government in control of rural-urban land transfers. In recent years, different types of pilot projects have been implemented to experiment with liberalizing markets for rural-urban construction land transfers. The objective

  5. Urban and rural land use in Puerto Rico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sebastian Martinuzzi; William A. Gould; Olga M. Ramos Gonzalez; Maya Quinones; Michael E. Jimenez

    2008-01-01

    We have developed three land use regions for Puerto Rico: Urban, Suburban, and Rural (Gould et al. 2008; Martinuzzi et al. 2007). These three regions can also be considered urban, densely-populated rural, and sparsely-populated rural or as urban and wildland with a wildland-urban interface. The suburban use is the most dynamic in terms of population growth and land...

  6. Urban Dynamics: Analyzing Land Use Change in Urban Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acevedo, William; Richards, Lora R.; Buchanan, Janis T.; Wegener, Whitney R.

    2000-01-01

    In FY99, the Earth Resource Observation System (EROS) staff at Ames continued managing the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Urban Dynamics Research program, which has mapping and analysis activities at five USGS mapping centers. Historic land use reconstruction work continued while activities in geographic analysis and modeling were expanded. Retrospective geographic information system (GIS) development - the spatial reconstruction of a region's urban land-use history - focused on the Detroit River Corridor, California's Central Valley, and the city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

  7. Understanding Informal Urban Land Market Functioning in Peri ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    rapid urbansisation that requires huge land for various purposes including housing, industry ... domain. In Rwandan urban areas, as observed by many scholars (Sagashya, ... demand to the offer perspectives, analysing drivers of informal land market ... Desk study was used to collect secondary data on urban land market.

  8. Mozambique - Urban Land Regularization

    Data.gov (United States)

    Millennium Challenge Corporation — This baseline survey was developed for the impact evaluation of activities related to 'improving land access in urban hotspot areas.' The site-specific interventions...

  9. Urban Expansion Occurred at the Expense of Agricultural Lands in the Tarai Region of Nepal from 1989 to 2016

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bhagawat Rimal

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Recent rapid urbanization in developing countries presents challenges for sustainable environmental planning and peri-urban cropland management. An improved understanding of the timing and pattern of urbanization is needed to determine how to better plan urbanization for the near future. Here, we describe the spatio-temporal patterns of urbanization and related land-use/land-cover (LULC changes in the Tarai region of Nepal, as well as discuss the factors underlying its rapid urban expansion. Analyses are based on regional time-series Landsat 5, 7 and 8 image classifications for six years between 1989 and 2016, representing the first long-term observations of their kind for Nepal. During this 27-year period, gains in urban cover and losses of cultivated lands occurred widely. Urban cover occupied 221.1 km2 in 1989 and increased 320% by 2016 to a total 930.22 km2. Cultivated land was the primary source of new urban cover. Of the new urban cover added since 1989, 93% was formerly cultivated. Urban expansion occurred at moderately exponential rates over consecutive observation periods, with nearly half of all urban expansion occurring during 2006–2011 (305 km2. The annual rate of urban growth during 1989–1996 averaged 3.3% but reached as high as 8.09% and 12.61% during 1996–2001 and 2011–2016, respectively. At the district level, the rate of urban growth and, by extension, agricultural loss, were weakly related to total population growth. Variability in this relationship suggests that concerted urban-growth management may reduce losses of agricultural lands relative to historic trends despite further population growth and urbanization. Urbanization and LULC change in the Tarai region are attributable to significant inter-regional migration in a context of poor urban planning and lax policies controlling the conversion and fragmentation of peri-urban cultivated lands. Urban expansion and farmland loss are expected to continue in the future.

  10. An Object-Based Image Analysis Method for Monitoring Land Conversion by Artificial Sprawl Use of RapidEye and IRS Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maud Balestrat

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available In France, in the peri-urban context, urban sprawl dynamics are particularly strong with huge population growth as well as a land crisis. The increase and spreading of built-up areas from the city centre towards the periphery takes place to the detriment of natural and agricultural spaces. The conversion of land with agricultural potential is all the more worrying as it is usually irreversible. The French Ministry of Agriculture therefore needs reliable and repeatable spatial-temporal methods to locate and quantify loss of land at both local and national scales. The main objective of this study was to design a repeatable method to monitor land conversion characterized by artificial sprawl: (i We used an object-based image analysis to extract artificial areas from satellite images; (ii We built an artificial patch that consists of aggregating all the peripheral areas that characterize artificial areas. The “artificialized” patch concept is an innovative extension of the urban patch concept, but differs in the nature of its components and in the continuity distance applied; (iii The diachronic analysis of artificial patch maps enables characterization of artificial sprawl. The method was applied at the scale of four departments (similar to provinces along the coast of Languedoc-Roussillon, in the South of France, based on two satellite datasets, one acquired in 1996–1997 (Indian Remote Sensing and the other in 2009 (RapidEye. In the four departments, we measured an increase in artificial areas of from 113,000 ha in 1997 to 133,000 ha in 2009, i.e., an 18% increase in 12 years. The package comes in the form of a 1/15,000 valid cartography, usable at the scale of a commune (the smallest territorial division used for administrative purposes in France that can be adapted to departmental and regional scales. The method is reproducible in homogenous spatial-temporal terms, so that it could be used periodically to assess changes in land conversion

  11. Towards a Pedagogy of Land: The Urban Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Styres, Sandra; Haig-Brown, Celia; Blimkie, Melissa

    2013-01-01

    This article examines the possibilities when shifting what we have come to call a pedagogy of Land from rural to urban contexts. The authors explore some persisting questions around what it means to bring a pedagogy of Land into classrooms and communities in urban settings. The authors consider the ways a pedagogy of Land might translate from…

  12. Linking primary production, climate and land use along an urban-wildland transect: a satellite view

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu Yonghong; Jia Gensuo; Guo Huadong

    2009-01-01

    Variation of green vegetation cover influences local climate dynamics, exchange of water-heat between land and atmosphere, and hydrological processes. However, the mechanism of interaction between vegetation and local climate change in subtropical areas under climate warming and anthropogenic disturbances is poorly understood. We analyzed spatial-temporal trends of vegetation with moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation index datasets over three sections, namely urban, urban-rural fringe and wildland along an urban-wildland transect in a southern mega-city area in China from 2000-2008. The results show increased photosynthetic activity occurred in the wildland and the stable urban landscape in correspondence to the rising temperature, and a considerable decrease of vegetation activity in the urban-rural fringe area, apparently due to urban expansion. On analyzing the controlling factors of climate change and human drivers of vegetation cover change, we found that temperature contributed to vegetation growth more than precipitation and that rising temperature accelerated plant physiological activity. Meanwhile, human-induced dramatic modification of land cover, e.g. conversion of natural forest and cropland to built-up areas in the urban-rural fringe, has caused significant changes of green vegetation fraction and overall primary production, which may further influence local climate.

  13. The Delimitation of Urban Growth Boundaries Using the CLUE-S Land-Use Change Model: Study on Xinzhuang Town, Changshu City, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rui Zhou

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Over the past decades, urban growth boundaries (UGBs have been regarded as effective tools applied by planners and local governments to curb urban sprawl and guide urban smart growth. The UGBs help limit urban development to suitable areas and protect surrounding agricultural and ecological landscapes. At present, China’s Town and Country Planning Act officially requires the delimitation of UGBs in a city master planning outline and in central urban area planning. However, China’s practices in UGBs are usually determined by urban planners and local authorities, and lack a sound analytical basis. Consequently, Chinese UGBs are often proven to be inefficient for controlling urban expansion. In this paper, take the fast-growing Xinzhuang town of Changshu city, eastern China as an example, a new method towards establishing UGBs is proposed based on land-use change model (the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small regional extent, CLUE-S. The results of our study show that the land-use change and urban growth simulation accuracy of CLUE-S model is high. The expansion of construction land and the decrease of paddy field would be the main changing trends of local land use, and a good deal of cultivated land and ecological land would be transformed into construction land in 2009–2027. There is remarkable discordance in the spatial distribution between the simulated UGBs based on the CLUE-S model and the planned UGBs based on the conventional method, where the simulated results may more closely reflect the reality of urban growth laws. Therefore, we believe that our method could be a useful planning tool for the delimitation of UGBs in Chinese cities.

  14. Generation of a U.S. national urban land use product

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falcone, James A.; Homer, Collin G.

    2012-01-01

    Characterization of urban land uses is essential for many applications. However, differentiating among thematically-detailed urban land uses (residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational, etc.) over broad areas is challenging, in part because image-based solutions are not ideal for establishing the contextual basis for identifying economic function and use. At present no current United States national-scale mapping exists for urban land uses similar to the classical Anderson Level II classification. This paper describes a product that maps urban land uses, and is linked to and corresponds with the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2006. In this product, NLCD urban pixels, in addition to their current imperviousness intensity classification, are assigned one of nine urban use classes based on information drawn from multiple data sources. These sources include detailed infrastructure information, population characteristics, and historical land use. The result is a method for creating a 30 m national-scale grid providing thematically-detailed urban land use information which complements the NLCD. Initial results for 10 major metropolitan areas are provided as an on-line link. Accuracy assessment of initial products yielded an overall accuracy of 81.6 percent.

  15. Impacts of urbanization on carbon balance in terrestrial ecosystems of the Southern United States

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Chi; Tian Hanqin; Chen, Guangsheng; Chappelka, Arthur; Xu Xiaofeng; Ren Wei; Hui Dafeng; Liu Mingliang; Lu Chaoqun; Pan, Shufen; Lockaby, Graeme

    2012-01-01

    Using a process-based Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model, we assessed carbon dynamics of urbanized/developed lands in the Southern United States during 1945–2007. The results indicated that approximately 1.72 (1.69–1.77) Pg (1P = 10 15 ) carbon was stored in urban/developed lands, comparable to the storage of shrubland or cropland in the region. Urbanization resulted in a release of 0.21 Pg carbon to the atmosphere during 1945–2007. Pre-urbanization vegetation type and time since land conversion were two primary factors determining the extent of urbanization impacts on carbon dynamics. After a rapid decline of carbon storage during land conversion, an urban ecosystem gradually accumulates carbon and may compensate for the initial carbon loss in 70–100 years. The carbon sequestration rate of urban ecosystem diminishes with time, nearly disappearing in two centuries after land conversion. This study implied that it is important to take urbanization effect into account for assessing regional carbon balance. - Highlights: ► A series of spatial and temporal urban/developed land maps were generated. ► Urbanization effects on regional carbon dynamics were studied with a process-based Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model (DLEM). ► Carbon storage of urban/developed land was comparable to that stored in cropland and shrubland in the Southern United States. ► Pre-urbanization vegetation type and time since land conversion were two primary factors determining the extent of urbanization impacts on carbon dynamics. ► Urbanization resulted in carbon emission, but established urban areas may gradually accumulate carbon over time. - Urbanization has resulted in carbon release to the atmosphere, but established urban areas may gradually accumulate carbon over time.

  16. The interaction between land subsidence and urban development in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Yang

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The Yangtze River Delta and North China Plain are experiencing serious land subsidence development and are also the areas that have undergone the fastest urbanization. Rapid urban development inevitably requires more water resources. However, China is a country with small per capita water resources, nonuniform distribution of water resources, and over-exploitation of groundwater – all of which are critical factors contributing to the potential for a land subsidence disaster. In addition, land subsidence has brought about elevation loss, damaged buildings, decreased safety of rail transit projects, lowered land value, and other huge economic losses and potential safety hazards in China. In this paper, Beijing, a typical northern Chinese city deficient in water, is taken as an example to explore (a the problems of urban development, utilization of water resources, and land subsidence development; (b the harm and influence of land subsidence hazards on urban construction; and (c the relationship between urban development and land subsidence. Based on the results, the author has predicted the trend of urban development and land subsidence in Beijing and puts forward her viewpoints and suggestions.

  17. Modelling the effects of land use changes on the streamflow of a peri-urban catchment in central Portugal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hävermark, Saga; Santos Ferreira, Carla Sofia; Kalantari, Zahra; Di Baldassarre, Giuliano

    2016-04-01

    Many river basis around the world are rapidly changing together with societal development. Such developments may involve changes in land use, which in turn affect the surrounding environment in various ways. Since the start of industrialisation, the urban areas have extended worldwide. Urbanization can influence hydrological processes by decreasing evapotranspiration, infiltration and groundwater recharge as well as increasing runoff and overland flow. It is therefore of uttermost importance to understand the relationship between land use and hydrology. Although several studies have been investigating the impacts of urbanization on streamflow over the last decades, less is known on how urbanization affects hydrological processes in peri-urban areas, characterized by a complex mosaic of different land uses. This study aimed to model the impact of land use changes, specifically urbanization and commercial forest plantation, on the hydrological responses of the small Ribeira dos Covões peri-urban catchment (6,2 km2) located in central Portugal. The catchment has undergone rapid land use changes between 1958 and 2012 associated with the conversion of agricultural fields (cover area decreased from 48% to 4%) into woodland and urban areas, which increased from 44% to 56% and from 8% to 40%, respectively. For the study, the fully-distributed, physically-based modelling system MIKE SHE was used. The model was designed to examine both how past land use changes might have affected the streamflow and to investigate the impacts on hydrology of possible future scenarios, including a 50 %, 60 % and 70 % urban cover. To this end, a variety of data including daily rainfall since 1958 and forward, daily potential evapotranspiration from 2009 to 2013, monthly temperature averages from 1971 to 2013, land use for the years 1958, 1973, 1979, 1990, 1995, 2002, 2007 and 2012, streamflow from the hydrological years 2008 to 2013, catchment topography and soil types were used. The model

  18. Urban and built-up land area changes in the United States: an empirical investigation of determinants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ralph J. Alig; Robert G. Healy

    1987-01-01

    Conversion of commodity-producing rural lands to urban and other built-up uses received considerable attention in the professional literature and in the popular press in the early 1980s (U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Council on Environmental Quality 1981 ; Fischel 1982; Raup 1980; Brown, et al. 1982). Although some have concluded that the forces encouraging...

  19. Assessing land take by urban development and its impact on carbon storage: Findings from two case studies in Italy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sallustio, L. [Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio (DiBT), Università del Molise, C. da Fonte Lappone, I-86090 Isernia (Italy); Quatrini, V. [Dipartimento per l' Innovazione nei sistemi Biologici, Agroalimentari e Forestali (DIBAF), Università della Tuscia, v. San Camillo de Lellis, I-01100 Viterbo (Italy); Geneletti, D., E-mail: davide.geneletti@unitn.it [Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, 38123 Trento (Italy); Corona, P., E-mail: piermaria.corona@entecra.it [Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l' analisi dell' economia agraria, Forestry Research Centre (CRA-SEL), Viale S. Margherita 80, 52100 Arezzo (Italy); Marchetti, M. [Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio (DiBT), Università del Molise, C. da Fonte Lappone, I-86090 Isernia (Italy)

    2015-09-15

    Highlights: • We tested a new methodology for monitoring land take and its effects on C storage. • The ecological impact of urban growth derives from the previous land use. • C loss increases with the naturalness of the territory. • Different urban assets may imply different forms of land take containment. Land take due to urbanization triggers a series of negative environmental impacts with direct effects on quality of life for people living in cities. Changes in ecosystem services are associated with land take, among which is the immediate C loss due to land use conversion. Land use change monitoring represents the first step in quantifying land take and its drivers and impacts. To this end, we propose an innovative methodology for monitoring land take and its effects on ecosystem services (in particular, C loss) under multi-scale contexts. The devised approach was tested in two areas with similar sizes, but different land take levels during the time-span 1990–2008 in Central Italy (the Province of Rome and the Molise Region). The estimates of total coverage of built up areas were calculated using point sampling. The area of the urban patches including each sampling point classified as built up areas in the year 1990 and/or in the year 2008 is used to estimate total abundance and average area of built up areas. Biophysical and economic values for carbon loss associated with land take were calculated using InVEST. Although land take was 7–8 times higher in the Province of Rome (from 15.1% in 1990 to 20.4% in 2008) than in Molise region, our findings show that its relative impact on C storage is higher in the latter, where the urban growth consistently affects not only croplands but also semi-natural land uses such as grasslands and other wooded lands. The total C loss due to land take has been estimated in 1.6 million Mg C, corresponding to almost 355 million €. Finally, the paper discusses the main characteristics of urban growth and their

  20. Assessing land take by urban development and its impact on carbon storage: Findings from two case studies in Italy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sallustio, L.; Quatrini, V.; Geneletti, D.; Corona, P.; Marchetti, M.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • We tested a new methodology for monitoring land take and its effects on C storage. • The ecological impact of urban growth derives from the previous land use. • C loss increases with the naturalness of the territory. • Different urban assets may imply different forms of land take containment. Land take due to urbanization triggers a series of negative environmental impacts with direct effects on quality of life for people living in cities. Changes in ecosystem services are associated with land take, among which is the immediate C loss due to land use conversion. Land use change monitoring represents the first step in quantifying land take and its drivers and impacts. To this end, we propose an innovative methodology for monitoring land take and its effects on ecosystem services (in particular, C loss) under multi-scale contexts. The devised approach was tested in two areas with similar sizes, but different land take levels during the time-span 1990–2008 in Central Italy (the Province of Rome and the Molise Region). The estimates of total coverage of built up areas were calculated using point sampling. The area of the urban patches including each sampling point classified as built up areas in the year 1990 and/or in the year 2008 is used to estimate total abundance and average area of built up areas. Biophysical and economic values for carbon loss associated with land take were calculated using InVEST. Although land take was 7–8 times higher in the Province of Rome (from 15.1% in 1990 to 20.4% in 2008) than in Molise region, our findings show that its relative impact on C storage is higher in the latter, where the urban growth consistently affects not only croplands but also semi-natural land uses such as grasslands and other wooded lands. The total C loss due to land take has been estimated in 1.6 million Mg C, corresponding to almost 355 million €. Finally, the paper discusses the main characteristics of urban growth and their

  1. Access to Urban Land and its Role in Enhancing Business ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Access to urban land for business activities relates to access to working space, or using and/or controlling a unit of land based on open access, land ownership, land lease, business lease or premise rentals. Diversified and broad-based access to urban land with due regulatory control against speculation and holdouts ...

  2. Urban Expansion and Agricultural Land Loss in China: A Multiscale Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaifang Shi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available China’s rapid urbanization has contributed to a massive agricultural land loss that could threaten its food security. Timely and accurate mapping of urban expansion and urbanization-related agricultural land loss can provide viable measures to be taken for urban planning and agricultural land protection. In this study, urban expansion in China from 2001 to 2013 was mapped using the nighttime stable light (NSL, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, and water body data. Urbanization-related agricultural land loss during this time period was then evaluated at national, regional, and metropolitan scales by integrating multiple sources of geographic data. The results revealed that China’s total urban area increased from 31,076 km2 in 2001 to 80,887 km2 in 2013, with an average annual growth rate of 13.36%. This widespread urban expansion consumed 33,080 km2 of agricultural land during this period. At a regional scale, the eastern region lost 18,542 km2 or 1.2% of its total agricultural land area. At a metropolitan scale, the Shanghai–Nanjing–Hangzhou (SNH and Pearl River Delta (PRD areas underwent high levels of agricultural land loss with a decrease of 6.12% (4728 km2 and 6.05% (2702 km2 of their total agricultural land areas, respectively. Special attention should be paid to the PRD, with a decline of 13.30% (1843 km2 of its cropland. Effective policies and strategies should be implemented to mitigate urbanization-related agricultural land loss in the context of China’s rapid urbanization.

  3. Analyzing Rumors, Gossip, and Urban Legends through Their Conversational Properties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerin, Bernard; Miyazaki, Yoshihiko

    2006-01-01

    A conversational approach is developed to explain the ubiquitous presence of rumors, urban legends, and gossip as arising from their conversational properties rather than from side effects of cognitive processing or "effort after meaning." It is suggested that the primary function of telling rumors, gossip, and urban legends is not to impart…

  4. Improving Land Administration and Management for Sustainable Urban Development : Philippines Urbanization Review Policy Notes

    OpenAIRE

    World Bank

    2017-01-01

    This policy note assesses the performance of existing land administration and management (LAM) system in the Philippines in creating an environment for competitive cities. It looks at the influence of LAM (including property rights) in the proper functioning of land markets in urban areas; the effectiveness of land use planning and regulations in shaping urban growth, reducing informality,...

  5. Urban Land Expansion and Structural Change in the Yangtze River Delta, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinlong Gao

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Urban development in China has attracted considerable scholarly attention. However, more work is still needed to examine and understand the mechanisms of urban land expansion, especially within the context of globalization/marketization, decentralization and urbanization. This paper analyzes urban land expansion and structural changes in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD. We find that cities in the YRD are experiencing urban land expansion mainly characterized by the growth of residential and industrial land. The dominant characteristics of urban land expansion in cities have also varied within different development and administrative levels. Based on our conceptual framework, we have used multi-models to investigate the driving forces of urban land expansion and structural changes in the YRD. The results reveal that six influencing factors—foreign direct investment (FDI, labor, government competition, institution, population, and job-housing relations—facilitate land use change in the economic transition process. However, their impacts differ in cities in different geographical locations, as well as with different administrative levels. Finally, this paper discusses policies to promote sustainable urban land use in the YRD.

  6. Urban Land Expansion and Spatial Dynamics in Globalizing Shanghai

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Han Li

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Urban land expansion in China has attracted considerable scholarly attention. However, more work is needed to apply spatial modeling to understanding the mechanisms of urban growth from both institutional and physical perspectives. This paper analyzes urban expansion in Shanghai and its development zones (DZs. We find that, as nodes of global-local interface, the DZs are the most significant components of urban growth in Shanghai, and major spatial patterns of urban expansion in Shanghai are infilling and edge expansion. We apply logistic regression, geographically weighted logistic regression (GWLR and spatial regime regression to investigate the determinants of urban land expansion including physical conditions, state policy and land development. Regressions reveal that, though the market has been an important driving force in urban growth, the state has played a predominant role through the implementation of urban planning and the establishment of DZs to fully capitalize on globalization. We also find that differences in urban growth dynamics exist between the areas inside and outside of the DZs. Finally, this paper discusses policies to promote sustainable development in Shanghai.

  7. URBAN EXPANSION AND LOSS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND IN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Dr Osondu

    1987-09-23

    Sep 23, 1987 ... study and to assess its influence on agricultural lands. ... average annual rates of urban growth in Uyo Urban area were 4.48%, 0.56% between 1978/1988, 8.57% .... region (Woodwell et, al; 1984 and Williams, ... The reverse was the case with agricultural land. ... cohesive, organized network of vegetable.

  8. Influences of Urban Expansion on Cultivated Lands in China Since 1970S

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, F.; Zhang, Z.; Zhao, X.; Yu, S.; Wang, X.; Zuo, L.

    2018-04-01

    Urban expansion has far-reaching influences on cultivated lands, and has a serious effect on grain output and safety. However, relatively little attention has been paid to monitor cultivated land losses through urban expansion over a long timeframe and multi-frequency, especially its differences on national scale systematically. In this work, the characteristics of Chinese cultivated land dynamics were described using annual occupied area per city, contribution rate of cultivated lands to urban expansion and the classification method of basic trend of cultivated land losses. Results indicate that: (1) in the past four decades, large amount of cultivated lands have been occupied during the urban expansion process, and have become the first land source for Chinese urban expansion. (2) Cultivated land loss among municipalities, provincial capitals and other cities was obviously different. The higher of cities' administrative level was, the more obvious of cultivated land loss in these cities appeared, and the earlier of acceleration loss stage of cultivated lands occurred. (3) Cultivated land loss in five population-size cities was unbalanced, representing obviously different loss process and contribution on urban expansion. The bigger of cities' population size was, the more obvious of cultivated land loss in these cities appeared, and the earlier of acceleration loss stage of cultivated lands occurred. (4) Cultivated land losses during urban expansion process were imbalanced in China, and were classified into seven trends. (5) Chinese cultivated land protection has been carried out from the awakening stage to the deep implementation stage.

  9. Planning and land policy tools for limiting urban sprawl: The example of Belgrade

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zeković Slavka

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Both the characteristics of Serbia’s urban land policy, the delay in reforms and land development management of the Belgrade Metropolitan Area (BMA illustrate the complexities following the reshaping of institutional framework under the conditions of economic and other uncertainties of societal transition. The negative implications of the prolonged crisis on the new urban development policy and urban land tools can postpone the establishment and application of guidelines for limiting the urban sprawl. This paper presents a brief literature review, as well as the current urban land policy and land-use efficiency in the BMA. Traditional urban land tools will be shortly described, followed by recommendations for limiting sprawl. There is a need for readjusting the current planning and urban policy regarding the urban sprawl, from an urban “command-and-control” approach to a “learn-and-adapt” approach. We suggest the introduction of more innovative and flexible urban land policy tools. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III47014

  10. The Interpretation of Urban Land Use Maps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinson, Roger J.

    1973-01-01

    Three steps in urban land use analysis, fieldwork mapping, processing of data, and classification and delimitation of zones in an urban area, are described. An appendix presents a classification of buildings by function. (KM)

  11. Urbanization on the US landscape: looking ahead in the 21st century.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ralph J. Alig; Jeffrey D. Kline; Mark Lichtenstein

    2004-01-01

    Conversion of rural lands to urban and other built-up uses affects the mix of commodities and services produced from the global land base. In the United States, there was a 34% increase in the amount of land devoted to urban and built-up uses between 1982 and 1997. This increase came predominantly from the conversion of croplands and forestland, with the largest...

  12. Influence of land urbanization on carbon sequestration of urban vegetation: A temporal cooperativity analysis in Guangzhou as an example.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Qian; Dong, Yu-Xiang; Yang, Ren

    2018-04-13

    Land urbanization can affect carbon sequestration. In this study, the relationships between land urbanization and carbon sequestration of urban vegetation were studied for Guangzhou, China. The methodology was based on land use data from Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery, MODIS13Q1 data, and climate data, and the improved Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach (CASA) model and linear system models were employed. Characteristics such as the amount of expansion, spatial agglomeration, spatial expansion intensity, and spatial growth of built-up land were analyzed, and the influence of land urbanization (built-up land expansion) on carbon sequestration of urban vegetation was elucidated by a temporal sequential cooperativity analysis. The main results were as follows. (1) Land urbanization had a clear influence on carbon sequestration of urban vegetation in Guangzhou, and the proportion and spatial agglomeration of built-up land showed significant negative correlations with this carbon sequestration; the correlation coefficients were -0.443 and -0.537, respectively, in 2014. (2) The spatial expansion intensity and spatial growth of built-up land showed small correlations with carbon sequestration, and the correlations from 2000 to 2005 were relatively larger than those at other times; this was because the built-up land expansion speed was the fastest during this period. (3) The temporal sequential cooperativity analysis revealed that carbon was lost as natural surfaces were transformed to artificial surfaces, and land urbanization effects on carbon sequestration showed no significant temporal lag. Carbon sequestration of urban vegetation in the city could be improved by adding urban green spaces; however, this would likely take some time as the system recovers. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Urban Sprawl Impact on Farmland Conversion in Suburban Area of Wroclaw, Poland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solecka, Iga; Sylla, Marta; Świąder, Małgorzata

    2017-10-01

    The developments in suburban areas are changing the peri-urban landscape, by transforming the agricultural land into discontinuous urban fabric. Tracking these changes requires different approaches. The aim of the research is to identify the spatial development of suburban zone with the use of the spatial information-based approach of estimating the location of suburban plots. The authors introduced parameters describing the building plots for single family housing in the suburban areas on the example of the surrounding municipalities of the city of Wrocław, Poland. Landscape metrics tools were used to delineate the suburban plots not identified by Corine Land Cover 2012. The results were verified with the use of the prices and values register for real estates. The results show that there is an increasing pressure on farmland conversion into suburban areas expressed by the number of transactions and the total areas of sold housing plots. The plots that have been purchased for the single-family housing between 2004 and 2016 constitute about 10 % of all existing plots. About 42 % of suburban properties are designed in the distance not exceeding 3 km from the existing settlements; they are, however, not connected by infrastructure with other build-up areas.

  14. Economic Growth and Expansion of China’s Urban Land Area: Evidence from Administrative Data and Night Lights, 1993–2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Gibson

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The relationship between economic growth, expansion of urban land area and the broader issue of cultivated land conversion in China has been closely examined for the late 1980s and 1990s. Much less is known about recent urban expansion and if the effects of economic growth on this expansion have changed over time. This paper updates estimates of urban expansion for China and examines the relationship with city economic growth for 1993–2012. To see if patterns are robust to different types of evidence, administrative data on the area of 225 urban cores are compared to estimates of brightly lit areas from remotely sensed night lights. The trend annual expansion rate in lit area is 8% and was significantly faster in the decade to 2002 than in the most recent decade. Expansion is slower according to administrative data, at just 5% per annum, with no change in unconditional expansion rates between decades, while conditional expansion rates have declined. The elasticity of area with respect to city economic output is about 0.3. Over time, expansion of urban land area is becoming less responsive to the growth of the local non-agricultural population.

  15. Mapping urban environmental noise: a land use regression method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Dan; Liu, Yi; Chen, Jining

    2011-09-01

    Forecasting and preventing urban noise pollution are major challenges in urban environmental management. Most existing efforts, including experiment-based models, statistical models, and noise mapping, however, have limited capacity to explain the association between urban growth and corresponding noise change. Therefore, these conventional methods can hardly forecast urban noise at a given outlook of development layout. This paper, for the first time, introduces a land use regression method, which has been applied for simulating urban air quality for a decade, to construct an urban noise model (LUNOS) in Dalian Municipality, Northwest China. The LUNOS model describes noise as a dependent variable of surrounding various land areas via a regressive function. The results suggest that a linear model performs better in fitting monitoring data, and there is no significant difference of the LUNOS's outputs when applied to different spatial scales. As the LUNOS facilitates a better understanding of the association between land use and urban environmental noise in comparison to conventional methods, it can be regarded as a promising tool for noise prediction for planning purposes and aid smart decision-making.

  16. Influence of Brownfield Conversion on Evaluating Real Estate and Implemeting the Possibilites of Urban Brownfields in Lithuanian Cities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vytautas Bielinskas

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The article deals with the problems of brownfield in Lithuania. The paper overviews Lithuanian and foreign experience of integrating the introduced areas into the urban framework based on social, economic, ecological and cultural contextuality. The main problem, on Lithuanian scale, is the absence of an official definition of urban brownfield. The legal framework in Lithuania does not contain any provisions to be processed. The article is aimed at identifying potential threats to the areas in respect of criteria for urban brownfields, and, according to this review, at revealing possible uses of this land. One of the most effective ways of urban sustainable development is the conversion of former military, industrial and other land accepted as the legacy of the Soviet regime. The authors have established a causal relationship resulting in the emergence of the urban areas of wilderness and developed guidance on using them. The authors have analysed and evaluated the existing real estate developers and current trends towards opportunities for private and public partnership (PPP in Lithuania. Although PPP is widespread in most of European countries, it is a rare phenomenon in Lithuania, and has no deep-rooted tradition of this kind of investment in urban infrastructure; however, evaluation is one of the most potential ways to revitalize abandoned urban territories. Based on practices of foreign countries, the authors have identified PPP as a priority.

  17. Countermeasures for Intensive Use of Land from the Perspective of Urban-Rural Integration

    OpenAIRE

    Jia, Li-bin

    2012-01-01

    This paper analyzes problems of excessive emphasis on expansion of urban land, improper village and town construction, and low land utilization efficiency in urban-rural integration construction. In line with characteristics and principle of intensive land use of urban-rural integration, it puts forward integration of urban-rural land layout, practically exploring connotation, and improving land intensification in many ways. Based on these, it presents countermeasures for intensive use of lan...

  18. Land Conversion, Social Impacts, and Legal Remedies ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Land Conversion, Social Impacts, and Legal Remedies: Understanding the Role of ... There is a recognized need for intermediary institutions, such as media, ... Birth registration is the basis for advancing gender equality and children's rights.

  19. Driving factors of urban land growth in Guangzhou and its implications for sustainable development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, Xuezhu; Li, Shaoying; Wang, Xuetong; Xue, Xiaolong

    2018-04-01

    Since 2000, China's urban land has expanded at a dramatic speed because of the country's rapid urbanization. The country has been experiencing unbalanced development between rural and urban areas, causing serious challenges such as agricultural security and land resources waste. Effectively evaluating the driving factors of urban land growth is essential for improving efficient land use management and sustainable urban development. This study established a principal component regression model based on eight indicators to identify their influences on urban land growth in Guangzhou. The results provided a grouping analysis of the driving factors, and found that economic growth, urban population, and transportation development are the driving forces of urban land growth of Guangzhou, while the tertiary industry has an opposite effect. The findings led to further suggestions and recommendations for urban sustainable development. Hence, local governments should design relevant policies for achieving the rational development of urban land use and strategic planning on urban sustainable development.

  20. Removing non-urban roads from the National Land Cover Database to create improved urban maps for the United States, 1992-2011

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soulard, Christopher E.; Acevedo, William; Stehman, Stephen V.

    2018-01-01

    Quantifying change in urban land provides important information to create empirical models examining the effects of human land use. Maps of developed land from the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) of the conterminous United States include rural roads in the developed land class and therefore overestimate the amount of urban land. To better map the urban class and understand how urban lands change over time, we removed rural roads and small patches of rural development from the NLCD developed class and created four wall-to-wall maps (1992, 2001, 2006, and 2011) of urban land. Removing rural roads from the NLCD developed class involved a multi-step filtering process, data fusion using geospatial road and developed land data, and manual editing. Reference data classified as urban or not urban from a stratified random sample was used to assess the accuracy of the 2001 and 2006 urban and NLCD maps. The newly created urban maps had higher overall accuracy (98.7 percent) than the NLCD maps (96.2 percent). More importantly, the urban maps resulted in lower commission error of the urban class (23 percent versus 57 percent for the NLCD in 2006) with the trade-off of slightly inflated omission error (20 percent for the urban map, 16 percent for NLCD in 2006). The removal of approximately 230,000 km2 of rural roads from the NLCD developed class resulted in maps that better characterize the urban footprint. These urban maps are more suited to modeling applications and policy decisions that rely on quantitative and spatially explicit information regarding urban lands.

  1. Compulsory Acquisition and Urban Land Delivery in Customary ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    E O Akrofi

    shows that this is a major hindrance to urban land delivery in customary areas. ..... also be acceptable when government assists private companies to acquire land ..... cash from the Land Valuation Board but they cannot conclusively state that ...

  2. Quantifying the Effects of Historical Land Cover Conversion Uncertainty on Global Carbon and Climate Estimates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Vittorio, A. V.; Mao, J.; Shi, X.; Chini, L.; Hurtt, G.; Collins, W. D.

    2018-01-01

    Previous studies have examined land use change as a driver of global change, but the translation of land use change into land cover conversion has been largely unconstrained. Here we quantify the effects of land cover conversion uncertainty on the global carbon and climate system using the integrated Earth System Model. Our experiments use identical land use change data and vary land cover conversions to quantify associated uncertainty in carbon and climate estimates. Land cover conversion uncertainty is large, constitutes a 5 ppmv range in estimated atmospheric CO2 in 2004, and generates carbon uncertainty that is equivalent to 80% of the net effects of CO2 and climate and 124% of the effects of nitrogen deposition during 1850-2004. Additionally, land cover uncertainty generates differences in local surface temperature of over 1°C. We conclude that future studies addressing land use, carbon, and climate need to constrain and reduce land cover conversion uncertainties.

  3. Characterizing Factors Associated with Built-Up Land Expansion in Urban and Non-Urban Areas from a Morphological Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhonghao Zhang

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, built-up land expansion patterns and the associated factors were characterized in urban and non-urban areas across the Wen-Tai region of eastern China. Fractal dimension can be used as a reliable indicator of the complexity of built-up land form, and the increasing trend of fractal dimension indicated a more complex, dispersed pattern of built-up land in urban areas. Spatial regression models were quantitatively implemented to identify the indicators influencing the variation of fractal dimensions. Our findings suggested that the fractal dimension of built-up land forms was positively correlated to the patch density and elevation when built-up land expansion was more concentrated. Both landscape shape index and Gross Domestic Product (GDP were positively correlated with fractal dimension in urban areas, and total edge, edge density, and connective index had impacts on fractal dimension in non-urban areas. Slope and agricultural population also showed an influence on fractal dimension. This study provided a new way for urban studies in interpreting the complex interactions between fractal dimension and related factors. The combined approach of fractal dimension and spatial analysis can provide the government planners with valuable information that can be efficiently used to realize the influences of land use policies in urban and non-urban areas.

  4. Monitoring the effects of land use/landcover changes on urban heat island

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gee, Ong K.; Sarker, Md Latifur Rahman

    2013-10-01

    Urban heat island effects are well known nowadays and observed in cities throughout the World. The main reason behind the effects of urban heat island (UHI) is the transformation of land use/ land cover, and this transformation is associated with UHI through different actions: i) removal of vegetated areas, ii) land reclamation from sea/river, iii) construction of new building as well as other concrete structures, and iv) industrial and domestic activity. In rapidly developing cities, urban heat island effects increases very hastily with the transformation of vegetated/ other types of areas into urban surface because of the increasing population as well as for economical activities. In this research the effect of land use/ land cover on urban heat island was investigated in two growing cities in Asia i.e. Singapore and Johor Bahru, (Malaysia) using 10 years data (from 1997 to 2010) from Landsat TM/ETM+. Multispectral visible band along with indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Build Index (NDBI), and Normalized Difference Bareness Index (NDBaI) were used for the classification of major land use/land cover types using Maximum Likelihood Classifiers. On the other hand, land surface temperature (LST) was estimated from thermal image using Land Surface Temperature algorithm. Emissivity correction was applied to the LST map using the emissivity values from the major land use/ land cover types, and validation of the UHI map was carried out using in situ data. Results of this research indicate that there is a strong relationship between the land use/land cover changes and UHI. Over this 10 years period, significant percentage of non-urban surface was decreased but urban heat surface was increased because of the rapid urbanization. With the increase of UHI effect it is expected that local urban climate has been modified and some heat related health problem has been exposed, so appropriate measure should be taken in order to

  5. Frontiers of Land and Water Governance in Urban Regions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Thomas, Hartmann; Spit, Tejo

    2015-01-01

    A society that intensifies and expands the use of land and water in urban areas needs to search for solutions to manage the frontiers between these two essential elements for urban living. Sustainable governance of land and water is one of the major challenges of our times. Managing retention areas

  6. The transformation of urban industrial land use: A quantitative method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rongxu Qiu

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available A large number of cities around the world today owe their land use growth to the rapid development of industrial areas. The spatial structure of industrial distribution in cities shape urban spatial morphology linking with land use, transportation, economic activities, and housing. Meanwhile, growth and expansion of city population and land use reconfigure the spatial structure of industrial distribution. Research into urban industrial spatial distribution and its transformation process may help urban planners and decision makers understand the land use and population dynamics of a city. Genetic algorithms are believed to be one kind of the promising methods to simulate this dynamic process. In this paper, we propose a novel method to simulate urban industrial spatial distribution and its transformation process in Shanghai, China. The results show that along with increasing urban land price over time, industries are going to move outward from the city center. However, the maximum profit of a firm tends to decrease, which could lead industrial factories to move beyond city boundary. The analysis of the current industrial spatial distribution in Shanghai indicates that, when land price in a city rises above a specific threshold, new government policies and other competitive advantages need to be enacted if the city wants to retain industrial firms within the city boundary.

  7. Monitoring urban expansion and its effects on land use and land cover changes in Guangzhou city, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Yanyan; Li, Shuyuan; Yu, Shixiao

    2016-01-01

    There are widespread concerns about urban sprawl in China. In response, modeling and assessing urban expansion and subsequent land use and land cover (LULC) changes have become important approaches to support decisions about appropriate development and land resource use. Guangzhou, a major metropolitan city in South China, has experienced rapid urbanization and great economic growth in the past few decades. This study applied a series of Landsat images to assess the urban expansion and subsequent LULC changes over 35 years, from 1979 to 2013. From start to end, urban expansion increased by 1512.24 km(2) with an annual growth rate of 11.25 %. There were four stages of urban growth: low rates from 1979 to 1990, increased rates from 1990 to 2001, high rates from 2001 to 2009, and steady increased rates from 2009 to 2013. There were also three different urban growth types in these different stages: edge-expansion growth, infilling growth, and spontaneous growth. Other land cover, such as cropland, forest, and mosaics of cropland and natural vegetation, were severely impacted as a result. To analyze these changes, we used landscape metrics to characterize the changes in the spatial patterns across the Guangzhou landscape and the impacts of urban growth on other types of land cover. The significant changes in LULC and urban expansion were highly correlated with economic development, population growth, technical progress, policy elements, and other similar indexes.

  8. Remote Sensing of Urban Land Cover/Land Use Change, Surface Thermal Responses, and Potential Meteorological and Climate Change Impacts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrochi, Dale A.; Jedlovec, Gary; Meyer, Paul

    2011-01-01

    potentially affect land cover LSTs across the Center. Moreover, the weather stations will also provide baseline data for developing a better understanding of how localized weather factors, such as extreme rainfall and heat events, affect micrometeorology. These data can also be used to model the interrelationships between LSTs and meteorology on a longer term basis to help evaluate how changes in these parameters can be quantified from satellite data collected in the future. In turn, the overall integration of multi-temporal meteorological information with LULCC, and LST data for MSFC proper and the surrounding Huntsville urbanized area can provide a perspective on how urban land surface types affect the meteorology in the boundary layer and ultimately, the UHI. Additionally, data such as this can be used as a foundation for modeling how climate change will potentially impact local and regional meteorology and conversely, how urban LULCC can or will influence changes on climate over the north Alabama area.

  9. [Urban ecological land in Changsha City: its quantitative analysis and optimization].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xiao-Li; Zeng, Guang-Ming; Shi, Lin; Liang, Jie; Cai, Qing

    2010-02-01

    In this paper, a hierarchy index system suitable for catastrophe progression method was constructed to comprehensively analyze and evaluate the status of ecological land construction in Changsha City in 2007. Based on the evaluation results, the irrationalities of the distribution pattern of Changsha urban ecological land were discussed. With the support of geographic information system (GIS), the ecological corridors of the urban ecological land were constructed by using the 'least-cost' modeling, and, in combining with conflict analysis, the optimum project of the urban ecological land was put forward, forming an integrated evaluation system. The results indicated that the ecological efficiency of urban ecological land in Changsha in 2007 was at medium level, with an evaluation value being 0.9416, and the quantitative index being relatively high but the coordination index being relatively low. The analysis and verification with software Fragstats showed that the ecological efficiency of the urban ecological land after optimization was higher, with the evaluation value being 0.9618, and the SHDI, CONTAG, and other indices also enhanced.

  10. Urban Land Use Planning Trend and Sustainable Challenges in Socio-Economic Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Yousif Mangi

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Land use planning is a technical approach for developing and managing the land into various public interests to endorse sustainable socio-economic development. This paper focuses on socio-economic problems by improper allocations of urban land uses particularly in vertical development (High rise buildings. Taluka Qasimabad Town was selected as a case study to observe the existing urban land use trends. Spatial and Quantitative data were collected through detailed land use survey and formal interviews. The ArcGIS and SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science online software were used to analyze spatial and quantitative data. LRM (Linear Regression Model was used for predicting urban land use change particularly in vertical development by the year 2050. In this context, yearly code and land use change variables were applied in LRM to predict land use change since 2007. The results were found that rapid change in land uses occurred in the study area, by which inhabitants are facing problems like privacy, insecurity, property devaluation, and orientation nearby their accommodations. This research can lead to suggest several ways to improve and enhance urban land use planning approaches for betterment of urban communities.

  11. Long-Term Urban Growth and Land Use Efficiency in Southern Europe: Implications for Sustainable Land Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marco Zitti

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The present study illustrates a multidimensional analysis of an indicator of urban land use efficiency (per-capita built-up area, LUE in mainland Attica, a Mediterranean urban region, along different expansion waves (1960–2010: compaction and densification in the 1960s, dispersed growth along the coasts and on Athens’ fringe in the 1970s, fringe consolidation in the 1980s, moderate re-polarization and discontinuous expansion in the 1990s and sprawl in remote areas in the 2000s. The non-linear trend in LUE (a continuous increase up to the 1980s and a moderate decrease in 1990 and 2000 preceding the rise observed over the last decade reflects Athens’ expansion waves. A total of 23 indicators were collected by decade for each municipality of the study area with the aim of identifying the drivers of land use efficiency. In 1960, municipalities with low efficiency in the use of land were concentrated on both coastal areas and Athens’ fringe, while in 2010, the lowest efficiency rate was observed in the most remote, rural areas. Typical urban functions (e.g., mixed land uses, multiple-use buildings, vertical profile are the variables most associated with high efficiency in the use of land. Policies for sustainable land management should consider local and regional factors shaping land use efficiency promoting self-contained expansion and more tightly protecting rural and remote land from dispersed urbanization. LUE is a promising indicator reflecting the increased complexity of growth patterns and may anticipate future urban trends.

  12. Land use/land cover study of urban features using spot imagery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahmood, S.A.; Qureshi, J.; Abbas, I.

    2005-01-01

    This study is based on visual interpretation and classification of the urban area of Peshawar. Cloud free satellite image of the French SPOT System in panchromatic mode at 100m/pixel spatial detail was used for this purpose. The coverage area comprised nearly (7.5 x 6)sq. km. on the ground depicting the major portion of the city. Various image interpretation elements were exploited to accomplish the study, thirteen land cover classes were identified and demarcated on a tracing sheet. Having prepared the base map. Satellite image map was constructed by assigning disparate colors to the identified features. Dimensions of some of the prominent, regular and liner features were computed from the image. The results indicate that high-resolution satellite image can be effectively used for mapping and area estimation of urban land use/land cover features. (author)

  13. Towards Equitable and Sustainable Urban Space: Introduction to Special Issue on “Urban Land and Sustainable Development”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yehua Dennis Wei

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available The unprecedented wave of global urbanization has exerted increased pressure on urban land and made land-use sustainability an urgent concern. This Special Issue examines patterns, structures, and dynamics of urban land use from the economic, social, and, to a lesser extent, environmental standpoints, in light of the goal of equitable and sustainable development. This introduction discusses the background and design of the Special Issue and highlights the contribution of the selected papers.

  14. Scenario Analysis on Climate Change Impacts of Urban Land Expansion under Different Urbanization Patterns: A Case Study of Wuhan Metropolitan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xinli Ke

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Urban land expansion plays an important role in climate change. It is significant to select a reasonable urban expansion pattern to mitigate the impact of urban land expansion on the regional climate in the rapid urbanization process. In this paper, taking Wuhan metropolitan as the case study area, and three urbanization patterns scenarios are designed to simulate spatial patterns of urban land expansion in the future using the Partitioned and Asynchronous Cellular Automata Model. Then, simulation results of land use are adjusted and inputted into WRF (Weather Research and Forecast model to simulate regional climate change. The results show that: (1 warming effect is strongest under centralized urbanization while it is on the opposite under decentralized scenario; (2 the warming effect is stronger and wider in centralized urbanization scenario than in decentralized urbanization scenario; (3 the impact trends of urban land use expansion on precipitation are basically the same under different scenarios; (4 and spatial distribution of rainfall was more concentrated under centralized urbanization scenario, and there is a rainfall center of wider scope, greater intensity. Accordingly, it can be concluded that decentralized urbanization is a reasonable urbanization pattern to mitigate climate change in rapid urbanization period.

  15. Impact of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change on urban air quality in representative cities of China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, L.; Wei, J.; Duan, D. H.; Guo, Y. M.; Yang, D. X.; Jia, C.; Mi, X. T.

    2016-05-01

    The atmospheric particulate pollution in China is getting worse. Land-Use and Land-Cover Change (LUCC) is a key factor that affects atmospheric particulate pollution. Understanding the response of particulate pollution to LUCC is necessary for environmental protection. Eight representative cities in China, Qingdao, Jinan, Zhengzhou, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Urumqi were selected to analyze the relationship between particulate pollution and LUCC. The MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) aerosol product (MOD04) was used to estimate atmospheric particulate pollution for nearly 10 years, from 2001 to 2010. Six land-use types, water, woodland, grassland, cultivated land, urban, and unused land, were obtained from the MODIS land cover product (MOD12), where the LUCC of each category was estimated. The response of particulate pollution to LUCC was analyzed from the above mentioned two types of data. Moreover, the impacts of time-lag and urban type changes on particulate pollution were also considered. Analysis results showed that due to natural factors, or human activities such as urban sprawl or deforestation, etc., the response of particulate pollution to LUCC shows obvious differences in different areas. The correlation between particulate pollution and LUCC is lower in coastal areas but higher in inland areas. The dominant factor affecting urban air quality in LUCC changes from ocean, to woodland, to urban land, and eventually into grassland or unused land when moving from the coast to inland China.

  16. Land Subdivision in Peri-Urban Areas of Sub-Saharan African Cities ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    USER

    The review of literature on urban land subdivision provides us with useful ... The second section is the methodology detailing the literature review approach ... problem of shortages of urban land, and to increase access to land for the ..... gradual integration of the informal sector into political decision-making process and.

  17. Impacts of land use and land cover on surface and air temperature in urban landscapes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crum, S.; Jenerette, D.

    2015-12-01

    Accelerating urbanization affects regional climate as the result of changing land cover and land use (LCLU). Urban land cover composition may provide valuable insight into relationships among urbanization, air, and land-surface temperature (Ta and LST, respectively). Climate may alter these relationships, where hotter climates experience larger LULC effects. To address these hypotheses we examined links between Ta, LST, LCLU, and vegetation across an urban coastal to desert climate gradient in southern California, USA. Using surface temperature radiometers, continuously measuring LST on standardized asphalt, concrete, and turf grass surfaces across the climate gradient, we found a 7.2°C and 4.6°C temperature decrease from asphalt to vegetated cover in the coast and desert, respectively. There is 131% more temporal variation in asphalt than turf grass surfaces, but 37% less temporal variation in concrete than turf grass. For concrete and turf grass surfaces, temporal variation in temperature increased from coast to desert. Using ground-based thermal imagery, measuring LST for 24 h sequences over citrus orchard and industrial use locations, we found a 14.5°C temperature decrease from industrial to orchard land use types (38.4°C and 23.9°C, respectively). Additionally, industrial land use types have 209% more spatial variation than orchard (CV=0.20 and 0.09, respectively). Using a network of 300 Ta (iButton) sensors mounted in city street trees throughout the region and hyperspectral imagery data we found urban vegetation greenness, measured using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), was negatively correlated to Ta at night across the climate gradient. Contrasting previous findings, the closest coupling between NDVI and Ta is at the coast from 0000 h to 0800 h (highest r2 = 0.6, P urbanized regions of southern California, USA decrease Ta and LST and spatial variation in LST, while built surfaces and land uses have the opposite effect. Furthermore

  18. Impacts from Land Use Pattern on Spatial Distribution of Cultivated Soil Heavy Metal Pollution in Typical Rural-Urban Fringe of Northeast China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Wenbo; Wang, Dongyan; Wang, Qing; Liu, Shuhan; Zhu, Yuanli; Wu, Wenjun

    2017-03-22

    Under rapid urban sprawl in Northeast China, land conversions are not only encroaching on the quantity of cultivated lands, but also posing a great threat to black soil conservation and food security. This study's aim is to explore the spatial relationship between comprehensive cultivated soil heavy metal pollution and peri-urban land use patterns in the black soil region. We applied spatial lag regression to analyze the relationship between PLI (pollution load index) and influencing factors of land use by taking suburban cultivated land of Changchun Kuancheng District as an empirical case. The results indicate the following: (1) Similar spatial distribution characteristics are detected between Pb, Cu, and Zn, between Cr and Ni, and between Hg and Cd. The Yitong River catchment in the central region, and the residential community of Lanjia County in the west, are the main hotspots for eight heavy metals and PLI. Beihu Wetland Park, with a larger-area distribution of ecological land in the southeast, has low level for both heavy metal concentrations and PLI values. Spatial distribution characteristics of cultivated heavy metals are related to types of surrounding land use and industry; (2) Spatial lag regression has a better fit for PLI than the ordinary least squares regression. The regression results indicate the inverse relationship between heavy metal pollution degree and distance from long-standing residential land and surface water. Following rapid urban land expansion and a longer accumulation period, residential land sprawl is going to threaten cultivated land with heavy metal pollution in the suburban black soil region, and cultivated land irrigated with urban river water in the suburbs will have a higher tendency for heavy metal pollution.

  19. Impacts from Land Use Pattern on Spatial Distribution of Cultivated Soil Heavy Metal Pollution in Typical Rural-Urban Fringe of Northeast China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Wenbo; Wang, Dongyan; Wang, Qing; Liu, Shuhan; Zhu, Yuanli; Wu, Wenjun

    2017-01-01

    Under rapid urban sprawl in Northeast China, land conversions are not only encroaching on the quantity of cultivated lands, but also posing a great threat to black soil conservation and food security. This study’s aim is to explore the spatial relationship between comprehensive cultivated soil heavy metal pollution and peri-urban land use patterns in the black soil region. We applied spatial lag regression to analyze the relationship between PLI (pollution load index) and influencing factors of land use by taking suburban cultivated land of Changchun Kuancheng District as an empirical case. The results indicate the following: (1) Similar spatial distribution characteristics are detected between Pb, Cu, and Zn, between Cr and Ni, and between Hg and Cd. The Yitong River catchment in the central region, and the residential community of Lanjia County in the west, are the main hotspots for eight heavy metals and PLI. Beihu Wetland Park, with a larger-area distribution of ecological land in the southeast, has low level for both heavy metal concentrations and PLI values. Spatial distribution characteristics of cultivated heavy metals are related to types of surrounding land use and industry; (2) Spatial lag regression has a better fit for PLI than the ordinary least squares regression. The regression results indicate the inverse relationship between heavy metal pollution degree and distance from long-standing residential land and surface water. Following rapid urban land expansion and a longer accumulation period, residential land sprawl is going to threaten cultivated land with heavy metal pollution in the suburban black soil region, and cultivated land irrigated with urban river water in the suburbs will have a higher tendency for heavy metal pollution. PMID:28327541

  20. Urban land acquisition and social justice in Ethiopia

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Keywords: access to land, land lease, social justice, tenure security, urban land policy. I. INTRODUCTION ... As Mattew Robinson put it correctly, social justice embraces virtues including “share of common humanity .... But such tenure security will not, by its own, reduce poverty and bring about sustainable development.10.

  1. Modeling the influence of long term human-induced land use conversion on sediment fluxes and carbon dynamics at the catchment scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouchoms, Samuel; Van Oost, Kristof; Vanacker, Veerle

    2014-05-01

    Over the past 20 years, there has been increasing evidence of the strong impact of human activities on the landscape, specifically on soil erosion due to the removal of natural vegetation cover for agricultural and urban purposes. The results question the widespread hypothesis of a steady state landscape since it appears that the balance between soil production and erosion may be broken altering the interactions between chemical, physical and biological processes in both soil and landscape system. Yet, the relationship between this accelerated erosion and the carbon dynamics at the landscape scale remains an important area of investigation. Recent attempts to combine geomorphic models, soil redistribution and carbon dynamic has proved themselves valuable in term of supporting the importance of lateral fluxes as a crucial control of carbon dynamic at the landscape scale. We use the SPEROS LT model, a modified version of SPEROS-C which includes dynamic land use and soil physical properties, to assess the impact of historical land use conversion on sediment and carbon fluxes in the Dijle catchment. This particular location has experienced a significant human impact since the Roman period, undergoing heavy deforestation and expansion of agricultural lands followed by a period of abandonment. The last 400 to 500 years saw a dramatic increase in the intensity of land use conversion associated to population growth leading to forest cleaning and urbanization. Our main objective is to validate the combined geomorphic and soil carbon turnover process descriptions of the model. Historical land use proportions are based on existing literature estimations and spatial assignation of the land conversion relies on simple allocation rules based on criteria such as slope or soil texture. Land use scenarios are constructed for the last 2000 years. We confront the model results with observations and perform a sensitivity analysis. The results indicate that the general trends in

  2. The managed clearing: An overlooked land-cover type in urbanizing regions?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madden, Marguerite; Gray, Josh; Meentemeyer, Ross K.

    2018-01-01

    Urban ecosystem assessments increasingly rely on widely available map products, such as the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and datasets that use generic classification schemes to detect and model large-scale impacts of land-cover change. However, utilizing existing map products or schemes without identifying relevant urban class types such as semi-natural, yet managed land areas that account for differences in ecological functions due to their pervious surfaces may severely constrain assessments. To address this gap, we introduce the managed clearings land-cover type–semi-natural, vegetated land surfaces with varying degrees of management practices–for urbanizing landscapes. We explore the extent to which managed clearings are common and spatially distributed in three rapidly urbanizing areas of the Charlanta megaregion, USA. We visually interpreted and mapped fine-scale land cover with special attention to managed clearings using 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) images within 150 randomly selected 1-km2 blocks in the cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh, and compared our maps with National Land Cover Database (NLCD) data. We estimated the abundance of managed clearings relative to other land use and land cover types, and the proportion of land-cover types in the NLCD that are similar to managed clearings. Our study reveals that managed clearings are the most common land cover type in these cities, covering 28% of the total sampled land area– 6.2% higher than the total area of impervious surfaces. Managed clearings, when combined with forest cover, constitutes 69% of pervious surfaces in the sampled region. We observed variability in area estimates of managed clearings between the NAIP-derived and NLCD data. This suggests using high-resolution remote sensing imagery (e.g., NAIP) instead of modifying NLCD data for improved representation of spatial heterogeneity and

  3. Urban Growth in a Fragmented Landscape: Estimating the Relationship between Landscape Pattern and Urban Land Use Change in Germany, 2000-2006

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller, R.

    2013-12-01

    One of the highest priorities in the conservation and management of biodiversity, natural resources and other vital ecosystem services is the assessment of the mechanisms that drive urban land use change. Using key landscape indicators, this study addresses why urban land increased 6 percent overall in Germany from 2000-2006. Building on regional science and economic geography research, I develop a model of landscape change that integrates remotely sensed and other geospatial data, and socioeconomic data in a spatial autoregressive model to explain the variance in urban land use change observed in German kreise (counties) over the past decade. The results reveal three key landscape mechanisms that drive urban land use change across Germany, aligning with those observed in US studies: (1) the level of fragmentation, (2) the share of designated protected areas, and (3) the share of prime soil. First, as fragmentation of once continuous habitats in the landscape increases, extensive urban growth follows. Second, designated protected areas have the perverse effect of hastening urbanization in surrounding areas. Third, greater shares of prime, productive soil experienced less urban land take over the 6 year period, an effect that is stronger in the former East Germany, where the agricultural sector remains large. The results suggest that policy makers concentrate their conservation efforts on preexisting fragmented land with high shares of protected areas in Germany to effectively stem urban land take. Given that comparative studies of land use change are vital for the scientific community to grasp the wider global process of urbanization and coincident ecological impacts, the methodology employed here is easily exportable to land cover and land use research programs in other fields and geographic areas. Key words: Urban land use change, Ecosystem services, Landscape fragmentation, Remote sensing, Spatial regression models, GermanyOLS and Spatial Autoregressive Model

  4. Multi-factor controls on terrestrial carbon dynamics in urbanized areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, C.; Tian, H.; Pan, S.; Lockaby, G.; Chappelka, A.

    2014-12-01

    As urban land expands rapidly across the globe, much concern has been raised that urbanization may alter the terrestrial carbon cycle. Urbanization involves complex changes in land structure and multiple environmental factors. Little is known about the relative contribution of these individual factors and their interactions to the terrestrial carbon dynamics, however, which is essential for assessing the effectiveness of carbon sequestration policies focusing on urban development. This study developed a comprehensive analysis framework for quantifying relative contribution of individual factors (and their interactions) to terrestrial carbon dynamics in urbanized areas. We identified 15 factors belonging to five categories, and we applied a newly developed factorial analysis scheme to the southern United States (SUS), a rapidly urbanizing region. In all, 24 numeric experiments were designed to systematically isolate and quantify the relative contribution of individual factors. We found that the impact of land conversion was far larger than other factors. Urban managements and the overall interactive effects among major factors, however, created a carbon sink that compensated for 42% of the carbon loss in land conversion. Our findings provide valuable information for regional carbon management in the SUS: (1) it is preferable to preserve pre-urban carbon pools than to rely on the carbon sinks in urban ecosystems to compensate for the carbon loss in land conversion. (2) In forested areas, it is recommendable to improve landscape design (e.g., by arranging green spaces close to the city center) to maximize the urbanization-induced environmental change effect on carbon sequestration. Urbanization-induced environmental change will be less effective in shrubland regions. (3) Urban carbon sequestration can be significantly improved through changes in management practices, such as increased irrigation and fertilizer and targeted use of vehicles and machinery with least

  5. Urban Growth and Land-Use Structure in Two Mediterranean Regions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luca Salvati

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The present study develops an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA with the aim to assess changes over time in the distribution of selected uses of land in two Mediterranean urban regions (Rome and Athens with different morphology and economic functions. The study uses global and local Moran’s indexes of spatial autocorrelation to describe the land-use structure observed in the two cities in mid-1970s and late-2000s, and debates on the divergent contribution of compact growth and scattered urban expansion to changes in land use. The analysis identifies fringe landscapes as a key target for urban containment policies in sprawling cities.

  6. Procedural modeling of urban layout: population, land use, and road network

    OpenAIRE

    Lyu, X.; Han, Q.; de Vries, B.

    2017-01-01

    This paper introduces an urban simulation system generating urban layouts with population, road network and land use layers. The desired urban spatial structure is obtained by generating a population map based on population density models. The road network is generated at two spatial levels corresponding to the road hierarchy. The land use allocation is based on the What If? allocation model. The expected results are urban layouts suitable for academic scenario analysis.

  7. Assessment Framework and Decision—Support System for Consolidating Urban-Rural Construction Land in Coastal China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fangfang Cai

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Urbanization transforms urban-rural landscape and profoundly affects ecological processes. To maintain a sustainable urbanization, two important issues of land-use need to be quantified: the comprehensive variation of urban-rural construction land and the specific models for consolidating these lands. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework to assess the change of urban-rural construction land and build a decision-support system for consolidating these lands. Four sub-layers were first built in the assessment framework, including the characteristic layer, the coordination layer, the potential layer and the urgency layer. Each layer encompassed specific indices for evaluating the change of urban-rural construction land in different aspects. The entropy method was then applied to the data resources from Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper images, statistical data and overall land-use and land consolidation planning of Nantong city in coastal China to allocate weightings to the indices in each sub-layer. Finally, the decision-support system was built based on the assessment results and the degree of importance for consolidating urban and rural construction land, respectively. The results of our study show an overall investigation and quantitative description of the change of urban-rural construction land and provide an effective framework for land consolidation and land use management.

  8. Scenario Simulation and the Prediction of Land Use and Land Cover Change in Beijing, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huiran Han

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Land use and land cover (LULC models are essential for analyzing LULC change and predicting land use requirements and are valuable for guiding reasonable land use planning and management. However, each LULC model has its own advantages and constraints. In this paper, we explore the characteristics of LULC change and simulate future land use demand by combining a CLUE-S model with a Markov model to deal with some shortcomings of existing LULC models. Using Beijing as a case study, we describe the related driving factors from land-adaptive variables, regional spatial variables and socio-economic variables and then simulate future land use scenarios from 2010 to 2020, which include a development scenario (natural development and rapid development and protection scenarios (ecological and cultivated land protection. The results indicate good consistency between predicted results and actual land use situations according to a Kappa statistic. The conversion of cultivated land to urban built-up land will form the primary features of LULC change in the future. The prediction for land use demand shows the differences under different scenarios. At higher elevations, the geographical environment limits the expansion of urban built-up land, but the conversion of cultivated land to built-up land in mountainous areas will be more prevalent by 2020; Beijing, however, still faces the most pressure in terms of ecological and cultivated land protection.

  9. Land Use and Land Cover Change, Urban Heat Island Phenomenon, and Health Implications: A Remote Sensing Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo, C. P.; Quattrochi, Dale A.

    2003-01-01

    Land use and land cover maps of Atlanta Metropolitan Area in Georgia were produced from Landsat MSS and TM images for 1973,1979,1983,1987,1992, and 1997, spanning a period of 25 years. Dramatic changes in land use and land cover have occurred with loss of forest and cropland to urban use. In particular, low-density urban use, which includes largely residential use, has increased by over 119% between 1973 and 1997. These land use and land cover changes have drastically altered the land surface characteristics. An analysis of Landsat images revealed an increase in surface temperature and a decline in NDVI from 1973 to 1997. These changes have forced the development of a significant urban heat island effect and an increase in ground level ozone production to such an extent, that Atlanta has violated EPA's ozone level standard in recent years. The urban heat island initiated precipitation events that were identified between 1996 and 2000 tended to occur near high-density urban areas but outside the I-285 loop that traverses around the Central Business District, i.e. not in the inner city area, but some in close proximity to the highways. The health implications were investigated by comparing the spatial patterns of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, the two ingredients that form ozone by reacting with sunlight, with those of rates of cardiovascular and chronic lower respiratory diseases. A clear core-periphery pattern was revealed for both VOC and NOx emissions, but the spatial pattern was more random in the cases of rates of cardiovascular and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Clearly, factors other than ozone pollution were involved in explaining the rates of these diseases. Further research is therefore needed to understand the health geography and its relationship to land use and land cover change as well as urban heat island effect. This paper illustrates the usefulness of a remote sensing approach for this purpose.

  10. Urban Land Uses and Smart Mobility

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mauro Francini

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The object of this work consists of the will to define a renewed relationship between spatial planning and transport systems, which focuses attention on road safety, whereas to date the studies on this relationship have mainly examined the transport impacts on land use. Therefore, in addition to the analysis of the physical characteristics of road infrastructure, there is a need to examine which urban land uses can generate points of risk, both in terms of attraction of vehicles and pedestrian flows as well as in terms of concentration of vulnerable road users, in order to organize a complete information and telecommunication system for road safety. In short, considering a specific testing ground, some urban land uses have been located, with relative dimensional analysis and characterization of access conditions in typological-functional terms: services (schools, healthcare structures, sports facilities; tertiary/production industry (wholesale, shopping centres, industrial sites; tourism sector (hotels, resorts, historical and cultural heritage. The collection of information, corresponding to mapping of prospective risk factors, represented the basis for the entry of specific data within a wider reference database.

  11. Conceptual bases of land managment planning for urban land use in conditions of decentralization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.M. Tretyak

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The place and role of the plans of the land-economic system as a tool of land managment planning of urban land use development in the conditions of decentralization of power in replacement of general plans as not a market type of documentation is substantiated

  12. Urban Land Allocation Model of Territorial Expansion by Urban Planners and Housing Developers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carolina Cantergiani

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Agent-based models have recently been proposed as potential tools to support urban planning due to their capacity to simulate complex behaviors. The complexity of the urban development process arises from strong interactions between various components driven by different agents. AMEBA (agent-based model for the evolution of urban areas is a prototype of an exploratory, spatial, agent-based model that considers the main agents involved in the urban development process (urban planners, developers, and the population. The prototype consists of three submodels (one for each agent that have been developed independently and present the same structure. However, the first two are based on a land use allocation technique, and the last one, as well as their integration, on an agent-based model approach. This paper describes the conceptualization and performance of the submodels that represent urban planners and developers, who are the agents responsible for officially launching expansion and defining the spatial allocation of urban land. The prototype was tested in the Corredor del Henares (an urban–industrial area in the Region of Madrid, Spain, but is sufficiently flexible to be adapted to other study areas and generate different future urban growth contexts. The results demonstrate that this combination of agents can be used to explore various policy-relevant research questions, including urban system interactions in adverse political and socioeconomic scenarios.

  13. Measuring Land Change in Coastal Zone around a Rapidly Urbanized Bay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Faming Huang

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Urban development is a major cause for eco-degradation in many coastal regions. Understanding urbanization dynamics and underlying driving factors is crucial for urban planning and management. Land-use dynamic degree indices and intensity analysis were used to measure land changes occurred in 1990, 2002, 2009, and 2017 in the coastal zone around Quanzhou bay, which is a rapidly urbanized bay in Southeast China. The comprehensive land-use dynamic degree and interval level intensity analysis both revealed that land change was accelerating across the three time intervals in a three-kilometer-wide zone along the coastal line (zone A, while land change was fastest during the second time interval 2002–2009 in a separate terrestrial area within coastal zone (zone B. Driven by urbanization, built-up gains and cropland losses were active for all time intervals in both zones. Mudflat losses were active except in the first time interval in zone A due to the intensive sea reclamation. The gain of mangrove was active while the loss of mangrove is dormant for all three intervals in zone A. Transition level analysis further revealed the similarities and differences in processes within patterns of land changes for both zones. The transition from cropland to built-up was systematically targeted and stationary while the transition from woodland to built-up was systematically avoiding transition in both zones. Built-up tended to target aquaculture for the second and third time intervals in zone A but avoid Aquaculture for all intervals in zone B. Land change in zone A was more significant than that in zone B during the second and third time intervals at three-level intensity. The application of intensity analysis can enhance our understanding of the patterns and processes in land changes and suitable land development plans in the Quanzhou bay area. This type of investigation is useful to provide information for developing sound land use policy to achieve urban

  14. Measuring Land Change in Coastal Zone around a Rapidly Urbanized Bay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Faming; Huang, Boqiang; Huang, Jinliang; Li, Shenghui

    2018-05-23

    Urban development is a major cause for eco-degradation in many coastal regions. Understanding urbanization dynamics and underlying driving factors is crucial for urban planning and management. Land-use dynamic degree indices and intensity analysis were used to measure land changes occurred in 1990, 2002, 2009, and 2017 in the coastal zone around Quanzhou bay, which is a rapidly urbanized bay in Southeast China. The comprehensive land-use dynamic degree and interval level intensity analysis both revealed that land change was accelerating across the three time intervals in a three-kilometer-wide zone along the coastal line (zone A), while land change was fastest during the second time interval 2002⁻2009 in a separate terrestrial area within coastal zone (zone B). Driven by urbanization, built-up gains and cropland losses were active for all time intervals in both zones. Mudflat losses were active except in the first time interval in zone A due to the intensive sea reclamation. The gain of mangrove was active while the loss of mangrove is dormant for all three intervals in zone A. Transition level analysis further revealed the similarities and differences in processes within patterns of land changes for both zones. The transition from cropland to built-up was systematically targeted and stationary while the transition from woodland to built-up was systematically avoiding transition in both zones. Built-up tended to target aquaculture for the second and third time intervals in zone A but avoid Aquaculture for all intervals in zone B. Land change in zone A was more significant than that in zone B during the second and third time intervals at three-level intensity. The application of intensity analysis can enhance our understanding of the patterns and processes in land changes and suitable land development plans in the Quanzhou bay area. This type of investigation is useful to provide information for developing sound land use policy to achieve urban sustainability in

  15. The urban land debate in the global South : New avenues for research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Steel, Griet|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/304349828; van Noorloos, Femke|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/342952706; Klaufus, Christien

    2017-01-01

    The global ‘land grab’ debate is going urban and needs a specific conceptual framework to analyze the diverse modalities through which land commodification and speculation are transforming cities across the globe. This article identifies new avenues for research on urban land issues by drawing on an

  16. The urban land debate in the global South : New avenues for research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Steel, G.; van Noorloos, F.; Klaufus, C.

    The global ‘land grab’ debate is going urban and needs a specific conceptual framework to analyze the diverse modalities through which land commodification and speculation are transforming cities across the globe. This article identifies new avenues for research on urban land issues by drawing on an

  17. THE PROBLEM OF URBAN LAND MASS VALUATION OBJECTIVENESS AND WAYS OF SOLVING IT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DRAPIKOVSKYI O. I.

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Raising of problem. Implementation of prudent investment, urban planning and fiscal policy is possible only if there is knowledge of the real value of land in the entire city, which is obtained by the mass appraisal of urban land. The implementation of this important social function puts strict requirements for urban land mass valuation results objectiveness and comparability, stated in the international sectoral standards and regulations. Purpose. The aim of the article is to determine the basic requirements to urban land mass valuation results objectiveness maintenance and to analyse the compliance of the normative monetary valuation with these requirements. Conclusion. The problem of urban land mass valuation objectiveness can be considered through the prism of the ontological, epistemological and logical aspects, compliance with which allows the anticipation of the expected improvement of this valuation methodological apparatus efficiency.

  18. Effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems along an agriculture-to-urban land-use gradient, Milwaukee to Green Bay, Wisconsin, 2003-2004

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richards, Kevin D.; Scudder, Barbara C.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.; Steuer, Jeffery J.; Bell, Amanda H.; Peppler, Marie C.; Stewart, Jana S.; Harris, Mitchell A.

    2010-01-01

    In 2003 and 2004, 30 streams near Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin, were part of a national study by the U.S. Geological Survey to assess urbanization effects on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics along an agriculture-to-urban land-use gradient. A geographic information system was used to characterize natural landscape features that define the environmental setting and the degree of urbanization within each stream watershed. A combination of land cover, socioeconomic, and infrastructure variables were integrated into a multi-metric urban intensity index, scaled from 0 to 100, and assigned to each stream site to identify a gradient of urbanization within relatively homogeneous environmental settings. The 35 variables used to develop the final urban intensity index characterized the degree of urbanization and included road infrastructure (road area and road traffic index), 100-meter riparian land cover (percentage of impervious surface, shrubland, and agriculture), watershed land cover (percentage of impervious surface, developed/urban land, shrubland, and agriculture), and 26 socioeconomic variables (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). Characteristics examined as part of this study included: habitat, hydrology, stream temperature, water chemistry (chloride, sulfate, nutrients, dissolved and particulate organic and inorganic carbon, pesticides, and suspended sediment), benthic algae, benthic invertebrates, and fish. Semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) were used to assess the potential for bioconcentration of hydrophobic organic contaminants (specifically polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and organochlorine and pyrethroid insecticides) in biological membranes, such as the gills of fish. Physical habitat measurements reflective of channel enlargement, including bankfull channel size and bank erosion, increased with increasing urbanization within the watershed. In this study, percentage of riffles and streambed substrate size were

  19. Essays on land and labor in urbanizing China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wu, Yan

    2017-01-01

    In this dissertation I address emerging land and labor issues associated with the rapid urbanization in China over the past decades, including the negative effects of the real estate booms on manufacturing development, land conflicts, and gender inequality among migrants. The thesis consists of

  20. Actors and processes behind urban fringe development: Mechanism to guide urban land management. Study on Dhaka, Bangladesh

    OpenAIRE

    Masum, Fahria

    2009-01-01

    This thesis has attempted to analyze and resolve urban fringe problems in Dhaka by incorporating different roles and interests of actors in land development processes. The research has revealed that these different actors have different interests, norms and ideologies which are playing an active role in guiding or regulating urban land development process. This situation is deploying existing rules and regulations in form of politics and affecting urban fringe management negatively. The resea...

  1. A new framework for modeling urban land expansion in peri-urban area by combining multi-source datasets and data assimilation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Z.; Xiao, R.; Li, X.

    2015-12-01

    Peri-urban area is a new type region under the impacts of both rural Industrialization and the radiation of metropolitan during rapid urbanization. Due to its complex natural and social characteristics and unique development patterns, many problems such as environmental pollution and land use waste emerged, which became an urgent issue to be addressed. Study area in this paper covers three typical peri-urban districts (Pudong, Fengxian and Jinshan), which around the Shanghai inner city. By coupling cellular automata and multi-agent system model as the basic tools, this research focus on modelling the urban land expansion and driving mechanism in peri-urban area. The big data is aslo combined with the Bayesian maximum entropy method (BME) for spatiotemporal prediction of multi-source data, which expand the dataset of urban expansion models. Data assimilation method is used to optimize the parameters of the coupling model and minimize the uncertainty of observations, improving the precision of future simulation in peri-urban area. By setting quantitative parameters, the coupling model can effectively improve the simulation of the process of urban land expansion under different policies and management schemes, in order to provide scientificimplications for new urbanization strategy. In this research, we precise the urban land expansion simulation and prediction for peri-urban area, expand the scopes and selections of data acquisition measurements and methods, develop the new applications of the data assimilation method in geographical science, provide a new idea for understanding the inherent rules of urban land expansion, and give theoretical and practical support for the peri-urban area in urban planning and decision making.

  2. Achieving a Sustainable Urban Form through Land Use Optimisation: Insights from Bekasi City’s Land-Use Plan (2010–2030

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rahmadya Trias Handayanto

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Cities worldwide have been trying to achieve a sustainable urban form to handle their rapid urban growth. Many sustainable urban forms have been studied and two of them, the compact city and the eco city, were chosen in this study as urban form foundations. Based on these forms, four sustainable city criteria (compactness, compatibility, dependency, and suitability were considered as necessary functions for land use optimisation. This study presents a land use optimisation as a method for achieving a sustainable urban form. Three optimisation methods (particle swarm optimisation, genetic algorithms, and a local search method were combined into a single hybrid optimisation method for land use in Bekasi city, Indonesia. It was also used for examining Bekasi city’s land-use-plan (2010–2030 after optimising current (2015 and future land use (2030. After current land use optimisation, the score of sustainable city criteria increased significantly. Three important centres of land use (commercial, industrial, and residential were also created through clustering the results. These centres were slightly different from centres of the city plan zones. Additional land uses in 2030 were predicted using a nonlinear autoregressive neural network with external input. Three scenarios were used for allocating these additional land uses including sustainable development, government policy, and business-as-usual. Future land use allocation in 2030 found that the sustainable development scenario showed better performance compared to government policy and business-as-usual scenarios.

  3. The Impacts on Illegal Farmland Conversion of Adopting Remote Sensing Technology for Land Inspection in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taiyang Zhong

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available While China’s central government has adopted remote sensing technology in land inspection since 2000, little empirical research has been done on its effect. This study aims to measure the effect of satellite imagery-based land inspection (SIBI on illegal farmland conversion. The data used in this study were collected for the period from 1997 to 2010 at the province-level. The econometrics approach for panel data model was used in this research. The results showed that SIBI has a deterrent effect of approximately 2.42 ha for every increase of 1% in proportion to the area of prefecture-level regions inspected in a province-level region. The results also indicate land inspections with RS (Remote Sensing technology saved approximately 11,880 ha farmland from illegal conversion during 2000–2010 with an estimated contribution of reducing illegal farmland conversion by nearly 11%. Furthermore, the governance structure change for land inspection has also contributed to deterring illegal farmland conversion. The deterrent effects due to land inspection by the Supervisor of State Land (SSL are about 7332 ha during 2008–2010 with an estimated contribution of reducing illegal farmland conversion by nearly 33%. In conclusion, although SIBI has strengthened China’s central capacity to uncover illegal farmland conversion and weakened local governments’ abilities to hide illegal farmland conversion, it has limited impact on illegal farmland conversion since it is just a technical tool. Improvements in the land inspection governance structure have also helped to deter illegal farmland conversion.

  4. Land Cover Classification in a Complex Urban-Rural Landscape with Quickbird Imagery

    OpenAIRE

    Moran, Emilio Federico.

    2010-01-01

    High spatial resolution images have been increasingly used for urban land use/cover classification, but the high spectral variation within the same land cover, the spectral confusion among different land covers, and the shadow problem often lead to poor classification performance based on the traditional per-pixel spectral-based classification methods. This paper explores approaches to improve urban land cover classification with Quickbird imagery. Traditional per-pixel spectral-based supervi...

  5. Wastewater re-use for peri-urban agriculture: a viable option for adaptive water management?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kurian, M.; Reddy, V.R.; Dietz, T.; Brdjanovic, D.

    2013-01-01

    Urbanization is known to spur land modification in the form of conversion of common land to human settlements. This factor, combined with climate variability, can alter the duration, frequency and intensity of storm drain overflows in urban areas and lead to public health risks. In peri-urban

  6. Wastewater re-use for peri-urban agriculture : a viable option for adaptive water management?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kurian, M.; Ratna, Reddy V.; Dietz, A.J.; Brdjanovic, D.

    2013-01-01

    Urbanization is known to spur land modification in the form of conversion of common land to human settlements. This factor, combined with climate variability, can alter the duration, frequency and intensity of storm drain overflows in urban areas and lead to public health risks. In peri-urban

  7. The Public Value of Urban Vacant Land: Social Responses and Ecological Value

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gunwoo Kim

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This study reviews scholarly papers and case studies on urban vacant land to gain a stronger understanding of its public value in terms of the ecological and social benefits it can bring. This literature review offers a conceptual overview of the potential benefits of vacant land with the goal of addressing gaps in knowledge about vacant land and to provide suggestions to planners and designers on how vacant properties can be integrated with other green infrastructure in cities. There are many opportunities to redevelop vacant land to enhance its ecological and social value, and many design professionals and scholars are becoming interested in finding new ways to exploit this potential, especially with regard to planning and design. A better appreciation of the public value of urban vacant land is vital for any effort to identify alternative strategies to optimize the way these spaces are utilized for both short-term and long-term uses to support urban regeneration and renewal. This study will help planners and designers to understand and plan for urban vacant land, leading to better utilization of these spaces and opening up alternative creative approaches to envisioning space and landscape design in our urban environments.

  8. Monitoring and modeling land-use change in the Pearl River Delta, China, using satellite imagery and socioeconomic data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seto, Karen Ching-Yee

    Over the last two decades, rapid rates of economic growth in the People's Republic of China have converted large areas of natural ecosystems and agricultural lands to urban uses. The size and rate of these land-use changes may affect local and regional climate, biogeochemistry, and food supply. To assess these impacts, both the amount of land converted and its relation to socioeconomic drivers must be determined. This research combines satellite remote sensing, which is used to monitor land conversion, with socioeconomic data to model the economic and demographic drivers of land-use change in the Pearl River Delta of Southern China. This research modifies existing techniques and develops new methods to assess the type, amount, and timing of land-use change from annual Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images from 1988 to 1996. During this period, most of the land-use change is conversion of agricultural land to urban areas. Results indicate that urban areas, increased by over 300% between 1988 and 1996. Field assessments confirm these results and indicate that the land-use change map is highly accurate at 93.5%. To use these data as inputs to statistical models, the year of land conversion derived from satellite imagery must be unbiased. A new method that uses time series techniques identifies the date at which land-use changes occur from a sequential series of TM images. The accuracy and bias of the dates of change identified compare favorably to a more conventional remote sensing change detection technique and may have the additional advantages of reducing efforts required to assemble training data and to correct for atmospheric effects. Data on the quantity of land-use change and the timing of these changes are used in conjunction with socioeconomic data to estimate statistical models that identify and quantify the demographic and economic changes on two types of land conversion: urbanization of agricultural land and urbanization of natural vegetation. Results

  9. URBAN STRUGGLES IN CURITIBA METROPOLIS: POPULAR HOUSING, LAND OCCUPATIONS AND RESISTANCE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danilo Volochko

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The forms of exploitation and expropriation in the city imply the emergence of land and buildings occupations in peripheral and central areas. In Curitiba, slums, neighborhoods without infrastructure, popular housing, vacant land sites and buildings make part of multiple processes and temporalities that emerge of the city which is mythically taken as urban planning model. The research seeks to analyze organized land occupations in order to understand its links with the reproduction of the metropolis, revealing the scale of the place, of everyday life, of sociability in these occupations, their socio-political organization strategies and resistance, revealing urban struggles as an amalgam between local particularities and global processes, placing the debate in the realization of the right to the city. Key-words: urban struggles, production of space, land occupations, spatial justice.

  10. Current and historical land use influence soil-based ecosystem services in an urban landscape.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ziter, Carly; Turner, Monica G

    2018-04-01

    Urban landscapes are increasingly recognized as providing important ecosystem services (ES) to their occupants. Yet, urban ES assessments often ignore the complex spatial heterogeneity and land-use history of cities. Soil-based services may be particularly susceptible to land-use legacy effects. We studied indicators of three soil-based ES, carbon storage, water quality regulation, and runoff regulation, in a historically agricultural urban landscape and asked (1) How do ES indicators vary with contemporary land cover and time since development? (2) Do ES indicators vary primarily among land-cover classes, within land-cover classes, or within sites? (3) What is the relative contribution of urban land-cover classes to potential citywide ES provision? We measured biophysical indicators (soil carbon [C], available phosphorus [P], and saturated hydraulic conductivity [K s ]) in 100 sites across five land-cover classes, spanning an ~125-year gradient of time since development within each land-cover class. Potential for ES provision was substantial in urban green spaces, including developed land. Runoff regulation services (high K s ) were highest in forests; water quality regulation (low P) was highest in open spaces and grasslands; and open spaces and developed land (e.g., residential yards) had the highest C storage. In developed land covers, both C and P increased with time since development, indicating effects of historical land-use on contemporary ES and trade-offs between two important ES. Among-site differences accounted for a high proportion of variance in soil properties in forests, grasslands, and open space, while residential areas had high within-site variability, underscoring the leverage city residents have to improve urban ES provision. Developed land covers contributed most ES supply at the citywide scale, even after accounting for potential impacts of impervious surfaces. Considering the full mosaic of urban green space and its history is needed to

  11. Sensing Urban Land-Use Patterns by Integrating Google Tensorflow and Scene-Classification Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yao, Y.; Liang, H.; Li, X.; Zhang, J.; He, J.

    2017-09-01

    With the rapid progress of China's urbanization, research on the automatic detection of land-use patterns in Chinese cities is of substantial importance. Deep learning is an effective method to extract image features. To take advantage of the deep-learning method in detecting urban land-use patterns, we applied a transfer-learning-based remote-sensing image approach to extract and classify features. Using the Google Tensorflow framework, a powerful convolution neural network (CNN) library was created. First, the transferred model was previously trained on ImageNet, one of the largest object-image data sets, to fully develop the model's ability to generate feature vectors of standard remote-sensing land-cover data sets (UC Merced and WHU-SIRI). Then, a random-forest-based classifier was constructed and trained on these generated vectors to classify the actual urban land-use pattern on the scale of traffic analysis zones (TAZs). To avoid the multi-scale effect of remote-sensing imagery, a large random patch (LRP) method was used. The proposed method could efficiently obtain acceptable accuracy (OA = 0.794, Kappa = 0.737) for the study area. In addition, the results show that the proposed method can effectively overcome the multi-scale effect that occurs in urban land-use classification at the irregular land-parcel level. The proposed method can help planners monitor dynamic urban land use and evaluate the impact of urban-planning schemes.

  12. Towards Rural Land Use: Challenges for Oversizing Urban Perimeters in Shrinking Towns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sá, João; Virtudes, Ana

    2017-12-01

    This article, based on the literature review, aims to study the challenges of the urban dispersion and oversizing of urban perimeters, in the cases where the towns are shrinking or spreading to the rural land-use. It is focused on the case of Portugal where during the last decades there was an escaping to the big cities alongside to the sea (Atlantic and Mediterranean) shore. In the Interior part of the country, which means near to the border with Spain, several towns are shrinking, despite their huge urban perimeters, proposed by the municipal master plans, since the middle of the nineties. Consequently, these urban perimeters are nowadays oversizing, with empty buildings and non-urbanized areas. At the same time, the social patterns of occupation of this territory have changed significantly, moving from a society with signs of rurality to an urban realm, understood not only in territorial terms but also regarding the current lifestyle. This deep changing has occurred not only in urbanistic terms but also in the economic, cultural and social organizations of the country, under a movement that corresponds to a decline of the small urban settlements in rural areas, far away from the cosmopolitan strip of land nearby the sea, in between the capital city, Lisbon and the second one Oporto. These transformations were not driven by any significant public policy for land-use actions. On the contrary, the production of urban areas, supporting the new model of economic and social development was largely left to the initiative of economic and social private agents and land owners. These agents were the leading responsible for the new urban developments and housing. In this sense, this research aims to present some strategies for the short time period regarding the devolution of urban areas to rural land use. In this sense, the next steps of spatial planning policies, under the role of local authorities (the 308 municipalities including Madeira and Azores islands, plus the

  13. Quantifying Impacts of Land-Use/Cover Change on Urban Vegetation Gross Primary Production: A Case Study of Wuhan, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shishi Liu

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available This study quantified the impacts of land-use/cover change (LUCC on gross primary production (GPP during 2000–2013 in a typical densely urbanized Chinese city, Wuhan. GPP was estimated at 30-m spatial resolution using annual land cover maps, meteorological data of the baseline year, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, which was generated with the spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (STARFM based on Landsat and MODIS images. The results showed that approximately 309.95 Gg C was lost over 13 years, which was mainly due to the conversion from cropland to built-up areas. The interannual variation of GPP was affected by the change of vegetation composition, especially the increasing relative fraction of forests. The loss of GPP due to the conversion from forest to cropland fluctuated through the study period, but showed a sharp decrease in 2007 and 2008. The gain of GPP due to the conversion from cropland to forest was low between 2001 and 2009, but increased dramatically between 2009 and 2013. The change rate map showed an increasing trend along the highways, and a decreasing trend around the metropolitan area and lakes. The results indicated that carbon consequences should be considered before land management policies are put forth.

  14. Possible Biogeophysical Effects of Cultivated Land Conversion in Northeast China in 2010–2030

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haiming Yan

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available There will be substantial cultivated land change in China as the society strives to meet the growing food demands, which will greatly influence the future climate. This study analyzed the possible biogeophysical effects of cultivated land change on the climate in Northeast China during 2010–2030 on the basis of simulation with the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF model. Scenario analysis was first carried out on the possible changing trends of cultivated land. Then the climate effects of the cultivated land change were analyzed on the basis of the simulation with the WRF model. The simulation results indicate that the total cultivated land area in Northeast China will decrease during 2010–2030, mainly converting into urban and built-up land and forests due to the urbanization and governmental policies. Besides, the cultivated land change will lead to the increase of the sensible heat flux in the regions where a lot of cultivated land will change into urban and built-up land, while it will make the latent heat flux increase in the regions where the cultivated land will be mainly converted into forests through influencing the evapotranspiration. All these results can provide theoretical support for implementing the future land management in Northeast China.

  15. Urban land use in Natura 2000 surrounding areas in Vilnius Region, Lithuania.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pereira, Paulo; Misiūnė, Ieva; Depellegrin, Daniel

    2015-04-01

    Urban development is one of the major causes of land degradation and pressure on protected areas. (Hansen and DeFries, 2007; Salvati and Sabbi, 2011). The urban areas in the fringe of the protected areas are a source of pollutants considered a negative disturbance to the ecosystems services and biodiversity within the protected areas. The distance between urban and protected areas is decreasing and in the future it is estimated that 88% of the world protected areas will be affected by urban growth (McDonald et al., 2008). The surrounding or buffer areas, are lands adjacent to the Natura 2000 territories, which aim to reduce the human influence within the protected areas. Presently there is no common definition of buffer area it is not clear among stakeholders (Van Dasselaar, 2013). The objective of this work is to identify the urban land use in the Natura 2000 areas in Vilnius region, Lithuania. Data from Natura 2000 areas and urban land use (Corine Land Cover 2006) in Vilnius region were collected in the European Environmental Agency website (http://www.eea.europa.eu/). In the surroundings of each Natura 2000 site, we identified the urban land use at the distances of 500, 1000 and 1500 m. The Natura 2000 sites and the urban areas occupied a total of 13.2% and 3.4% of Vilnius region, respectively. However, the urban areas are very dispersed in the territory, especially in the surroundings of Vilnius, which since the end of the XX century is growing (Pereira et al., 2014). This can represent a major threat to Natura 2000 areas ecosystem services quality and biodiversity. Overall, urban areas occupied approximately 50 km2, in the buffer area of 500 m, 95 km2 in buffer area of 1000 m and 131 km2 in the buffer area of 1500 km2. This shows that Natura 2000 surrounding areas in Vilnius region are subjected to a high urban pressure. This is especially evident in the Vilnius city and is a consequence of the uncontrolled urban development. The lack of a clear legislation

  16. Geospatial Analysis of Land Use and Land Cover Transitions from 1986–2014 in a Peri-Urban Ghana

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Divine Odame Appiah

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Recently, peri-urbanisation has led to the transformation of the rural landscape, changing rural land uses into peri-urban land uses, under varying driving factors. This paper analyzes the dynamic transitions among identified land use and land cover (LULC types in the Bosomtwe district of Ghana, from 1986 to 2014. An integrated approach of geo-information tools of satellite remote sensing in Earth Resource Data Analysis System (ERDAS Imagine 13 and ArcMap 10.2 Geographic Information System (GIS, with Markov chain analytical techniques were used to examine the combined forest land cover transitions, relative to build-up, recent fallows and grasslands and projected possible factors influencing the transitions under business as usual and unusual situations. Statistical analyses of the classified Landsat TM, ETM+ and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI/TIS indicated that over the period of 24 years, the Bosomtwe district has undergone a series of land use conversions with remarkable forest losses especially between 2002 and 2010. In 2010 dense forest cover was degraded to low forest by 4040 ha indicating 0.40% transition probability in the future. There was a remarkable increase of built-up/bare and concrete area with a 380% increment in the 1986–2002 transition periods. The application of the Markov futuristic land use dynamics by the years 2018 and 2028, projected from the 2014 LULC indicated a future steady decline in the area coverage of the dense forest to low forest category. This is currently being driven (as at the 2017 LULC trends, by the combined effects of increasing build up bare and concrete surface land uses as well as the expanding recent fallows and grassland. The paper concluded that the health of the ecosystem and biodiversity of the lake Bosomtwe need to be sustainably managed by the Bosomtwe district assembly.

  17. City Expansion and Agricultural Land Loss within the Peri-Urban ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    1 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ibadan, Oyo .... physical development as a result of interaction between urban and rural land uses. ..... This research adopted a descriptive survey and a case study approach. ...... Environment Research Network (PERN) Cyber seminar, Urban Expansion: The ...

  18. Using geometrical, textural, and contextual information of land parcels for classification of detailed urban land use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, S.-S.; Qiu, X.; Usery, E.L.; Wang, L.

    2009-01-01

    Detailed urban land use data are important to government officials, researchers, and businesspeople for a variety of purposes. This article presents an approach to classifying detailed urban land use based on geometrical, textural, and contextual information of land parcels. An area of 6 by 14 km in Austin, Texas, with land parcel boundaries delineated by the Travis Central Appraisal District of Travis County, Texas, is tested for the approach. We derive fifty parcel attributes from relevant geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing data and use them to discriminate among nine urban land uses: single family, multifamily, commercial, office, industrial, civic, open space, transportation, and undeveloped. Half of the 33,025 parcels in the study area are used as training data for land use classification and the other half are used as testing data for accuracy assessment. The best result with a decision tree classification algorithm has an overall accuracy of 96 percent and a kappa coefficient of 0.78, and two naive, baseline models based on the majority rule and the spatial autocorrelation rule have overall accuracy of 89 percent and 79 percent, respectively. The algorithm is relatively good at classifying single-family, multifamily, commercial, open space, and undeveloped land uses and relatively poor at classifying office, industrial, civic, and transportation land uses. The most important attributes for land use classification are the geometrical attributes, particularly those related to building areas. Next are the contextual attributes, particularly those relevant to the spatial relationship between buildings, then the textural attributes, particularly the semivariance texture statistic from 0.61-m resolution images.

  19. Land cover change impact on urban flood modeling (case study: Upper Citarum watershed)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siregar, R. I.

    2018-03-01

    The upper Citarum River watershed utilizes remote sensing technology in Geographic Information System to provide information on land coverage by interpretation of objects in the image. Rivers that pass through urban areas will cause flooding problems causing disadvantages, and it disrupts community activities in the urban area. Increased development in a city is related to an increase in the number of population growth that added by increasing quality and quantity of life necessities. Improved urban lifestyle changes have an impact on land cover. The impact in over time will be difficult to control. This study aims to analyze the condition of flooding in urban areas caused by upper Citarum watershed land-use change in 2001 with the land cover change in 2010. This modeling analyzes with the help of HEC-RAS to describe flooded inundation urban areas. Land cover change in upper Citarum watershed is not very significant; it based on the results of data processing of land cover has the difference of area that changed is not enormous. Land cover changes for the floods increased dramatically to a flow coefficient for 2001 is 0.65 and in 2010 at 0.69. In 2001, the inundation area about 105,468 hectares and it were about 92,289 hectares in 2010.

  20. Resilience with Mixed Agricultural and Urban Land Uses in Tokyo, Japan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giles Bruno Sioen

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Urban agriculture can enhance the resilience of neighborhoods by providing fresh food in times of natural disasters; however, there is little empirical evidence to support this. Therefore, this study proposes a methodology to identify patterns of agricultural production in urban areas by quantifying self-sufficiency rates in vegetable weight and key nutrients. A spatial grid cell analysis using a geographic information system (GIS identifies the current and potential self-sufficiency of each land use pattern in Tokyo. In a total of 1479 grid cells, the dominant land use and locations of 49,263 agricultural plots led to the categorization of six distinguishable land use patterns. The results showed that Tokyo has a fruit and vegetable self-sufficiency of 4.27% and a potential of 11.73%. The nutritional self-sufficiency of selected nutrients was the highest in vitamin K (6.54%, followed by vitamin C (3.84% and vitamin A (1.92%. Peri-urban areas showed the highest resilience in relation to aggregated risks and population density because of the mixture in agricultural and urban land uses.

  1. Monitoring urban expansion and land use/land cover changes of Shanghai metropolitan area during the transitional economy (1979-2009) in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Jie; Yin, Zhane; Zhong, Haidong; Xu, Shiyuan; Hu, Xiaomeng; Wang, Jun; Wu, Jianping

    2011-06-01

    This study explored the spatio-temporal dynamics and evolution of land use/cover changes and urban expansion in Shanghai metropolitan area, China, during the transitional economy period (1979-2009) using multi-temporal satellite images and geographic information systems (GIS). A maximum likelihood supervised classification algorithm was employed to extract information from four landsat images, with the post-classification change detection technique and GIS-based spatial analysis methods used to detect land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes. The overall Kappa indices of land use/cover change maps ranged from 0.79 to 0.89. Results indicated that urbanization has accelerated at an unprecedented scale and rate during the study period, leading to a considerable reduction in the area of farmland and green land. Findings further revealed that water bodies and bare land increased, obviously due to large-scale coastal development after 2000. The direction of urban expansion was along a north-south axis from 1979 to 2000, but after 2000 this growth changed to spread from both the existing urban area and along transport routes in all directions. Urban expansion and subsequent LULC changes in Shanghai have largely been driven by policy reform, population growth, and economic development. Rapid urban expansion through clearing of vegetation has led to a wide range of eco-environmental degradation.

  2. [Spatial tendency of urban land use in new Yinzhou Town of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province of East China].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Wen-Wei; Guo, Hui-Hui; Mei, Yan-Xia

    2012-03-01

    By adopting gradient analysis combining with the analysis of urban land use degree, this paper studied the spatial layout characteristics of residential and industrial lands in new Yinzhou Town, and explored the location characters of various urban land use by selecting public green land, public facilities, and road as the location advantage factors. Gradient analysis could effectively connect with the spatial layout of urban land use, and quantitatively depict the spatial character of urban land use. In the new town, there was a new urban spatial center mostly within the radius of 2 km, namely, the urban core area had obvious location advantage in the cross-shaft direction urban development. On the south of Yinzhou Avenue, the urban hinterland would be constructed soon. In the future land use of the new town, the focus would be the reasonable vicissitude of industrial land after the adjustment of industrial structure, the high-efficient intensive use of the commercial land restricted by the compulsive condition of urban core area, and the agricultural land protection in the southeastern urban-rural fringe.

  3. "Land-Cover Conversion in Amazonia, The Role of ENV" Ironment and Substrate composition in Modifying SOI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Dar A.; Chadwick, Oliver A.; Batista, Getulio T.

    2003-01-01

    LBA research from the first phase of LBA focused on three broad categories: 1) mapping land cover and quantifying rates of change, persistence of pasture, and area of recovering forest; 2) evaluating the role of environmental factors and land-use history on soil biogeochemistry; and 3) quantifying the natural and human controls on stream nutrient concentrations. The focus of the research was regional, concentrating primarily in the state of RondBnia, but also included land-cover mapping in the vicinity of Maraba, Para, and Manaus, Amazonas. Remote sensing analysis utilized Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Multispectral Scanner (MS S) data to map historical patterns of land-cover change. Specific questions addressed by the remote sensing component of the research included: 1) what is the areal extent of dominant land-cover classes? 2) what are the rates of change of dominant land cover through processes of deforestation, disturbance and regeneration? and 3) what are the dynamic properties of each class that characterize temporal variability, duration, and frequency of repeat disturbance? Biogeochemical analysis focused on natural variability and impacts of land-use/land-cover changes on soil and stream biogeochemical properties at the regional scale. An emphasis was given to specific soil properties considered to be primary limiting factors regionally, including phosphorus, nitrogen, base cations and cation-exchange properties. Stream sampling emphasized the relative effects of the rates and timing of land-cover change on stream nutrients, demonstrating that vegetation conversion alone does not impact nutrients as much as subsequent land use and urbanization.

  4. Assessing Urban Forest Structure, Ecosystem Services, and Economic Benefits on Vacant Land

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gunwoo Kim

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available An urban forest assessment is essential for developing a baseline from which to measure changes and trends. The most precise way to assess urban forests is to measure and record every tree on a site, but although this may work well for relatively small populations (e.g., street trees, small parks, it is prohibitively expensive for large tree populations. Thus, random sampling offers a cost-effective way to assess urban forest structure and the associated ecosystem services for large-scale assessments. The methodology applied to assess ecosystem services in this study can also be used to assess the ecosystem services provided by vacant land in other urban contexts and improve urban forest policies, planning, and the management of vacant land. The study’s findings support the inclusion of trees on vacant land and contribute to a new vision of vacant land as a valuable ecological resource by demonstrating how green infrastructure can be used to enhance ecosystem health and promote a better quality of life for city residents.

  5. SENSING URBAN LAND-USE PATTERNS BY INTEGRATING GOOGLE TENSORFLOW AND SCENE-CLASSIFICATION MODELS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. Yao

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available With the rapid progress of China’s urbanization, research on the automatic detection of land-use patterns in Chinese cities is of substantial importance. Deep learning is an effective method to extract image features. To take advantage of the deep-learning method in detecting urban land-use patterns, we applied a transfer-learning-based remote-sensing image approach to extract and classify features. Using the Google Tensorflow framework, a powerful convolution neural network (CNN library was created. First, the transferred model was previously trained on ImageNet, one of the largest object-image data sets, to fully develop the model’s ability to generate feature vectors of standard remote-sensing land-cover data sets (UC Merced and WHU-SIRI. Then, a random-forest-based classifier was constructed and trained on these generated vectors to classify the actual urban land-use pattern on the scale of traffic analysis zones (TAZs. To avoid the multi-scale effect of remote-sensing imagery, a large random patch (LRP method was used. The proposed method could efficiently obtain acceptable accuracy (OA = 0.794, Kappa = 0.737 for the study area. In addition, the results show that the proposed method can effectively overcome the multi-scale effect that occurs in urban land-use classification at the irregular land-parcel level. The proposed method can help planners monitor dynamic urban land use and evaluate the impact of urban-planning schemes.

  6. Forest-land conversion, ecosystem services, and economic issues for policy: a review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robert A. Smail; David J. Lewis

    2009-01-01

    The continued conversion and development of forest land pose a serious threat to the ecosystem services derived from forested landscapes. We argue that developing an understanding of the full range of consequences from forest conversion requires understanding the effects of such conversion on both components of ecosystem services: products and processes....

  7. Urban ecosystems and the North American carbon cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    D.E. Pataki; R.J. Alig; A.S. Fung; E. Golubiewski; C.A. Kennedy; E.G. McPherson; D.J. Nowak; R.V. Pouyat; P. Romero Lankao

    2006-01-01

    Approximately 75-80% of the population of North America currently lives in urban areas as defined by national census bureaus, and urbanization is continuing to increase. Future trajectories of fossil fuel emissions are associated with a high degree of uncertainty; however, if the activities of urban residents and the rate of urban land conversion can be captured in...

  8. Land Use and Land Cover Change in Guangzhou, China, from 1998 to 2003, Based on Landsat TM /ETM+ Imagery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunpeng Wang

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Land use and land cover change is a major issue in global environment change,and is especially significant in rapidly developing regions in the world. With its economicdevelopment, population growth, and urbanization, Guangzhou, a major metropolitan inSouth China, have experienced a dramatic land use and land cover (LULC change over thepast 30 years. Fast LULC change have resulted in degradation of its ecosystems andaffected adversely the environment. It is urgently needed to monitor its LULC changes andto analyses the consequences of these changes in order to provide information for policy-makers to support sustainable development. This study employed two Landsat TM/ETM images in the dry season to detect LULC patterns in 1998 and 2003, and to examine LULCchanges during the period from 1998 to 2003. The type, rate, and pattern of the changesamong five counties of Guangzhou Municipality were analyzed in details by post-classification method. LULC conversion matrix was produced for each county in order toexplore and explain the urban expansion and cropland loss, the most significant types ofLULC change. Land use conversion matrixes of five counties were discussed respectivelyin order to explore and explain the inherence of land use change. The results showed thaturban expansion in these five counties kept an even rate of increase, while substantialamount of cropland vanished during the period. It is also noted that the conversion between cropland and orchard land was intensive. Forest land became the main source of new croplands.

  9. Land Administration System structured Land rent residuals and China’s urban sprawl – A Case Study of Dashi, Guangzhou

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Xuan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Urban sprawl has been at the centre of current debate on urban structure. Compared to the rich literature on urban sprawl in Western cities, relatively little is known about the physical consequence and the causes of urban sprawl in China. In China, for peasant collective-owned land (COL, land use right cannot be sold, transferred or leased for non-agricultural construction’. COL could be developed until it is acquired and leased out by the government. Through the process of land acquisition, the peasants could only get the compensation for 30 years' average of annual agricultural production value in addition to compensation for attachments, crops and vegetables which sometimes could hardly support the life of peasants who lost their land. To compensation for the peasants’ loss, the government would leave 10-15% of the acquired land to peasant collectives as Collectively Owned Economic Development Land (COEDL, allowing it used for industrial or commercial purpose. However, development of COEDL manifested to have low development density, quality and output. With a property rights approach, this research evaluates the development process of COEDL in Guangzhou. It has been revealed that high cost to obtain the permit of land use change (nongzhuanyong zhibiao, and to provide infrastructure and public facilities reduce the incentives of peasants to use COEDL legally and more efficiently. Furthermore, as COEDL is forbidden to transfer or mortgage, the financing ability of peasant collectives is thus impaired severely, allowing them only low investment on development. Use of COEDL thus contributes to urban sprawl in China.

  10. Land use/cover change detection and urban sprawl analysis in Bandar Abbas city, Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dadras, Mohsen; Shafri, Helmi Zulhaidi Mohd; Ahmad, Noordin; Pradhan, Biswajeet; Safarpour, Sahabeh

    2014-01-01

    The process of land use change and urban sprawl has been considered as a prominent characteristic of urban development. This study aims to investigate urban growth process in Bandar Abbas city, Iran, focusing on urban sprawl and land use change during 1956-2012. To calculate urban sprawl and land use changes, aerial photos and satellite images are utilized in different time spans. The results demonstrate that urban region area has changed from 403.77 to 4959.59 hectares between 1956 and 2012. Moreover, the population has increased more than 30 times in last six decades. The major part of population growth is related to migration from other parts the country to Bandar Abbas city. Considering the speed of urban sprawl growth rate, the scale and the role of the city have changed from medium and regional to large scale and transregional. Due to natural and structural limitations, more than 80% of barren lands, stone cliffs, beach zone, and agricultural lands are occupied by built-up areas. Our results revealed that the irregular expansion of Bandar Abbas city must be controlled so that sustainable development could be achieved.

  11. Universal scaling of the distribution of land in urban areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riascos, A. P.

    2017-09-01

    In this work, we explore the spatial structure of built zones and green areas in diverse western cities by analyzing the probability distribution of areas and a coefficient that characterize their respective shapes. From the analysis of diverse datasets describing land lots in urban areas, we found that the distribution of built-up areas and natural zones in cities obey inverse power laws with a similar scaling for the cities explored. On the other hand, by studying the distribution of shapes of lots in urban regions, we are able to detect global differences in the spatial structure of the distribution of land. Our findings introduce information about spatial patterns that emerge in the structure of urban settlements; this knowledge is useful for the understanding of urban growth, to improve existing models of cities, in the context of sustainability, in studies about human mobility in urban areas, among other applications.

  12. Impact of Urbanization and Land-Use Change on Surface Climate in Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River, 1988–2008

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaowei Yao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Land-use/land cover change (LUCC is one of the fundamental causes of global environmental change. In recent years, understanding the regional climate impact of LUCC has become a hot-discussed topic worldwide. Some studies have explored LUCC impact on regional climate in specific cities, provinces, or farming areas. However, the quick-urbanized areas, which are highly influenced by human activities, have the most severe land-use changes in developing countries, and their climatic impact cannot be ignored. This study aims to identify the impact of land-use change coupled with urbanization on regional temperature and precipitation in the metropolitan areas of middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China by means of spatial analysis and numeric methods. Based on the exploration of land-use change and climate change during 1988–2008, the impact of land-use transition from non-built-up area to built-up area on temperature and precipitation was analyzed. The results indicated that the land-use conversion has affected the regional temperature with an increasing effect in the study area, while the influence on precipitation was not so significant. The results can provide useful information for spatial planning policies in consideration of regional climate change.

  13. External Costs as Driving Forces of Land Use Changes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dirk Loehr

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Land conversion is often not carried out in a sustainable way. The loss of arable land and biodiversity, concern about food security and rising costs of infrastructure due to urban sprawl are just some of the problems under discussion. This paper compares Germany, China and Cambodia. The article points out that, despite huge differences in institutions and governance, unsustainable land use changes mostly have some patterns in common: The beneficiaries of land conversion are often well-organized actors, whereas the costs of land conversion are often shifted to poorly organized groups and to society as a whole. A sustainable land use policy has to look for a better coupling of benefits and costs of land use changes. In order to achieve this goal, the article suggests completing the planning law with a suitable economic framework.

  14. Carbon balances during land conversion in early bioenergy systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zenone, T.; Chen, J.; Gelfand, I.; Robertson, G. P.; Hamilton, S. K.

    2012-12-01

    In this study, we established a field experiment and deployed seven eddy-covariance towers to quantify the roles of land use change and the subsequent carbon (C) balances of three different bioenergy systems (corn, switchgrass, and mixed prairie species) that were developed from two historical land use types: monocultural grasslands dominated by smooth brome (Bromus inermis Leyss) and lands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Three CRP fields and three cropland fields were converted to soybean in 2009 (conversion year) before establishing the cellulosic biofuel cropping systems in 2010 (establishment year). A CRP perennial grassland site was kept undisturbed as a reference. Conversion of CRP to soybean induced net C emissions during the conversion year (134 -262 g C m-2 yr-1), while in the same year the net C balance at the CRP grassland reference was -35 g C m-2 yr-1 (i.e., net C sequestration). The establishment of switchgrass and mixed prairie induced a cumulative C balance of -113 g C m-2 (switchgrass from CRP), 250 g C m-2 (switchgrass from cropland), 706 g C m-2 (mixed prairie from CRP), and 59 g C m-2 (mixed prairie from cropland) over the three-year study period. The cumulative three-year C balance of corn converted from CRP and from cropland was -151 g C m-2 and -183 g C m-2, respectively. Eddy flux measurements during cellulosic biofuel crop establishment reveal annual changes in C balance that cannot be detected using conventional mass balance approaches. When end-use of harvested biomass was considered, the C balances for all studied systems, except the reference site, exhibited large C emissions ranging from 150 to 990 g C m-2 over the three-year conversion phase.

  15. Conversion of traditional agricultural land to built-up areas. Land use/cover changes in the municipality of Valencia (1956-2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Valera Lozano

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study is to understand the land use-cover dynamics from the mid- 1950s to 2012 in the municipality of Valencia, eastern Spain. The study area is a very interesting example of the many land use and land cover changes in the landscape of Mediterranean alluvial plains. The analysis was based on photo interpretation of aerial photographs (1956, 1984, 2006 and 2012 and GIS based methodology. At a detailed scale (1:10,000, results show that there has been a highly dynamic process produced by the extent of land developed as urban area. In 1956 11,112 hectares were occupied by agricultural land and natural areas. During fifty five years, the sealed surface was 2,396 hectares. In 2012 the built-up extent was around 33% of the studied area. In the municipality of Valencia much of the land converted to urban use was once highly productive agricultural land.

  16. A zone-based approach to identifying urban land uses using nationally-available data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falcone, James A.

    Accurate identification of urban land use is essential for many applications in environmental study, ecological assessment, and urban planning, among other fields. However, because physical surfaces of land cover types are not necessarily related to their use and economic function, differentiating among thematically-detailed urban land uses (single-family residential, multi-family residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) using remotely-sensed imagery is a challenging task, particularly over large areas. Because the process requires an interpretation of tone/color, size, shape, pattern, and neighborhood association elements within a scene, it has traditionally been accomplished via manual interpretation of aerial photography or high-resolution satellite imagery. Although success has been achieved for localized areas using various automated techniques based on high-spatial or high-spectral resolution data, few detailed (Anderson Level II equivalent or greater) urban land use mapping products have successfully been created via automated means for broad (multi-county or larger) areas, and no such product exists today for the United States. In this study I argue that by employing a zone-based approach it is feasible to map thematically-detailed urban land use classes over large areas using appropriate combinations of non-image based predictor data which are nationally and publicly available. The approach presented here uses U.S. Census block groups as the basic unit of geography, and predicts the percent of each of ten land use types---nine of them urban---for each block group based on a number of data sources, to include census data, nationally-available point locations of features from the USGS Geographic Names Information System, historical land cover, and metrics which characterize spatial pattern, context (e.g. distance to city centers or other features), and measures of spatial autocorrelation. The method was demonstrated over a four-county area surrounding the

  17. EVALUATION OF LAND USE/LAND COVER DATASETS FOR URBAN WATERSHED MODELING

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    S.J. BURIAN; M.J. BROWN; T.N. MCPHERSON

    2001-01-01

    Land use/land cover (LULC) data are a vital component for nonpoint source pollution modeling. Most watershed hydrology and pollutant loading models use, in some capacity, LULC information to generate runoff and pollutant loading estimates. Simple equation methods predict runoff and pollutant loads using runoff coefficients or pollutant export coefficients that are often correlated to LULC type. Complex models use input variables and parameters to represent watershed characteristics and pollutant buildup and washoff rates as a function of LULC type. Whether using simple or complex models an accurate LULC dataset with an appropriate spatial resolution and level of detail is paramount for reliable predictions. The study presented in this paper compared and evaluated several LULC dataset sources for application in urban environmental modeling. The commonly used USGS LULC datasets have coarser spatial resolution and lower levels of classification than other LULC datasets. In addition, the USGS datasets do not accurately represent the land use in areas that have undergone significant land use change during the past two decades. We performed a watershed modeling analysis of three urban catchments in Los Angeles, California, USA to investigate the relative difference in average annual runoff volumes and total suspended solids (TSS) loads when using the USGS LULC dataset versus using a more detailed and current LULC dataset. When the two LULC datasets were aggregated to the same land use categories, the relative differences in predicted average annual runoff volumes and TSS loads from the three catchments were 8 to 14% and 13 to 40%, respectively. The relative differences did not have a predictable relationship with catchment size

  18. Land Accessibility Factors in Urban Housing Provision in Nigeria Cities : Case of Lagos

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gbadegesin, J.T.; van der Heijden, H.M.H.; Boelhouwer, P.J.

    2016-01-01

    The housing need of the burgeoning population, economic development and increasing urbanization have intensified the significance of land accessibility as an avenue towards improving housing provision in Nigerian urban centres. Literature in housing provision in Nigeria identified land accessibility

  19. Determination of the Impact of Urbanization on Agricultural Lands using Multi-temporal Satellite Sensor Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaya, S.; Alganci, U.; Sertel, E.; Ustundag, B.

    2015-12-01

    Throughout the history, agricultural activities have been performed close to urban areas. Main reason behind this phenomenon is the need of fast marketing of the agricultural production to urban residents and financial provision. Thus, using the areas nearby cities for agricultural activities brings out advantage of easy transportation of productions and fast marketing. For decades, heavy migration to cities has directly and negatively affected natural grasslands, forests and agricultural lands. This pressure has caused agricultural lands to be changed into urban areas. Dense urbanization causes increase in impervious surfaces, heat islands and many other problems in addition to destruction of agricultural lands. Considering the negative impacts of urbanization on agricultural lands and natural resources, a periodic monitoring of these changes becomes indisputably important. At this point, satellite images are known to be good data sources for land cover / use change monitoring with their fast data acquisition, large area coverages and temporal resolution properties. Classification of the satellite images provides thematic the land cover / use maps of the earth surface and changes can be determined with GIS based analysis multi-temporal maps. In this study, effects of heavy urbanization over agricultural lands in Istanbul, metropolitan city of Turkey, were investigated with use of multi-temporal Landsat TM satellite images acquired between 1984 and 2011. Images were geometrically registered to each other and classified using supervised maximum likelihood classification algorithm. Resulting thematic maps were exported to GIS environment and destructed agricultural lands by urbanization were determined using spatial analysis.

  20. Procedural modeling of urban layout: population, land use, and road network

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lyu, X.; Han, Q.; de Vries, B.

    2017-01-01

    This paper introduces an urban simulation system generating urban layouts with population, road network and land use layers. The desired urban spatial structure is obtained by generating a population map based on population density models. The road network is generated at two spatial levels

  1. A Comparison of Advanced Regression Algorithms for Quantifying Urban Land Cover

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Akpona Okujeni

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Quantitative methods for mapping sub-pixel land cover fractions are gaining increasing attention, particularly with regard to upcoming hyperspectral satellite missions. We evaluated five advanced regression algorithms combined with synthetically mixed training data for quantifying urban land cover from HyMap data at 3.6 and 9 m spatial resolution. Methods included support vector regression (SVR, kernel ridge regression (KRR, artificial neural networks (NN, random forest regression (RFR and partial least squares regression (PLSR. Our experiments demonstrate that both kernel methods SVR and KRR yield high accuracies for mapping complex urban surface types, i.e., rooftops, pavements, grass- and tree-covered areas. SVR and KRR models proved to be stable with regard to the spatial and spectral differences between both images and effectively utilized the higher complexity of the synthetic training mixtures for improving estimates for coarser resolution data. Observed deficiencies mainly relate to known problems arising from spectral similarities or shadowing. The remaining regressors either revealed erratic (NN or limited (RFR and PLSR performances when comprehensively mapping urban land cover. Our findings suggest that the combination of kernel-based regression methods, such as SVR and KRR, with synthetically mixed training data is well suited for quantifying urban land cover from imaging spectrometer data at multiple scales.

  2. Recent land cover history and nutrient retention in riparian wetlands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hogan, D.M.; Walbridge, M.R.

    2009-01-01

    Wetland ecosystems are profoundly affected by altered nutrient and sediment loads received from anthropogenic activity in their surrounding watersheds. Our objective was to compare a gradient of agricultural and urban land cover history during the period from 1949 to 1997, with plant and soil nutrient concentrations in, and sediment deposition to, riparian wetlands in a rapidly urbanizing landscape. We observed that recent agricultural land cover was associated with increases in Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) concentrations in a native wetland plant species. Conversely, recent urban land cover appeared to alter receiving wetland environmental conditions by increasing the relative availability of P versus N, as reflected in an invasive, but not a native, plant species. In addition, increases in surface soil Fe content suggests recent inputs of terrestrial sediments associated specifically with increasing urban land cover. The observed correlation between urban land cover and riparian wetland plant tissue and surface soil nutrient concentrations and sediment deposition, suggest that urbanization specifically enhances the suitability of riparian wetland habitats for the invasive species Japanese stiltgrass [Microstegium vimenium (Trinius) A. Camus]. ?? 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

  3. Urban Land Development for Industrial and Commercial Use: A Case Study of Beijing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chuanzhun Sun

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Since the 20th century, urbanization has been the main characteristic of global land development. If we can reveal and understand the characteristics and underlying mechanisms of urban development, we can then identify a sustainable development pattern for cities. In this paper, we primarily focus on the determinants of two main types of land use in urban development, industrial and commercial, in an empirical study of Beijing. We use a spatial data analysis method to seek and model major determinants of industrial and commercial land growth in the period of 2000–2010 in Beijing. A spatial logistic regression model is used to explore the impact of spatial independent variables on these two types of land use. The study shows that: (1 newly-added industrial land during 2000–2010 received significant contributions from the number of local enterprises engaged in services in 2010, the use of land for agriculture and construction in the neighborhood in 2000 and planning orders; (2 factors contributing to land transferred for commercial use included the number of enterprises, construction land in the neighborhood and accessibility improvement.

  4. The Urban Intensive Land-use Evaluation in Xi’an, Based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Ru; Kang, Zhiyuan

    2018-01-01

    The intensive land-use is the basis of urban “stock optimization”, and scientific and reasonable evaluation is the important content of the land-intensive utilization. In this paper, through the survey of Xi’an urban land-use condition, we construct the suitable evaluation index system of Xi’an’ intensive land-use, by using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) of combination. And through the analysis of the influencing factors of land-intensive utilization, we provide a reference for the future development direction.

  5. Urbanization Process and Variation of Energy Budget of Land Surfaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ciro Gardi

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available Urban areas are increasing at a rate much higher than human population growth in many part of the world; actually more than 73 towns in the world are larger than 1000 km2. The European Environmental Agency indicates an urban area average growth rate, over the last 20 years, of 20%. The urbanization process, and the consequent soil sealing, determines not only the losses of the ecological functions of the soil, but also a variation of the energy budget of land surfaces, that affect the microclimatic conditions (heat islands. The alteration of the energy budget are determined by the variations of albedo and roughness of surfaces, but especially by the net losses of evapotranspirating areas. In the present research we have assessed the variation of Parma territory energy budget, induced by the change in land use over the last 122 years. The urban area increase between 1881 and 2003 was 535%.

  6. Essays on land and labor in urbanizing China

    OpenAIRE

    Wu, Yan

    2017-01-01

    In this dissertation I address emerging land and labor issues associated with the rapid urbanization in China over the past decades, including the negative effects of the real estate booms on manufacturing development, land conflicts, and gender inequality among migrants. The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 offers an introductory discussion on the overarching objective and specific questions of the whole research. Chapter 2 focuses on the effects of housing price appreciation on fi...

  7. How Did Urban Land Expand in China between 1992 and 2015? A Multi-Scale Landscape Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Min; He, Chunyang; Liu, Zhifeng; Dou, Yinyin

    2016-01-01

    Effective and timely quantification of the spatiotemporal pattern of urban expansion in China is important for the assessment of its environmental effects. However, the dynamics of the most recent urban expansions in China since 2012 have not yet been adequately explained due to a lack of current information. In this paper, our objective was to quantify spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion in China between 1992 and 2015. First, we extracted information on urban expansion in China between 1992 and 2015 by integrating nighttime light data, vegetation index data, and land surface temperature data. Then we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion at the national and regional scales, as well as at that of urban agglomerations. We found that China experienced a rapid and large-scale process of urban expansion between 1992 and 2015, with urban land increasing from 1.22 × 104 km2 to 7.29 × 104 km2, increasing in size nearly fivefold and with an average annual growth rate of 8.10%, almost 2.5 times as rapid as the global average. We also found that urban land in China expanded mainly by occupying 3.31 × 104 km2 of cropland, which comprised 54.67% of the total area of expanded urban land. Among the three modes of growth—infilling, edge expansion, and leapfrog—edge expansion was the main cause of cropland loss. Cropland loss resulting from edge expansion of urban land totalled 2.51 × 104 km2, accounting for over 75% of total cropland loss. We suggest that effective future management with respect to edge expansion of urban land is needed to protect cropland in China. PMID:27144589

  8. How Did Urban Land Expand in China between 1992 and 2015? A Multi-Scale Landscape Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Min; He, Chunyang; Liu, Zhifeng; Dou, Yinyin

    2016-01-01

    Effective and timely quantification of the spatiotemporal pattern of urban expansion in China is important for the assessment of its environmental effects. However, the dynamics of the most recent urban expansions in China since 2012 have not yet been adequately explained due to a lack of current information. In this paper, our objective was to quantify spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion in China between 1992 and 2015. First, we extracted information on urban expansion in China between 1992 and 2015 by integrating nighttime light data, vegetation index data, and land surface temperature data. Then we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion at the national and regional scales, as well as at that of urban agglomerations. We found that China experienced a rapid and large-scale process of urban expansion between 1992 and 2015, with urban land increasing from 1.22 × 104 km2 to 7.29 × 104 km2, increasing in size nearly fivefold and with an average annual growth rate of 8.10%, almost 2.5 times as rapid as the global average. We also found that urban land in China expanded mainly by occupying 3.31 × 104 km2 of cropland, which comprised 54.67% of the total area of expanded urban land. Among the three modes of growth-infilling, edge expansion, and leapfrog-edge expansion was the main cause of cropland loss. Cropland loss resulting from edge expansion of urban land totalled 2.51 × 104 km2, accounting for over 75% of total cropland loss. We suggest that effective future management with respect to edge expansion of urban land is needed to protect cropland in China.

  9. THE CORRELATION ANALYSIS OF SUBSIDENCE MONITORING BY D-INSAR AND THE CHANGE OF URBAN CONSTRUCTION LAND

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. J. Yang

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The change of urban construction land affect the subsidence directly or indirectly, the method of D-InSAR has centimeter level or even millimeter accuracy that can provide a reliable and accurate data for the research of correlation analysis of subsidence monitoring by D-InSAR and the change of urban construction land. This article takes Guiyang, Nanning city as example, using 3m level TerraSAR data to construct the Subsidence model by interferometric measurement, then compared with the Chinese national land use change remote sensing survey database at the same measure time to have a correlation analysis GIS research between subsidence and the change of urban construction land. The results shows that the integral correlation coefficient achieved 0.78 between subsidence and the change of urban construction land, the major construction area and the high density construction area are with severe land subsidence. In addition, the correlation coefficient increased from the main city to the suburbs, indicates that some of the main city causes permanent settlement and is difficult to recover. It also shows that some area subsidence caused by long-term mining or other natural factors has no strong correlation with the change of urban construction land, therefore, the results of D-InSAR subsidence monitoring have a reaction on urban construction planning, guiding urban planning to high stability, low settlement area.

  10. Effects of urban land-use on largescale stonerollers in the Mobile River Basin, Birmingham, AL

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iwanowicz, Deborah; Black, M.C.; Blazer, Vicki; Zappia, H.; Bryant, Wade L.

    2016-01-01

    During the spring and fall of 2001 and the spring of 2002 a study was conducted to evaluate the health of the largescale stoneroller (Campostoma oligolepis) populations in streams along an urban land-use gradient. Sites were selected from a pool of naturally similar sub-basins (eco-region, basin size, and geology) of the Mobile River basin (MRB), using an index of urban intensity derived from infrastructure, socioeconomic, and land-use data. This urban land-use gradient (ULUG) is a multimetric indicator of urban intensity, ranging from 0 (background) to 100 (intense urbanization). Campostoma sp. have been used previously as indicators of stream health and are common species found in all sites within the MRB. Endpoints used to determine the effects of urban land-use on the largescale stoneroller included total glutathione, histology, hepatic apoptosis, condition factor and external lesions. Liver glutathione levels were positively associated with increasing urban land-use (r2 = 0.94). Histopathological examination determined that some abnormalities and lesions were correlated with the ULUG and generally increased in prevalence or severity with increasing urbanization. Liver macrophage aggregates were positively correlated to the ULUG. The occurrence of nucleosomal ladders (indicating apoptotic cell death) did not correspond with urban intensity in a linear fashion. Apoptosis, as well as prevalence and severity of a myxozoan parasite, appeared to have a hormetic dose–response relationship. The majority of the biomarkers suggested fish health was compromised in areas where the ULUG ≥ 36.

  11. Effects of urban land-use on largescale stonerollers in the Mobile River Basin, Birmingham, AL.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iwanowicz, D; Black, M C; Blazer, V S; Zappia, H; Bryant, W

    2016-04-01

    During the spring and fall of 2001 and the spring of 2002 a study was conducted to evaluate the health of the largescale stoneroller (Campostoma oligolepis) populations in streams along an urban land-use gradient. Sites were selected from a pool of naturally similar sub-basins (eco-region, basin size, and geology) of the Mobile River basin (MRB), using an index of urban intensity derived from infrastructure, socioeconomic, and land-use data. This urban land-use gradient (ULUG) is a multimetric indicator of urban intensity, ranging from 0 (background) to 100 (intense urbanization). Campostoma sp. have been used previously as indicators of stream health and are common species found in all sites within the MRB. Endpoints used to determine the effects of urban land-use on the largescale stoneroller included total glutathione, histology, hepatic apoptosis, condition factor and external lesions. Liver glutathione levels were positively associated with increasing urban land-use (r(2) = 0.94). Histopathological examination determined that some abnormalities and lesions were correlated with the ULUG and generally increased in prevalence or severity with increasing urbanization. Liver macrophage aggregates were positively correlated to the ULUG. The occurrence of nucleosomal ladders (indicating apoptotic cell death) did not correspond with urban intensity in a linear fashion. Apoptosis, as well as prevalence and severity of a myxozoan parasite, appeared to have a hormetic dose-response relationship. The majority of the biomarkers suggested fish health was compromised in areas where the ULUG ≥ 36.

  12. Coastal Urbanization and Land Planning in Southern France

    OpenAIRE

    Robert , Samuel; Prévost , Aurélie; Fox , Dennis; Trémélo , Marie-Laure; Pasqualini , Vanina

    2015-01-01

    International audience; Urban sprawl is one of the main pressures affecting coastal areas in the Mediterranean. To assist spatial planning and coastal management policies, the study of urbanization and the characterization of the evolution of built-up areas along the coast are essential prerequisites. In this perspective, the production of land use data sets at a large-scale is necessary. They allow spatio-temporal analysis and, simultaneously, may be used to assess the efficiency of city pla...

  13. Variations of Soil Lead in Different Land Uses Along the Urbanization Gradient in the Beijing Metropolitan Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qizheng Mao

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Understanding the spatial pattern of soil lead (Pb levels is essential to protecting human health. Most previous studies have examined soil Pb distributions by either urbanization gradient or land-use type. Few studies, however, have examined both factors together. It remains unclear whether the impacts of land use on soil Pb levels are consistent along the urbanization gradient. To fill this gap, we investigated variations in soil Pb level under different land-use types along the urbanization gradient in Beijing, China. We classified the degree of urbanization as the urban core, transitional zone, or suburban area and the land-use type as industrial area, roadside, residential area, institutional area, road greenbelt, park, or forest. Our results showed that the range of soil Pb levels in Beijing is <1 mg/kg–292 mg/kg, with a mean of 22 mg/kg. Along the urbanization gradient, the mean soil Pb level increased from the suburban area to the urban core. Land-use types have an impact on soil Pb levels, however, when the degree of urbanization is considered, the impact from land use on soil Pb level was only significant in the transitional zone. Parks and road greenbelts were found to have lower soil Pb, primarily due to soil restoration. Roadside and residential areas were found to have higher soil Pb because of traffic emissions, leaded paint, and previous industrial contamination. In the urban core and suburban area, the soil Pb level showed no significant differences among various land-use types. Given the results of soil Pb in various land-use types, we suggest that future studies consider the urbanization gradient in which different land-use samples are located.

  14. Monitoring and Modeling of Spatiotemporal Urban Expansion and Land-Use/Land-Cover Change Using Integrated Markov Chain Cellular Automata Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bhagawat Rimal

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Spatial–temporal analysis of land-use/land-cover (LULC change as well as the monitoring and modeling of urban expansion are essential for the planning and management of urban environments. Such environments reflect the economic conditions and quality of life of the individual country. Urbanization is generally influenced by national laws, plans and policies and by power, politics and poor governance in many less-developed countries. Remote sensing tools play a vital role in monitoring LULC change and measuring the rate of urbanization at both the local and global levels. The current study evaluated the LULC changes and urban expansion of Jhapa district of Nepal. The spatial–temporal dynamics of LULC were identified using six time-series atmospherically-corrected surface reflectance Landsat images from 1989 to 2016. A hybrid cellular automata Markov chain (CA–Markov model was used to simulate future urbanization by 2026 and 2036. The analysis shows that the urban area has increased markedly and is expected to continue to grow rapidly in the future, whereas the area for agriculture has decreased. Meanwhile, forest and shrub areas have remained almost constant. Seasonal rainfall and flooding routinely cause predictable transformation of sand, water bodies and cultivated land from one type to another. The results suggest that the use of Landsat time-series archive images and the CA–Markov model are the best options for long-term spatiotemporal analysis and achieving an acceptable level of prediction accuracy. Furthermore, understanding the relationship between the spatiotemporal dynamics of urbanization and LULC change and simulating future landscape change is essential, as they are closely interlinked. These scientific findings of past, present and future land-cover scenarios of the study area will assist planners/decision-makers to formulate sustainable urban development and environmental protection plans and will remain a scientific asset

  15. Access to serviced land for the urban poor: the regularization paradox in Mexico

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alfonso Iracheta Cenecorta

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available The insufficient supply of serviced land at affordable prices for the urban poor and the need for regularization of the consequent illegal occupations in urban areas are two of the most important issues on the Latin American land policy agenda. Taking a structural/integrated view on the functioning of the urban land market in Latin America, this paper discusses the nexus between the formal and the informal land markets. It thus exposes the perverse feedback effects that curative regularization policies may have on the process by which irregularity is produced in the first place. The paper suggests that a more effective approach to the provision of serviced land for the poor cannot be resolved within the prevailing (curative regularization programs. These programs should have the capacity to mobilize the resources that do exist into a comprehensive program that links regularization with fiscal policy, including the exploration of value capture mechanisms.

  16. Urbanization, land tenure security and vector-borne Chagas disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levy, Michael Z.; Barbu, Corentin M.; Castillo-Neyra, Ricardo; Quispe-Machaca, Victor R.; Ancca-Juarez, Jenny; Escalante-Mejia, Patricia; Borrini-Mayori, Katty; Niemierko, Malwina; Mabud, Tarub S.; Behrman, Jere R.; Naquira-Velarde, Cesar

    2014-01-01

    Modern cities represent one of the fastest growing ecosystems on the planet. Urbanization occurs in stages; each stage characterized by a distinct habitat that may be more or less susceptible to the establishment of disease vector populations and the transmission of vector-borne pathogens. We performed longitudinal entomological and epidemiological surveys in households along a 1900 × 125 m transect of Arequipa, Peru, a major city of nearly one million inhabitants, in which the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi, the aetiological agent of Chagas disease, by the insect vector Triatoma infestans, is an ongoing problem. The transect spans a cline of urban development from established communities to land invasions. We find that the vector is tracking the development of the city, and the parasite, in turn, is tracking the dispersal of the vector. New urbanizations are free of vector infestation for decades. T. cruzi transmission is very recent and concentrated in more established communities. The increase in land tenure security during the course of urbanization, if not accompanied by reasonable and enforceable zoning codes, initiates an influx of construction materials, people and animals that creates fertile conditions for epidemics of some vector-borne diseases. PMID:24990681

  17. women's access to emerging urban land in the sissala east district

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    User

    The evidence shows that though women do access and hold urban land rights through purchase, they ..... More married women own land than unmarried women. ... satisfied with her” (UNCHS-Habitat, 2001). ... nerative jobs as shown in Fig.

  18. Atmospheric carbon exchange associated with vegetation and soils in urban and suburban land uses

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rowntree, R.A. [Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Berkeley, CA (United States)

    1993-12-31

    In studies of the global C cycle prior to the 1980s, urban ecosystems were largely ignored, in part because them were inadequate measures of phytomass and soil carbon for the various land uses associated with cities. In the last decade, progress has been made in gathering urban vegetation data and recently, estimates of urban land use carbon storage and fluxes have been attempted. Demographic trends in many countries suggest that urban areas are growing. Thus it is important to discover the appropriate concepts and methods for understanding greenhouse gas fluxes from urban-related vegetation and soils.

  19. Land Use Dynamics of the Fast-Growing Shanghai Metropolis, China (1979–2008 and its Implications for Land Use and Urban Planning Policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wei-Chun Ma

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Through the integrated approach of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS techniques, four Landsat TM/ETM+ imagery acquired during 1979 and 2008 were used to quantitatively characterize the patterns of land use and land cover change (LULC and urban sprawl in the fast-growing Shanghai Metropolis, China. Results showed that, the urban/built-up area grew on average by 4,242.06 ha yr−1. Bare land grew by 1,594.66 ha yr−1 on average. In contrast, cropland decreased by 3,286.26 ha yr−1 on average, followed by forest and shrub, water, and tidal land, which decreased by 1,331.33 ha yr−1, 903.43 ha yr−1, and 315.72 ha yr−1 on average, respectively. As a result, during 1979 and 2008 approximately 83.83% of the newly urban/built-up land was converted from cropland (67.35%, forest and shrub (9.12%, water (4.80%, and tidal land (2.19%. Another significant change was the continuous increase in regular residents, which played a very important role in contributing to local population growth and increase in urban/built-up land. This can be explained with this city’s huge demand for investment and qualified labor since the latest industrial transformation. Moreover, with a decrease in cropland, the proportion of population engaged in farming decreased 13.84%. Therefore, significant socio-economic transformation occurred, and this would lead to new demand for land resources. However, due to very scarce land resources and overload of population in Shanghai, the drive to achieve economic goals at the loss of cropland, water, and the other lands is not sustainable. Future urban planning policy aiming at ensuring a win-win balance between sustainable land use and economic growth is urgently needed.

  20. Soil respiration and carbon loss relationship with temperature and land use conversion in freeze-thaw agricultural area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ouyang, Wei; Lai, Xuehui; Li, Xia; Liu, Heying; Lin, Chunye; Hao, Fanghua

    2015-11-15

    Soil respiration (Rs) was hypothesized to have a special response pattern to soil temperature and land use conversion in the freeze-thaw area. The Rs differences of eight types of land use conversions during agricultural development were observed and the impacts of Rs on soil organic carbon (SOC) loss were assessed. The land use conversions during last three decades were categorized into eight types, and the 141 SOC sampling sites were grouped by conversion type. The typical soil sampling sites were subsequently selected for monitoring of soil temperature and Rs of each land use conversion types. The Rs correlations with temperature at difference depths and different conversion types were identified with statistical analysis. The empirical mean error model and the biophysical theoretical model with Arrhenius equation about the Rs sensitivity to temperature were both analyzed and shared the similar patterns. The temperature dependence of soil respiration (Q10) analysis further demonstrated that the averaged value of eight types of land use in this freeze-thaw agricultural area ranged from 1.15 to 1.73, which was lower than the other cold areas. The temperature dependence analysis demonstrated that the Rs in the top layer of natural land covers was more sensitive to temperature and experienced a large vertical difference. The natural land covers exhibited smaller Rs and the farmlands had the bigger value due to tillage practices. The positive relationships between SOC loss and Rs were identified, which demonstrated that Rs was the key chain for SOC loss during land use conversion. The spatial-vertical distributions of SOC concentration with the 1.5-km grid sampling showed that the more SOC loss in the farmland, which was coincided with the higher Rs in farmlands. The analysis of Rs dynamics provided an innovative explanation for SOC loss in the freeze-thaw agricultural area. The analysis of Rs dynamics provided an innovative explanation for SOC loss in the freeze

  1. Analysis of Land-Use Emergy Indicators Based on Urban Metabolism: A Case Study for Beijing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qing Huang

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The correlation of urban metabolism and changes in land use is an important issue in urban ecology, but recent research lacks consideration of the mechanisms and interactions between them. In this research, we did an emergy analysis of the flows of materials, energy, and capital within the socioeconomic system of Beijing. We calculated emergy-based evaluation indices of urban metabolism and land use change, to analyze the relationship between urban metabolism and land use by correlation analysis and regression analysis. Results indicate that the socio-economic activities on built-up land depend on local, non-renewable resource exploitation and external resource inputs. The emergy utilization efficiency of farmland has consistently decreased, but there remains significant utilization potential there. Urban development in Beijing relies on production activities on built-up land, which is subjected to great environmental pressure during extraction of material resources. To keep the economy developing effectively, we suggest that Beijing should commit to development of a circular economy, and change the land-use concept to “Smart Growth”. In this paper, we efficaciously solve the problem of conflicting measurement units, and avoid the disadvantages of subjective assignment. Consequently, this work provides not only a more scientific way to study land problems, but also provides a reliable reference for ecological construction and economic development in Beijing.

  2. Fit-for-purpose land administration : lessons from urban and rural Ethopia

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bennett, R.M.; Alemie, B.K.

    2016-01-01

    Lessons for designing fit-for-purpose land administration and land management activities, where the stated purposes are poverty alleviation, food security, and good governance, are provided. Contemporary developments from urban and rural Ethiopia provide the empirical basis: data is synthesised from

  3. Quantifying the Trends in Land Surface Temperature and Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity in Mediterranean Cities in View of Smart Urbanization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anastasios Polydoros

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Land Surface Temperature (LST is a key parameter for the estimation of urban fluxes as well as for the assessment of the presence and strength of the surface urban heat island (SUHI. In an urban environment, LST depends on the way the city has been planned and developed over time. To this end, the estimation of LST needs adequate spatial and temporal data at the urban scale, especially with respect to land cover/land use. The present study is divided in two parts: at first, satellite data from MODIS-Terra 8-day product (MOD11A2 were used for the analysis of an eighteen-year time series (2001–2017 of the LST spatial and temporal distribution in five major cities of the Mediterranean during the summer months. LST trends were retrieved and assessed for their statistical significance. Secondly, LST values and trends for each city were examined in relation to land cover characteristics and patterns in order to define the contribution of urban development and planning on LST; this information is important for the drafting of smart urbanization policies and measures. Results revealed (a positive LST trends in the urban areas especially during nighttime ranging from +0.412 °K in Marseille to +0.923 °K in Cairo and (b the SUHI has intensified during the last eighteen years especially during daytime in European Mediterranean cities, such as Rome (+0.332 °K and Barcelona (+0.307 °K.

  4. Cities as selective land predators? A lesson on urban growth, deregulated planning and sprawl containment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colantoni, Andrea; Grigoriadis, Efstathios; Sateriano, Adele; Venanzoni, Giuseppe; Salvati, Luca

    2016-03-01

    The present study investigates changes in the use of land caused by the expansion of an informal city in the Mediterranean region (Athens, Greece) and it proposes a simplified methodology to assess selective land take at the scale of municipalities. The amount of land take over twenty years (1987-2007) for cropland, sparsely vegetated areas and natural land was compared with the surface area of the respective class at the beginning of the study period (1987). Indicators of selective land take by class were correlated with socioeconomic indicators at the scale of municipalities to verify the influence of the local context and the impact of urban planning on land take processes. Evidence indicates that urban expansion into fringe land consumes primarily cropland and sparse vegetation in the case of the Athens' metropolitan region. Cropland and sparse vegetation were consumed proportionally more than the respective availability in 16 municipalities out of 60. Agricultural land take was positively correlated with population density and growth rate, rate of participation to the job market and road density. Sparse vegetation land take was observed in municipalities with predominance of high density settlements. As a result of second-home expansion in coastal municipalities, natural land was converted to urban use in proportion to the availability in the landscape. Urban planning seems to have a limited impact on selective land take. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Trade-Offs in Multi-Purpose Land Use under Land Degradation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul L. G. Vlek

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Land provides a host of ecosystem services, of which the provisioning services are often considered paramount. As the demand for agricultural products multiplies, other ecosystem services are being degraded or lost entirely. Finding a sustainable trade-off between food production and one or more of other ecosystem services, given the variety of stakeholders, is a matter of optimizing land use in a dynamic and complex socio-ecological system. Land degradation reduces our options to meet both food demands and environmental needs. In order to illustrate this trade-off dilemma, four representative services, carbon sinks, water storage, biodiversity, and space for urbanization, are discussed here based on a review of contemporary literature that cuts across the domain of ecosystem services that are provided by land. Agricultural research will have to expand its focus from the field to the landscape level and in the process examine the cost of production that internalizes environmental costs. In some situations, the public cost of agriculture in marginal environments outweighs the private gains, even with the best technologies in place. Land use and city planners will increasingly have to address the cost of occupying productive agricultural land or the conversion of natural habitats. Landscape designs and urban planning should aim for the preservation of agricultural land and the integrated management of land resources by closing water and nutrient cycles, and by restoring biodiversity.

  6. Land cover controls on summer discharge and runoff solution chemistry of semi-arid urban catchments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallo, Erika L.; Brooks, Paul D.; Lohse, Kathleen A.; McLain, Jean E. T.

    2013-04-01

    SummaryRecharge of urban runoff to groundwater as a stormwater management practice has gained importance in semi-arid regions where water resources are scarce and urban centers are growing. Despite this trend, the importance of land cover in controlling semi-arid catchment runoff quantity and quality remains unclear. Here we address the question: How do land cover characteristics control the amount and quality of storm runoff in semi-arid urban catchments? We monitored summertime runoff quantity and quality from five catchments dominated by distinct urban land uses: low, medium, and high density residential, mixed use, and commercial. Increasing urban land cover increased runoff duration and the likelihood that a rainfall event would result in runoff, but did not increase the time to peak discharge of episodic runoff. The effect of urban land cover on hydrologic responses was tightly coupled to the magnitude of rainfall. At distinct rainfall thresholds, roads, percent impervious cover and the stormwater drainage network controlled runoff frequency, runoff depth and runoff ratios. Contrary to initial expectations, runoff quality did not vary in repose to impervious cover or land use. We identified four major mechanisms controlling runoff quality: (1) variable solute sourcing due to land use heterogeneity and above ground catchment connectivity; (2) the spatial extent of pervious and biogeochemically active areas; (3) the efficiency of overland flow and runoff mobilization; and (4) solute flushing and dilution. Our study highlights the importance of the stormwater drainage systems characteristics in controlling urban runoff quantity and quality; and suggests that enhanced wetting and in-stream processes may control solute sourcing and retention. Finally, we suggest that the characteristics of the stormwater drainage system should be integrated into stormwater management approaches.

  7. Landscaping practices, land use patterns and stormwater quantity and quality in urban watersheds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miles, B.; Band, L. E.

    2011-12-01

    Increasing quantity and decreasing quality of urban stormwater threatens biodiversity in local streams and reservoirs, jeopardizes water supplies, and ultimately contributes to estuarine eutrophication. To estimate the effects that present and alternative landscaping practices and land use patterns may have on urban stormwater quantity and quality, simulations of existing land use/land cover using the Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System (RHESSys), a process-based surface hydrology and biogeochemistry model, were developed for watersheds in Baltimore, MD (as part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) NSF Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site) and Durham, NC (as part of the NSF Urban Long-Term Research Area (ULTRA) program). The influence of land use patterns and landscaping practices on nutrient export in urban watersheds has been explored as part of the BES; this work has focused on improving our understanding of how residential landscaping practices (i.e. lawn fertilization rates) vary across land use and socioeconomic gradients. Elsewhere, others have explored the political ecology of residential landscaping practices - seeking to understand the economic, political, and cultural influences on the practice of high-input residential turf-grass management. Going forward, my research will synthesize and extend this prior work. Rather than pre-supposing predominant residential land use patterns and landscaping practices (i.e. lower-density periphery development incorporating high-input turf landscapes) alternate land use and landscaping scenarios (e.g. higher-density/transit-oriented development, rain gardens, vegetable gardens, native plant/xeriscaping) will be developed through interviews/focus groups with stakeholders (citizens, public officials, developers, non-profits). These scenarios will then be applied to the RHESSys models already developed for catchments in Baltimore and Durham. The modeled scenario results will be used to identify alternate land

  8. Implication of relationship between natural impacts and land use/land cover (LULC) changes of urban area in Mongolia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gantumur, Byambakhuu; Wu, Falin; Zhao, Yan; Vandansambuu, Battsengel; Dalaibaatar, Enkhjargal; Itiritiphan, Fareda; Shaimurat, Dauryenbyek

    2017-10-01

    Urban growth can profoundly alter the urban landscape structure, ecosystem processes, and local climates. Timely and accurate information on the status and trends of urban ecosystems is critical to develop strategies for sustainable development and to improve the urban residential environment and living quality. Ulaanbaatar city was urbanized very rapidly caused by herders and farmers, many of them migrating from rural places, have played a big role in this urban expansion (sprawl). Today, 1.3 million residents for about 40% of total population are living in the Ulaanbaatar region. Those human activities influenced stronger to green environments. Therefore, the aim of this study is determined to change detection of land use/land cover (LULC) and estimating their areas for the trend of future by remote sensing and statistical methods. The implications of analysis were provided by change detection methods of LULC, remote sensing spectral indices including normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference water index (NDWI) and normalized difference built-up index (NDBI). In addition, it can relate to urban heat island (UHI) provided by Land surface temperature (LST) with local climate issues. Statistical methods for image processing used to define relations between those spectral indices and change detection images and regression analysis for time series trend in future. Remote sensing data are used by Landsat (TM/ETM+/OLI) satellite images over the period between 1990 and 2016 by 5 years. The advantages of this study are very useful remote sensing approaches with statistical analysis and important to detecting changes of LULC. The experimental results show that the LULC changes can image on the present and after few years and determined relations between impacts of environmental conditions.

  9. Siting Urban Agriculture as a Green Infrastructure Strategy for Land Use Planning in Austin, TX

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charles M. Rogers

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Green infrastructure refers to a type of land use design that mimics the natural water cycle by using the infiltration capacities of vegetation, soils, and other natural processes to mitigate stormwater runoff. As a multifunctional landscape, urban agriculture should be seen as a highly beneficial tool for urban planning not only because of its ability to function as a green stormwater management strategy, but also due to the multiple social and environmental benefits it provides. In 2012, the city of Austin adopted a major planning approach titled the “Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan” (IACP outlining the city’s vision for future growth and land use up to 2039. The plan explicitly addresses the adoption of green infrastructure as a target for future land use with urban agriculture as a central component. Addressing this area of land use planning will require tools that can locate suitable areas within the city ideal for the development of green infrastructure. In this study, a process was developed to create a spatially explicit method of siting urban agriculture as a green infrastructure tool in hydrologically sensitive areas, or areas prone to runoff, in east Austin. The method uses geospatial software to spatially analyze open access datasets that include land use, a digital elevation model, and prime farmland soils. Through this method a spatial relationship can be made between areas of high surface runoff and where the priority placement of urban farms should be sited as a useful component of green infrastructure. Planners or geospatial analysts could use such information, along with other significant factors and community input, to aid decision makers in the placement of urban agriculture. This spatially explicit approach for siting potential urban farms, will support the integration of urban agriculture as part of the land use planning of Austin.

  10. Space-based monitoring of land-use/land-cover in the Upper Rio Grande Basin: An opportunity for understanding urbanization trends in a water-scarce transboundary river basin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mubako, S. T.; Hargrove, W. L.; Heyman, J. M.; Reyes, C. S.

    2016-12-01

    Urbanization is an area of growing interest in assessing the impact of human activities on water resources in arid regions. Remote sensing techniques provide an opportunity to analyze land cover change over time, and are useful in monitoring areas undergoing rapid urban growth. This case study for the water-scarce Upper Rio Grande River Basin uses a supervised classification algorithm to quantify the rate and evaluate the pattern of urban sprawl. A focus is made on the fast growing El-Paso-Juarez metropolitan area on the US-Mexico border and the City of Las Cruces in New Mexico, areas where environmental challenges and loss of agricultural and native land to urban development are major concerns. Preliminary results show that the land cover is dominantly native with some significant agriculture along the Rio Grande River valley. Urban development across the whole study area expanded from just under 3 percent in 1990, to more than 11 percent in 2015. The urban expansion is occurring mainly around the major urban areas of El Paso, Ciudad Juarez, and Las Cruces, although there is visible growth of smaller urban settlements scattered along the Rio Grande River valley during the same analysis period. The proportion of native land cover fluctuates slightly depending on how much land is under crops each analysis year, but there is a decreasing agricultural land cover trend suggesting that land from this sector is being lost to urban development. This analysis can be useful in planning to protect the environment, preparing for growth in infrastructure such as schools, increased traffic demands, and monitoring availability of resources such as groundwater as the urban population grows.

  11. Incorporating Open Source Data for Bayesian Classification of Urban Land Use From VHR Stereo Images

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Li, Mengmeng; De Beurs, Kirsten M.; Stein, Alfred; Bijker, Wietske

    2017-01-01

    This study investigates the incorporation of open source data into a Bayesian classification of urban land use from very high resolution (VHR) stereo satellite images. The adopted classification framework starts from urban land cover classification, proceeds to building-type characterization, and

  12. Multitemporal analysis of Landsat images to detect land use land cover changes for monitoring soil sealing in the Nola area (Naples, Italy)

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Giglio, Michaela; Allocca, Maria; Franci, Francesca

    2016-10-01

    Land Use Land Cover Changes (LULCC) data provide objective information to support environmental policy, urban planning purposes and sustainable land development. Understanding of past land use/cover practices and current landscape patterns is critical to assess the effects of LULCC on the Earth system. Within the framework of soil sealing in Italy, the present study aims to assess the LULCC of the Nola area (Naples metropolitan area, Italy), relating to a thirty year period from 1984 to 2015. The urban sprawl affects this area causing the impervious surface increase, the loss in rural areas and landscape fragmentation. Located near Vesuvio volcano and crossed by artificial filled rivers, the study area is subject to landslide, hydraulic and volcanic risks. Landsat time series has been processed by means of the supervised per-pixel classification in order to produce multitemporal Land Use Land Cover maps. Then, post-classification comparison approach has been applied to quantify the changes occurring between 1984 and 2015, also analyzing the intermediate variations in 1999, namely every fifteen years. The results confirm the urban sprawl. The increase of the built-up areas mainly causes the habitat fragmentation and the agricultural land conversion of the Nola area that is already damaged by unauthorized disposal of urban waste. Moreover, considering the local risk maps, it was verified that some of the new urban areas were built over known hazardous sites. In order to limit the soil sealing, urgent measures and sustainable urban planning are required.

  13. Using Urban Landscape Trajectories to Develop a Multi-Temporal Land Cover Database to Support Ecological Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marina Alberti

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Urbanization and the resulting changes in land cover have myriad impacts on ecological systems. Monitoring these changes across large spatial extents and long time spans requires synoptic remotely sensed data with an appropriate temporal sequence. We developed a multi-temporal land cover dataset for a six-county area surrounding the Seattle, Washington State, USA, metropolitan region. Land cover maps for 1986, 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2002 were developed from Landsat TM images through a combination of spectral unmixing, image segmentation, multi-season imagery, and supervised classification approaches to differentiate an initial nine land cover classes. We then used ancillary GIS layers and temporal information to define trajectories of land cover change through multiple updating and backdating rules and refined our land cover classification for each date into 14 classes. We compared the accuracy of the initial approach with the landscape trajectory modifications and determined that the use of landscape trajectory rules increased our ability to differentiate several classes including bare soil (separated into cleared for development, agriculture, and clearcut forest and three intensities of urban. Using the temporal dataset, we found that between 1986 and 2002, urban land cover increased from 8 to 18% of our study area, while lowland deciduous and mixed forests decreased from 21 to 14%, and grass and agriculture decreased from 11 to 8%. The intensity of urban land cover increased with 252 km2 in Heavy Urban in 1986 increasing to 629 km2 by 2002. The ecological systems that are present in this region were likely significantly altered by these changes in land cover. Our results suggest that multi-temporal (i.e., multiple years and multiple seasons within years Landsat data are an economical means to quantify land cover and land cover change across large and highly heterogeneous urbanizing landscapes. Our data, and similar temporal land cover change

  14. Thermal signatures of urban land cover types: High-resolution thermal infrared remote sensing of urban heat island in Huntsville, AL

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo, Chor Pang

    1996-01-01

    The main objective of this research is to apply airborne high-resolution thermal infrared imagery for urban heat island studies, using Huntsville, AL, a medium-sized American city, as the study area. The occurrence of urban heat islands represents human-induced urban/rural contrast, which is caused by deforestation and the replacement of the land surface by non-evaporating and non-porous materials such as asphalt and concrete. The result is reduced evapotranspiration and more rapid runoff of rain water. The urban landscape forms a canopy acting as a transitional zone between the atmosphere and the land surface. The composition and structure of this canopy have a significant impact on the thermal behavior of the urban environment. Research on the trends of surface temperature at rapidly growing urban sites in the United States during the last 30 to 50 years suggests that significant urban heat island effects have caused the temperatures at these sites to rise by 1 to 2 C. Urban heat islands have caused changes in urban precipitation and temperature that are at least similar to, if not greater than, those predicted to develop over the next 100 years by global change models. Satellite remote sensing, particularly NOAA AVHRR thermal data, has been used in the study of urban heat islands. Because of the low spatial resolution (1.1 km at nadir) of the AVHRR data, these studies can only examine and map the phenomenon at the macro-level. The present research provides the rare opportunity to utilize 5-meter thermal infrared data acquired from an airplane to characterize more accurately the thermal responses of different land cover types in the urban landscape as input to urban heat island studies.

  15. EnviroAtlas - Paterson, NJ - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Paterson, New Jersey EnviroAtlas Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data comprises approximately 66 km2 around the city of Paterson. The land cover data were...

  16. Mapping land cover in urban residential landscapes using fine resolution imagery and object-oriented classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    A knowledge of different types of land cover in urban residential landscapes is important for building social and economic city-wide policies including landscape ordinances and water conservation programs. Urban landscapes are typically heterogeneous, so classification of land cover in these areas ...

  17. The urban public space betterment and land use sustainability Under the human behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Xiaofan; Ji, Yanning

    2018-02-01

    This paper analyzes the differences between Chinese and western public life and environmental behavior habits. Identify specific needs for Chinese urban public Spaces. At the same time, the paper analyzes the problems related to urban construction in China, including micro-land use, transportation and urban pattern. The solution of Chinese urban public space layout is proposed and the prospects of sustainable urban public space. Urban betterment are prospected in the future.

  18. Analyzing suitability for urban expansion under rapid coastal urbanization with remote sensing and GIS techniques: a case study of Lianyungang, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Wenjun; Zhu, Xiaodong; Reenberg, Anette; Sun, Xiang

    2010-10-01

    Beginning in 2000, Lianyungang's urbanization entered a period of rapid growth, spatially as well as economically. Rapid and intensive expansion of "construction land" imposed increasing pressures on regional environment. With the support of remote sensing data and GIS tools, this paper reports a "present-capacity-potential" integrated suitability analysis framework, in order to characterize and evaluate the suitability of urban expansion in Lianyungang. We found that during the rapid coastal urbanization process from 2000 to 2008, the characteristics of physical expansion in the study area were characterized by a combination of high-density expansion and sprawling development. The land use conversion driven by urbanization and industrialization has not occurred only in city districts, but also the surrounding areas that were spatially absorbed by urban growth, while closely associated and greatly influenced by the explosive growth of industrial establishment. The over-consumption of land resources in the areas with low environmental carrying capacity, particularly in the eastern coastal area, should be strictly controlled. Compared to conventional land suitability analysis methods, the proposed integrated approach could better review the potential environmental impacts of urban expansion and provide guidance for decision makers.

  19. Rates, trends, causes, and consequences of urban land-use change in the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acevedo, William; Taylor, Janis L.; Hester, Dave J.; Mladinich, Carol S.; Glavac, Sonya

    2006-01-01

    Over the past 200 years, changes to the Nation's urban areas have been dramatic. Changes that have occurred relate both to the location of urban centers, as well as to the spatial extent of land dedicated to urban uses. Urban areas at the beginning of the 19th century were located primarily along major rivers or bodies of water, as waterways provided the most efficient means for transporting goods and people. As railroads became prominent, urban areas were able to expand or develop away from the water's edge.Geographic features such as steep slopes, wetlands, and lack of freshwater impeded settlement. In 1902, the National Reclamation Act was passed and with it came funding for the construction of water storage and transportation systems. This encouraged urban expansion in the arid west. After World War II, the Nation's urban areas continued to expand outward away from the city center as populations migrated to the margins of urban areas, where land was less expensive and the environment was less polluted. In 1956, the Federal Highway Act and the building of Interstate highways further facilitated urban expansion across the Unite States. Rural towns, small industrial centers, and farmland were engulfed by expanding urban centers.Over the past 200 years, numerous social, cultural, economic, and political incentives have encouraged urban expansion. In the 1800s, the industrial revolution influenced where people lived and worked. Many people shifted from agricultural production in rural areas to factory work in urban centers. Advances in transportation systems, such as rail transport in the 19th and early 20th centuries, followed by the mass production of the automobile and convenient air travel, facilitated a mobile society and a national economy. Economic growth and a population boom after World War II spurred increased suburbanization-the shifting of residential areas to the outlying section of a city or to a separate municipality-on the fringe of urban areas

  20. Urban Expansion: a Geo-Spatial Approach for Temporal Monitoring of Loss of Agricultural Land

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumari, N. S.; Shao, Z.; Huang, M.; Sanga, C. A.; Van Genderen, J. L.

    2017-09-01

    This paper presents some preliminary results from research on monitoring the urban growth of Shenzhen in China. Agriculture is still the pillar of national economies in many countries including China. Thus, agriculture contributes to population growth. Population growth follows either exponential or logistic growth models. These models can be examined using a time-series of geospatial data, mainly historical earth observation imagery from satellites such as LANDSAT. Such multitemporal data may provide insights into settlement analysis as well as on population dynamics and hence, quantify the loss of agricultural land. In this study, LANDSAT data of ten dates, at approximately five yearly intervals from 1977 to 2017 were used. The remote sensing techniques used for analysis of data for 40 years were image selection, then followed by geometric and radiometric corrections and mosaicking. Also, classification, remote sensing image fusion, and change detection methods were used. This research extracted the information on the amount, direction, and speed of urbanization, and hence, the number of hectares of agricultural land lost due to urban expansion. Several specific elements were used in the descriptive model of landscape changes and population dynamics of the city of Shenzhen in China. These elements are: i) quantify the urban changes, from a small town (37.000 people in the early 1970's) to the megalopolis of around 20 million habitants today. ii) Examining the rate of urban extension on the loss of agricultural landscape and population growth. iii) The loss of food production was analysed against the economic growth in the region. iv) The aspects of loss of agricultural land, area of built-up urban land, and increase in population are studied quantitatively, by the temporal analysis of earth observation geospatial data. The experimental results from this study show that the proposed method is effective in determining loss of agricultural land in any city due to

  1. GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS OF URBAN LAND USE PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR HEMORRHAGIC FEVER RISK – A REVIEW

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. N. Izzah

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Human modification of the natural environment continues to create habitats in which vectors of a wide variety of human and animal pathogens (such as Plasmodium, Aedes aegypti, Arenavirus etc. thrive if unabated with an enormous potential to negatively affect public health. Typical examples of these modifications include impoundments, dams, irrigation systems, landfills and so on that provide enabled environment for the transmission of Hemorrhagic fever such as malaria, dengue, avian flu, Lassa fever etc. Furthermore, contemporary urban dwelling pattern appears to be associated with the prevalence of Hemorrhagic diseases in recent years. These observations are not peculiar to the developing world, as urban expansion also contributes significantly to mosquito and other vectors habitats. This habitats offer breeding ground to some vector virus populations. The key to disease control is developing an understanding of the contribution of human landscape modification to vector-borne pathogen transmission and how a balance may be achieved between human development, public health, and responsible urban land use. A comprehensive review of urban land use Pattern Analysis for Hemorrhagic fever risk has been conducted in this paper. The study found that most of the available literatures dwell more on the impact of urban land use on malaria and dengue fevers; however, studies are yet to be found discussing the implications of urban land use on the risk of Ebola, Lassa and other non-mosquito borne VHFs. A relational model for investigating the influence of urban land use change pattern on the risk of Hemorrhagic fever has been proposed in this study.

  2. Land-Acquisition and Resettlement (LAR Conflicts: A Perspective of Spatial Injustice of Urban Public Resources Allocation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinxia Zhu

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Land acquisition and resettlement (LAR is an important step in urban development. As one of the ‘externalities of development’, LAR conflicts have affected social stability and development in rural areas of China. With social conflict research shifting from value identity to resource allocation, few studies have examined the relationship between the spatial injustice of urban public resources and LAR conflict. To mitigate this research gap and formulate effective policies, this study aims to reinterpret the obstacles of LAR conflicts from the perspective of the spatial injustice of urban public facilities allocation in Hangzhou City by examining 195 administrative litigation cases. Spatial accessibility was used for estimating the spatial justice of urban public resources allocation. A classification and regression tree (CART model was applied to identify the advantage and disadvantage factors behind LAR conflict, and explored the logical and structural relationships among these factors. Results showed that a spatial mismatch between the spatial behavior preferences of human activity and the spatial injustice of urban public resources allocation had significantly accelerated LAR conflicts. When the spatial behavior preferences of human activity and spatial distribution of urban public resources correspond to each other pre- and after LAR, basic rights to social space are safeguarded and various groups can equitably share spatial resources. There are no conflicts. Conversely, respondents expressed a high level of dissatisfaction in comparison to their pre-LAR conditions, and LAR conflict undeniably occurs. This approach also proposes some good LAR policies by regulating the spatial injustice of urban public resources allocation associated with LAR with the aim of long-term urban sustainable development for Hangzhou.

  3. Quantifying and Analysing Neighbourhood Characteristics Supporting Urban Land-Use Modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Henning Sten

    2009-01-01

    Land-use modelling and spatial scenarios have gained increased attention as a means to meet the challenge of reducing uncertainty in the spatial planning and decision-making. Several organisations have developed software for land-use modelling. Many of the recent modelling efforts incorporate...... cellular automata (CA) to accomplish spatially explicit land-use change modelling. Spatial interaction between neighbour land-uses is an important component in urban cellular automata. Nevertheless, this component is calibrated through trial-and-error estimation. The aim of the current research project has...... been to quantify and analyse land-use neighbourhood characteristics and impart useful information for cell based land-use modelling. The results of our research is a major step forward, because we have estimated rules for neighbourhood interaction from really observed land-use changes at a yearly basis...

  4. Assessment of ecosystem services provided by urban trees: public lands within the Urban Growth Boundary of Corvallis, OR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Public lands within the Urban Growth Boundary of Corvallis, Oregon contain a diverse population of about 440,000 trees that include over 300 varieties and have an estimated tree cover of 31%. While often unrecognized, urban trees provide a variety of “ecosystem services” or dire...

  5. Proposal of building a standard geodatabase for urban land use

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Husein Haifaa

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The digital technologies represented by digital processing programs, local data bases and satellite receivers system is a set of technologies made to organize the process of building descriptive field database, and conveying them to computers, in order to store, analyze and manifest data as well as upgrade and extract it in the form of digital maps, which represent an asset in any engineering and planning study. For a variety of types of mixed land uses and others land uses in the urban city, which cause great difficulty in how to build spatial Geodatabase in terms of frequency of the land use and overlap between land uses, the paper will find the proposed standard Geomatics techniques to get rid of these difficulties. The paper will tackle the engineering and survey methods which could reinforce manifestation of uses of logical database in urban areas. Lastly, the research concludes that relying on important field survey and digital references in preparing suggested criteria for field uses, in addition to the recommendations provided in this field for the post graduate and undergraduate students as well governmental specialized departments.

  6. Land development, land use, and urban sprawl in Puerto Rico integrating remote sensing and population census data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sebastian Martinuzzi; William A. Gould; Olga M. Ramos Gonzalez

    2007-01-01

    The island of Puerto Rico has both a high population density and a long history of ineffective land use planning. This study integrates geospatial technology and population census data to understand how people use and develop the lands. We define three new regions for Puerto Rico: Urban (16%), Densely Populated Rural (36%), and Sparsely Populated Rural (48%). Eleven...

  7. Analyzing Land Cover Change and Urban Growth Trajectories of the Mega-Urban Region of Dhaka Using Remotely Sensed Data and an Ensemble Classifier

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Mehedy Hassan

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Accurate information on, and human interpretation of, urban land cover using satellite-derived sensor imagery is critical given the intricate nature and niches of socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental factors occurring at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Detailed knowledge of urban land and their changing pattern over time periods associated with ecological risk is, however, required for the best use of critical land and its environmental resources. Interest in this topic has increased recently, driven by a surge in the use of open-source computing software, satellite-derived imagery, and improved classification algorithms. Using the machine learning algorithm Random Forest, combined with multi-date Landsat imagery, we classified eight periods of land cover maps with up-to-date spatial and temporal information of urban land between the period of 1972 and 2015 for the mega-urban region of greater Dhaka in Bangladesh. Random Forest—a non-parametric ensemble classifier—has shown a quantum increase in satellite-derived image classification accuracy due to its outperformance over traditional approaches, e.g., Maximum Likelihood. Employing Random Forest as an image classification approach for this study with independent cross-validation techniques, we obtained high classification accuracy, user and producer accuracy. Our overall classification accuracy ranges were between 85% and 97% with kappa values between 0.81 and 0.94. The area statistics derived from the thematic land cover map show that the built-up area in the 43-year study period expanded quickly, from 35 km2 in 1972 to 378 km2 in 2015, with a net increase rate of approximately 980% and an average annual growth rate of 6%. This growth rate, however, was higher in peripheral areas, with a 2903% increase and an annual expansion rate of 8%, compared to a 460% increase with an annual growth rate of 4% in the core city area (Dhaka City Corporation. This huge urban expansion took

  8. Urban development, and emerging relations of informal property and land based authority in Accra

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stacey, Paul Austin

    2018-01-01

    Rural–urban migration leads to ever increasing numbers of Africans living in informal settlements. In Accra's largest informal settlement, Old Fadama, residents by definition have no statutory rights to the land and their building activities undermine formal state law and state-recognized customary......, building and development in the settlement that involve a variety of local, national and global actors. Their actions show the contemporaneous making and unmaking of different relations of property and land-based control and authority in the densely populated urban site. Important features of urban...

  9. Criteria for evaluation and guidelines for land use planning in terms of sustainable urban development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irena Ostojić

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable spatial development is a generally accepted objective and principle in spatial planning. It is implemented mainly by regulations in the sectors for management of natural resources, but not comprehensively in implementing regulations for urban space management. One of the most important instruments of spatial planning at local level is land use, for which there is no comprehensive framework of implementing measures for achieving sustainable spatial objectives in urban areas. In accordance with the review and critical analysis of literature, there are four measures presented in the paper: protection of natural resources and reduction of environmental-climate risks, compact urban structure, mixed-use and accessibility of urban functions. The review and analysis have shown that the listed measures enable sustainable development of urban areas, but only if they are planned and implemented in accordance with supporting physical, social and economic elements of urban space. In the conclusion, indicators which can assess the level of sustainability in land use design are presented and guidelines for restructuring land use in existing settlement areas are described.

  10. Urbanization and the Change of Fertilizer Use Intensity for Agricultural Production in Henan Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li Jiang

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available China’s urbanization has resulted in significant changes in agricultural land use. However, understanding of the linkages between urbanization and fertilizer use intensity is limited. Using county-level panel data for Henan Province, 1995–2008 and panel econometric models, we investigate the impact of urbanization and other socioeconomic factors on fertilizer use intensity, with a focus on the two key processes related to urbanization—shrinking agricultural land area and increasing urban wages. Our results show that declining agricultural land per capita is associated with greater fertilizer use intensity. Urban wages is positively correlated with fertilizer use intensity. We also find that GDP per capita and per capita expenditure of government for agriculture both positively contribute to the increase of fertilizer use intensity, which is consistent with expectations. Our results imply that other than land conversion, urbanization contains some positive influences on land use sustainability. However, on the other hand, urbanization contributes to agriculture-based environmental pollution by increasing the level of fertilizer use in agricultural production.

  11. EnviroAtlas - Des Moines, IA - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Des Moines, IA EnviroAtlas Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data were generated from the High Resolution Land Cover (HRLC) product created by the Iowa...

  12. Spatially differentiated trends in urbanization, agricultural land abandonment and reclamation, and woodland recovery in Northern China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Chao; Gao, Qiong; Wang, Xian; Yu, Mei

    2016-11-01

    Uncovering magnitude, trend, and spatial pattern of land cover/land use changes (LCLUC) is crucial for understanding mechanisms of LCLUC and assisting land use planning and conservation. China has been undergoing unprecedented economic growth, massive rural-to-urban migration, and large-scale policy-driven ecological restoration, and therefore encountering enormous LCLUC in recent decades. However, comprehensive understandings of spatiotemporal LCLUC dynamics and underlying mechanisms are still lacking. Based on classification of annual LCLU maps from MODIS satellite imagery, we proposed a land change detection method to capture significant land change hotspots over Northern China during 2001-2013, and further analyzed temporal trends and spatial patterns of LCLUC. We found rapid decline of agricultural land near urban was predominantly caused by urban expansion. The process was especially strong in North China Plain with 14,057 km2 of urban gain and -21,017 km2 of agricultural land loss. To offset the loss of agricultural land, Northeast China Plain and Xinjiang were reclaimed. Substantial recovery of forests (49,908 km2) and closed shrubland (60,854 km2) occurred in mountainous regions due to abandoned infertile farmland, secondary succession, and governmental conservation policies. The spatial patterns and trends of LCLUC in Northern China provide information to support effective environmental policies towards sustainable development.

  13. Assessing the homogenization of urban land management with an application to US residential lawn care

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polsky, Colin; Grove, J. Morgan; Knudson, Chris; Groffman, Peter M.; Bettez, Neil; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine; Hall, Sharon J.; Heffernan, James B.; Hobbie, Sarah E.; Larson, Kelli L.; Morse, Jennifer L.; Neill, Christopher; Nelson, Kristen C.; Ogden, Laura A.; O’Neil-Dunne, Jarlath; Pataki, Diane E.; Roy Chowdhury, Rinku; Steele, Meredith K.

    2014-01-01

    Changes in land use, land cover, and land management present some of the greatest potential global environmental challenges of the 21st century. Urbanization, one of the principal drivers of these transformations, is commonly thought to be generating land changes that are increasingly similar. An implication of this multiscale homogenization hypothesis is that the ecosystem structure and function and human behaviors associated with urbanization should be more similar in certain kinds of urbanized locations across biogeophysical gradients than across urbanization gradients in places with similar biogeophysical characteristics. This paper introduces an analytical framework for testing this hypothesis, and applies the framework to the case of residential lawn care. This set of land management behaviors are often assumed—not demonstrated—to exhibit homogeneity. Multivariate analyses are conducted on telephone survey responses from a geographically stratified random sample of homeowners (n = 9,480), equally distributed across six US metropolitan areas. Two behaviors are examined: lawn fertilizing and irrigating. Limited support for strong homogenization is found at two scales (i.e., multi- and single-city; 2 of 36 cases), but significant support is found for homogenization at only one scale (22 cases) or at neither scale (12 cases). These results suggest that US lawn care behaviors are more differentiated in practice than in theory. Thus, even if the biophysical outcomes of urbanization are homogenizing, managing the associated sustainability implications may require a multiscale, differentiated approach because the underlying social practices appear relatively varied. The analytical approach introduced here should also be productive for other facets of urban-ecological homogenization. PMID:24616515

  14. Differential organization of taxonomic and functional diversity in an urban woody plant metacommunity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christopher M. Swan; Anna Johnson; David J. Nowak; Alicia Acosta

    2016-01-01

    Questions: Urban ecosystems present an opportunity to study ecological communities in the context of unprecedented environmental change. In the face of urban land conversion, ecologists observe new patterns of species composition, dominance, behaviour and dispersal.We propose a hypothetical socioeconomic template that describes a gradient...

  15. Assessing the Effects of ‘Stand-alone’ Structuration of Land Administration System on Urban Land Delivery and Accessibility in Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Akinbola Kazeem Bolayemi

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The efficiency and effectiveness of land administration system had been acknowledged to be premised on so many factors, arguably the chief of which, is the degree of mutuality, frictionlessness and bi-directionality in the interrelationship that exist amongst the various factors that are discharging arrays of tasks that these formal lands regulo-administrative machineries are saddled with. Undoubtedly, this simple conduct of affairs resultantly drives the formal lands delivery, hence it increases accessibility to urban lands by several categories of users in Nigeria, as thus the case globally. However, these interrelationships are absent among land administration and regulation systems in Nigeria. Hence, this study intends to assess the direct and possible indirect impacts that these interrelationships fallouts have on the formal delivery and accessibility of urban lands in Nigeria, Firstly, this was done by articulating the issues involved and calibrating them into constructs, then measuring them via the following score-cards, thus: myopism, non-ingenuity, disservice, eco-financial loss, distrust, trauma, anti-growth, death, market distortion and thriving informalisation focussing on the South Western Nigeria. Out of the total 586 individuals considered as the total population for the sample space, 120 individual qualified for the sample frame, upon which the structured questionnaires were distributed among land regulators, land administrators, independent land consultants and ultimate land users, essentially to have a fair and broad view of the issues inherent in this lands accessibility dilemma. 93 questionnaires were retrieved, out of which 87 questionnaires were valid, thus formed the basis upon which analyses were done, with emphasis on the 5 point Likert scale measurement usage, via both inferential and descriptive statistical tools. The results showed amongst other things, that unbridled relationship frictions had led to unwarranted role

  16. Land cover in single-family housing areas and how it correlates with urban form

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Mette Boye; Jensen, Marina Bergen

    2015-01-01

    Land cover composition is a valuable indicator of the ecological performance of a city. Single-family housing areas constitute a substantial part of most cities and may as such play an important role for sustainable urban development. From aerial photos we performed detailed GIS-based mapping...... of land cover in three detached single-family housing areas in Denmark of different urban form but comparable housing densities (ranging from 10.0 to 11.3 houses per hectare). The findings were subjected to statistical analysis and landscape metrics. Land cover varied with urban form: A traditional...... spatial configuration with rectangular parcels contained significantly more vegetation and less impervious surfaces per parcel than newer Radburn-inspired configurations with more quadratic parcels. Correlation analysis showed size of paved access ways to be positively correlated with distance from road...

  17. Social sensing of urban land use based on analysis of Twitter users' mobility patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soliman, Aiman; Soltani, Kiumars; Yin, Junjun; Padmanabhan, Anand; Wang, Shaowen

    2017-01-01

    A number of recent studies showed that digital footprints around built environments, such as geo-located tweets, are promising data sources for characterizing urban land use. However, challenges for achieving this purpose exist due to the volume and unstructured nature of geo-located social media. Previous studies focused on analyzing Twitter data collectively resulting in coarse resolution maps of urban land use. We argue that the complex spatial structure of a large collection of tweets, when viewed through the lens of individual-level human mobility patterns, can be simplified to a series of key locations for each user, which could be used to characterize urban land use at a higher spatial resolution. Contingent issues that could affect our approach, such as Twitter users' biases and tendencies at locations where they tweet the most, were systematically investigated using 39 million geo-located Tweets and two independent datasets of the City of Chicago: 1) travel survey and 2) parcel-level land use map. Our results support that the majority of Twitter users show a preferential return, where their digital traces are clustered around a few key locations. However, we did not find a general relation among users between the ranks of locations for an individual-based on the density of tweets-and their land use types. On the contrary, temporal patterns of tweeting at key locations were found to be coherent among the majority of users and significantly associated with land use types of these locations. Furthermore, we used these temporal patterns to classify key locations into generic land use types with an overall classification accuracy of 0.78. The contribution of our research is twofold: a novel approach to resolving land use types at a higher resolution, and in-depth understanding of Twitter users' location-related and temporal biases, promising to benefit human mobility and urban studies in general.

  18. Social sensing of urban land use based on analysis of Twitter users’ mobility patterns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soltani, Kiumars; Yin, Junjun; Padmanabhan, Anand; Wang, Shaowen

    2017-01-01

    A number of recent studies showed that digital footprints around built environments, such as geo-located tweets, are promising data sources for characterizing urban land use. However, challenges for achieving this purpose exist due to the volume and unstructured nature of geo-located social media. Previous studies focused on analyzing Twitter data collectively resulting in coarse resolution maps of urban land use. We argue that the complex spatial structure of a large collection of tweets, when viewed through the lens of individual-level human mobility patterns, can be simplified to a series of key locations for each user, which could be used to characterize urban land use at a higher spatial resolution. Contingent issues that could affect our approach, such as Twitter users’ biases and tendencies at locations where they tweet the most, were systematically investigated using 39 million geo-located Tweets and two independent datasets of the City of Chicago: 1) travel survey and 2) parcel-level land use map. Our results support that the majority of Twitter users show a preferential return, where their digital traces are clustered around a few key locations. However, we did not find a general relation among users between the ranks of locations for an individual—based on the density of tweets—and their land use types. On the contrary, temporal patterns of tweeting at key locations were found to be coherent among the majority of users and significantly associated with land use types of these locations. Furthermore, we used these temporal patterns to classify key locations into generic land use types with an overall classification accuracy of 0.78. The contribution of our research is twofold: a novel approach to resolving land use types at a higher resolution, and in-depth understanding of Twitter users’ location-related and temporal biases, promising to benefit human mobility and urban studies in general. PMID:28723936

  19. Spatio-temporal Assessment of Land Use/ Land Cover Dynamics and Urban Heat Island of Jaipur City using Satellite Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jalan, S.; Sharma, K.

    2014-11-01

    Urban Heat Island (UHI) refers to the phenomena of higher surface temperature occurring in urban areas as compared to the surrounding countryside attributable to urbanization. Spatio-temporal changes in UHI can be quantified through Land Surface Temperature (LST) derived from satellite imageries. Spatial variations in LST occur due to complexity of land surface - combination of impervious surface materials, vegetation, exposed soils as well as water surfaces. Jaipur city has observed rapid urbanization over the last decade. Due to rising population pressure the city has expanded considerably in areal extent and has also observed substantial land use/land cover (LULC) changes. The paper aims to determine changes in the LST and UHI phenomena for Jaipur city over the period from 2000 to 2011 and analyzes the spatial distribution and temporal variation of LST in context of changes in LULC. Landsat 7 ETM+ (2000) and Landsat 5 TM (2011) images of summer season have been used. Results reveal that Jaipur city has witnessed considerable growth in built up area at the cost of greener patches over the last decade, which has had clear impact on variation in LST. There has been an average rise of 2.99 °C in overall summer temperature. New suburbs of the city record 2° to 4 °C increase in LST. LST change is inversely related to change in vegetation cover and positively related to extent of built up area. The study concludes that UHI of Jaipur city has intensified and extended over new areas.

  20. Influence of urban land cover changes and climate change for the exposure of European cities to flooding during high-intensity precipitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Skougaard Kaspersen

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The extent and location of impervious surfaces within urban areas due to past and present city development strongly affects the amount and velocity of run-off during high-intensity rainfall and consequently influences the exposure of cities towards flooding. The frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall are expected to increase in many places due to climate change and thus further exacerbate the risk of pluvial flooding. This paper presents a combined hydrological-hydrodynamic modelling and remote sensing approach suitable for examining the susceptibility of European cities to pluvial flooding owing to recent changes in urban land cover, under present and future climatic conditions. Estimated changes in impervious urban surfaces based on Landsat satellite imagery covering the period 1984–2014 are combined with regionally downscaled estimates of current and expected future rainfall extremes to enable 2-D overland flow simulations and flood hazard assessments. The methodology is evaluated for the Danish city of Odense. Results suggest that the past 30 years of urban development alone has increased the city's exposure to pluvial flooding by 6% for 10-year rainfall up to 26% for 100-year rainfall. Corresponding estimates for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 climate change scenarios (2071–2100 are in the order of 40 and 100%, indicating that land cover changes within cities can play a central role for the cities' exposure to flooding and conversely also for their adaptation to a changed climate.

  1. Influence of urban land cover changes and climate change for the exposure of European cities to flooding during high-intensity precipitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skougaard Kaspersen, P.; Høegh Ravn, N.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, K.; Madsen, H.; Drews, M.

    2015-06-01

    The extent and location of impervious surfaces within urban areas due to past and present city development strongly affects the amount and velocity of run-off during high-intensity rainfall and consequently influences the exposure of cities towards flooding. The frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall are expected to increase in many places due to climate change and thus further exacerbate the risk of pluvial flooding. This paper presents a combined hydrological-hydrodynamic modelling and remote sensing approach suitable for examining the susceptibility of European cities to pluvial flooding owing to recent changes in urban land cover, under present and future climatic conditions. Estimated changes in impervious urban surfaces based on Landsat satellite imagery covering the period 1984-2014 are combined with regionally downscaled estimates of current and expected future rainfall extremes to enable 2-D overland flow simulations and flood hazard assessments. The methodology is evaluated for the Danish city of Odense. Results suggest that the past 30 years of urban development alone has increased the city's exposure to pluvial flooding by 6% for 10-year rainfall up to 26% for 100-year rainfall. Corresponding estimates for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 climate change scenarios (2071-2100) are in the order of 40 and 100%, indicating that land cover changes within cities can play a central role for the cities' exposure to flooding and conversely also for their adaptation to a changed climate.

  2. Land Cover Mapping Analysis and Urban Growth Modelling Using Remote Sensing Techniques in Greater Cairo Region—Egypt

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasmine Megahed

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available This study modeled the urban growth in the Greater Cairo Region (GCR, one of the fastest growing mega cities in the world, using remote sensing data and ancillary data. Three land use land cover (LULC maps (1984, 2003 and 2014 were produced from satellite images by using Support Vector Machines (SVM. Then, land cover changes were detected by applying a high level mapping technique that combines binary maps (change/no-change and post classification comparison technique. The spatial and temporal urban growth patterns were analyzed using selected statistical metrics developed in the FRAGSTATS software. Major transitions to urban were modeled to predict the future scenarios for year 2025 using Land Change Modeler (LCM embedded in the IDRISI software. The model results, after validation, indicated that 14% of the vegetation and 4% of the desert in 2014 will be urbanized in 2025. The urban areas within a 5-km buffer around: the Great Pyramids, Islamic Cairo and Al-Baron Palace were calculated, highlighting an intense urbanization especially around the Pyramids; 28% in 2014 up to 40% in 2025. Knowing the current and estimated urbanization situation in GCR will help decision makers to adjust and develop new plans to achieve a sustainable development of urban areas and to protect the historical locations.

  3. The urban land use in the COSMO-CLM model: a comparison of three parameterizations for Berlin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristina Trusilova

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The regional non-hydrostatic climate model COSMO-CLM is increasingly being used on fine spatial scales of 1–5 km. Such applications require a detailed differentiation between the parameterization for natural and urban land uses. Since 2010, three parameterizations for urban land use have been incorporated into COSMO-CLM. These parameterizations vary in their complexity, required city parameters and their computational cost. We perform model simulations with the COSMO-CLM coupled to these three parameterizations for urban land in the same model domain of Berlin on a 1-km grid and compare results with available temperature observations. While all models capture the urban heat island, they differ in spatial detail, magnitude and the diurnal variation.

  4. Access to Urban Land and its Role in Enhancing Business ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    EN_Stebek

    Project Services/Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Government of. Uganda. ..... This objective reality renders the subjective denial of market .... income distribution” thereby making it “difficult to achieve equity in access to.

  5. Book Review: Untitled: Securing Land Tenure in Urban and Rural ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Abstract. Book Title: Untitled: Securing Land Tenure in Urban and Rural South Africa. Book Authors: Hornby D, Kingwill R, Royston L & Cousins B (Eds.) (2017 University of KwaZulu-Natal Press) ISBN: 1869143507 ...

  6. Influence of urbanization-driven land use/cover change on climate: The case of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arsiso, Bisrat Kifle; Mengistu Tsidu, Gizaw; Stoffberg, Gerrit Hendrik; Tadesse, Tsegaye

    2018-06-01

    Land use change is the second most important anthropogenic influence on climate beside the emission of greenhouse gases. Urbanization is leading to significant land use changes in Africa since the continent is undergoing rapid urbanization and population growth in recent decades. Addis Ababa is one of these fast growing cities in the continent. Therefore, detection of land use change is very important to identify its impact on climate and sustainable land use management of the city. The study used Landsat images to generate land use/land cover change map for the city. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is used to detect the major changes of vegetation cover occurred between 1986 and 2011 as a result of land use and land cover change. Downscaled HadCM3 simulations under A2 and B2 emission scenarios is used to investigate future urban heat island (UHI) over the city of Addis Ababa. In the city, the analysis of Landsat images has shown that the built-up areas have increased by 121.88 km2 within the last 25 years. This finding is consistent with NDVI images taken over the same period that reveal a decline in vegetation cover. The impact of the urbanization-driven land use/cover change has resulted in notable nocturnal urban heat island (UHI) as revealed from an average increase in minimum temperature of 1.5 °C at the centre of the city relative to rural site over the 1960-2001 period. The mean of the 2006-2010 spatial minimum temperature anomaly with respect to the base period mean of 1981-2005 is consistent with the observed UHI. The temperature in the central areas (both commercial and residential sectors) of Addis Ababa is warmer than the surrounding areas. The thermal gradient increase from about 1.44 °C at the centre (Arada, Addis Ketema, Lideta and Kirkos) to 0.21 °C at the peripheral parts of the city (Gulele, Bole, Nefasilk-Lafto, Kolfe Keranio and east of Yeka sub-cities) transecting across the hot (high-density urban) to moderately warm to

  7. EnviroAtlas - Green Bay, WI - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Green Bay, WI Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) dataset comprises 936 km2 around the city of Green Bay, surrounding towns, tribal lands and rural areas in...

  8. Land use planning for sustainable development of peri-urban zones

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Živanović-Miljković Jelena

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Taking into consideration that growth of urban population has impacts on land use and that managing urban population change is one of the most important contemporary challenges, this paper deals with the sustainable development of peri-urban zones which represent important an environment where employment opportunities are developed and resources exploited (particularly agricultural resources and environment where important recreational and leisure activities could be pursued. Within the review of current concepts and planning practices, the concepts of multifunctional agriculture and multifunctional landscapes in peri-urban zones are pointed out, as well as EU Developing Periurban Projects. The paper particularly focuses on the current situation in Serbia, where there is no specific legal basis for the planning of peri-urban areas, although there are positive examples of strategies, regulations and planning documents which treat agriculture and greenery in peri-urban zones in a sustainable manner.

  9. Assessing the impact of the urbanization process on net primary productivity in China in 1989-2000.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Guangjin; Qiao, Zhi

    2014-01-01

    Urban development affects the material circulation and energy flow of ecosystems, thereby affecting the Net Primary Productivity (NPP). The loss of NPP due to urban expansion was calculated integrating GLO-PEM with remote sensing and GIS techniques in China during the period of 1989-2000. Using urban expansion and the mean NPP for the different land use types in the fourteen regions, the total loss of NPP was calculated as 0.95 Tg C, which accounted for 0.03% of the national NPP of 1989. The total loss of NPP due to the transformation from cropland to urban land accounted for 91.93%, followed by forest (7.17%) and grassland (0.69%). However, the conversion from unused land, industrial and construction land, and water bodies to urban land resulted in an increase in the NPP. The regions locating in eastern China and middle China had large reductions in the total NPP due to urban expansion. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. A Comparative Land Use-Based Analysis of Noise Pollution Levels in Selected Urban Centers of Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baloye, David O; Palamuleni, Lobina G

    2015-09-29

    Growth in the commercialization, mobility and urbanization of human settlements across the globe has greatly exposed world urban population to potentially harmful noise levels. The situation is more disturbing in developing countries like Nigeria, where there are no sacrosanct noise laws and regulations. This study characterized noise pollution levels in Ibadan and Ile-Ife, two urban areas of Southwestern Nigeria that have experienced significant increases in population and land use activities. Eight hundred noise measurements, taken at 20 different positions in the morning, afternoon, and evening of carefully selected weekdays, in each urban area, were used for this study. Findings put the average noise levels in the urban centers at between 53 dB(A) and 89 dB (A), a far cry from the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limits in all the land use types, with highest noise pollution levels recorded for transportation, commercial, residential and educational land use types. The result of the one-way ANOVA test carried out on the dependent variable noise and fixed factor land use types reveals a statistically significant mean noise levels across the study area (F(3,34) = 15.13, p = 0.000). The study underscores noise pollution monitoring and the urgent need to control urban noise pollution with appropriate and effective policies.

  11. Urban Expansion and Its Impact on the Land Use Pattern in Xishuangbanna since the Reform and Opening up of China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hui Cao

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Since the Chinese government carried out the reform and opening up policy, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture has experienced rapid urbanization and dramatic land use change. This research aims at analyzing urban expansion in Xishuangbanna and its impact on the land use pattern using combined methods, including radar graph, the gradient-direction method and landscape metrics. Seven land use maps from 1976 to 2015 were generated and analyzed, respectively. The results showed that urban and rubber expanded rapidly, while forest decreased during the last 40 years. The city proper, the county town of Menghai and the county town of Mengla showed the most significant and fastest urban expansion rates. In response to rapid urban expansion, land use types outside urban areas changed dramatically. In Jinghong and Mengla, urban areas were usually surrounded by paddy, shrub, rubber and forest in 1976, while most areas were dominated by rubber by 2015. With the development of Xishuangbanna, landscape diversity increased along urban-rural gradients, but decreased in some key urban areas. Urban expansion slightly reduced the connectivity of forest and increased agglomeration of rubber at the same time. Based on the analyses above, we moved forward to discuss the consequences of urban expansion, rubber plantations and land fragmentation.

  12. Having it both ways? Land use change in a U.S. midwestern agricultural ecoregion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auch, Roger F.; Laingen, Chris R.

    2015-01-01

    Urbanization has been directly linked to decreases in area of agricultural lands and, as such, has been considered a threat to food security. Although the area of land used to produce food has diminished, often overlooked have been changes in agricultural output. The Eastern Corn Belt Plains (ECBP) is an important agricultural region in the U.S. Midwest. It has both gained a significant amount of urban land, primarily from the conversion of agricultural land between 1973 and 2000, and at the same time continued to produce ever-increasing quantities of agricultural products. By 2002, more corn, soybeans, and hogs were produced on a smaller agricultural land base than in 1974. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, ECBP ecoregion society appeared to have “had it both ways”: more urbanization along with increased agricultural output.

  13. Impact of vegetation growth on urban surface temperature distribution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buyadi, S N A; Mohd, W M N W; Misni, A

    2014-01-01

    Earlier studies have indicated that, the temperature distribution in the urban area is significantly warmer than its surrounding suburban areas. The process of urbanization has created urban heat island (UHI). As a city expands, trees are cut down to accommodate commercial development, industrial areas, roads, and suburban growth. Trees or green areas normally play a vital role in mitigating the UHI effects especially in regulating high temperature in saturated urban areas. This study attempts to assess the effects of vegetation growth on land surface temperature (LST) distribution in urban areas. An area within the City of Shah Alam, Selangor has been selected as the study area. Land use/land cover and LST maps of two different dates are generated from Landsat 5 TM images of the year 1991 and 2009. Only five major land cover classes are considered in this study. Mono-window algorithm is used to generate the LST maps. Landsat 5 TM images are also used to generate the NDVI maps. Results from this study have shown that there are significant land use changes within the study area. Although the conversion of green areas into residential and commercial areas significantly increase the LST, matured trees will help to mitigate the effects of UHI

  14. Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ) Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates, Version 2

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ) Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates, Version 2 data set consists of country-level estimates of urban population,...

  15. Conversion of land use and cover in northwest Amazon (Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Antonio da Silva Junior

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The increasing use of natural resources in a disorderly way has been demanding constant monitoring and ecological-economic zoning. The knowledge on land use and cover allows that measures that guarantee the preservation, maintenance of the environment and space management be appropriate to the reality, since through these factors it is possible to follow the probable environmental impacts and the socioeconomic development of a place in several contexts. The Geographical Information System (GIS and remote sensing techniques have been applied to land use and land cover mapping. This study aimed to analyze the conversion of land use from different perspectives, concerning geoprocessing techniques, in the southeastern of Roraima State, Brazil, in two distinct periods. In order to verify the land use and cover, two analyses were conducted, using the Spring and TerraView softwares. Great part of the cultivated areas was converted into capoeira, what probably denotes an ending of profitable agriculture, as well as its abandonment caused by the nutritional deficiency of the soil, that became inappropriate for cultivation in the subsequent years. A fuzzy logic would possibly fit well to the types of data analyzed, because the attribute query is overly complex.

  16. Project ATLANTA (Atlanta Land use Analysis: Temperature and Air Quality): Use of Remote Sensing and Modeling to Analyze How Urban Land Use Change Affects Meteorology and Air Quality Through Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrochi, Dale A.; Luvall, Jeffrey C.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.

    1999-01-01

    This paper presents an overview of Project ATLANTA (ATlanta Land use ANalysis: Temperature and Air-quality) which is an investigation that seeks to observe, measure, model, and analyze how the rapid growth of the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area since the early 1970's has impacted the region's climate and air quality. The primary objectives for this research effort are: (1) To investigate and model the relationships between land cover change in the Atlanta metropolitan, and the development of the urban heat island phenomenon through time; (2) To investigate and model the temporal relationships between Atlanta urban growth and land cover change on air quality; and (3) To model the overall effects of urban development on surface energy budget characteristics across the Atlanta urban landscape through time. Our key goal is to derive a better scientific understanding of how land cover changes associated with urbanization in the Atlanta area, principally in transforming forest lands to urban land covers through time, has, and will, effect local and regional climate, surface energy flux, and air quality characteristics. Allied with this goal is the prospect that the results from this research can be applied by urban planners, environmental managers and other decision-makers, for determining how urbanization has impacted the climate and overall environment of the Atlanta area. Multiscaled remote sensing data, particularly high resolution thermal infrared data, are integral to this study for the analysis of thermal energy fluxes across the Atlanta urban landscape.

  17. Estimating the Impact of Urban Expansion on Land Subsidence Using Time Series of DMSP Night-Time Light Satellite Imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiao, S.; Yu, J.; Wang, Y.; Zhu, L.; Zhou, Q.

    2018-04-01

    In recent decades, urbanization has resulted a massive increase in the amount of infrastructure especially large buildings in large cities worldwide. There has been a noticeable expansion of entire cities both horizontally and vertically. One of the common consequences of urban expansion is the increase of ground loads, which may trigger land subsidence and can be a potential threat of public safety. Monitoring trends of urban expansion and land subsidence using remote sensing technology is needed to ensure safety along with urban planning and development. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Line scan System (DMSP/OLS) Night-Time Light (NTL) images have been used to study urbanization at a regional scale, proving the capability of recognizing urban expansion patterns. In the current study, a normalized illuminated urban area dome volume (IUADV) based on inter-calibrated DMSP/OLS NTL images is shown as a practical approach for estimating urban expansion of Beijing at a single period in time and over subsequent years. To estimate the impact of urban expansion on land subsidence, IUADV was correlated with land subsidence rates obtained using the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS) approach within the Persistent Scatterers InSAR (PSInSAR) methodology. Moderate correlations are observed between the urban expansion based on the DMSP/OLS NTL images and land subsidence. The correlation coefficients between the urban expansion of each year and land subsidence tends to gradually decrease over time (Coefficient of determination R = 0.80 - 0.64 from year 2005 to year 2010), while the urban expansion of two sequential years exhibit an opposite trend (R = 0.29 - 0.57 from year 2005 to year 2010) except for the two sequential years between 2007 and 2008 (R = 0.14).

  18. Women and landed property in urban India: Negotiating closed doors and windows of opportunity

    OpenAIRE

    Baruah, Bipasha

    2010-01-01

    This paper examines land tenure in informal urban settlements in India from a gender perspective through field research conducted in Ahmedabad in collaboration with the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA). The author describes the formal and informal tenure arrangements that were in place in these settlements and analyses their implications for women. She proceeds to raise key issues that need consideration in developing a gender-equitable vision of urban land rights, tenure and reform. ...

  19. Performance Enhancement of Land Vehicle Positioning Using Multiple GPS Receivers in an Urban Area

    OpenAIRE

    Song, Jong-Hwa; Jee, Gyu-In

    2016-01-01

    The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the most widely used navigation system in land vehicle applications. In urban areas, the GPS suffers from insufficient signal strength, multipath propagation and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) errors, so it thus becomes difficult to obtain accurate and reliable position information. In this paper, an integration algorithm for multiple receivers is proposed to enhance the positioning performance of GPS for land vehicles in urban areas. The pseudoranges of multi...

  20. Quantifying suspended sediment flux in a mixed-land-use urbanizing watershed using a nested-scale study design.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeiger, Sean; Hubbart, Jason A

    2016-01-15

    Suspended sediment (SS) remains the most pervasive water quality problem globally and yet, despite progress, SS process understanding remains relatively poor in watersheds with mixed-land-use practices. The main objective of the current work was to investigate relationships between suspended sediment and land use types at multiple spatial scales (n=5) using four years of suspended sediment data collected in a representative urbanized mixed-land-use (forest, agriculture, urban) watershed. Water samples were analyzed for SS using a nested-scale experimental watershed study design (n=836 samples×5 gauging sites). Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's post-hoc multiple comparison tests were used to test for significant differences (CI=95%, p<0.05) in SS levels between gauging sites. Climate extremes (high precipitation/drought) were observed during the study period. Annual maximum SS concentrations exceeded 2387.6 mg/L. Median SS concentrations decreased by 60% from the agricultural headwaters to the rural/urban interface, and increased by 98% as urban land use increased. Multiple linear regression analysis results showed significant relationships between SS, annual total precipitation (positive correlate), forested land use (negative correlate), agricultural land use (negative correlate), and urban land use (negative correlate). Estimated annual SS yields ranged from 16.1 to 313.0 t km(-2) year(-1) mainly due to differences in annual total precipitation. Results highlight the need for additional studies, and point to the need for improved best management practices designed to reduce anthropogenic SS loading in mixed-land-use watersheds. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Trends in Urbanization and Implications for Peri-Urban Livelihoods in Accra, Ghana

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adom, Cynthia

    Urbanization is a common occurrence in both developed and developing worlds. Similar to occurrences in other developing world cities, Accra's urbanization is marked by fast, unplanned and uneven growth into mostly peripheral lands (Grant and Yankson 2002; Yeboah 2001; Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) 2002). Such trends in urbanization in places where data on the urbanization process is seriously inadequate and infrequent, (Rakodi 1997a; Ohadika 1991; Fasona and Omojola 2004) pose a major challenge to urban planning and management (Henderson 2002), and affect the livelihood base of several peri-urban households. Properly monitoring the urbanization process in the developing world and understanding its effects on people's lives depends on the availability of useful and up-to- date data (Weber and Puissant 2003; Mundia and Aniya 2006) that could be obtained using new and robust analytical techniques (Yang 2003). In addition, in the urban environment, differences in rates of urbanization, income, employment status, and gender dynamics across neighborhoods suggest that the impacts of increasing urbanization on peri-urban livelihoods are likely to vary across peoples and places. Against this backdrop, this dissertation uses Accra as a case study to, first, measures the nature and extent of urban expansion using a non-conventional technique, and then analyzes neighborhood - and gender-differentiated impacts of increasing urbanization on household livelihoods in peri-urban Accra. Study findings reveal: 1) major conversion of vegetated land to urban lands uses and support the effectiveness of the Self-Organizing Map and Landsat data to map complex and hazy urban tropical environments; 2) that the impacts of urbanization on peri-urban livelihoods are structured along the lines of neighborhood-level urbanization; changes brought by a higher rate of urbanization are more beneficial than harmful to household livelihoods; 3) that positive livelihood outcomes in high

  2. Vivid valleys, pallid peaks? Hypsometric variations and rural-urban land change in the Central Peruvian Andes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haller, Andreas

    2012-11-01

    What happens to the land cover within the hinterland's altitudinal belts while Central Andean cities are undergoing globalization and urban restructuring? What conclusions can be drawn about changes in human land use? By incorporating a regional altitudinal zonation model, direct field observations and GIS analyses of remotely sensed long term data, the present study examines these questions using the example of Huancayo Metropolitano - an emerging Peruvian mountain city of 420,000 inhabitants, situated at 3260 m asl in the Mantaro Valley. The study's results indicate that rapid urban growth during the late 1980s and early 1990s was followed by the agricultural intensification and peri-urban condominization at the valley floor ( quechua ) - since the beginning of Peru's neoliberal era. Moreover, regarding the adjoining steep slopes ( suni ) and subsequent grassland ecosystems ( puna ), the research output presents land cover change trajectories that clearly show an expansion of human land use, such as reforestation for wood production and range burning for livestock grazing, even at high altitudes - despite rural-urban migration trends and contrary to several results of extra-Andean studies. Consequently, rural-urban planners and policy makers are challenged to focus on the manifold impacts of globalization on human land use - at all altitudinal belts of the Andean city's hinterland: toward sustainable mountain development that bridges the social and physical gaps - from the bottom up.

  3. Forest to agriculture conversion in southern Belize: Implications for migrant land birds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spruce, J.P.; Dowell, B.A.; Robbins, C.S.; Sader, S.A.; Doyle, Jamie K.; Schelhas, John

    1993-01-01

    Central America offers a suite of neotropical habitats vital to overwintering migrant land birds. The recent decline of many forest dwelling avian migrants is believed to be related in part to neotropical deforestation and land use change. However, spatio-temporal trends in neotropical habitat availability and avian migrant habitat use are largely unknown. Such information is needed to assess the impact of agriculture conversion on migrant land birds. In response, the USDI Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Maine began a cooperative study in 1988 which applies remote sensing and field surveys to determine current habitat availability and avian migrant habitat use. Study sites include areas in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala and southern Mexico. Visual assessment of Landsat TM imagery indicates southern Belize forests are fragmented by various agricultural systems. Shifting agriculture is predominant in some areas, while permanent agriculture (citrus and mixed animal crops) is the primary system in others. This poster focuses on efforts to monitor forest to agriculture conversion in southern Belize using remote sensing, field surveys and GIS techniques. Procedures and avian migrant use of habitat are summarized.

  4. Food systems: New-Ruralism versus New-Urbanism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Azadi, Hossein; Van Acker, Veronique; Zarafshani, Kiumars; Witlox, Frank

    2012-08-30

    There is a growing debate on whether agricultural land in urban fringes should be maintained or converted to other uses. While 'pro-ruralists' believe agricultural land conversion can threaten food security and cause rural-urban migration, 'pro-urbanists' find it a necessary change for transition from a primitive agricultural-based community to an advanced industrial-based society which has the capacity to create mass productions. New-Ruralists follow an agricultural-based development approach that promotes small-medium farming and acknowledges rural lifestyle while New-Urbanists give a priority to large industrial-based sectors and encourage urban lifestyle. Given the unlike concerns of different societies, the paper concludes that the approaches might have different priorities in the less developed, developing, and developed world. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry.

  5. Quantifying Water and Energy Fluxes Over Different Urban Land Covers in Phoenix, Arizona

    Science.gov (United States)

    Templeton, Nicole P.; Vivoni, Enrique R.; Wang, Zhi-Hua; Schreiner-McGraw, Adam P.

    2018-02-01

    The impact of urbanization on water and energy fluxes varies according to the characteristics of the urban patch type. Nevertheless, urban flux observations are limited, particularly in arid climates, given the wide variety of land cover present in cities. To help address this need, a mobile eddy covariance tower was deployed at three locations in Phoenix, Arizona, to sample the surface energy balance at a parking lot, a xeric landscaping (irrigated trees with gravel) and a mesic landscaping (irrigated turf grass). These deployments were compared to a stationary eddy covariance tower in a suburban neighborhood. A comparison of the observations revealed key differences between the mobile and reference sites tied to the urban land cover within the measurement footprints. For instance, the net radiation varied substantially among the sites in manners consistent with albedo and shallow soil temperature differences. The partitioning of available energy between sensible and latent heat fluxes was modulated strongly by the presence of outdoor water use, with the irrigated turf grass exhibiting the highest evaporative fraction. At this site, we identified a lack of sensitivity of turbulent flux partitioning to precipitation events, which suggests that frequent outdoor water use removes water limitations in an arid climate, thus leading to mesic conditions. Other urban land covers with less irrigation, however, exhibited sensitivity to the occurrence of precipitation, as expected for an arid climate. As a result, quantifying the frequency and magnitude of outdoor water use is critical for understanding evapotranspiration losses in arid urban areas.

  6. Geochemical variability of heavy metals in soil after land use conversions in Northeast China and its environmental applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiao, Wei; Ouyang, Wei; Hao, Fanghua; Liu, Bing; Wang, Fangli

    2014-04-01

    The long-term agricultural reclamation since the 1950s has resulted in significant land use change from natural landscape to cultivated land in the Sanjiang Plain of Northeast China, which has had important consequences for many soil physical, chemical and biological processes. To understand the impact of land use conversions on heavy metal geochemistry, soil samples were collected from natural wetland, natural forestland, paddy land and dry farmland in a case study area and analyzed for total concentrations and chemical fractions of six heavy metals. Results showed that the natural wetland reclamation for the paddy land has caused obvious losses of Cd, Cu and Zn from the soils. In addition, a significant decrease in the Zn concentration was found after the land conversion from natural forestland to dry farmland. Because all the analyzed heavy metals predominated in the stable residual fraction regardless of the land use type, the response of metal mobility to the land use conversions was generally weak. Consequently, soil erosion was identified as the major factor that enhances heavy metal losses in the cultivated lands, especially in the paddy land. The close link between heavy metal loss and the reduction of clay and organic matter contents after land reclamation suggested that the diffuse heavy metal pollution occurred mainly in small erosion events. Considering the continuous paddy land expansion, special attention should be paid to the bioaccumulation of Pb in the paddy rice. Overall, these findings can help to improve the sustainability and safety of intensive agricultural activities in Northeast China as well as other similar areas.

  7. Urban land use, air toxics and public health: Assessing hazardous exposures at the neighborhood scale

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corburn, Jason

    2007-01-01

    Land use data are increasingly understood as important indicators of potential environmental health risk in urban areas where micro-scale or neighborhood level hazard exposure data are not routinely collected. This paper aims to offer a method for estimating the distribution of air toxics in urban neighborhoods using land use information because actual air monitoring data rarely exist at this scale. Using Geographic Information System spatial modeling tools, we estimate air toxics concentrations across neighborhoods in New York City and statistically compare our model with the US Environmental Protection Agency's National Air Toxic Assessment and air monitoring data across three NYC neighborhoods. We conclude that land use data can act as a good proxy for estimating neighborhood scale air toxics, particularly in the absence of monitoring data. In addition, the paper suggests that land use data can expand the reach of environmental impact assessments that routinely exclude analyses of potential exposures to urban air toxics at the neighborhood scale

  8. Drivers of wetland conversion: a global meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Asselen, Sanneke; Verburg, Peter H; Vermaat, Jan E; Janse, Jan H

    2013-01-01

    Meta-analysis of case studies has become an important tool for synthesizing case study findings in land change. Meta-analyses of deforestation, urbanization, desertification and change in shifting cultivation systems have been published. This present study adds to this literature, with an analysis of the proximate causes and underlying forces of wetland conversion at a global scale using two complementary approaches of systematic review. Firstly, a meta-analysis of 105 case-study papers describing wetland conversion was performed, showing that different combinations of multiple-factor proximate causes, and underlying forces, drive wetland conversion. Agricultural development has been the main proximate cause of wetland conversion, and economic growth and population density are the most frequently identified underlying forces. Secondly, to add a more quantitative component to the study, a logistic meta-regression analysis was performed to estimate the likelihood of wetland conversion worldwide, using globally-consistent biophysical and socioeconomic location factor maps. Significant factors explaining wetland conversion, in order of importance, are market influence, total wetland area (lower conversion probability), mean annual temperature and cropland or built-up area. The regression analyses results support the outcomes of the meta-analysis of the processes of conversion mentioned in the individual case studies. In other meta-analyses of land change, similar factors (e.g., agricultural development, population growth, market/economic factors) are also identified as important causes of various types of land change (e.g., deforestation, desertification). Meta-analysis helps to identify commonalities across the various local case studies and identify which variables may lead to individual cases to behave differently. The meta-regression provides maps indicating the likelihood of wetland conversion worldwide based on the location factors that have determined historic

  9. Detection of Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Urban Sprawl in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia: An Analysis of Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Tauhidur Rahman

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available While several studies examined land use and land cover changes in the central and western parts of Saudi Arabia, this study is the first to use remote sensing data to examine the decadal land cover changes in Saudi Arabia’s eastern coastal city of Al-Khobar between 1990 and 2013. Specifically, it utilized ISODATA classification method to classify Landsat TM, ETM+, and OLI data collected from 1990, 2001, and 2013 and then detected changes in the land cover within the study area. It then measured urban sprawl by calculating the relative Shannon’s entropy index values for the three years. With overall classification accuracies greater than 85%, the results show that urban built-up areas increased by 117% between 1990 and 2001 and 43.51% from 2001 to 2013. Vegetation increased by 110% from 1990 to 2001 and by 52% between 2001 and 2013. The entropy index values of 0.700 (1990, 0.779 (2001, and 0.840 (2013 indicates a high rate of urban sprawl and the city dispersing near the outskirts and towards the neighboring cities of Dhahran and Dammam. Future studies should examine the current challenges faced by the city’s residents due to urban expansion and attempt to find ways to resolve them in the near future.

  10. Mapping Urban Green Infrastructure: A Novel Landscape-Based Approach to Incorporating Land Use and Land Cover in the Mapping of Human-Dominated Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matthew Dennis

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Common approaches to mapping green infrastructure in urbanised landscapes invariably focus on measures of land use or land cover and associated functional or physical traits. However, such one-dimensional perspectives do not accurately capture the character and complexity of the landscapes in which urban inhabitants live. The new approach presented in this paper demonstrates how open-source, high spatial and temporal resolution data with global coverage can be used to measure and represent the landscape qualities of urban environments. Through going beyond simple metrics of quantity, such as percentage green and blue cover, it is now possible to explore the extent to which landscape quality helps to unpick the mixed evidence presented in the literature on the benefits of urban nature to human well-being. Here we present a landscape approach, employing remote sensing, GIS and data reduction techniques to map urban green infrastructure elements in a large U.K. city region. Comparison with existing urban datasets demonstrates considerable improvement in terms of coverage and thematic detail. The characterisation of landscapes, using census tracts as spatial units, and subsequent exploration of associations with social–ecological attributes highlights the further detail that can be uncovered by the approach. For example, eight urban landscape types identified for the case study city exhibited associations with distinct socioeconomic conditions accountable not only to quantities but also qualities of green and blue space. The identification of individual landscape features through simultaneous measures of land use and land cover demonstrated unique and significant associations between the former and indicators of human health and ecological condition. The approach may therefore provide a promising basis for developing further insight into processes and characteristics that affect human health and well-being in urban areas, both in the United

  11. Quantifying outdoor water consumption of urban land use/land cover: sensitivity to drought.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaplan, Shai; Myint, Soe W; Fan, Chao; Brazel, Anthony J

    2014-04-01

    Outdoor water use is a key component in arid city water systems for achieving sustainable water use and ensuring water security. Using evapotranspiration (ET) calculations as a proxy for outdoor water consumption, the objectives of this research are to quantify outdoor water consumption of different land use and land cover types, and compare the spatio-temporal variation in water consumption between drought and wet years. An energy balance model was applied to Landsat 5 TM time series images to estimate daily and seasonal ET for the Central Arizona Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research region (CAP-LTER). Modeled ET estimations were correlated with water use data in 49 parks within CAP-LTER and showed good agreement (r² = 0.77), indicating model effectiveness to capture the variations across park water consumption. Seasonally, active agriculture shows high ET (>500 mm) for both wet and dry conditions, while the desert and urban land cover types experienced lower ET during drought (<300 mm). Within urban locales of CAP-LTER, xeric neighborhoods show significant differences from year to year, while mesic neighborhoods retain their ET values (400-500 mm) during drought, implying considerable use of irrigation to sustain their greenness. Considering the potentially limiting water availability of this region in the future due to large population increases and the threat of a warming and drying climate, maintaining large water-consuming, irrigated landscapes challenges sustainable practices of water conservation and the need to provide amenities of this desert area for enhancing quality of life.

  12. Urban Ecological Stewardship: Understanding the Structure, Function and Network of Community-based Urban Land Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lindsay K. Campbell

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Urban environmental stewardship activities are on the rise in cities throughout the Northeast. Groups participating in stewardship activities range in age, size, and geography and represent an increasingly complex and dynamic arrangement of civil society, government and business sectors. To better understand the structure, function and network of these community-based urban land managers, an assessment was conducted in 2004 by the research subcommittee of the Urban Ecology Collaborative. The goal of the assessment was to better understand the role of stewardship organizations engaged in urban ecology initiatives in selected major cities in the Northeastern U.S.: Boston, New Haven, New York City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. A total of 135 active organizations participated in this assessment. Findings include the discovery of a dynamic social network operating within cities, and a reserve of social capital and expertise that could be better utilized. Although often not the primary land owner, stewardship groups take an increasingly significant responsibility for a wide range of land use types including street and riparian corridors, vacant lots, public parks and gardens, green roofs, etc. Responsibilities include the delivery of public programs as well as daily maintenance and fundraising support. While most of the environmental stewardship organizations operate on staffs of zero or fewer than ten, with small cohorts of community volunteers, there is a significant difference in the total amount of program funding. Nearly all respondents agree that committed resources are scarce and insufficient with stewards relying upon and potentially competing for individual donations, local foundations, and municipal support. This makes it a challenge for the groups to grow beyond their current capacity and to develop long-term programs critical to resource management and education. It also fragments groups, making it difficult for planners and

  13. Mapping the Influence of Land Use/Land Cover Changes on the Urban Heat Island Effect—A Case Study of Changchun, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaobin Yang

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The spatio-temporal patterns of land use/land cover changes (LUCC can significantly affect the distribution and intensity of the urban heat island (UHI effect. However, few studies have mapped a clear picture of the influence of LUCC on UHI. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative models are employed to explore the effect of LUCC on UHI. UHI and LUCC maps were retrieved from Landsat data acquired from 1984, 1992, 2000, 2007, and 2014 to show their spatiotemporal patterns. The results showed that: (1 both the patterns of LUCC and UHI have had dramatic changes in the past 30 years. The urban area of Changchun increased more than four times, from 143.15 km2 in 1984 to 577.45 km2 in 2014, and the proportion of UHI regions has increased from 15.27% in 1984 to 29.62% in 2014; (2 the spatiotemporal changes in thermal environment were consistent with the process of urbanization. The average LST of the study area has been continuously increasing as many other land use types have been transformed to urban regions. The mean temperatures were higher in urban regions than rural areas over all of the periods, but the UHI intensity varied based on different measurements; and (3 the thermal environment inside the city varied widely even within a small area. The LST possesses a very strong positive relationship with impervious surface area (ISA, and the relationship has become stronger in recent years. The UHI we employ, specifically in this study, is SUHI (surface urban heat island.

  14. Taxing land for urban containment : Reflections on a Dutch debate

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Korthals Altes, W.K.

    2009-01-01

    Excessive land use regulations aimed at containing urban sprawl have been criticised, because they may overcompensate for the external effects of uncontrolled greenfield development and contribute to stagnation in house building. Taxes on building in green spaces may be an instrument for balancing

  15. Analysis of Land Use Change and Urbanization in the Kucukcekmece Water Basin (Istanbul, Turkey) with Temporal Satellite Data using Remote Sensing and GIS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coskun, H Gonca; Alganci, Ugur; Usta, Gokce

    2008-11-13

    Accurate and timely information about land use and land cover (LULC) and its changes in urban areas are crucial for urban land management decision-making, ecosystem monitoring and urban planning. Also, monitoring and representation of urban sprawl and its effects on the LULC patterns and hydrological processes of an urbanized watershed is an essential part of water resource planning and management. This paper presents an image analysis study using multi temporal digital satellite imagery of LULC and changes in the Kucukcekmece Watershed (Metropolitan Istanbul, Turkey) from 1992 to 2006. The Kucukcekmece Basin includes portions of the Kucukcekmece District within the municipality of Istanbul so it faces a dramatic urbanization. An urban monitoring analysis approach was first used to implement a land cover classification. A change detection method controlled with ground truth information was then used to determine changes in land cover. During the study period, the variability and magnitude of hydrological components based on land-use patterns were cumulatively influenced by urban sprawl in the watershed. The proposed approach, which uses a combination of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques, is an effective tool that enhances land-use monitoring, planning, and management of urbanized watersheds.

  16. Evaluation of Effecting Parameters on Optimum Arrangement of Urban Land Uses and Assessment of Their Compatibility Using Adjacency Matrix

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaezi, S.; Mesgari, M. S.; Kaviary, F.

    2015-12-01

    Todays, stability of human life is threatened by a set of parameters. So sustainable urban development theory is introduced after the stability theory to protect the urban environment. In recent years, sustainable urban development gains a lot of attraction by different sciences and totally becomes a final target for urban development planners and managers to use resources properly and to establish a balanced relationship among human, community, and nature. Proper distribution of services for decreasing spatial inequalities, promoting the quality of living environment, and approaching an urban stability requires an analytical understanding of the present situation. Understanding the present situation is the first step for making a decision and planning effectively. This paper evaluates effective parameters affecting proper arrangement of land-uses using a descriptive-analytical method, to develop a conceptual framework for understanding of the present situation of urban land-uses, based on the assessment of their compatibility. This study considers not only the local parameters, but also spatial parameters are included in this study. The results indicate that land-uses in the zone considered here are not distributed properly. Considering mentioned parameters and distributing service land-uses effectively cause the better use of these land-uses.

  17. Developing an Agent-Based Model to Simulate Urban Land-Use Expansion (Case Study: Qazvin)

    OpenAIRE

    F. Nourian; A. A. Alesheikh; F. Hosseinali

    2012-01-01

    Extended abstract1-IntroductionUrban land-use expansion is a challenging issue in developing countries. Increases in population as well as the immigration from the villages to the cities are the two major factors for that phenomenon. Those factors have reduced the influence of efforts that try to limit the cities’ boundaries. Thus, spatial planners always look for the models that simulate the expansion of urban land-uses and enable them to prevent unbalanced expansions of cities and guide the...

  18. Vivid valleys, pallid peaks? Hypsometric variations and rural–urban land change in the Central Peruvian Andes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haller, Andreas

    2012-01-01

    What happens to the land cover within the hinterland's altitudinal belts while Central Andean cities are undergoing globalization and urban restructuring? What conclusions can be drawn about changes in human land use? By incorporating a regional altitudinal zonation model, direct field observations and GIS analyses of remotely sensed long term data, the present study examines these questions using the example of Huancayo Metropolitano – an emerging Peruvian mountain city of 420,000 inhabitants, situated at 3260 m asl in the Mantaro Valley. The study's results indicate that rapid urban growth during the late 1980s and early 1990s was followed by the agricultural intensification and peri-urban condominization at the valley floor (quechua) – since the beginning of Peru's neoliberal era. Moreover, regarding the adjoining steep slopes (suni) and subsequent grassland ecosystems (puna), the research output presents land cover change trajectories that clearly show an expansion of human land use, such as reforestation for wood production and range burning for livestock grazing, even at high altitudes – despite rural–urban migration trends and contrary to several results of extra-Andean studies. Consequently, rural–urban planners and policy makers are challenged to focus on the manifold impacts of globalization on human land use – at all altitudinal belts of the Andean city's hinterland: toward sustainable mountain development that bridges the social and physical gaps – from the bottom up. PMID:23564987

  19. Assessment on the Impact of Arable Land Protection Policies in a Rapidly Developing Region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiadan Li

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available To investigate the effect of arable land protection policies in China, a practical framework that integrates geographic information systems (GIS, soil quality assessment and landscape metrics analysis was employed to track and analyze arable land transformations and landscape changes in response to rampant urbanization within the Ningbo region (China from 2005 to 2013. The results showed that arable land loss and degradation have continued, despite the development of a comprehensive legal framework for arable land protection. The implementation of arable land protection policies is judged to be effective, but not entirely successful, because it guarantees the overall amount of arable land but does not consider soil quality and spatial distribution. In addition, there are distinct variations in arable land change dynamics between two temporal intervals. From 2005–2009, the transformation of arable land was diversified, with intensified conversion among arable land, built-up land, water and orchards. Moreover, many new arable land parcels were adjacent to built-up land, and are in danger of being occupied again through urban sprawl. By 2009–2013, most of the arable land was occupied by urban expansion, whereas a majority of newly increased arable land was reclaimed from coastal tideland. Although the newly increased arable land was contiguous and far from the urban area, it is of poor quality and has limited use. The permanent loss of high-quality arable land due to intensified urban sprawl may threaten sustainable development and food security on a larger scale.

  20. Relationships Between Land Use and Stream Nutrient Concentrations in a Highly Urbanized Tropical Region of Brazil: Thresholds and Riparian Zones.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tromboni, F; Dodds, W K

    2017-07-01

    Nutrient enrichment in streams due to land use is increasing globally, reducing water quality and causing eutrophication of downstream fresh and coastal waters. In temperate developed countries, the intensive use of fertilizers in agriculture is a main driver of increasing nutrient concentrations, but high levels and fast rates of urbanization can be a predominant issue in some areas of the developing world. We investigated land use in the highly urbanized tropical State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We collected total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and inorganic nutrient data from 35 independent watersheds distributed across the State and characterized land use at a riparian and entire watershed scales upstream from each sample station, using ArcGIS. We used regression models to explain land use influences on nutrient concentrations and to assess riparian protection relationships to water quality. We found that urban land use was the primary driver of nutrient concentration increases, independent of the scale of analyses and that urban land use was more concentrated in the riparian buffer of streams than in the entire watersheds. We also found significant thresholds that indicated strong increases in nutrient concentrations with modest increases in urbanization reaching maximum nutrient concentrations between 10 and 46% urban cover. These thresholds influenced calculation of reference nutrient concentrations, and ignoring them led to higher estimates of these concentrations. Lack of sewage treatment in concert with urban development in riparian zones apparently leads to the observation that modest increases in urban land use can cause large increases in nutrient concentrations.

  1. Urban land use decouples plant-herbivore-parasitoid interactions at multiple spatial scales.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amanda E Nelson

    Full Text Available Intense urban and agricultural development alters habitats, increases fragmentation, and may decouple trophic interactions if plants or animals cannot disperse to needed resources. Specialist insects represent a substantial proportion of global biodiversity and their fidelity to discrete microhabitats provides a powerful framework for investigating organismal responses to human land use. We sampled site occupancy and densities for two plant-herbivore-parasitoid systems from 250 sites across a 360 km2 urban/agricultural landscape to ask whether and how human development decouples interactions between trophic levels. We compared patterns of site occupancy, host plant density, herbivory and parasitism rates of insects at two trophic levels with respect to landcover at multiple spatial scales. Geospatial analyses were used to identify landcover characters predictive of insect distributions. We found that herbivorous insect densities were decoupled from host tree densities in urban landcover types at several spatial scales. This effect was amplified for the third trophic level in one of the two insect systems: despite being abundant regionally, a parasitoid species was absent from all urban/suburban landcover even where its herbivore host was common. Our results indicate that human land use patterns limit distributions of specialist insects. Dispersal constraints associated with urban built development are specifically implicated as a limiting factor.

  2. A Remote Sensing-based Characterization of the Urban Heat Island and its Implications for Modeled Estimates of Urban Biogenic Carbon Fluxes in Boston, MA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, J.; Friedl, M. A.; Hutyra, L.; Hardiman, B. S.

    2015-12-01

    Urban land use occupies a small but critical proportion of global land area for the carbon cycle, and in the coming decades, urban land area is expected to nearly double. Conversion of natural land cover to urban land cover imposes myriad ecological effects, including increased land surface and air temperatures via the urban heat island effect. In this study, we characterize the seasonal and spatial characteristics of the urban heat island over Boston, MA and estimate its consequences on biogenic carbon fluxes with a remote sensing-based model. Using a 12-year time series of emissivity- and atmospherically-corrected land surface temperatures from Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery, we find a high degree of spatial heterogeneity and consistent seasonal patterns in the thermal properties of Boston, controlled mainly by variations in vegetative cover. Field measurements of surface air temperature across an urbanization gradient show season- and vegetation-dependent patterns consistent with those observed in the Landsat data. With a fused data set that combines surface air temperature, MODIS, and Landsat observations, we modify and run the Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (VPRM) to explore 1) how elevated temperatures affect diurnal and seasonal patterns of hourly urban biogenic carbon fluxes in Massachusetts in 2013 and 2014 and 2) to what extent these fluxes follow spatial patterns found in the urban heat island. Model modifications simulate the ecological effects of urbanization, including empirical adjustments to reanalysis-driven air temperatures (up to 5 K) and ecosystem respiration reduced by impervious surface area. Model results reveal spatio-temporal patterns consistent with strong land use and vegetation cover controls on biogenic carbon fluxes, with non-trivial biogenic annual net ecosystem exchange occurring in urban and suburban areas (up to -2.5 MgC/ha/yr). We specifically consider the feedbacks between Boston's urban heat island and landscape

  3. Land tenure insecurity and rural-urban migration in rural China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ma Xian lei, Xianlei; Heerink, N.B.M.; Ierland, van E.C.; Shi Xiaoping, X.

    2016-01-01

    This paper examines the impact of land tenure security perceptions on rural-urban migration decisions of rural households, using data collected in Minle County in Northwest China. We find that tenure security perceptions play a significant role in household migration decisions in villages without

  4. Soil organic matter dynamics after the conversion of arable land to pasture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Römkens, P.F.A.M.; Plicht, van der J.; Hassink, J.

    1999-01-01

    Conversion of arable land (maize) to pasture will affect the soil organic matter (SOM) content. Changes in the SOM content were studied using a size- and density-fractionation method and 13C analysis. Twenty-six years of maize cropping had resulted in a depletion of carbon stored in the

  5. Understanding land use change impacts on microclimate using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xia; Mitra, Chandana; Dong, Li; Yang, Qichun

    2018-02-01

    To explore potential climatic consequences of land cover change in the Kolkata Metropolitan Development area, we projected microclimate conditions in this area using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model driven by future land use scenarios. Specifically, we considered two land conversion scenarios including an urbanization scenario that all the wetlands and croplands would be converted to built-up areas, and an irrigation expansion scenario in which all wetlands and dry croplands would be replaced by irrigated croplands. Results indicated that land use and land cover (LULC) change would dramatically increase regional temperature in this area under the urbanization scenario, but expanded irrigation tended to have a cooling effect. In the urbanization scenario, precipitation center tended to move eastward and lead to increased rainfall in eastern parts of this region. Increased irrigation stimulated rainfall in central and eastern areas but reduced rainfall in southwestern and northwestern parts of the study area. This study also demonstrated that urbanization significantly reduced latent heat fluxes and albedo of land surface; while increased sensible heat flux changes following urbanization suggested that developed land surfaces mainly acted as heat sources. In this study, climate change projection not only predicts future spatiotemporal patterns of multiple climate factors, but also provides valuable insights into policy making related to land use management, water resource management, and agriculture management to adapt and mitigate future climate changes in this populous region.

  6. Nitrogen deposition, land cover conversion, and contemporary carbon balance of Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Churkina, G.; Zaehle, S.; Hughes, J.; Viovy, N.; Jung, M.; Chen, Y.; Heimann, M.; Roedenbeck, C.; Jones, C.

    2009-04-01

    In Europe, atmospheric nitrogen deposition has more than doubled, forest cover was steadily increasing, and agricultural area was declining over the last 50 years. What effect have these changes had on the European carbon balance? In this study we estimate responses of the European land ecosystems to nitrogen deposition, land cover conversion and climate. We use results from four ecosystem process models such as BIOME-BGC, JULES, ORCHIDEE, and ORCHIDEE-CN to address this question. We discuss to which degree carbon balance of Europe has been altered by nitrogen deposition in comparison to other drivers and identify areas which carbon balance has been most effected by anthropogenic changes.

  7. Land Subdivision in Peri-Urban Areas of Sub-Saharan African Cities ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    USER

    , ... development costs substantially, making it difficult in particular for the urban poor ... data and case studies detailing informal land subdivision largely drawn from ..... in a partnership for the unified planning, servicing and subdivision of their ...

  8. Urban Property Taxation: II. Land and Location. Exchange Bibliography 480.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Anthony G.

    This is one of three related bibliographies listing publications dealing with the broad topic of property taxation. This particular volume concerns some specialized fields of study, including locational theory, land use and taxation, property markets and valuation, housing, and urban renewal and redevelopment. Citations are listed alphabetically…

  9. How species traits and affinity to urban land use control large-scale species frequency

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Knapp, Sonja; Kuehn, Ingolf; Bakker, Jan P.; Kleyer, Michael; Klotz, Stefan; Ozinga, Wim A.; Poschlod, Peter; Thompson, Ken; Thuiller, Wilfried; Roemermann, Christine

    Although urban areas only occupy c. 2.8% of the earth's land surface, urbanization threatens biodiversity as areas of high human population density often coincide with high biodiversity. Therefore, nature conservation should concentrate on both remote areas and densely populated regions. Protecting

  10. How species traits and affinity to urban land use control large-scale species frequency

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Knapp, S.; Kuhn, I.; Bakker, J.P.; Kleyer, M.; Klotz, S.; Ozinga, W.A.; Poschlod, P.; Thompson, K.; Thuiller, W.; Romermann, C.

    2009-01-01

    Although urban areas only occupy c. 2.8% of the earth's land surface, urbanization threatens biodiversity as areas of high human population density often coincide with high biodiversity. Therefore, nature conservation should concentrate on both remote areas and densely populated regions. Protecting

  11. Land Cover Change and Remote Sensing in the Classroom: An Exercise to Study Urban Growth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delahunty, Tina; Lewis-Gonzales, Sarah; Phelps, Jack; Sawicki, Ben; Roberts, Charles; Carpenter, Penny

    2012-01-01

    The processes and implications of urban growth are studied in a variety of disciplines as urban growth affects both the physical and human landscape. Remote sensing methods provide ways to visualize and mathematically represent urban growth; and resultant land cover change data enable both quantitative and qualitative analysis. This article helps…

  12. Conversion of Forests to Arable Land and its Effect on Soil Physical ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Prof. Ogunji

    Conversion of Forests to Arable Land and its Effect on Soil ... greater hydraulic conductivity than those under cultivation and this may indicate greater pore ... stability and clay dispersion index were 10% higher and 28% lower in the .... degraded the physical properties, making the soil more prone to soil erosion by water.

  13. Changes in organic carbon stocks upon land use conversion in the Brazilian Cerrado: A review. Agriculture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Batlle-Bayer, L.; Batjes, N.H.; Bindraban, P.S.

    2010-01-01

    This paper reviews current knowledge on changes in carbon stocks upon land use conversion in the Brazilian Cerrado. First, we briefly characterize the savanna ecosystem and summarize the main published data on C stocks under natural conditions. The effects of increased land use pressure in the

  14. EnviroAtlas - Pittsburgh, PA - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Pittsburgh, PA Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data was generated from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural...

  15. Effects of Green Space and Land Use/Land Cover on Urban Heat Island in a Subtropical Mega-city in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, G. Y.; Li, X.; Li, H.; Guo, Q.

    2014-12-01

    With the quick expansion of urban in size and population, its urban heat island intensity (UHII, expressed as the temperature difference between urban and rural areas) increased rapidly. However, very few studies could quantitatively reveal the effects of green space and land use/land cover (LULC) on urban thermal environment because of lacking of the detailed measurement. This study focuses on quantifying the effects of green space and LULC on urban Heat Island (UHI) in Shenzhen, a mega subtropical city in China. Extensive measurements (air temperature and humidity) were made by mobile traverse method in a transect of 8 km in length, where a variety of LULC types were included. Measurements were carried out at 2 hours interval for 2 years (totally repeated for 7011 times). According to LULC types, we selected 5 different LULC types for studying, including water body, village in the city, shopping center (commercial area), urban green space (well-vegetated area) and suburb (forest). The main conclusions are obtained as follows: (1) The temperature difference between the 5 different urban landscapes is obvious, i.e. shopping center > village in the city > urban water body > urban green space > suburb; (2) Air temperature and UHII decreases linearly with the increase of green space in urban; (3) Green space and water body in urban have obvious effects to reduce the air temperature by evapotranspiration. Compared to the commercial areas, urban water body can relieve the IUHI by 0.9℃, while the urban green space can relieve the IUHI by 1.57℃. The cooling effect of the urban green space is better than that of the urban water body; (4) Periodic activity of human being has obvious effects on urban air temperature. The UHII on Saturday and Sunday are higher than that from Monday to Friday, respectively higher for 0.65, 0.57, 0.26 and 0.21℃. Thursday and Friday have the minimum air temperature and UHII. These results indicate that increase in urban evapotranspiration

  16. Sediment sources in an urbanizing, mixed land-use watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelson, Erin J.; Booth, Derek B.

    2002-07-01

    The Issaquah Creek watershed is a rapidly urbanizing watershed of 144 km 2 in western Washington, where sediment aggradation of the main channel and delivery of fine sediment into a large downstream lake have raised increasingly frequent concerns over flooding, loss of fish habitat, and degraded water quality. A watershed-scale sediment budget was evaluated to determine the relative effects of land-use practices, including urbanization, on sediment supply and delivery, and to guide management responses towards the most effective source-reduction strategies. Human activity in the watershed, particularly urban development, has caused an increase of nearly 50% in the annual sediment yield, now estimated to be 44 tonnes km -2 yr -1. The main sources of sediment in the watershed are landslides (50%), channel-bank erosion (20%), and road-surface erosion (15%). This assessment characterizes the role of human activity in mixed-use watersheds such as this, and it demonstrates some of the key processes, particularly enhanced stream-channel erosion, by which urban development alters sediment loads.

  17. Daytime urban heat islands from Landsat ETM+ and Corine land cover data: An application to major cities in Greece

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stathopoulou, Marina; Cartalis, Constantinos [Remote Sensing and Image Processing Laboratory, Division of Applied Physics, Department of Physics, Building PHYS-5, University Campus, 157 84 Athens (Greece)

    2007-03-15

    Satellite images in the thermal infrared can be used for assessing the thermal urban environment as well as for defining heat islands in urban areas. In this study, the thermal environment of major cities in Greece (Athens, Thessaloniki, Patra, Volos and Heraklion) is examined using satellite images provided by the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) sensor on board Landsat 7 satellite corresponding to the daytime and warm period when the surface urban heat island (SUHI) phenomenon is best observed. The spatial structure of the thermal urban environment is analyzed in each case study and the ''hottest'' surfaces within the urban settings are identified and related to the urban surface characteristics and land use. For the needs of the study, the Corine land cover (CLC) database for Greece is also used, in an effort to define more effectively the link between surface emissivities, land surface temperatures and urban surface characteristics. (author)

  18. Mapping decadal land cover changes in the woodlands of north eastern Namibia using the Landsat satellite archive (1975-2014)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wingate, Vladimir; Phinn, Stuart; Kuhn, Nikolaus

    2016-04-01

    Woodland savannahs provide essential ecosystem functions and services to communities. On the African continent, they are widely utilized and converted to intensive land uses. This study investigates the land cover changes over 108,038 km2 in NE Namibia using multi-sensor Landsat imagery, at decadal intervals from 1975 to 2014, with a post-classification change detection method and supervised Regression Tree classifiers. We discuss likely impacts of land tenure and reforms over the past four decades on changes in land use and land cover. These included losses, gains and exchanges between predominant land cover classes. Exchanges comprised logical conversions between woodland and agricultural classes, implying woodland clearing for arable farming, cropland abandonment and vegetation succession. The dominant change was a reduction in the area of the woodland class due to the expansion of the agricultural class, specifically, small-scale cereal and pastoral production. Woodland area decreased from 90% of the study area in 1975 to 83% in 2014, while cleared land increased from 9% to 14%. We found that the main land cover changes are conversion from woodland to agricultural and urban land uses, driven by urban expansion and woodland clearing for subsistence-based agriculture and pastoralism.

  19. EnviroAtlas - Austin, TX - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Austin, TX EnviroAtlas One Meter-scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data were generated from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural...

  20. Generation and Assessment of Urban Land Cover Maps Using High-Resolution Multispectral Aerial Images

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Höhle, Joachim; Höhle, Michael

    2013-01-01

    a unique method for the automatic generation of urban land cover maps. In the present paper, imagery of a new medium-format aerial camera and advanced geoprocessing software are applied to derive normalized digital surface models and vegetation maps. These two intermediate products then become input...... to a tree structured classifier, which automatically derives land cover maps in 2D or 3D. We investigate the thematic accuracy of the produced land cover map by a class-wise stratified design and provide a method for deriving necessary sample sizes. Corresponding survey adjusted accuracy measures...... and their associated confidence intervals are used to adequately reflect uncertainty in the assessment based on the chosen sample size. Proof of concept for the method is given for an urban area in Switzerland. Here, the produced land cover map with six classes (building, wall and carport, road and parking lot, hedge...

  1. Effects of urban sprawl on agricultural land: a case study of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doygun, Hakan

    2009-11-01

    The main objective of this study is to quantify areal loss of olive groves due to urban sprawl of the city of Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. Spatial changes were analysed by interpreting the digitized data derived from a black-white monoscopic aerial photograph taken in 1985, panchromatic IKONOS image of 2000 and two pan-sharpened Quickbird images of 2004 and 2006. Data obtained revealed that the area of olive groves decreased by 25% from 460.55 ha in 1985 to 344.46 in 2006, while the number of parcels increased from 170 to 445. Of the total areal loss, 60% was due to building constructions, with the rest being due to clear-cut for new residential gardens composed of exotic plants, new buildings, or new roads. Rapid population growth, increased land prices due to urban expansion, and abandonment of agricultural practices to construction of multi-storey buildings were the main causes of the process that transformed the olive groves into urbanized areas. Results pointed to an urgent need to (1) revise the national and municipal land management practices, (2) balance the gap between the short- and long-term economic benefits that urban and community development plans ignore, and (3) monitor land-use changes periodically by using high resolution satellite images.

  2. EnviroAtlas - Portland, ME - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Portland, ME Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data was generated from USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) four band (red, green,...

  3. Measuring the impact of urban policies on transportation energy saving using a land use-transport model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masanobu Kii

    2014-03-01

    This study demonstrates the applicability of a land-use transport model to the assessment of urban policies for building smart communities. First, we outline a model that explicitly formulates the actors' location-related decisions and travel behavior. Second, we apply this model to two urban policies – road pricing and land-use regulation – to assess their long-term impact on energy saving and sustainability using the case of a simplified synthetic city. Our study verifies that, under assumed conditions, the model has the capacity to assess urban policies on energy use and sustainability in a consistent fashion.

  4. Impact of Urban Climate Landscape Patterns on Land Surface Temperature in Wuhan, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasha Wang

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Facing urban warming, mitigation and adaptation strategies are not efficient enough to tackle excessive urban heat, especially at the local scale. The local climate zone (LCZ classification scheme is employed to examine the diversity and complexity of the climate response within a city. This study suggests that zonal practice could be an efficient way to bridge the knowledge gap between climate research and urban planning. Urban surfaces classified by LCZ are designated as urban climate landscapes, which extends the LCZ concept to urban planning applications. Selecting Wuhan as a case study, we attempt to explore the climatic effect of landscape patterns. Thermal effects are compared across the urban climate landscapes, and the relationships between patch metrics and land surface temperature (LST are quantified. Results indicate that climate landscape layout is a considerable factor impacting local urban climate. For Wuhan, 500 m is an optimal scale for exploring landscape pattern-temperature relationships. Temperature contrast between surrounding landscape patches has a major influence on LST. Generally, fragmental landscape patches contribute to heat release. For most climate landscape types, patch metrics also have a significant effect on thermal response. When three metrics are included as predictive variables, 53.3% of the heating intensity variation can be explained for the Large Lowrise landscape, while 57.4% of the cooling intensity variation can be explained for the Water landscape. Therefore, this article claims that land-based layout optimization strategy at local scale, which conforms to planning manner, should be taken into account in terms of heat management.

  5. EnviroAtlas - Fresno, CA - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Fresno, CA EnviroAtlas Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data were generated via supervised classification of combined aerial photography and LiDAR data. The...

  6. EnviroAtlas - Tampa, FL - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Tampa, FL Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data was generated from USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) four band (red, green, blue...

  7. EnviroAtlas - Portland, OR - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2012)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Portland, OR Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) dataset includes data for the Portland metropolitan area plus the city of Vancouver, Washington and...

  8. EnviroAtlas - Woodbine, IA - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2011)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Woodbine, IA Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data and map were generated from USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) four band (red,...

  9. EnviroAtlas - Phoenix, AZ - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Phoenix, AZ Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data and map were generated from USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) four band (red,...

  10. EnviroAtlas - Durham, NC - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Durham, NC Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data was generated from USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) four band (red, green, blue...

  11. Global assessment of rural-urban interface in Portugal related to land cover changes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tonini, Marj; Parente, Joana; Pereira, Mário G.

    2018-06-01

    The rural-urban interface (RUI), known as the area where structures and other human developments meet or intermingle with wildland and rural area, is at present a central focus of wildfire policy and its mapping is crucial for wildfire management. In the Mediterranean Basin, humans cause the vast majority of fires and fire risk is particularly high in the proximity of infrastructure and of rural/wildland areas. RUI's extension changes under the pressure of environmental and anthropogenic factors, such as urban growth, fragmentation of rural areas, deforestation and, more in general, land use/land cover change (LULCC). As with other Mediterranean countries, Portugal has experienced significant LULCC in the last decades in response to migration, rural abandonment, ageing of population and trends associated with the high socioeconomic development. In the present study, we analyzed the LULCC occurring in this country in the 1990-2012 period with the main objective of investigating how these changes affected RUI's evolution. Moreover, we performed a qualitative and quantitative characterization of burnt areas within the RUI in relation to the observed changes. Obtained results disclose important LULCC and reveal their spatial distribution, which is far from uniform within the territory. A significant increase in artificial surfaces was registered near the main metropolitan communities of the northwest, littoral-central and southern regions, whilst the abandonment of agricultural land near the inland urban areas led to an increase in uncultivated semi-natural and forest areas. Within agricultural areas, heterogeneous patches suffered the greatest changes and were the main contributors to the increase in urban areas; moreover, this land cover class, together with forests, was highly affected by wildfires in terms of burnt area. Finally, from this analysis and during the investigated period, it appears that RUI increased in Portugal by more than two-thirds, while the total

  12. Global assessment of rural–urban interface in Portugal related to land cover changes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Tonini

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available The rural–urban interface (RUI, known as the area where structures and other human developments meet or intermingle with wildland and rural area, is at present a central focus of wildfire policy and its mapping is crucial for wildfire management. In the Mediterranean Basin, humans cause the vast majority of fires and fire risk is particularly high in the proximity of infrastructure and of rural/wildland areas. RUI's extension changes under the pressure of environmental and anthropogenic factors, such as urban growth, fragmentation of rural areas, deforestation and, more in general, land use/land cover change (LULCC. As with other Mediterranean countries, Portugal has experienced significant LULCC in the last decades in response to migration, rural abandonment, ageing of population and trends associated with the high socioeconomic development. In the present study, we analyzed the LULCC occurring in this country in the 1990–2012 period with the main objective of investigating how these changes affected RUI's evolution. Moreover, we performed a qualitative and quantitative characterization of burnt areas within the RUI in relation to the observed changes. Obtained results disclose important LULCC and reveal their spatial distribution, which is far from uniform within the territory. A significant increase in artificial surfaces was registered near the main metropolitan communities of the northwest, littoral-central and southern regions, whilst the abandonment of agricultural land near the inland urban areas led to an increase in uncultivated semi-natural and forest areas. Within agricultural areas, heterogeneous patches suffered the greatest changes and were the main contributors to the increase in urban areas; moreover, this land cover class, together with forests, was highly affected by wildfires in terms of burnt area. Finally, from this analysis and during the investigated period, it appears that RUI increased in Portugal by more than two

  13. The Role of Vegetation in Mitigating Urban Land Surface Temperatures: A Case Study of Munich, Germany during the Warm Season

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sadroddin Alavipanah

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The Urban Heat Island (UHI is the phenomenon of altered increased temperatures in urban areas compared to their rural surroundings. UHIs grow and intensify under extreme hot periods, such as during heat waves, which can affect human health and also increase the demand for energy for cooling. This study applies remote sensing and land use/land cover (LULC data to assess the cooling effect of varying urban vegetation cover, especially during extreme warm periods, in the city of Munich, Germany. To compute the relationship between Land Surface Temperature (LST and Land Use Land Cover (LULC, MODIS eight-day interval LST data for the months of June, July and August from 2002 to 2012 and the Corine Land Cover (CLC database were used. Due to similarities in the behavior of surface temperature of different CLCs, some classes were reclassified and combined to form two major, rather simplified, homogenized classes: one of built-up area and one of urban vegetation. The homogenized map was merged with the MODIS eight-day interval LST data to compute the relationship between them. The results revealed that (i the cooling effect accrued from urban vegetation tended to be non-linear; and (ii a remarkable and stronger cooling effect in terms of LST was identified in regions where the proportion of vegetation cover was between seventy and almost eighty percent per square kilometer. The results also demonstrated that LST within urban vegetation was affected by the temperature of the surrounding built-up and that during the well-known European 2003 heat wave, suburb areas were cooler from the core of the urbanized region. This study concluded that the optimum green space for obtaining the lowest temperature is a non-linear trend. This could support urban planning strategies to facilitate appropriate applications to mitigate heat-stress in urban area.

  14. Firm dynamic analysis for urban land use and economic growth modelling

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Che'Man, N.; Sabri, S.; Hosni, N.; Timmermans, H.J.P.

    2013-01-01

    In urban growth processes, urbanisation is highly influenced by economic growth which triggers the dynamics of economic agents and land uses. This is consisted of complex subsystems which need sophisticated methods like agent-based modelling and simulation to understand the pattern, behaviour and

  15. Desperately Seeking Sustainability: Urban Shrinkage, Land Consumption and Regional Planning in a Mediterranean Metropolitan Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luca Salvati

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Land degradation has expanded in the Mediterranean region as a result of a variety of factors, including economic and population growth, land-use changes and climate variations. The level of land vulnerability to degradation and its growth over time are distributed heterogeneously over space, concentrating on landscapes exposed to high human pressure. The present study investigates the level of land vulnerability to degradation in a shrinking urban area (Rome, Italy at four points in time (1960, 1990, 2000 and 2010 and it identifies relevant factors negatively impacting the quality of land and the level of landscape fragmentation. A multi-domain assessment of land vulnerability incorporating indicators of climate quality, soil quality, vegetation quality and land management quality was carried out based on the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA framework. The highest rate of growth in the level of land vulnerability was observed in low-density suburban areas. The peri-urban mosaic formed by coastal woodlands and traditional cropland preserved high-quality land with a stable degree of vulnerability over time. Evidence suggests that the agro-forest mosaic surrounding Mediterranean cities act as a “buffer zone” mitigating on-site and off-site land degradation. The conservation of relict natural landscapes is a crucial target for multi-scale policies combating land degradation in suburban dry regions.

  16. Urban land rights and child nutritional status in Peru, 2004.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogl, Tom S

    2007-07-01

    Advocates of land-titling programs in developing countries posit that these programs lead to a multitude of benefits, including health improvements. This paper presents the results of a child health survey of several Lima communities after various time exposures to Peru's urban land-titling program. The results provide suggestive evidence that improved property rights increase children's weight but not their height, which is consistent with previous work on the topic. However, titles also appear to raise children's risk of being overweight or obese, implying that the observed weight gain is not necessarily an improvement in nutritional status.

  17. Studies and researches regarding the urban policies impact on land valuation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Barbu

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available The authors develop a concept paper on the economic valuation of land. They detail the basic principles corroborated with the direct factors that modify the mathematical parameters and also the impact of construction on the land. Starting from the principles of Darin Drabkin, the authors develop, within the concept of a market economy, an urban land sale procedure by optimizing the control of land instruments. This study asks about the expected consequences of increasing the tax rate on the land component of real estate while reducing the rate at which the improvement is taxed. The first part briefly presents the consequences that land taxes are expected to produce given our theoretical understanding of land markets. These conclusions are blind to the planning and the institutional context of the development process. The consequences of moving from a general property tax to a land value tax in the Toronto and Ottawa regions are assessed by interviewing developers, planners and municipal finance officers. The conclusions summarise the main concerns that would be raised by moving toward land value taxation in the context of a growth management strategy that would make cities more compact.

  18. Agricultural implications of providing soil-based constraints on urban expansion: Land use forecasts to 2050.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smidt, Samuel J; Tayyebi, Amin; Kendall, Anthony D; Pijanowski, Bryan C; Hyndman, David W

    2018-07-01

    Urbanization onto adjacent farmlands directly reduces the agricultural area available to meet the resource needs of a growing society. Soil conservation is a common objective in urban planning, but little focus has been placed on targeting soil value as a metric for conservation. This study assigns commodity and water storage values to the agricultural soils across all of the watersheds in Michigan's Lower Peninsula to evaluate how cities might respond to a soil conservation-based urbanization strategy. Land Transformation Model (LTM) simulations representing both traditional and soil conservation-based urbanization, are used to forecast urban area growth from 2010 to 2050 at five year intervals. The expansion of urban areas onto adjacent farmland is then evaluated to quantify the conservation effects of soil-based development. Results indicate that a soil-based protection strategy significantly conserves total farmland, especially more fertile soils within each soil type. In terms of revenue, ∼$88 million (in current dollars) would be conserved in 2050 using soil-based constraints, with the projected savings from 2011 to 2050 totaling more than $1.5 billion. Soil-based urbanization also increased urban density for each major metropolitan area. For example, there were 94,640 more acres directly adjacent to urban land by 2050 under traditional development compared to the soil-based urbanization strategy, indicating that urban sprawl was more tightly contained when including soil value as a metric to guide development. This study indicates that implementing a soil-based urbanization strategy would better satisfy future agricultural resource needs than traditional urban planning. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  19. Correlation or Causality between Land Cover Patterns and the Urban Heat Island Effect? Evidence from Brisbane, Australia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaveh Deilami

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Numerous studies have identified associations between the surface urban heat island (SUHI effect (i.e., SUHI, hereinafter is referred to as UHI and urban growth, particularly changes in land cover patterns. This research questions their causal links to answer a key policy question: If cities restrict urban expansion and encourage people to live within existing urban areas, will that help in controlling UHI? The question has been answered by estimating four models using data from Brisbane, Australia: Model 1—cross-sectional ordinary least square (OLS regression—to examine the association between the UHI effect and land cover patterns in 2013; Model 2—cross-sectional geographically weighted regression (GWR—to examine whether the outputs generated from Model 1 possess significant spatial variations; Model 3—longitudinal OLS—to examine whether changes in land cover patterns led to changes in UHI effects between 2004 and 2013; and Model 4—longitudinal GWR—to examine whether the outputs generated from Model 3 vary significantly over space. All estimations were controlled for potential confounding effects (e.g., population, employment and dwelling densities. Results from the cross-sectional OLS and GWR models were consistent with previous findings and showed that porosity is negatively associated with the UHI effect in 2013. In contrast, population density has a positive association. Results from the longitudinal OLS and GWR models confirm their causal linkages and showed that an increase in porosity level reduced the UHI effect, whereas an increase in population density increased the UHI effect. The findings suggest that even a containment of population growth within existing urban areas will lead to the UHI effect. However, this can be significantly minimized through proper land use planning, by creating a balance between urban and non-urban uses of existing urban areas.

  20. EnviroAtlas - Memphis, TN - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2012)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Memphis, TN EnviroAtlas One Meter-scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) dataset comprises 2,733 km2 around the city of Memphis, surrounding towns, and rural areas. These...

  1. [Urban greenbelt eco-service value of Hangzhou City under effects of land use change: an evaluation with CITYgreen model].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Kan; Zhang, Jianying; Chen, Yingxu; Zhu, Yinmei

    2006-10-01

    Based on the Landset TM information of land use/cover change and greenbelt distribution in Hangzhou city in 1994 and 2004, and by using CITYgreen model, this paper estimated the eco-service value of urban greenbelt in the city under the effects of land use change and economic development. The results showed that in the 10 years from 1994 to 2004, the greenbelt area in the city decreased by 20. 4% , while its eco-service value increased by 168 million yuan. The annual increment of greenbelt eco-service value and GDP was 111.92% and 5. 32% , respectively. Suitable adjustment of land use pattern in the city harmonized the relationships between urban economic development and urban eco-function, and achieved higher eco-service efficiency of land utilization.

  2. Analysis of Urban-Rural Land-Use Change during 1995-2006 and Its Policy Dimensional Driving Forces in Chongqing, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guihua Dong

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyzes the urban-rural land-use change of Chongqing and its policydimensional driving forces from 1995 to 2006, using high-resolution Landsat TM(Thematic Mapper data of 1995, 2000 and 2006, and socio-economic data from bothresearch institutes and government departments. The outcomes indicated that urban-ruralland-use change in Chongqing can be characterized by two major trends: First, thenon-agricultural land increased substantially from 1995 to 2006, thus causing agriculturalland especially farmland to decrease continuously. Second, the aggregation index of urbansettlements and rural settlements shows that local urban-rural development experienced aprocess of changing from aggregation (1995-2000 to decentralization (2000-2006.Chongqing is a special area getting immersed in many important policies, which includethe establishment of the municipality directly under the Central Government, the buildingof Three Gorges Dam Project, the Western China Development Program and theGrain-for-Green Programme, and bring about tremendous influences on its land-usechange. By analyzing Chongqing’s land-use change and its policy driving forces, someimplications for its new policy of ‘Urban-rural Integrated Reform’ are obtained. That ismore attentions need to be paid to curbing excessive and idle rural housing andconsolidating rural construction land, and to laying out a scientific land-use plan for its rural areas taking such rural land-use issues as farmland occupation and rural housing landmanagement into accounts, so as to coordinate and balance the urban-rural development.

  3. Four decades urban growth and land use change in Samara Russia through remote sensing and GIS techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boori, Mukesh Singh; Choudhary, Komal; Kupriyanov, Alexander; Kovelskiy, Viktor

    2015-12-01

    This study illustrates the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban growth and land use changes in Samara city, Russia from 1975 to 2015. Landsat satellite imageries of five different time periods from 1975 to 2015 were acquired and quantify the changes with the help of ArcGIS 10.1 Software. By applying classification methods to the satellite images four main types of land use were extracted: water, built-up, forest and grassland. Then, the area coverage for all the land use types at different points in time were measured and coupled with population data. The results demonstrate that, over the entire study period, population was increased from 1146 thousand people to 1244 thousand from 1975 to 1990 but later on first reduce and then increase again, now 1173 thousand population. Built-up area is also change according to population. The present study revealed an increase in built-up by 37.01% from 1975 to 1995, than reduce -88.83% till 2005 and an increase by 39.16% from 2005 to 2015, along with the increase in population, migration from rural areas owing to the economic growth and technological advantages associated with urbanization. Information on urban growth, land use and land cover change study is very useful to local government and urban planners for the betterment of future plans to sustainable development of the city.

  4. Monitoring urban growth and detection of land use with GIS and remote sensing: a case study of the Kyrenia region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kara, Can; Akçit, Nuhcan

    2016-08-01

    Land-cover change is considered one of the central components in current strategies for managing natural resources and monitoring environmental changes. It is important to manage land resources in a sustainable manner which targets at compacting and consolidating urban development. From 2005 to 2015,urban growth in Kyrenia has been quite dramatic, showing a wide and scattered pattern, lacking proper plan. As a result of this unplanned/unorganized expansion, agricultural areas, vegetation and water bodies have been lost in the region. Therefore, it has become a necessity to analyze the results of this urban growth and compare the losses between land-cover changes. With this goal in mind, a case study of Kyrenia region has been carried out using a supervised image classification method and Landsat TM images acquired in 2005 and 2015 to map and extract land-cover changes. This paper tries to assess urban-growth changes detected in the region by using Remote Sensing and GIS. The study monitors the changes between different land cover types. Also, it shows the urban occupation of primary soil loss and the losses in forest areas, open areas, etc.

  5. A spatially distributed model for assessment of the effects of changing land use and climate on urban stream quality: Development of a Spatially Distributed Urban Water Quality Model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sun, Ning [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle WA USA; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA; Yearsley, John [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle WA USA; Baptiste, Marisa [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle WA USA; Cao, Qian [Department of Geography, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA USA; Lettenmaier, Dennis P. [Department of Geography, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA USA; Nijssen, Bart [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle WA USA

    2016-08-22

    While the effects of land use change in urban areas have been widely examined, the combined effects of climate and land use change on the quality of urban and urbanizing streams have received much less attention. We describe a modeling framework that is applicable to the evaluation of potential changes in urban water quality and associated hydrologic changes in response to ongoing climate and landscape alteration. The grid-based spatially distributed model, DHSVM-WQ, is an outgrowth of the Distributed Hydrology-Soil-Vegetation Model (DHSVM) that incorporates modules for assessing hydrology and water quality in urbanized watersheds at a high spatial and temporal resolution. DHSVM-WQ simulates surface runoff quality and in-stream processes that control the transport of nonpoint-source (NPS) pollutants into urban streams. We configure DHSVM-WQ for three partially urbanized catchments in the Puget Sound region to evaluate the water quality responses to current conditions and projected changes in climate and/or land use over the next century. Here we focus on total suspended solids (TSS) and total phosphorus (TP) from nonpoint sources (runoff), as well as stream temperature. The projection of future land use is characterized by a combination of densification in existing urban or partially urban areas, and expansion of the urban footprint. The climate change scenarios consist of individual and concurrent changes in temperature and precipitation. Future precipitation is projected to increase in winter and decrease in summer, while future temperature is projected to increase throughout the year. Our results show that urbanization has a much greater effect than climate change on both the magnitude and seasonal variability of streamflow, TSS and TP loads largely due to substantially increased streamflow, and particularly winter flow peaks. Water temperature is more sensitive to climate warming scenarios than to urbanization and precipitation changes. Future urbanization and

  6. Land cover/land use change in semi-arid Inner Mongolia: 1992-2004

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    John, Ranjeet; Chen Jiquan; Lu Nan; Wilske, Burkhard, E-mail: ranjeet.john@utoledo.ed [Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606 (United States)

    2009-10-15

    The semi-arid grasslands in Inner Mongolia (IM) are under increasing stress owing to climate change and rapid socio-economic development in the recent past. We investigated changes in land cover/land use and landscape structure between 1992 and 2004 through the analysis of AVHRR and MODIS derived land cover data. The scale of analysis included the regional level (i.e. the whole of IM) as well as the level of the dominant biomes (i.e. the grassland and desert). We quantified proportional change, rate of change and the changes in class-level landscape metrics using the landscape structure analysis program FRAGSTATS. The dominant land cover types, grassland and barren, 0.47 and 0.27 million km{sup 2}, respectively, have increased proportionally. Cropland and urban land use also increased to 0.15 million km{sup 2} and 2197 km{sup 2}, respectively. However, the results further indicated increases in both the homogeneity and fragmentation of the landscape. Increasing homogeneity was mainly related to the reduction in minority cover types such as savanna, forests and permanent wetlands and increasing cohesion, aggregation index and clumpy indices. Conversely, increased fragmentation of the landscape was based on the increase in patch density and the interspersion/juxtaposition index (IJI). It is important to note the socio-economic growth in this fragile ecosystem, manifested by an increasing proportion of agricultural and urban land use not just at the regional level but also at the biome level in the context of regional climate change and increasing water stress.

  7. Land cover/land use change in semi-arid Inner Mongolia: 1992-2004

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    John, Ranjeet; Chen Jiquan; Lu Nan; Wilske, Burkhard

    2009-01-01

    The semi-arid grasslands in Inner Mongolia (IM) are under increasing stress owing to climate change and rapid socio-economic development in the recent past. We investigated changes in land cover/land use and landscape structure between 1992 and 2004 through the analysis of AVHRR and MODIS derived land cover data. The scale of analysis included the regional level (i.e. the whole of IM) as well as the level of the dominant biomes (i.e. the grassland and desert). We quantified proportional change, rate of change and the changes in class-level landscape metrics using the landscape structure analysis program FRAGSTATS. The dominant land cover types, grassland and barren, 0.47 and 0.27 million km 2 , respectively, have increased proportionally. Cropland and urban land use also increased to 0.15 million km 2 and 2197 km 2 , respectively. However, the results further indicated increases in both the homogeneity and fragmentation of the landscape. Increasing homogeneity was mainly related to the reduction in minority cover types such as savanna, forests and permanent wetlands and increasing cohesion, aggregation index and clumpy indices. Conversely, increased fragmentation of the landscape was based on the increase in patch density and the interspersion/juxtaposition index (IJI). It is important to note the socio-economic growth in this fragile ecosystem, manifested by an increasing proportion of agricultural and urban land use not just at the regional level but also at the biome level in the context of regional climate change and increasing water stress.

  8. Quantifying the influence of land-use and surface characteristics on spatial variability in the urban heat island

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hart, Melissa A.; Sailor, David J.

    2009-03-01

    The urban thermal environment varies not only from its rural surroundings but also within the urban area due to intra-urban differences in land-use and surface characteristics. Understanding the causes of this intra-urban variability is a first step in improving urban planning and development. Toward this end, a method for quantifying causes of spatial variability in the urban heat island has been developed. This paper presents the method as applied to a specific test case of Portland, Oregon. Vehicle temperature traverses were used to determine spatial differences in summertime ~2 m air temperature across the metropolitan area in the afternoon. A tree-structured regression model was used to quantify the land-use and surface characteristics that have the greatest influence on daytime UHI intensity. The most important urban characteristic separating warmer from cooler regions of the Portland metropolitan area was canopy cover. Roadway area density was also an important determinant of local UHI magnitudes. Specifically, the air above major arterial roads was found to be warmer on weekdays than weekends, possibly due to increased anthropogenic activity from the vehicle sector on weekdays. In general, warmer regions of the city were associated with industrial and commercial land-use. The downtown core, whilst warmer than the rural surroundings, was not the warmest part of the Portland metropolitan area. This is thought to be due in large part to local shading effects in the urban canyons.

  9. Land cover mapping and change detection in urban watersheds using QuickBird high spatial resolution satellite imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hester, David Barry

    The objective of this research was to develop methods for urban land cover analysis using QuickBird high spatial resolution satellite imagery. Such imagery has emerged as a rich commercially available remote sensing data source and has enjoyed high-profile broadcast news media and Internet applications, but methods of quantitative analysis have not been thoroughly explored. The research described here consists of three studies focused on the use of pan-sharpened 61-cm spatial resolution QuickBird imagery, the spatial resolution of which is the highest of any commercial satellite. In the first study, a per-pixel land cover classification method is developed for use with this imagery. This method utilizes a per-pixel classification approach to generate an accurate six-category high spatial resolution land cover map of a developing suburban area. The primary objective of the second study was to develop an accurate land cover change detection method for use with QuickBird land cover products. This work presents an efficient fuzzy framework for transforming map uncertainty into accurate and meaningful high spatial resolution land cover change analysis. The third study described here is an urban planning application of the high spatial resolution QuickBird-based land cover product developed in the first study. This work both meaningfully connects this exciting new data source to urban watershed management and makes an important empirical contribution to the study of suburban watersheds. Its analysis of residential roads and driveways as well as retail parking lots sheds valuable light on the impact of transportation-related land use on the suburban landscape. Broadly, these studies provide new methods for using state-of-the-art remote sensing data to inform land cover analysis and urban planning. These methods are widely adaptable and produce land cover products that are both meaningful and accurate. As additional high spatial resolution satellites are launched and the

  10. Change in Environmental Benefits of Urban Land Use and Its Drivers in Chinese Cities, 2000-2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Xiaoqing; Chang, Kang-Tsung; Yang, Liang; Scheffran, Jürgen

    2016-05-26

    Driven by rising income and urban population growth, China has experienced rapid urban expansion since the 1980s. Urbanization can have positive effects on the urban environment; however, improvement of urban environment quality, especially its divergence between relatively developed and undeveloped cities in China, is currently a rather rudimentary and subjective issue. This study analyzed urban environmental benefits among China's prefectural cities based on their structure of urban land use in 2000 and 2010. First, we divided 347 prefectural cities into two groups, 81 coastal and capital cities in the relatively developed group (RD) and 266 other prefectural cities in the undeveloped group (RP). Then, we defined three areas of urban environmental benefits, including green infrastructure, industrial upgrade, and environmental management, and developed an assessment index system. Results showed that all prefectural cities saw improvement in urban environmental quality in 2000-2010. Although the RD cities had higher income and more population growth, they had less improvement than the RP cities during the same period. We also found that demographic and urban land agglomeration among RD cities restrained green infrastructure expansion, making green infrastructure unsuitable as a permanent solution to environmental improvement. It is therefore urgent for China to promote balanced improvement among the three areas of urban environmental benefits and between the RD and RP cities through regional differentiation policies.

  11. Spatial Modeling of Urban Vegetation and Land Surface Temperature: A Case Study of Beijing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chudong Huang

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The coupling relationship between urban vegetation and land surface temperature (LST has been heatedly debated in a variety of environmental studies. This paper studies the urban vegetation information and LST by utilizing a series of remote sensing imagery covering the period from 1990 to 2007. Their coupling relationship is analyzed, in order to provide the basis for ecological planning and environment protection. The results show that the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, urban vegetation abundance (UVA and urban forest abundance (UFA are negatively correlated with LST, which means that both urban vegetation and urban forest are capable in decreasing LST. The apparent influence of urban vegetation and urban forest on LST varies with the spatial resolution of the imagery, and peaks at the resolutions ranging from 90 m to 120 m.

  12. Spectral unmixing of urban land cover using a generic library approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Degerickx, Jeroen; Lordache, Marian-Daniel; Okujeni, Akpona; Hermy, Martin; van der Linden, Sebastian; Somers, Ben

    2016-10-01

    Remote sensing based land cover classification in urban areas generally requires the use of subpixel classification algorithms to take into account the high spatial heterogeneity. These spectral unmixing techniques often rely on spectral libraries, i.e. collections of pure material spectra (endmembers, EM), which ideally cover the large EM variability typically present in urban scenes. Despite the advent of several (semi-) automated EM detection algorithms, the collection of such image-specific libraries remains a tedious and time-consuming task. As an alternative, we suggest the use of a generic urban EM library, containing material spectra under varying conditions, acquired from different locations and sensors. This approach requires an efficient EM selection technique, capable of only selecting those spectra relevant for a specific image. In this paper, we evaluate and compare the potential of different existing library pruning algorithms (Iterative Endmember Selection and MUSIC) using simulated hyperspectral (APEX) data of the Brussels metropolitan area. In addition, we develop a new hybrid EM selection method which is shown to be highly efficient in dealing with both imagespecific and generic libraries, subsequently yielding more robust land cover classification results compared to existing methods. Future research will include further optimization of the proposed algorithm and additional tests on both simulated and real hyperspectral data.

  13. Assessing the impact of the urbanization process on net primary productivity in China in 1989–2000

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tian, Guangjin; Qiao, Zhi

    2014-01-01

    Urban development affects the material circulation and energy flow of ecosystems, thereby affecting the Net Primary Productivity (NPP). The loss of NPP due to urban expansion was calculated integrating GLO-PEM with remote sensing and GIS techniques in China during the period of 1989–2000. Using urban expansion and the mean NPP for the different land use types in the fourteen regions, the total loss of NPP was calculated as 0.95 Tg C, which accounted for 0.03% of the national NPP of 1989. The total loss of NPP due to the transformation from cropland to urban land accounted for 91.93%, followed by forest (7.17%) and grassland (0.69%). However, the conversion from unused land, industrial and construction land, and water bodies to urban land resulted in an increase in the NPP. The regions locating in eastern China and middle China had large reductions in the total NPP due to urban expansion. -- Highlights: • This paper assesses the impact of urbanization process on net primary productivity in China. • TM images were interpreted to obtain the extent and spatial distribution of urban development. • Using mean NPP for different land uses, we calculated total loss of NPP was 0.949447 Tg C in China. • The total loss of NPP owing to the transformation from cropland to urban land accounted for 91.93%. -- The loss of NPP due to urban expansion was calculated as 0.95 Tg C in China in 1989–2000, which accounted for 0.03% of the national NPP of 1989

  14. Urban Land Use Mapping by Combining Remote Sensing Imagery and Mobile Phone Positioning Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuanxin Jia

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Land use is of great importance for urban planning, environmental monitoring, and transportation management. Several methods have been proposed to obtain land use maps of urban areas, and these can be classified into two categories: remote sensing methods and social sensing methods. However, remote sensing and social sensing approaches have specific disadvantages regarding the description of social and physical features, respectively. Therefore, an appropriate fusion strategy is vital for large-area land use mapping. To address this issue, we propose an efficient land use mapping method that combines remote sensing imagery (RSI and mobile phone positioning data (MPPD for large areas. We implemented this method in two steps. First, a support vector machine was adopted to classify the RSI and MPPD. Then, the two classification results were fused using a decision fusion strategy to generate the land use map. The proposed method was applied to a case study of the central area of Beijing. The experimental results show that the proposed method improved classification accuracy compared with that achieved using MPPD alone, validating the efficacy of this new approach for identifying land use. Based on the land use map and MPPD data, activity density in key zones during daytime and nighttime was analyzed to illustrate the volume and variation of people working and living across different regions.

  15. How did the urban land in floodplains distribute and expand in China from 1992-2015?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Shiqiang; He, Chunyang; Huang, Qingxu; Shi, Peijun

    2018-03-01

    Urban land in floodplains (ULF) is a vital component of flood exposure and its variations can cause changes in flood risk. In the context of rapid urbanization, ULF is expanding rapidly in China and imperiling societal sustainability. However, a national-scale analysis of ULF patterns and dynamics has yet to be conducted. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the spatiotemporal changes in China’s ULF at different spatial scales (the country, region, basin, and sub-basin scales) from 1992-2015. We found that ULF accounted for 44.41% of the total urban land in China in 2015, which was 3.68 times greater than the proportion of floodplains relative to the total land area in China (12.06%). From 1992-2015, the ULF area increased by 26.43 × 103 km2, or 542.21%. Moreover, the ULF area is expected to grow by 16.89 × 103 km2 (53.38%) between 2015 and 2050. ULF growth was strongly associated with the flood occurrence in China, and continued growth will pose a considerable challenge to urban sustainability, particularly in basins with poor flood defenses. Greater attention should thus be paid to ULF dynamics in China.

  16. Spatiotemporal Patterns of Urban Encroachment on Cropland and Its Impacts on Potential Agricultural Productivity in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hongyan Cai

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Rapid urbanization and population growth in China have raised great concerns regarding food security caused by the loss of limited cultivated land. In this study, we used remotely sensed data and an agricultural productivity estimation model to characterize the spatiotemporal patterns of the conversion of cropland into urban land and quantify its impacts on agricultural productivity potential during China’s rapid urbanization period, from 1990 to 2010. The results show that urban development has transformed approximately 4.18 Mha, or 2.26%, of the total cropland in China. From 1990 to 2000, approximately 1.50 Mha of cropland was developed, while roughly 1.8 times this amount (2.68 Mha was converted over the period of 2000 to 2010. Most of the conversion is located in the central and eastern coastal provinces and is mainly concentrated on the periphery of the major urban areas. The transformation has, consequently, caused a 71.45 Tg, or 2.65%, loss of potential light-temperature agricultural productivity (PLTAP; losses were 24.33 Tg in the first decade of the study and 47.11 Tg in the second. At the provincial scale, the largest percentages of PLTAP loss are mainly concentrated in the developed provinces on the eastern coast, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, Tianjin, and Jiangsu. Considering that these areas can accommodate more people and produce higher economic output on unit area of built-up land and, yet, scarce land that can be reclaimed, this study suggests that the dynamic balance of total farmland policy in China should be varied provincially according to the major function of the province. The policy adjustment will help maximize the utilization efficiency of land.

  17. EnviroAtlas - New Bedford, MA - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The New Bedford, MA Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data were generated from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Imagery Program...

  18. Impacts of land-use change on the water cycle of urban areas within the Upper Great Lakes drainage basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowling, L. C.; Cherkauer, K. A.; Pijanowski, B. C.; Niyogi, D.

    2006-12-01

    Urbanization is altering the global landscape at an unprecedented rate. This form of land cover/land-use change (LCLUC) can significantly reduce infiltration and runoff response times, and alter heat and water vapor fluxes, which can further alter surface-forced regional circulation patterns and modulate precipitation volume and intensity. Spatial patterns of future LCLUC are projected using the Land Transformation Model (LTM), enhanced to incorporate dynamic landcover, economics and policy using Bayesian Belief Networks (LTM- BBN). Different land use scenarios predicted by the LTM-BBN as well as a pre-development scenario are represented through the Unified Noah Land Surface Model (LSM) with an enhanced urban canopy model, embedded in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The coupled WRF-Noah LSM model will be used to investigate the connections between land-use, hydrometeorology and the atmosphere, through analysis of water and energy balances over several urbanized watersheds within the Upper Great Lakes region. Preliminary results focus on a single watershed, the White River in Indiana, which includes the city of Indianapolis. Coupled WRF-Noah simulations made using pre and post-development land use maps provide a 7 year climatology of convective storm morphology around the urban center. Precipitation and other meteorological variables from the WRF-Noah simulations are used to drive simulations of the White River watershed using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) macroscale hydrologic model. The VIC model has been modified to represent urban areas and has been calibrated for modern flow regimes in the White River watershed. Pre- and post-development VIC simulations are used to assess the impact of Indianapolis area infiltration changes. Finally, VIC model simulations utilizing projected land use change from 2005 through 2040 for the Indianapolis metropolitan area explore the magnitude of future hydrologic change, especially peak flow response

  19. Soil gross nitrogen transformations in responses to land use conversion in a subtropical karst region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Dejun; Liu, Jing; Chen, Hao; Zheng, Liang; Wang, Kelin

    2018-04-15

    Gross nitrogen (N) transformations can provide important information for assessing indigenous soil N supply capacity and soil nitrate leaching potential. The current study aimed to assess the variation of gross N transformations in response to conversion of maize-soybean fields to sugarcane, mulberry, and forage grass fields in a subtropical karst region of southwest China. Mature forests were included for comparison. Gross rates of N mineralization (GNM) were highest in the forests, intermediate in the maize-soybean and forage grass fields, and lowest in the sugarcane and mulberry fields, suggesting capacity of indigenous soil N supply derived from organic N mineralization was lowered after conversion to sugarcane and mulberry fields. The relative high indigenous soil N supply capacity in the maize-soybean fields was obtained at the cost of soil organic N depletion. Gross nitrification (GN) rates were highest in the forests, intermediate in the forage grass fields and lowest in the other three agricultural land use types. The nitrate retention capacity (24.1 ± 2.0% on average) was similar among the five land use types, implying that nitrate leaching potential was not changed after land use conversion. Microbial biomass N exerted significant direct effects on the rates of N mineralization, nitrification, ammonium immobilization and nitrate immobilization. Soil organic carbon, total N and exchangeable magnesium had significant indirect effects on these N transformation rates. Our findings suggest that forage grass cultivation instead of other agricultural land uses should be recommended from the perspective of increasing indigenous soil N supply while not depleting soil organic N pool. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. The Socioeconomic Assessment of Sloping Land Conversion Program in China

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Zhen

    Abstract This thesis mainly focuses on the socioeconomic impact of the largest Ecological Recovery Program ― the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), also called Grain for Green Program (GFG) in China. The central government initiated this program in 1999 and it was launched nationwide in 2002...... of which support the policy intention of central government according to our own understanding, whereas the effects differ depending on the group, region and period. This research provides a detailed understanding of the treatment effects of the SLCP and thus, contributes to the on-going political debate...

  1. The Impact of Land Cover Change on Ecosystem Service Values in Urban Agglomerations along the Coast of the Bohai Rim, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yushuo Zhang

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Local ecosystem services have been significantly affected by land cover changes associated with rapid urbanization in China. Based on the 2000 and 2010 land cover data products with 30-m resolution, we examined the similarities and differences in the impacts of land cover change on ecosystem service values (ESV at three coastal urban agglomerations in China between 2000 and 2010 (Liaodong Peninsula (LP, Jing-Jin-Ji (JJJ and Shandong Peninsula (SP. A rapid evaluation method developed by Xie et al. (2008 was used to derive an ecosystem service value coefficient. The most significant change was an increase in artificial surfaces, due to urban expansion, which mainly occurred on cultivated land. The greatest loss in total ESV (2273 million Chinese Yuan occurred in SP, due to the large decrease in wetland areas, because this service has the highest estimated coefficient. The second greatest loss in ESV (893 million Yuan occurred in JJJ, due to the urban expansion of major cities. In contrast, ESV increased (72 million Yuan in LP. This study demonstrates that urban expansion does not necessarily lead to a net decline in ESV. In conclusion, land use and land cover policymaking should consider the sustainability of ecosystem services in relation to economic growth.

  2. Monitoring Urbanization-Related Land Cover Change on the U.S. Great Plains and Impacts on Remotely Sensed Vegetation Dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krehbiel, C. P.; Jackson, T.; Henebry, G. M.

    2014-12-01

    Earth is currently in an era of rapid urban growth with >50% of global population living in urban areas. Urbanization occurs alongside urban population growth, as cities expand to meet the demands of increasing population. Consequently, there is a need for remote sensing research to detect, monitor, and measure urbanization and its impacts on the biosphere. Here we used MODIS and Landsat data products to (1) detect urbanization-related land cover changes, (2) investigate urbanization-related impacts on land surface phenology (LSP) across rural to urban gradients and (3) explore fractional vegetation and impervious surface area regionally across the US Great Plains and within 14 cities in this region. We used the NLCD Percent Impervious Surface Area (%ISA) and Land Cover Type (LCT) products from 2001, 2006, and 2011 for 30m classification of the peri-urban environment. We investigated the impacts of urbanization-related land cover change on urban LSP at 30m resolution using the NDVI product from Web Enabled Landsat Data (http://weld.cr.usgs.gov) with accumulated growing degree-days calculated from first-order weather stations. We fitted convex quadratic LSP models to a decade (2003-2012) of observations to yield these phenometrics: modeled peak NDVI, time (thermal and calendar) to modeled peak, duration of season (DOS), and model fit. We compared our results to NDVI from MODIS NBAR (500m) and we explored the utility of 4 μm radiance (MODIS band 23) at 1 km resolution to characterize fractional vegetation dynamics in and around urbanized areas. Across all 14 cities we found increases in urbanized area (>25 %ISA) exceeding 10% from 2001-2011. Using LSP phenometrics, we were able to detect changes from cropland to suburban LCTs. In general we found negative relationships between DOS and distance from city center. We found a distinct seasonal cycle of MIR radiance over cropland LCTs due to the spectral contrast between bare soils and green vegetation.

  3. EnviroAtlas - Milwaukee, WI - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover Data (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The EnviroAtlas Milwaukee, WI Meter Urban Land Cover (MULC) data and map were generated from USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) four band (red, green,...

  4. EnviroAtlas - New York, NY - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2008)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The New York, NY EnviroAtlas Meter-scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data were generated by the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Laboratory (SAL) under the...

  5. Project ATLANTA (ATlanta Land-use ANalysis: Temperature and Air quality): A Study of how the Urban Landscape Affects Meteorology and Air Quality Through Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrochi, Dale A.; Luvall, Jeffrey C.; Estes, Maurice G.; Lo, C. P.; Kidder, Stanley Q.; Hafner, Jan; Taha, Haider; Bornstein, Robert D.; Gillies, Robert R.; Gallo, Kevin P.

    1998-01-01

    It is our intent through this investigation to help facilitate measures that can be Project ATLANTA (ATlanta Land-use ANalysis: applied to mitigate climatological or air quality Temperature and Air-quality) is a NASA Earth degradation, or to design alternate measures to sustain Observing System (EOS) Interdisciplinary Science or improve the overall urban environment in the future. investigation that seeks to observe, measure, model, and analyze how the rapid growth of the Atlanta. The primary objectives for this research effort are: 1) To In the last half of the 20th century, Atlanta, investigate and model the relationship between Atlanta Georgia has risen as the premier commercial, urban growth, land cover change, and the development industrial, and transportation urban area of the of the urban heat island phenomenon through time at southeastern United States. The rapid growth of the nested spatial scales from local to regional; 2) To Atlanta area, particularly within the last 25 years, has investigate and model the relationship between Atlanta made Atlanta one of the fastest growing metropolitan urban growth and land cover change on air quality areas in the United States. The population of the through time at nested spatial scales from local to Atlanta metropolitan area increased 27% between 1970 regional; and 3) To model the overall effects of urban and 1980, and 33% between 1980-1990 (Research development on surface energy budget characteristics Atlanta, Inc., 1993). Concomitant with this high rate of across the Atlanta urban landscape through time at population growth, has been an explosive growth in nested spatial scales from local to regional. Our key retail, industrial, commercial, and transportation goal is to derive a better scientific understanding of how services within the Atlanta region. This has resulted in land cover changes associated with urbanization in the tremendous land cover change dynamics within the Atlanta area, principally in transforming

  6. Monitoring land use/land cover transformations from 1945 to 2007 in two peri-urban mountainous areas of Athens metropolitan area, Greece.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mallinis, Giorgos; Koutsias, Nikos; Arianoutsou, Margarita

    2014-08-15

    The aims of this study were to map and analyze land use/land cover transitions and landscape changes in the Parnitha and Penteli mountains, which surround the Athens metropolitan area of Attica, Greece over a period of 62 years. In order to quantify the changes between land categories through time, we computed the transition matrices for three distinct periods (1945-1960, 1960-1996, and 1996-2007), on the basis of available aerial photographs used to create multi-temporal maps. We identified systematic and stationary transitions with multi-level intensity analysis. Forest areas in Parnitha remained the dominant class of land cover throughout the 62 years studied, while transitional woodlands and shrublands were the main classes involved in LULC transitions. Conversely, in Penteli, transitional woodlands, along with shrublands, dominated the study site. The annual rate of change was faster in the first and third time intervals, compared to the second (1960-1996) time interval, in both study areas. The category level analysis results indicated that in both sites annual crops avoided to gain while discontinuous urban fabric avoided to lose areas. At the transition level of analysis, similarities as well as distinct differences existed between the two areas. In both sites the gaining pattern of permanent crops with respect to annual crops and the gain of forest with respect to transitional woodland/shrublands were stationary across the three time intervals. Overall, we identified more systematic transitions and stationary processes in Penteli. We discussed these LULC changes and associated them with human interference (activity) and other major socio-economic developments that were simultaneously occurring in the area. The different patterns of change of the areas, despite their geographical proximity, throughout the period of analysis imply that site-specific studies are needed in order to comprehensively assess the driving forces and develop models of landscape

  7. Impacts of land use and cover change on terrestrial carbon stocks and the micro-climate over urban surface: a case study in Shanghai, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, F.; Zhan, J.; Bai, Y.

    2016-12-01

    Land use and cover change is the key factor affecting terrestrial carbon stocks and micro-climate, and their dynamics not only in regional ecosystems but also in urbanized areas. Using the typical fast-growing city of Shanghai, China as a case study, this paper explored the relationships between terrestrial carbon stocks, micro-climate and land cover within an urbanized area. The main objectives were to assess variation in soil carbon stocks and local climate conditions across terrestrial land covers with different intensities of urban development, and quantify spatial distribution and dynamic variation of carbon stocks and microclimate in response to urban land use and cover change. On the basis of accurate spatial datasets derived from a series of Landsat TM images during the years 1988 to 2010 and reliable estimates of urban climate and soil carbon stocks using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, our results showed that carbon stocks per unit area in terrestrial land covers decreased and urban temperature increased with increasing intensity of urban development. Urban land use and cover change and sealing of the soil surface created hotspots for losses in carbon stocks. Total carbon stocks in Shanghai decreased by about 30%-35%, representing a 1.5% average annual decrease, and the temperature increased by about 0.23-0.4°/10a during the past 20 years. We suggested potential policy measures to mitigate negative effects of land use and cover change on carbon stocks and microclimate in urbanized areas.

  8. Object-oriented classification of land use in urban areas applying very high resolution satellite data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bauer, T.B.

    2001-08-01

    The availability of the new very high resolution satellite imagery will offer a wide range of new applications in the field of remote sensing. Information about actual land use is an important task for the management and planning in urban areas. High resolution satellite data will be an alternative to aerial photographs for updating and maintaining cartographic and geographic databases at reduced costs. The aim of the research is to formalize the visual interpretation procedure in order to automate the whole process. The assumption underlying this approach is that the land use functions can be distinguished on the basis of the differences in spatial distribution and pattern of land cover forms. Therefore a two-stage classification procedure is applied. In a first stage a land cover map is produced. In a second stage the morphological properties and spatial patterns of the land cover objects are analyzed with the structural analyzing and mapping system leading to a characterization and description of distinct urban land use categories. This information is then used for building a rule system that is implemented in a new commercial software tool called eCognition. An object-oriented classifier applies the rules to the land cover objects resulting in the required land use map. The potential of this method is demonstrated in a case study using IKONOS data covering a part of the metropolitan area of Vienna. (author)

  9. Stakeholder perception about urban sprawl impacts in land degradation in Lithuania. The importance of profession and education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pereira, Paulo; Misiune, Ieva; Mierauskas, Pranas; Depellegrin, Daniel

    2016-04-01

    Stakeholders have an important impact on land use planning. Their visions and culture, shape and influence the decision makers and the legislation (Schwilch et al., 2009; Fleskens and Stringer, 2014; Pereira et al., 2016; Subiros et al., 2016). Nowadays, urban sprawl is one the causes of land degradation, causing important, environmental, social and economic problems. This expansion to rural areas is caused mainly by lifestyle changes, cultural views, increase of mobility, house price in city centers, poor air quality, noise, small apartments, unsafe environments, lack of green areas, competition among municipalities, development of transport network and social problems. Urban sprawl is currently an important problem in Lithuania, especially in Vilnius. Vilnius residents are concerned about the impacts of urban sprawl in environmental, social and economic aspects. Nevertheless, this depends very much on the age of and the occupation of the residents (Pereira et al., 2014). However, very little information is available about the vision of stakeholders regarding this position. The objective of this work is to study the stakeholder's perception about urban sprawl impacts on land degradation in Lithuania. A total of 86 stakeholders from different institutions were interviewed and asked to rate from 1 to 5 according to the importance of the question (1=very low; 2=low; 3=medium; 4=high and 5=very high). The questions carried out were. Does urban sprawl have impacts on a) consumption of land and soil, b) loss of soil permeability, c) loss of soil biodiversity, d) loss of best agricultural land, e) increase in the use of water and fertilizers in less productive areas, f) increase in soil erosion in remote areas, and g) loss of natural habitats. These variables were analyzed according to the gender, age, place of residence (urban/countryside), Profession, field of studies, study level and if the participant was a member of a NGO. A general regression was carried out in

  10. Identifying the driving forces of urban expansion and its environmental impact in Jakarta-Bandung mega urban region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pravitasari, A. E.; Rustiadi, E.; Mulya, S. P.; Setiawan, Y.; Fuadina, L. N.; Murtadho, A.

    2018-05-01

    The socio-economic development in Jakarta-Bandung Mega Urban Region (JBMUR) caused the increasing of urban expansion and led to a variety of environmental damage such as uncontrolled land use conversion and raising anthropogenic disaster. The objectives of this study are: (1) to identify the driving forces of urban expansion that occurs on JBMUR and (2) to analyze the environmental quality decline on JBMUR by producing time series spatial distribution map and spatial autocorrelation of floods and landslide as the proxy of anthropogenic disaster. The driving forces of urban expansion in this study were identified by employing Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model using 6 (six) independent variables, namely: population density, percentage of agricultural land, distance to the center of capital city/municipality, percentage of household who works in agricultural sector, distance to the provincial road, and distance to the local road. The GWR results showed that local demographic, social and economic factors including distance to the road spatially affect urban expansion in JBMUR. The time series spatial distribution map of floods and landslide event showed the spatial cluster of anthropogenic disaster in some areas. Through Local Moran Index, we found that environmental damage in one location has a significant impact on the condition of its surrounding area.

  11. Closing the Knowledge Gap: Effects of Land Use Conversion on Belowground Carbon near the 100th Meridian

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waldron, S. E.; Phillips, R. L.; Dell, R.; Suddick, E. C.

    2012-12-01

    Native prairie of the northern Great Plains near the 100th meridian is currently under land use conversion pressure due to high commodity prices. From 2002 to 2007, approximately 303,515 hectares of prairie were converted to crop production in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) from Montana to the Dakotas. The spatiotemporal effects of land-use conversion on soil organic matter are still unclear for the PPR. Effects will vary with management, soil properties and time, making regional experiments and simulation modeling necessary. Grassland conservationists are interested in soil carbon data and soil carbon simulation models to inform potential voluntary carbon credit programs. These programs require quantification of changes in soil carbon associated with land-use conversion and management. We addressed this issue by 1) designing a regional-scale experiment, 2) collecting and analyzing soil data, and 3) interviewing producers about land management practices, as required for regional, process-based biogeochemical models. We selected farms at random within a 29,000 km2 area of interest and measured soil properties at multiple depths for native prairie and adjacent annual crop fields. The cores were processed at six different depths (between 0 and 100 cm) for bulk density, pH, texture, total carbon, inorganic carbon, and total nitrogen. We found that the largest difference in soil organic carbon occurred at the 0-10 cm depth, but the magnitude of the effect of land use varied with soil properties and land management. Results from this project, coupled with regional model simulations (Denitrification-Decomposition, DNDC) represent the baseline data needed for future voluntary carbon credit programs and long-term carbon monitoring networks. Enrollment in such programs could help ranchers and farmers realize a new income stream from maintaining their native prairie and the carbon stored beneath it.

  12. Urban land use and geohazards in the Itanagar Capital city, Arunachal Pradesh, India: Need for geoethics in urban disaster resilience governance in a changing climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Acharjee, Swapna

    2013-04-01

    The capital city, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, India is exposed to the multiple geohazards as the city is located in the region which experiences extreme physical phenomenon due to changing climate in the tectonically active North-Eastern Himalayas. The geohazards in Itanagar includes landslides, floods, soil erosion and earthquakes. The high decadal growth rate of 111.36% in 1991-2001 census has brought in many challenges with respect to the capital city developmental planning. Due to rapid and haphazard growth in urban land use the people residing in the city are gradually becoming more vulnerable to the geohazards in the past decades. The city condition at present has raised issues of grave concern related to effective hazard management. It is observed that geoscientific approach is violated at many places in the urban developmental activities along the central spine, the National Highway-52A of the capital city. There is an urgent need of geoscientists to apprise the urban populace about land suitability and stability in terms of rock types, soil, slope, geomorphology, groundwater condition etc. and the vulnerability of the existing urban land use to landslides, flood, soil erosion and earthquakes. In this paper major issue, critical issues and elements at risk are discussed in the context of ethics in geohazard management and developmental planning for urban disaster resilience governance in a changing climate.

  13. Futures Analysis of Urban Land Use and Wetland Change in Saskatoon, Canada: An Application in Strategic Environmental Assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anton Sizo

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a scenario-based approach to strategic environmental assessment (SEA for wetland trend analysis and land use and land cover (LUC modeling in an urban environment. The application is focused on the Saskatoon urban environment, a rapidly growing urban municipality in Canada’s prairie pothole region. Alternative future LUC was simulated using remote sensing data and city spatial planning documentation using a Markov Chain technique. Two alternatives were developed and compared for LUC change and threats to urban wetland sustainability: a zero alternative that simulated trends in urban development and wetland conservation under a business as usual scenario, in the absence of prescribed planning and zoning actions; and an alternative focused on implementation of current urban development plans, which simulated future LUC to account for prescribed wetland conservation strategies. Results show no improvement in future wetland conditions under the city’s planned growth and wetland conservation scenario versus the business as usual scenario. Results also indicate that a blanket wetland conservation strategy for the city may not be sufficient to overcome the historic trend of urban wetland loss; and that spatially distributed conservation rates, based on individual wetland water catchment LUC peculiarities, may be more effective in terms of wetland conservation. The paper also demonstrates the challenges to applied SEA in a rapidly changing urban planning context, where data are often sparse and inconsistent across the urban region, and provides potential solutions through LUC classification and prediction tools to help overcome data limitations to support land use planning decisions for wetland conservation.

  14. Utilization of multi-temporal landsat imagery for analyzing land Use/Cover changes and urban expansion of Nakhon Rachasima City

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prach Sangthongwattanakul

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available One of important causes to climate change is land use/ land cover changes due to their important role in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which directly relate to a solution to the problem of global warming. Analysis of land use/ land cover changes is thus very important for developing countries such as Thailand, especially to study the trend of land use/land cover changes that can be used for investigation of theirs driving forces. In addition, during these four decades, land use/cover in Nakhon Ratchasima city, a metropolitan city in Northeastern Thailand, has been rapidly changes because of rapid economical growth together with its location situated in the central of Northeastern Thailand. This study aims to determine land use/cover changes pattern of the Nakhon Ratchasima city. We employed unsupervised classification approach coupled with GIS analyses was employed to generate land use/cover maps for 1972, 2002 and 2013 with four classes; vegetated areas, settlement areas, barelands and water resoures. The results indicate that urban areas have increased based on economic and population growth as well as road network extension and consequently the urban growth affected environmental conditions. In the study, with multi-temporal Landsat data, we successfully used remote sensing techniques together with information technology as a tool for effectively monitoring urban growth.

  15. Characterization of salinity and selenium loading and land-use change in Montrose Arroyo, western Colorado, from 1992 to 2010

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Jennifer L.

    2011-01-01

    Salinity and selenium are naturally occurring and perva-sive in the lower Gunnison River Basin of Colorado, includ-ing the watershed of Montrose Arroyo. Although some of the salinity and selenium loading in the Montrose Arroyo study area is from natural sources, additional loading has resulted from the introduction of intensive irrigation in the water-shed. With increasing land-use change and the conversion from irrigated agricultural to urban land, land managers and stakeholders need information about the long-term effects of land-use change on salinity and selenium loading. In response to the need to advance salinity and selenium science, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum, and Colorado River Water Conservation District, developed a study to characterize salinity and selenium loading and how salinity and selenium sources may relate to land-use change in Montrose Arroyo. This report characterizes changes in salinity and selenium loading to Montrose Arroyo from March 1992 to February 2010 and the magnitude of land-use change between unirrigated desert, irrigated agricultural, and urban land-use/land-cover types, and discusses how the respective loads may relate to land-use change. Montrose Arroyo is an approximately 8-square-mile watershed in Montrose County in western Colorado. Salinity and selenium were studied in Montrose Arroyo in a 2001 study as part of a salinity- and selenium-control lateral project. The robust nature of the historical dataset indicated that Montrose Arroyo was a prime watershed for a follow-up study. Two sites from the 2001 study were used to monitor salinity and selenium loads in Montrose Arroyo in the follow-up study. Over the period of 2 water years and respective irrigation seasons (2008-2010), 27 water-quality samples were collected and streamflow measurements were made at the historical sites MA2 and MA4. Salinity and selenium concen-trations, loads

  16. Change in Environmental Benefits of Urban Land Use and Its Drivers in Chinese Cities, 2000–2010

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Xiaoqing; Chang, Kang-tsung; Yang, Liang; Scheffran, Jürgen

    2016-01-01

    Driven by rising income and urban population growth, China has experienced rapid urban expansion since the 1980s. Urbanization can have positive effects on the urban environment; however, improvement of urban environment quality, especially its divergence between relatively developed and undeveloped cities in China, is currently a rather rudimentary and subjective issue. This study analyzed urban environmental benefits among China’s prefectural cities based on their structure of urban land use in 2000 and 2010. First, we divided 347 prefectural cities into two groups, 81 coastal and capital cities in the relatively developed group (RD) and 266 other prefectural cities in the undeveloped group (RP). Then, we defined three areas of urban environmental benefits, including green infrastructure, industrial upgrade, and environmental management, and developed an assessment index system. Results showed that all prefectural cities saw improvement in urban environmental quality in 2000–2010. Although the RD cities had higher income and more population growth, they had less improvement than the RP cities during the same period. We also found that demographic and urban land agglomeration among RD cities restrained green infrastructure expansion, making green infrastructure unsuitable as a permanent solution to environmental improvement. It is therefore urgent for China to promote balanced improvement among the three areas of urban environmental benefits and between the RD and RP cities through regional differentiation policies. PMID:27240386

  17. Urban land takeup and the potential for a crisis in the real estate regime

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariana Giaretto

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available Urban land takeups have become one of the main problems in Latin American cities within the last twenty years. From a social and critical perspective, the task at hand is double: to discredit common sense views considering take ups are crime offences and fostering poverty criminalization and, at the same time, to critically analyze the relations between the State and the individuals involved in land take ups, so that we may understand the complexity of this problem.By analysing some interviews to individuals involved in social conflicts in the framework of urban land take ups —both by grassroots sectors and municipal officers, and by secondary sources—, to review varied concrete experiences in the city of Cipolletti (Argentina is proposed, focusing in State intervention forms and discussing whether they are or they are not the sign of a structural crisis within the capitalist property regime under new accumulation conditions.

  18. A technical review of urban land use - transportation models as tools for evaluating vehicle travel reduction strategies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Southworth, F.

    1995-07-01

    The continued growth of highway traffic in the United States has led to unwanted urban traffic congestion as well as to noticeable urban air quality problems. These problems include emissions covered by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) and 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), as well as carbon dioxide and related {open_quotes}greenhouse gas{close_quotes} emissions. Urban travel also creates a major demand for imported oil. Therefore, for economic as well as environmental reasons, transportation planning agencies at both the state and metropolitan area level are focussing a good deal of attention on urban travel reduction policies. Much discussed policy instruments include those that encourage fewer trip starts, shorter trip distances, shifts to higher-occupancy vehicles or to nonvehicular modes, and shifts in the timing of trips from the more to the less congested periods of the day or week. Some analysts have concluded that in order to bring about sustainable reductions in urban traffic volumes, significant changes will be necessary in the way our households and businesses engage in daily travel. Such changes are likely to involve changes in the ways we organize and use traffic-generating and-attracting land within our urban areas. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the ability of current analytic methods and models to support both the evaluation and possibly the design of such vehicle travel reduction strategies, including those strategies involving the reorganization and use of urban land. The review is organized into three sections. Section 1 describes the nature of the problem we are trying to model, Section 2 reviews the state of the art in operational urban land use-transportation simulation models, and Section 3 provides a critical assessment of such models as useful urban transportation planning tools. A number of areas are identified where further model development or testing is required.

  19. Assessing development pressure in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: an evaluation of two land-use change models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Claggett, Peter R; Jantz, Claire A; Goetz, Scott J; Bisland, Carin

    2004-06-01

    Natural resource lands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are increasingly susceptible to conversion into developed land uses, particularly as the demand for residential development grows. We assessed development pressure in the Baltimore-Washington, DC region, one of the major urban and suburban centers in the watershed. We explored the utility of two modeling approaches for forecasting future development trends and patterns by comparing results from a cellular automata model, SLEUTH (slope, land use, excluded land, urban extent, transportation), and a supply/demand/allocation model, the Western Futures Model. SLEUTH can be classified as a land-cover change model and produces projections on the basis of historic trends of changes in the extent and patterns of developed land and future land protection scenarios. The Western Futures Model derives forecasts from historic trends in housing units, a U.S. Census variable, and exogenously supplied future population projections. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses, and combining the two has advantages and limitations.

  20. Geospatial analysis of land use and water interaction in the peri-urban area of Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua. A socio-environmental study in northern Mexico

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rolando Enrique Díaz Caravantes

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available For decades, city growth has been considered only in terms of land availability. In cities of northern Mexico, usually located in arid or semi-arid regions, there is a high dependence on groundwater. For this reason, comprehensive planning urban must consider the peri-urban area not only in terms of soil, but also groundwater. Water transfer for urban use produces severe alterations to the natural environment as aquifer depletion and drastic changes in land use/cover. This paper presents a spatial analysis of land use and water in the peri-urban area of Ciudad Cuauhtémoc. Using geographic modeling and remote sensing we assessed the dynamics of land use/cover. The results indicate that land change processes occur in a context of high competition for water between different users. This process is not usually considered in studies measuring urban spatial expansion, but should be considered to fully understand the effects of urban growth in the territory.

  1. Spatiotemporal Analysis of Urban Land Cover Changes in Kigali, Rwanda Using Multitemporal Landsat Data and Landscape Metrics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mugiraneza, T.; Haas, J.; Ban, Y.

    2017-11-01

    Mapping urbanization and ensuing environmental impacts using satellite data combined with landscape metrics has become a hot research topic. The objectives of the study are to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of urbanization patterns of Kigali, Rwanda over the last three decades (from 1984 to 2015) using multitemporal Landsat data and to assess the associated environmental impact using landscape metrics. Landsat images, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) variance texture and digital elevation model (DEM) data were classified using a support vector machine (SVM). Eight landscape indices were derived from classified images for urbanization environment impact assessment. Seven land cover classes were derived with an overall accuracy exceeding 88 % with Kappa Coefficients around 0.8. As most prominent changes, cropland was reduced considerably in favour of built-up areas that increased from 2,349 ha to 11,579 ha between 1984 and 2015. During those 31 years, the increased number of patches in most land cover classes illustrated landscape fragmentation, especially for forest. The landscape configuration indices demonstrate that in general the land cover pattern remained stable for cropland but it was highly changed in built-up areas. Satellite-based analysis and quantification of urbanization and its effects using landscape metrics are found to be interesting for grassroots and provide a cost-effective method for urban information production. This information can be used for e.g. potential design and implementation of early warning systems that cater for urbanization effects.

  2. SPATIALLY EXPLICIT MICRO-LEVEL MODELLING OF LAND USE CHANGE AT THE RURAL-URBAN INTERFACE. (R828012)

    Science.gov (United States)

    This paper describes micro-economic models of land use change applicable to the rural–urban interface in the US. Use of a spatially explicit micro-level modelling approach permits the analysis of regional patterns of land use as the aggregate outcomes of many, disparate...

  3. Sustainable Land Development In An Urban Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kauko Tom

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available It can be argued that sustainable urban land development depends on the long-term viability and management success of local economic development. It can be further argued that here, economic sustainability is the key. This would furthermore signify a paradigm change to long-term administrative behavior (via an institutional approach, long-term market behavior (heterodox economics approach, and human behavior in actors’ consumption and location choices (behavioral approach. This article examines two criteria within this discourse: innovativeness and social cohesion. In doing so, it proposes a framework for empirical analysis where it is suggested that western, post-socialist and low developed cases choose different strategies due to their different starting points.

  4. Variations of Near Surface Energy Balance Caused by Land Cover Changes in the Semiarid Grassland Area of China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qun’ou Jiang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This study applies the Dynamics of Land System (DLS model to simulating the land cover under the designed scenarios and then analyzes the effects of land cover conversion on energy flux in the semiarid grassland area of China with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF model. The results indicate that the grassland will show a steadily upgrowing trend under the coordinated environmental sustainability (CES scenario. Compared to the CES scenario, the rate of increase in grassland cover is lower, while the rate of increase in urban land cover will be higher under the rapid economic growth (REG scenario. Although the conversion from cropland to grassland will reduce the energy flux, the expansion of urban area and decreasing of forestry area will bring about more energy flux. As a whole, the energy flux of near surface will obviously not change under the CES scenario, and the climate therefore will not be possible to be influenced greatly by land cover change. The energy flux under the REG scenario is higher than that under the CES scenario. Those research conclusions can offer valuable information for the land use planning and climate change adaptation in the semiarid grassland area of China.

  5. [Spatial scale effect of urban land use landscape pattern in Shanghai City].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Li-Hua; Yue, Wen Ze; Cao, Yu

    2007-12-01

    Based on geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) techniques, the landscape classes of urban land use in Shanghai City were extracted from SPOT images with 5 m spatial resolution in 2002, and then, the classified data were applied to quantitatively explore the change patterns of several basic landscape metrics at different scales. The results indicated that landscape metrics were sensitive to grain- and extent variance. Urban landscape pattern was spatially dependent. In other words, different landscape metrics showed different responses to scale. The resolution of 40 m was an intrinsic observing scale for urban landscape in Shanghai City since landscape metrics showed random characteristics while the grain was less than 40 m. The extent of 24 km was a symbol scale in a series of extents, which was consistent with the boundary between urban built-up area and suburban area in Shanghai City. As a result, the extent of 12 km away from urban center would be an intrinsic handle scale for urban landscape in Shanghai City. However, due to the complexity of urban structure and asymmetry of urban spatial expansion, the intrinsic handle scale was not regular extent, and the square with size of 24 km was just an approximate intrinsic extent for Shanghai City.

  6. Dynamic modelling of future land use change under urbanization and climate change pressures: application to a case study in central Belgium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacquemin, I.; Fontaine, C. M.; Dendoncker, N.; François, L.; De Vreese, R.; Marek, A.; Mortelmans, D.; Van Herzele, A.; Devillet, G.

    2012-04-01

    version of the model developed for natural vegetation has been upgraded to include crop systems and pastures. The ABM (Murray-Rust, Journal of Land Use Science, 6(2-3):83-99, 2011) describes the management choices (e.g., crop rotation, intensive agriculture or organic farming, etc) for each land plot, as well as the possible change in their affectation (e.g., conversion of farm fields to residential areas in response to urbanization), under different socio-economic contexts described in the storyline of three scenarios depicting general societal orientations (business-as-usual; market oriented; sustainability oriented). As a result, the ABM produces a dynamic evolution of land use and management options to be passed on to the DVM for further analysis. The outputs from the DVM allow evaluating quantitatively the provision of EGS by each land plot. This DVM-ABM modelling tool is thus able to describe the future evolution of land use and land cover, as well as of EGS production, in the context of socio-economic scenarios. The model is applied to a case study area covering four municipalities located in central Belgium close to Brussels and Leuven. The area is mostly composed of agricultural fields (crops and meadows), residential areas and a large protected forest (Meerdaalbos) and is subject to intense urbanization pressure due to the proximity to Brussels.

  7. Urbanization in the US: land use trends, impacts on forest area, projections, and policy considerations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ralph Alig

    2010-01-01

    Since World War II, socio-economic drivers of US urbanization such as population totals and personal income levels have increased substantially. Human land use is the primary force driving changes in forest ecosystem attributes including forest area, which is the focus of this paper. The percentage of the US population residing in urban areas is higher than that in...

  8. The effects of China's Sloping Land Conversion Program on agricultural households

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Zhen; Henningsen, Arne

    2016-01-01

    In the late 1990s, China aimed to mitigate environmental degradation from agricultural production activities by introducing the world's largest "Payments for Environmental Services" program: the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP). We develop a microeconomic Agricultural Household Model, which...... nonfarm labor supply and total consumption in some regions, these effects could not be observed in others. The recent reduction of the SLCP compensation payment rates generally had negligible effects on agricultural production and off-farm work and only very small effects on household consumption....

  9. Meter-scale Urban Land Cover Mapping for EPA EnviroAtlas Using Machine Learning and OBIA Remote Sensing Techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pilant, A. N.; Baynes, J.; Dannenberg, M.; Riegel, J.; Rudder, C.; Endres, K.

    2013-12-01

    US EPA EnviroAtlas is an online collection of tools and resources that provides geospatial data, maps, research, and analysis on the relationships between nature, people, health, and the economy (http://www.epa.gov/research/enviroatlas/index.htm). Using EnviroAtlas, you can see and explore information related to the benefits (e.g., ecosystem services) that humans receive from nature, including clean air, clean and plentiful water, natural hazard mitigation, biodiversity conservation, food, fuel, and materials, recreational opportunities, and cultural and aesthetic value. EPA developed several urban land cover maps at very high spatial resolution (one-meter pixel size) for a portion of EnviroAtlas devoted to urban studies. This urban mapping effort supported analysis of relations among land cover, human health and demographics at the US Census Block Group level. Supervised classification of 2010 USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) digital aerial photos produced eight-class land cover maps for several cities, including Durham, NC, Portland, ME, Tampa, FL, New Bedford, MA, Pittsburgh, PA, Portland, OR, and Milwaukee, WI. Semi-automated feature extraction methods were used to classify the NAIP imagery: genetic algorithms/machine learning, random forest, and object-based image analysis (OBIA). In this presentation we describe the image processing and fuzzy accuracy assessment methods used, and report on some sustainability and ecosystem service metrics computed using this land cover as input (e.g., carbon sequestration from USFS iTREE model; health and demographics in relation to road buffer forest width). We also discuss the land cover classification schema (a modified Anderson Level 1 after the National Land Cover Data (NLCD)), and offer some observations on lessons learned. Meter-scale urban land cover in Portland, OR overlaid on NAIP aerial photo. Streets, buildings and individual trees are identifiable.

  10. Rural Districts between Urbanization and Land Abandonment: Undermining Long-Term Changes in Mediterranean Landscapes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ilaria Zambon

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The present study investigates changes in the rural landscapes of a Mediterranean country (Greece over a long time period (1970–2015 encompassing economic expansions and recessions. Using a spatial distribution of 5 basic agricultural land-use classes (arable land, garden crop, vineyards, tree crop and fallow land derived from official statistics at 6 years (1970, 1979, 1988, 1997, 2006, 2015, a quantitative analysis based on correlation and multivariate techniques was carried out to identify recent changes in the Greek agricultural landscape at prefectural level during different economic waves. Empirical results evidenced both intuitive and counter-intuitive landscape transformations, including: (i a progressive, spatially-homogeneous reduction of cropland; (ii a (more or less rapid decrease in the surface of high-input crops, including arable land, horticulture and vineyards; (iii a parallel increase in the surface of tree crops, especially olive; (iv a spatially-heterogeneous decrease of fallow land concentrated in metropolitan and tourism districts, especially in the last decade; and, finally, (v increasingly diversified landscapes in rural, accessible areas close to the sea coast. Based on a correlation analysis with background socioeconomic indicators, our findings reflect the multiple impacts of urbanization and land abandonment on the composition and diversity of rural landscapes. Changes in agricultural land-use were moulded by multiple drivers depending on latent transformations in rural systems and inherent conflicts with expanding urban regions. Together with market conditions and the Common Agricultural Policy subsidy regime, social contexts and the economic cycle are important when identifying long-term changes in agricultural landscapes, especially in transitional socio-ecological systems.

  11. Changing man-land interrelations in China's farming area under urbanization and its implications for food security.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, Hualou; Ge, Dazhuan; Zhang, Yingnan; Tu, Shuangshuang; Qu, Yi; Ma, Li

    2018-03-01

    The Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (HHH) is typical of China's farming area, and was predicted as one of the fastest growing areas of urbanization in the world. Since the turn of the new millennium, construction land and farmland transitions in this region driven by rapid urbanization have resulted in dramatic loss of farmland, which triggered a serious threat to regional even national food security. In this paper, the coupling relationships between per capita construction land transition (PCCT) and per capita farmland transition (PCFT) in the HHH and their implications for regional food security are analyzed. During 2000-2015, the farmland decreased by 8.59%, 72.25% of which were occupied by construction land. There are two major coupling types between PCCT and PCFT, one is the double increasing of per capita construction land area (PCCA) and per capita farmland area (PCFA); another is the increasing of PCCA and the decreasing of PCFA. The fluctuant increasing of PCCT and decreasing of PCFT coexisted and presented symmetrical coupling characteristics in space. Physical, location, transportation and socio-economic factors play significantly different roles in driving PCCT and PCFT. The implications for ensuring food security involve promoting the reclamation and redevelopment of inefficient and unused urban-rural construction land, reducing inefficient occupation of farmland resources, developing appropriate scale management of agriculture, and establishing a better social security system to smoothly settle down the floating rural population in the city. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Geographically explicit urban land use change scenarios for Mega cities: a case study in Tokyo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamagata, Y.; Bagan, H.; Seya, H.; Nakamichi, K.

    2010-12-01

    In preparation for the IPCC 5th assessment report, the international modeling community is developing four Representative Concentration Paths employing the scenarios developed by four different Integrated Assessment Models. These RCPs will be employed as an input to climate models, such as Earth System Models. In these days, the importance of assessment of not only global but also local (city/zone level) impacts of global change has gradually been recognized, thereby downscaling climate models are one of the urgent problems to be solved. Needless to say, reliable downscaling requires spatially high resolution land use change scenarios. So far, there has been proposed a lot of methods for constructing land use change scenarios with considering economic behavior of human, such as agent-based model (e.g., Parker et al., 2001), and land use transport (LUT) model (e.g., Anas and Liu, 2007). The latter approach in particular has widely been applied to actual urban/transport policy; hence modeling the interaction between them is very important for creating reliable land use change scenarios. However, the LUT models are usually built based on the zones of cities/municipalities whose spatial resolutions are too low to derive sensible parameters of the climate models. Moreover, almost all of the works which attempt to build spatially high resolution LUT model employs very small regions as the study area. The objective of this research is deriving various input parameters to climate models such as population density, fractional green vegetation cover, and anthropogenic heat emission with spatially high resolution land use change scenarios constructed with LUT model. The study area of this research is Tokyo metropolitan area, which is the largest urban area in the world (United Nations., 2010). Firstly, this study employs very high ground resolution zones composed of micro districts around 1km2. Secondly, the research attempt to combine remote sensing techniques and LUT models

  13. Linking Land Use Changes to Surface Water Quality Variability in Lake Victoria: Some Insights From Remote Sensing (GC41B-1101)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Limaye, Ashutosh; Mugo, Robinson; Wanjohi, James; Farah, Hussein; Wahome, Anastasia; Flores, Africa; Irwin, Dan

    2016-01-01

    Various land use changes driven by urbanization, conversion of grasslands and woodlands into farmlands, intensification of agricultural practices, deforestation, land fragmentation and degradation are taking place in Africa. In Kenya, agriculture is the main driver of land use conversions. The impacts of these land use changes are observable in land cover maps, and eventually in the hydrological systems. Reduction or change of natural vegetation cover types increases the speed of surface runoff and reduces water and nutrient retention capacities. This can lead to high nutrient inputs into lakes, resulting in eutrophication, siltation and infestation of floating aquatic vegetation. To assess if changes in land use could be contributing to increased phytoplankton blooms and sediment loads into Lake Victoria, we analyzed land use land cover data from Landsat, as well as surface chlorophyll-a and total suspended matter from MODIS-Aqua sensor.

  14. EnviroAtlas - Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2010)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN EnviroAtlas Meter-scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) data were generated from four-band (red, green, blue, and near infrared) aerial...

  15. Impact of urbanization on the sediment yield in tropical watershed using temporal land-use changes and a GIS-based model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bello Al-Amin D.

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Abundant rainfall areas promote sediment yield at both sub-watershed and watershed scale due to soil erosion and increase siltation of river channel, but it can be curtailed through planned urbanization. The urbanization of Skudai watershed is analysed from historical and future perspective. A GIS-based model (Hydrological Simulation Programme-FORTRAN-HSPF is used to modelled sediment flow using basin-wide simulation, and the output result is utilized in evaluating sediment yield reduction due to increased urbanization by swapping multiple temporal land-use of decadent time-steps. The analysis indicates that sediment yield reduces with increase urban built-up and decrease forest and agricultural land. An estimated 12 400 tons of sediment will be reduced for every 27% increase in built-up areas under high rainfall condition and 1 490 tons at low rainfall. The sensitivity analysis of land-use classes shows that built-up, forest and barren are more sensitive to sediment yield reduction compared to wetland and agricultural land at both high and low rainfall. The result of the study suggests that increased urbanization reduced sediment yield in proportion to the rainfall condition and can be used as an alternative approach for soil conservation at watershed scale independent of climate condition.

  16. Assessing the Impact of Land Use Policy on Urban-Rural Sustainability Using the FoPIA Approach in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junun Sartohadi

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of a sustainability impact assessment (SIA of policy induced land use changes in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The regional problems include rapid expansions of urban areas, due to high population pressure, and the conversion of paddy fields and forests into settlements. The objective of this study was to assess the impacts of two land use policies on social, economic, and environmental Land Use Functions (LUFs in Yogyakarta. The following scenarios were developed for the SIA: a forest protection scenario (S1, a paddy field conservation scenario (S2, and a counterfactual (no policy scenario of ‘Business As Usual’ (BAU. The Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA was applied to conduct an expert-based impact assessment. For the specification of the regional sustainability context, a set of nine key LUFs and associated indicators were developed, including three social, three economic, and three environmental sustainability criteria. The resulting scenario impacts of the assessment differed considerably, with positive impacts of the S1 and S2 scenarios on seven of nine LUFs, and negative impacts of the BAU scenario on six LUFs. The perception of the FoPIA method by the regional stakeholders was positive. We conclude that this method contributes toward an enhanced regional understanding of policy effects and sustainability, particularly in data-poor environments.

  17. Greenhouse gas emissions during plantation stage of palm oil-based biofuel production addressing different land conversion scenarios in Malaysia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kusin, Faradiella Mohd; Akhir, Nurul Izzati Mat; Mohamat-Yusuff, Ferdaus; Awang, Muhamad

    2017-02-01

    The environmental impacts with regard to agro-based biofuel production have been associated with the impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this study, field GHG emissions during plantation stage of palm oil-based biofuel production associated with land use changes for oil palm plantation development have been evaluated. Three different sites of different land use changes prior to oil palm plantation were chosen; converted land-use (large and small-scales) and logged-over forest. Field sampling for determination of soil N-mineralisation and soil organic carbon (SOC) was undertaken at the sites according to the age of palm, i.e. 21 years (mature oil palms). The field data were incorporated into the estimation of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and the resulting CO 2 -eq emissions as well as for estimation of carbon stock changes. Irrespective of the land conversion scenarios, the nitrous oxide emissions were found in the range of 6.47-7.78 kg N 2 O-N/ha resulting in 498-590 kg CO 2 -eq/ha. On the other hand, the conversion of tropical forest into oil palm plantation has resulted in relatively higher GHG emissions (i.e. four times higher and carbon stock reduction by >50%) compared to converted land use (converted rubber plantation) for oil palm development. The conversion from previously rubber plantation into oil palm plantation would increase the carbon savings (20% in increase) thus sustaining the environmental benefits from the palm oil-based biofuel production.

  18. An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 Thematic Mapper data for the classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quattrochi, D. A.; Anderson, J. E.; Brannon, D. P.; Hill, C. L.

    1982-01-01

    An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 thematic mapper (TM) data for the delineation and classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers was conducted. A study area in Poinsett County, Arkansas was used to evaluate a classification of agricultural lands derived from multitemporal LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) data in comparison with a classification of TM data for the same area. Data over Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee were utilized to evaluate the TM for delineating forested wetland species. A classification of the study area was assessed for accuracy in discriminating five forested wetland categories. Finally, the TM data were used to identify urban features within a small city. A computer generated classification of Union City, Tennessee was analyzed for accuracy in delineating urban land covers. An evaluation of digitally enhanced TM data using principal components analysis to facilitate photointerpretation of urban features was also performed.

  19. Trees and the City: Diversity and Composition along a Neotropical Gradient of Urbanization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rubén Ortega-Álvarez

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available In this study we assessed tree species richness, density, and composition patterns along a gradient of urbanization of a megacity. Our results show that total, native, and exotic tree densities were highest in green areas where larger spaces are considered for greening purposes. Conversely, total, native, and exotic tree species richness were highest in land uses with intermediate levels of urban development (residential, residential-commercial areas. Not finding highest tree species richness in less developed urban areas suggests that cultural factors may shape the array of species that are planted within cities. Supporting this, tree composition analyses showed that green areas are comprised of different tree species when compared to the rest of the studied urban land uses. Thus, our results suggest that, to increase the ecological quality of cities, residents and managers should be encouraged to select a greater variety of trees to promote heterogeneous green areas.

  20. Impacts of Changing Climate, Hydrology and Land Use on the Stormwater Runoff of Urbanizing Central Florida

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huq, E.; Abdul-Aziz, O. I.

    2017-12-01

    We computed the historical and future storm runoff scenarios for the Shingle Creek Basin, including the growing urban centers of central Florida (e.g., City of Orlando). Storm Water Management Model (SWMM 5.1) of US EPA was used to develop a mechanistic hydrologic model for the basin by incorporating components of urban hydrology, hydroclimatological variables, and land use/cover features. The model was calibrated and validated with historical streamflow of 2004-2013 near the outlet of the Shingle Creek. The calibrated model was used to compute the sensitivities of stormwater budget to reference changes in hydroclimatological variables (rainfall and evapotranspiration) and land use/cover features (imperviousness, roughness). Basin stormwater budgets for the historical (2010s = 2004-2013) and future periods (2050s = 2030-2059; 2080s = 2070-2099) were also computed based on downscaled climatic projections of 20 GCMs-RCMs representing the coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP5), and anticipated changes in land use/cover. The sensitivity analyses indicated the dominant drivers of urban runoff in the basin. Comparative assessment of the historical and future stormwater runoff scenarios helped to locate basin areas that would be at a higher risk of future stormwater flooding. Importance of the study lies in providing valuable guidelines for managing stormwater flooding in central Florida and similar growing urban centers around the world.

  1. EnviroAtlas - Cleveland, OH - Meter-Scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) Data (2011 and 2013)

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Cleveland, OH EnviroAtlas Meter-scale Urban Land Cover (MULC) dataset comprises 2,737 km2 around the city of Cleveland and portions of surrounding counties. The...

  2. Delineating Urban Fringe Area by Land Cover Information Entropy—An Empirical Study of Guangzhou-Foshan Metropolitan Area, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junyi Huang

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Rapid urbanization has caused many environmental problems, such as the heat island effect, intensifying air pollution, pollution from runoff, loss of wildlife habitat, etc. Accurate evaluations of these problems demand an accurate delineation of the spatial extent of the urban fringe. Conceptual and analytical ambiguity of the urban fringe and a general lack of consensus among researchers have made its measurement very difficult. This study reports a compound and reliable method to delineate the urban fringe area using a case study. Based on the 'fringe effect' theory in landscape ecology, the existing land cover information entropy model for defining the urban fringe is renewed by incorporating scale theory, cartography and urban geography theory. Results show that the urban fringe area of Guangzhou and Foshan metropolitan area covers an area of 2031 km2, and it occupies over 31% of the total study area. Result evaluation by industry structure data shows satisfactory correspondence with different land cover types. This paper reports the method and outcome of an attempt to provide an objective, repeatable and generally applicable method for mapping its spatial extent from remote sensing imageries, and could be beneficial to relevant urban studies and urban fringe management projects.

  3. Modelling Urban Sprawl Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case Study of Chennai City, Tamilnadu

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rajchandar Padmanaban

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Urban sprawl (US, propelled by rapid population growth leads to the shrinkage of productive agricultural lands and pristine forests in the suburban areas and, in turn, adversely affects the provision of ecosystem services. The quantification of US is thus crucial for effective urban planning and environmental management. Like many megacities in fast growing developing countries, Chennai, the capital of Tamilnadu and one of the business hubs in India, has experienced extensive US triggered by the doubling of total population over the past three decades. However, the extent and level of US has not yet been quantified and a prediction for future extent of US is lacking. We employed the Random Forest (RF classification on Landsat imageries from 1991, 2003, and 2016, and computed six landscape metrics to delineate the extent of urban areas within a 10 km suburban buffer of Chennai. The level of US was then quantified using Renyi’s entropy. A land change model was subsequently used to project land cover for 2027. A 70.35% expansion in urban areas was observed mainly towards the suburban periphery of Chennai between 1991 and 2016. The Renyi’s entropy value for year 2016 was 0.9, exhibiting a two-fold level of US when compared to 1991. The spatial metrics values indicate that the existing urban areas became denser and the suburban agricultural, forests and particularly barren lands were transformed into fragmented urban settlements. The forecasted land cover for 2027 indicates a conversion of 13,670.33 ha (16.57% of the total landscape of existing forests and agricultural lands into urban areas with an associated increase in the entropy value to 1.7, indicating a tremendous level of US. Our study provides useful metrics for urban planning authorities to address the social-ecological consequences of US and to protect ecosystem services.

  4. Optimal Decision Fusion for Urban Land-Use/Land-Cover Classification Based on Adaptive Differential Evolution Using Hyperspectral and LiDAR Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yanfei Zhong

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Hyperspectral images and light detection and ranging (LiDAR data have, respectively, the high spectral resolution and accurate elevation information required for urban land-use/land-cover (LULC classification. To combine the respective advantages of hyperspectral and LiDAR data, this paper proposes an optimal decision fusion method based on adaptive differential evolution, namely ODF-ADE, for urban LULC classification. In the ODF-ADE framework the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM and digital surface model (DSM are extracted to form the feature map. The three different classifiers of the maximum likelihood classifier (MLC, support vector machine (SVM and multinomial logistic regression (MLR are used to classify the extracted features. To find the optimal weights for the different classification maps, weighted voting is used to obtain the classification result and the weights of each classification map are optimized by the differential evolution algorithm which uses a self-adaptive strategy to obtain the parameter adaptively. The final classification map is obtained after post-processing based on conditional random fields (CRF. The experimental results confirm that the proposed algorithm is very effective in urban LULC classification.

  5. Role of Urbanization, Land-Use Diversity, and Livestock Intensification in Zoonotic Emerging Infectious Diseases

    OpenAIRE

    Saksena, Sumeet; Fox, Jefferson; Epprecht, Michael; Tran, Chinh; Castrence, Miguel; Nong, Duong; Spencer, James; Lam, Nguyen; Finucane, Melissa; Duc Vien, Tran; Wilcox, Bruce

    2014-01-01

    Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) continue to significantly threaten human and animal health. While there has been some progress in identifying underlying proximal driving forces and causal mechanisms of disease emergence, the role of distal factors is most poorly understood. This article focuses on analyzing the statistical association between highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 and urbanization, land-use diversity and poultry intensification. A special form of the urban transiti...

  6. The evolution of urban sprawl: evidence of spatial heterogeneity and increasing land fragmentation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irwin, Elena G; Bockstael, Nancy E

    2007-12-26

    We investigate the dynamics and spatial distribution of land use fragmentation in a rapidly urbanizing region of the United States to test key propositions regarding the evolution of sprawl. Using selected pattern metrics and data from 1973 and 2000 for the state of Maryland, we find significant increases in developed and undeveloped land fragmentation but substantial spatial heterogeneity as well. Estimated fragmentation gradients that describe mean fragmentation as a function of distance from urban centers confirm the hypotheses that fragmentation rises and falls with distance and that the point of maximum fragmentation shifted outward over time. However, rather than outward increases in sprawl balanced by development infill, we find substantial and significant increases in mean fragmentation values along the entire urban-rural gradient. These findings are in contrast to the results of Burchfield et al. [Burchfield M, Overman HG, Puga D, Turner MA (2006) Q J Econ 121:587-633], who conclude that the extent of sprawl remained roughly unchanged in the Unites States between 1976 and 1992. As demonstrated here, both the data and pattern measure used in their study are systematically biased against recording low-density residential development, the very land use that we find is most strongly associated with fragmentation. Other results demonstrate the association between exurban growth and increasing fragmentation and the systematic variation of fragmentation with nonurban factors. In particular, proximity to the Chesapeake Bay is negatively associated with fragmentation, suggesting that an attraction effect associated with this natural amenity has concentrated development.

  7. Change in Urban Land Use and Associated Attributes in the Upper San Francisco Estuary, 1990-2006

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David M. Stoms

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Land use is an ultimate driver of many of the stressors on the Upper San Francisco Estuary, but the magnitude and pattern of land use change has not been analyzed. This paper attempts to fill this knowledge gap through a screening-level risk assessment. Urban land use was compared within hydrodynamic subregions in 1990, 2000, and 2006. Ancillary data were then used to quantify secondary measures such as impervious cover, housing density, road density and road crossings. Despite the rapid growth of the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Stockton metropolitan areas, the percentage of urban area and rates of change in the subregions are generally low to moderate when compared to other estuaries in the United States. The spatial data sets used in this analysis have been posted online to a public repository to be used by other researchers.

  8. Analysis of Changes in Land Use Patterns Pursuant to the Conversion of Agricultural Land to Non-Agricultural Use in the Context of the Sustainable Development of the Malopolska Region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malgorzata Busko

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This research paper presents the results of analyses that address the direction in which the issue of land use in Malopolska has been heading in recent years. The authors formulated the thesis that changes occurring in the use of agricultural land are advanced and, despite its legal protection, this land is continuously subjected to permanent conversion to non-agricultural use year by year. Verification of the thesis was carried out using taxonomic analyses. As a result, it was proven that as much as 68% of the land converted to non-agricultural use in the study period was earmarked for residential use. Importantly, as much as 19% of these areas are of the best quality classes, i.e., classes I and II, which account for a mere 7% of all agricultural land in Malopolska. Another 79% of the converted agricultural land belonged to the mid class, i.e., class III, which—at the time of writing—represents only 26% in the Malopolska Province. This data demonstrates that the best lands of the Malopolska Province, which belonged to classes I, II and III (i.e., top quality arable soils, were irreversibly degraded by their conversion to non-agricultural use. The paper proposes systemic solutions supporting the decision-making process of administrative bodies aimed at agricultural land protection.

  9. A study on the relationship between carbon budget and ecosystem service in urban areas according to urbanization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, S. J.; Lee, W. K.

    2017-12-01

    The study on the analysis of carbon storage capacity of urban green spaces with increasing urban forest. Modern cities have experienced rapid economic development since Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. The rapid economic growth caused an exponential concentration of population to the cities and decrease of green spaces due to the conversion of forest and agricultural lands to build-up areas with rapid urbanization. As green areas including forests, grasslands, and wetlands provide diverse economic, environmental, and cultural benefits, the decrease of green areas might be a huge loss. Also, the process of urbanization caused pressure on the urban environment more than its natural capacity, which accelerates global climate change. This study tries to see the relations between carbon budget and ecosystem services according to the urbanization. For calculating carbon dynamics, this study used VISIT(Vegetation Integrated Simulator for trace gases) model. And the value that ecosystem provides is explained with the concept of ecosystem service and calculated by InVEST model. Study sites are urban and peri-urban areas in Northeast Asia. From the result of the study, the effect of the urbanization can be understood in regard to carbon storage and ecosystem services.

  10. A novel land use approach for assessment of human health: The relationship between urban structure types and cardiorespiratory disease risk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Réquia Júnior, Weeberb João; Roig, Henrique Llacer; Koutrakis, Petros

    2015-12-01

    Extensive evidence shows that in addition to lifestyle factors, environmental aspects are an important risk factor for human health. Numerous approaches have been used to estimate the relationship between environment and health. For example, the urban characteristics, especially the types of land use, are considered a potential proxy indicator to evaluate risk of disease. Although several studies have used land use variables to assess human health, none of them has used the concept of Urban Morphology by Urban Structure Types (USTs) as indicators of land use. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between USTs and cardiorespiratory disease risks in the Federal District, Brazil. Toward this end, we used a quantile regression model to estimate risk. We used 21 types of UST. Income and population density were used as covariates in our sensitivity analysis. Our analysis showed an association between cardiorespiratory diseases risk and 10 UST variables (1 related to rural area, 6 related to residential area, 1 recreational area, 1 public area and 1 commercial area). Our findings suggest that the conventional land use method may be missing important information about the effect of land use on human health. The use of USTs can be an approach to complement the conventional method. This should be of interest to policy makers in order to enhance public health policies and to create future strategies in terms of urban planning, land use and environmental health. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Construction Land Expansion and Transfer of Gravity Center from 1984 to 2016 : A study on Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei Urban Agglomeration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lv, Jinxia; Jiang, Weiguo

    2017-04-01

    With the economic development and technological innovation, urban planning and construction has already broken through the shackles of the natural conditions such as topography and geomorphology, and the social factors such as politics and location have been affected by the urbanization process in the process of urbanization. At the same time, the synergies between urban development and local economy, national policy, industrial distribution and so on are also paid more attention. As the third pole of Chinese economy after the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolis Circle has attracted extensive attention on experts and scholars in its urban development and location. In recent years, studies on urban development have not only analyzed the spatial characteristics of urban or urban agglomerations, but also discussed the relationship between urban development and certain elements or phenomena. This paper presents a multi-threshold and multi-feature extraction method for building land using the optical characteristics of different landforms, based on Landsat remote sensing images from 1984 to 2016. The method selected Automated Water Extraction Index (AWEI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Extraction Index (SOEI) and Normalized Difference Built-up Index (BUEI) to extract the construction land. It is an example study area of Beijing to extract the construction land in 30 years and to do a examine research. Using the ArcGIS software to calculate, we can get the coordinates of the city center of gravity in Beijing in various years. It can be seen that the center of gravity of built-up area and the movement of the center of gravity in Beijing. The results showed that the construction land in Beijing has an increasing tendency in recent 30 years. The main characteristic of expansion is the way of high-speed outward development. From 1984 to 1999, the center of gravity of the city shifted to the northeast, and

  12. Peri-urban futures: Scenarios and models for land use change in Europe

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    on a pan-European level Has a conclusive didactic approach + text structure (e.g. inserts, boxes ...) Presently, peri-urbanisation is one of the most pervasive processes of land use change in Europe with strong impacts on both the environment and quality of life. It is a matter of great urgency...... to determine strategies and tools in support of sustainable development. The book synthesizes the results of PLUREL, a large European Commission funded research project (2007-2010). Tools and strategies of PLUREL address main challenges of managing land use in peri-urban areas. These results are presented...

  13. Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Spatial Determinants of Urban Growth in Suzhou, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ling Zhang

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyzes the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban growth and models its spatial determinants in China through a case study of Suzhou, a rapidly industrializing and globalizing city. We conducted spatial analysis on land use data derived from multi-temporal remote sensing images of Suzhou from 1986 to 2008. Three urban growth types, namely infilling, edge-expansion, and leapfrog, were identified. We used landscape metrics to quantify the temporal trend of urban growth in Suzhou. During these 22 years, Suzhou’s urbanization changed from bottom-up rural urbanization to city-based top-down urban expansion. The underlying mechanism changed from TVE (town village enterprise driven rural industrialization to FDI (foreign direct investment driven development zone fever. Furthermore, we employed both global and local logistic regressions to model the probability of urban land conversion against a set of spatial variables. The global logistic regression model found the significance of proximity, neighborhood conditions, and socioeconomic factors. The logistic geographically weighted regression (GWR model improved the global regression model with better model goodness-of-fit and higher prediction accuracy. More importantly, the local parameter estimates of variables enabled us to exam spatial variations of the influences of variables on urban growth in Suzhou.

  14. Sustainable Urban Development and Land Use Change—A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haiyan Zhang

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces a sustainability assessment method for the rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta in China addressing the role of land use pattern. We first calculated the sustainability component scores of 16 cities in the area in 2000 and 2005. The results showed that socioeconomic and environmental conditions improved while the performance of resource-use degraded from 2000 to 2005. We then made a spatial analysis of land use change (LUC using geographic information systems during 1990–2000. We found that diverse spatiotemporal transformation occurred among the cities and identified urban development cluster patterns and profiles based on development density. Finally, we examined the impact of LUC on sustainable urban development (SUD. Using regression techniques, we demonstrated that urbanization, infrastructure development, industrial structure and income significantly affected environmental performance and resource-use. These results suggest a moderate pace of LUC with steady economic growth being key to SUD.

  15. Factors Influencing Land Development and Redevelopment during China’s Rapid Urbanization: Evidence from Haikou City, 2003–2016

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tao Zhou

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Land development and redevelopment (LDR is essential to economic growth and the advancement of urbanization in urban China. Moreover, various factors affect LDR. Based on an investigation, during 2003–2016, which involves 420 parcels within a 2-km section of the Nandu River, Haikou city, this paper employs a logistic model, so as to judge the impact of LDR on these parcels, and then with an improved hedonic model, it sets out to explore the LDR influencing factors. Specifically, the results show that the impact mechanism of LDR in China is different from countries where economy is the main influencing force. Moreover, China’s urban land development results from the cooperation and competition between local government and enterprises, with a particular focus on multiple political and economic factors. Hence, the paper innovatively incorporates quantifiable political and property factors that significantly influence the results. Finally, the paper tries to explain the variance from macro-level government and micro-level enterprises perspectives. In conclusion, China’s land development requires cooperation among the government and enterprises, in order to improve the economic, social, and environmental benefits of land use.

  16. Modelling land-use effects of future urbanization using cellular automata

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fuglsang, Morten; Münier, B.; Hansen, H.S.

    2013-01-01

    project PASHMINA (Paradigm Shift modelling and innovative approaches), three storylines of future transportation paradigm shifts towards 2040 are created. These storylines are translated into spatial planning strategies and modelled using the cellular automata model LUCIA. For the modelling, an Eastern......The modelling of land use change is a way to analyse future scenarios by modelling different pathways. Application of spatial data of different scales coupled with socio-economic data makes it possible to explore and test the understanding of land use change relations. In the EU-FP7 research...... Danish case area was selected, comprising of the Copenhagen metropolitan area and its hinterland. The different scenarios are described using a range of different descriptive GIS datasets. These include mapping of accessibility based on public and private transportation, urban density and structure...

  17. Is urbanization eco-friendly? An energy and land use cross-country analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Long, X.; Ji, Xi; Ulgiati, S.

    2017-01-01

    Urbanization imposes complicated and heterogeneous impacts on ecosystems. With the purpose of reflecting the comprehensive influence of urbanization on the ecosystem, we choose the ecological footprint to represent the ecosystem's integrated change and distinguish low-income, middle-income and high-income countries to reflect the nonlinear impact. This paper uses both static and dynamic STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology) models to analyze 72 countries at different income levels during the 1980–2008 period. The results show that the overall ecological elasticity of urbanization at the global level is negative. Specifically, results suggest urbanization, associated to increased income, to have eco-friendly potential in terms of decreased ecological footprint. To explain such results, this paper answers two questions: Why does urbanization show ecological protection effects? Why does a more pronounced protection effect seem associated to increased income levels? Improved market mechanism, increased resource use efficiency as well as increased environmental awareness in urban areas associated to increased income levels are likely to support an eco-friendly urbanization process. Burden-shift to low-income countries also needs to be taken into account, in order to avoid policies that increase wellbeing locally at the expenses of far-away areas. - Highlights: • Ecological effects of urbanization are estimated. • Ecological footprint is used to represent the integrated change related to energy and land use. • Static and dynamic STIRPAT models are employed for regression. • The reasons for the ecological protection effect of urbanization are analyzed. • The heterogeneity of urban structure and function across income levels is discussed.

  18. Understanding the role of land use in urban stormwater quality management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goonetilleke, Ashantha; Thomas, Evan; Ginn, Simon; Gilbert, Dale

    2005-01-01

    Urbanisation significantly impacts water environments with increased runoff and the degradation of water quality. The management of quantity impacts are straight forward, but quality impacts are far more complex. Current approaches to safeguard water quality are largely ineffective and guided by entrenched misconceptions with a primary focus on 'end-of-pipe' solutions. The outcomes of a research study presented in the paper, which investigated relationships between water quality and six different land uses offer practical guidance in the planning of future urban developments. In terms of safeguarding water quality, high-density residential development which results in a relatively smaller footprint would be the preferred option. The research study outcomes bring into question a number of fundamental concepts and misconceptions routinely accepted in stormwater quality management. The research findings confirmed the need to move beyond customary structural measures and identified the key role that urban planning can play in safeguarding urban water environments.

  19. Scenarios Simulation of Spatio-Temporal Land Use Changes for Exploring Sustainable Management Strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Zhang

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Land use and land cover change have received considerable attention from global researchers in recent decades. The conflicts between different development strategies for land uses have become a problem that urgently needs to be solved, especially in those regions with a fragile ecological environment. The development of scenario simulations is essential in order to highlight possible alternative pathways for the future under the backgrounds of urbanization, economic growth and ecological protection. This study simulated land use changes for Tekes in 2020 with the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small regional extent (CLUE-S model under a ‘business as usual’ scenario, cropland protection scenario, ecological security scenario, and artificial modification scenario. The results indicated that the spatial patterns of the land use types were explained well by the environment variables, and the selected models had a satisfactory accuracy in this study. The requirements and the patterns were quite different owing to the variation of the major objectives of the four scenarios. In addition to the constraint rules of the land use transformation, the hot point for land use change was its spatial coherency. Areas near to an existing land use type were more likely to transform to that type than those farther away. The increased cropland and urban land were mainly located around the current cropland and urban land while forests and grassland were more likely to occur in places with flat terrain and good hydrological conditions. The results could contribute to better insight into the relationships between land use changes and their driving factors and provide a scientific basis for regional management strategies and sustainable land use development.

  20. Temporal Changes of Land Use Capability Classification Depending on the Urban Development: Case Study of Trabzon Province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colak, H. E.; Memisoglu, T.

    2017-11-01

    Achieving high efficiency by taking advantage of agricultural land at a high level allows the continued vitality of the soil and also contributes to the country's economy. The land with the most fertilizer from agricultural land is generally the first class agricultural land (I.) followed by second (II.) and third class (III.) agricultural lands. It is accepted that all these lands are considered to be protected and various restrictions have been introduced to these lands. Soil conservation, use and development of balanced is possible to be defined in detail by exploiting the developing science and technology possibilities, determination well-defined properties and the implementation of policies by making the necessary plans. For this reason, Trabzon province is selected as the pilot region land use capability of agricultural land classes (especially urban-rural area and plateau) ongoing changes in the past years until today are examined depending on the land use first, second and third class. In this context, satellite images for 2002, 2005, 2009 and 2017 and land use data including the non-agricultural use of the province of Trabzon has been discussed and the temporal changes of agricultural areas depending on land use capability have been examined using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In all the productive areas of Trabzon Province, the increase in urban-rural development has been examined in detail because of especially the creation of planned areas and the occurrence of construction needs. This study is a small-scale case study and the results are examined and analyzed using GIS.

  1. Detecting the effect of urban land use on extreme precipitation in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rahimpour Golroudbary, Vahid; Zeng, Y.; Mannaerts, C.M.; Su, Z.

    2017-01-01

    A notable increase in heavy precipitation has been observed over the Netherlands in recent decades. The aim of this study was to assess the influences of urban land use on these extreme precipitation patterns. Significant differences between an earlier multi-decadal period and a recent period were

  2. On Assessment and Estimation of Potential Losses due to Land Subsidence in Urban Areas of Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abidin, Hasanuddin Z.; Andreas, Heri; Gumilar, Irwan; Sidiq, Teguh P.

    2016-04-01

    Land subsidence is natural-anthropogenic hazard affecting several large urban areas in Indonesia, i.e. Jakarta, Bandung and Semarang. Geodetic based results from various techniques (e.g. Leveling, GPS and InSAR) show that land subsidence rates in all three cities generally have spatial and temporal variations, and their magnitude is in average about 5-10 cm/year. The impacts of subsidence in those cities can be seen in the field in various forms such as cracking of permanent constructions and roads, tilting of houses and buildings, 'sinking' of houses and buildings, changes in river canal and drain flow systems, wider expansion of coastal and/or inland flooding areas, and increased inland sea water intrusion. These impacts can be categorized into infrastructure, environmental, economic, and social impacts. The potential losses due to land subsidence in urban areas are actually quite significant. Related infrastructural, social and environmental costs due to direct and indirect impacts of land subsidence are economically quite significant, and can not be underestimated in sustainable urban development. The planning, development and maintenance costs of building and infrastructures in the affected areas are usually much higher than the normal situation. The collateral impact of coastal subsidence in Jakarta and Semarang, in the form of coastal flooding during high tides is also quite damaging. This repeated coastal flooding in several areas along the coast will deteriorate the structure and function of building and infrastructures, badly influences the quality of the living environment and life (e.g. health and sanitation condition), and also disrupts economic and social activities in the affected areas. As in the case of Bandung, inland subsidence also has a quite significant impact on inland flooding phenomena, since it will theoretically lead to expanded coverage and deeper water depth of flooded (inundated) areas. Since the direct and indirect impacts of

  3. China's land cover and land use change from 1700 to 2005: Estimations from high-resolution satellite data and historical archives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Mingliang; Tian, Hanqin

    2010-09-01

    One of the major limitations in assessing the impacts of human activities on global biogeochemical cycles and climate is a shortage of reliable data on historical land cover and land use change (LCLUC). China had extreme discrepancies in estimating contemporary and historical patterns of LCLUC over the last 3 centuries because of its geographical complexity, long history of land use, and limited national surveys. This study aims to characterize the spatial and temporal patterns of China's LCLUC during 1700-2005 by reconstructing historical gridded data sets from high-resolution satellite data and long-term historical survey data. During this 300 year period, the major characteristics of LCLUC in China have been shrinking forest (decreased by 22%) and expanding cropland (increased by 42%) and urban areas (including urban and rural settlements, factories, quarries, mining, and other built-up land). New cropland areas have come almost equally from both forested and nonforested land. This study also revealed that substantial conversion between forest and woodland can be attributed to forest harvest, forest regeneration, and land degradation. During 1980-2005, LCLUC was characterized by shrinking cropland, expanding urban and forest areas, and large decadal variations on a national level. LCLUC in China showed significant spatial variations during different time periods, which were caused by spatial heterogeneity in vegetation, soils, and climate and regional imbalance in economy development. During 1700-2005, forests shrunk rapidly while croplands expanded in the northeast and southwest of China. During 1980-2005, we found a serious loss of cropland and urban sprawl in the eastern plain, north, and southeast regions of China and a large increase in forested area in the southeast and southwest regions. The reconstructed LCLUC data sets from this study could be used to assess the impacts of land use change on biogeochemical cycles, the water cycle, and the regional

  4. Urban Expansion and the Loss of Prime Agricultural Lands in Puerto Rico

    Science.gov (United States)

    T. Mitchell Aide Tania del Mar López

    2001-01-01

    In many countries where the economy has shifted from mainly agricultural to industrial, abandoned agricultural lands are lost to urbanization. For more than 4 centuries the Puerto Rican economy depended almost entirely on agriculture, but sociopolitical changes early in the 20th century resulted in a shift to industry. This shift in the economy, and an increase in...

  5. Evaluating the effects of urbanization and land-use planning using ground-water and surface-water models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunt, R.J.; Steuer, J.J.

    2001-01-01

    Why are the effects of urbanization a concern? As the city of Middleton, Wisconsin, and its surroundings continue to develop, the Pheasant Branch watershed (fig.l) is expected to undergo urbanization. For the downstream city of Middleton, urbanization in the watershed can mean increased flood peaks, water volume and pollutant loads. More subtly, it may also reduce water that sustains the ground-water system (called "recharge") and adversely affect downstream ecosystems that depend on ground water such as the Pheasant Branch Springs (hereafter referred to as the Springs). The relation of stormwater runoff and reduced ground-water recharge is complex because the surface-water system is coupled to the underlying ground-water system. In many cases there is movement of water from one system to the other that varies seasonally or daily depending on changing conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to reliably determine the effects of urbanization on stream baseflow and spring flows without rigorous investigation. Moreover, mitigating adverse effects after development has occurred can be expensive and administratively difficult. Overlying these concerns are issues such as stewardship of the resource, the rights of the public, and land owners' rights both of those developing their land and those whose land is affected by this development. With the often- contradictory goals, a scientific basis for assessing effects of urbanization and effectiveness of mitigation measures helps ensure fair and constructive decision-making. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Middleton and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, completed a study that helps address these issues through modeling of the hydrologic system. This Fact Sheet discusses the results of this work.

  6. Associations between land use and Perkinsus marinus infection of eastern oysters in a high salinity, partially urbanized estuary

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Brian R.; Bushek, David; Drane, J. Wanzer; Porter, Dwayne

    2009-01-01

    Infection levels of eastern oysters by the unicellular pathogen Perkinsus marinus have been associated with anthropogenic influences in laboratory studies. However, these relationships have been difficult to investigate in the field because anthropogenic inputs are often associated with natural influences such as freshwater inflow, which can also affect infection levels. We addressed P. marinus-land use associations using field-collected data from Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, USA, a developed, coastal estuary with relatively minor freshwater inputs. Ten oysters from each of 30 reefs were sampled quarterly in each of 2 years. Distances to nearest urbanized land class and to nearest stormwater outfall were measured via both tidal creeks and an elaboration of Euclidean distance. As the forms of any associations between oyster infection and distance to urbanization were unknown a priori, we used data from the first and second years of the study as exploratory and confirmatory datasets, respectively. With one exception, quarterly land use associations identified using the exploratory dataset were not confirmed using the confirmatory dataset. The exception was an association between the prevalence of moderate to high infection levels in winter and decreasing distance to nearest urban land use. Given that the study design appeared adequate to detect effects inferred from the exploratory dataset, these results suggest that effects of land use gradients were largely insubstantial or were ephemeral with duration less than 3 months.

  7. Diversity and biotic homogenization of urban land-snail faunas in relation to habitat types and macroclimate in 32 central European cities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horsák, Michal; Lososová, Zdeňka; Čejka, Tomáš; Juřičková, Lucie; Chytrý, Milan

    2013-01-01

    The effects of non-native species invasions on community diversity and biotic homogenization have been described for various taxa in urban environments, but not for land snails. Here we relate the diversity of native and non-native land-snail urban faunas to urban habitat types and macroclimate, and analyse homogenization effects of non-native species across cities and within the main urban habitat types. Land-snail species were recorded in seven 1-ha plots in 32 cities of ten countries of Central Europe and Benelux (224 plots in total). Each plot represented one urban habitat type characterized by different management and a specific disturbance regime. For each plot, we obtained January, July and mean annual temperature and annual precipitation. Snail species were classified into either native or non-native. The effects of habitat type and macroclimate on the number of native and non-native species were analysed using generalized estimating equations; the homogenization effect of non-native species based on the Jaccard similarity index and homogenization index. We recorded 67 native and 20 non-native species. Besides being more numerous, native species also had much higher beta diversity than non-natives. There were significant differences between the studied habitat types in the numbers of native and non-native species, both of which decreased from less to heavily urbanized habitats. Macroclimate was more important for the number of non-native than native species; however in both cases the effect of climate on diversity was overridden by the effect of urban habitat type. This is the first study on urban land snails documenting that non-native land-snail species significantly contribute to homogenization among whole cities, but both the homogenization and diversification effects occur when individual habitat types are compared among cities. This indicates that the spread of non-native snail species may cause biotic homogenization, but it depends on scale and

  8. Hyperspectral Sensor Data Capability for Retrieving Complex Urban Land Cover in Comparison with Multispectral Data: Venice City Case Study (Italy

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    Federico Santini

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available This study aims at comparing the capability of different sensors to detect land cover materials within an historical urban center. The main objective is to evaluate the added value of hyperspectral sensors in mapping a complex urban context. In this study we used: (a the ALI and Hyperion satellite data, (b the LANDSAT ETM+ satellite data, (c MIVIS airborne data and (d the high spatial resolution IKONOS imagery as reference. The Venice city center shows a complex urban land cover and therefore was chosen for testing the spectral and spatial characteristics of different sensors in mapping the urban tissue. For this purpose, an object-oriented approach and different common classification methods were used. Moreover, spectra of the main anthropogenic surfaces (i.e. roofing and paving materials were collected during the field campaigns conducted on the study area. They were exploited for applying band-depth and sub-pixel analyses to subsets of Hyperion and MIVIS hyperspectral imagery. The results show that satellite data with a 30m spatial resolution (ALI, LANDSAT ETM+ and HYPERION are able to identify only the main urban land cover materials.

  9. Urban slum structure: integrating socioeconomic and land cover data to model slum evolution in Salvador, Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hacker, Kathryn P; Seto, Karen C; Costa, Federico; Corburn, Jason; Reis, Mitermayer G; Ko, Albert I; Diuk-Wasser, Maria A

    2013-10-20

    The expansion of urban slums is a key challenge for public and social policy in the 21st century. The heterogeneous and dynamic nature of slum communities limits the use of rigid slum definitions. A systematic and flexible approach to characterize, delineate and model urban slum structure at an operational resolution is essential to plan, deploy, and monitor interventions at the local and national level. We modeled the multi-dimensional structure of urban slums in the city of Salvador, a city of 3 million inhabitants in Brazil, by integrating census-derived socioeconomic variables and remotely-sensed land cover variables. We assessed the correlation between the two sets of variables using canonical correlation analysis, identified land cover proxies for the socioeconomic variables, and produced an integrated map of deprivation in Salvador at 30 m × 30 m resolution. The canonical analysis identified three significant ordination axes that described the structure of Salvador census tracts according to land cover and socioeconomic features. The first canonical axis captured a gradient from crowded, low-income communities with corrugated roof housing to higher-income communities. The second canonical axis discriminated among socioeconomic variables characterizing the most marginalized census tracts, those without access to sanitation or piped water. The third canonical axis accounted for the least amount of variation, but discriminated between high-income areas with white-painted or tiled roofs from lower-income areas. Our approach captures the socioeconomic and land cover heterogeneity within and between slum settlements and identifies the most marginalized communities in a large, complex urban setting. These findings indicate that changes in the canonical scores for slum areas can be used to track their evolution and to monitor the impact of development programs such as slum upgrading.

  10. Investigation of enhanced cross-city transport and trapping of air pollutants by coastal and urban land-sea breeze circulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo, Jeff C. F.; Lau, Alexis K. H.; Fung, Jimmy C. H.; Chen, Fei

    2006-07-01

    Recent satellite observations show that a layer of haze perpetually hangs over the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region and surface observations show numerous violations of the Hong Kong Air Quality Objective. This layer of haze mostly concentrates in the Pearl River Estuary and a narrow (20 km wide) band along the shoreline, in particular during weak wind situations. Although researchers suspect the land-sea breeze (LSB) circulations "concentrate" or "trap" various pollutants in this region, the physical mechanism of the phenomenon has never been fully explained or quantified. In this paper, a mesoscale atmospheric model (MM5) coupled with the Noah land surface model (LSM), which has bulk urban land use treatments along with a detailed Pearl River Delta land use map, is used to investigate the unique feature and mechanism of this land-sea breeze effect and the temporal evolution. A three-dimensional particle trajectory model is used to understand its associated pollutant transport, trapping and accumulation. A conceptual model is then developed for the perpetual air pollution phenomenon in the region. Further sensitivity experiments are used to illustrate the impact of urbanization and large-scale winds on the pollution processes. Results show that urbanization enhances the pollutant trapping and therefore contributes to the overall poor air quality in the region.

  11. Land-Use Regression Modelling of Intra-Urban Air Pollution Variation in China: Current Status and Future Needs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baihuiqian He

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Rapid urbanization in China is leading to substantial adverse air quality issues, particularly for NO2 and particulate matter (PM. Land-use regression (LUR models are now being applied to simulate pollutant concentrations with high spatial resolution in Chinese urban areas. However, Chinese urban areas differ from those in Europe and North America, for example in respect of population density, urban morphology and pollutant emissions densities, so it is timely to assess current LUR studies in China to highlight current challenges and identify future needs. Details of twenty-four recent LUR models for NO2 and PM2.5/PM10 (particles with aerodynamic diameters <2.5 µm and <10 µm are tabulated and reviewed as the basis for discussion in this paper. We highlight that LUR modelling in China is currently constrained by a scarcity of input data, especially air pollution monitoring data. There is an urgent need for accessible archives of quality-assured measurement data and for higher spatial resolution proxy data for urban emissions, particularly in respect of traffic-related variables. The rapidly evolving nature of the Chinese urban landscape makes maintaining up-to-date land-use and urban morphology datasets a challenge. We also highlight the importance for Chinese LUR models to be subject to appropriate validation statistics. Integration of LUR with portable monitor data, remote sensing, and dispersion modelling has the potential to enhance derivation of urban pollution maps.

  12. MODELING URBAN DYNAMICS USING RANDOM FOREST: IMPLEMENTING ROC AND TOC FOR MODEL EVALUATION

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    M. Ahmadlou

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The importance of spatial accuracy of land use/cover change maps necessitates the use of high performance models. To reach this goal, calibrating machine learning (ML approaches to model land use/cover conversions have received increasing interest among the scholars. This originates from the strength of these techniques as they powerfully account for the complex relationships underlying urban dynamics. Compared to other ML techniques, random forest has rarely been used for modeling urban growth. This paper, drawing on information from the multi-temporal Landsat satellite images of 1985, 2000 and 2015, calibrates a random forest regression (RFR model to quantify the variable importance and simulation of urban change spatial patterns. The results and performance of RFR model were evaluated using two complementary tools, relative operating characteristics (ROC and total operating characteristics (TOC, by overlaying the map of observed change and the modeled suitability map for land use change (error map. The suitability map produced by RFR model showed 82.48% area under curve for the ROC model which indicates a very good performance and highlights its appropriateness for simulating urban growth.

  13. EnviroAtlas - Percent Urban Land Cover by 12-Digit HUC for the Conterminous United States

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — This EnviroAtlas dataset estimates the percent urban land for each 12-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC) in the conterminous United States. For the purposes of this...

  14. Effect of Land-Use Change on the Urban Heat Island in the Fukuoka–Kitakyushu Metropolitan Area, Japan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoichi Kawamoto

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available In coastal cities, the effect of the sea breeze in mitigating the urban heat island (UHI phenomenon has attracted attention. This study targeted the Fukuoka–Kitakyushu metropolitan area, the fourth largest metropolitan area in Japan which is also coastal. Doppler Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR observations were conducted in the summer of 2015 to clarify the transition of the wind field over the targeted area. To investigate the effects on the UHI of land-use change related to urbanization, the National Land Numerical Information (NLNI land-use datasets for Japan in 1976 (NLNI-76 and 2009 (NLNI-09 were used in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF model. The results of the simulation showed that most of the northern part of the Kyushu region became warmer, with an average increase of +0.236 °C for the whole simulation period. Comparing the two simulations and the Doppler LiDAR observations, the simulation results with the NLNI-09 dataset (for the year closest to the study period in 2015 showed closer conformity with the observations. The results of the simulation using NLNI-76 showed faster sea breeze penetration and higher wind velocity than the observations. These results suggest that the land-use change related to urbanization weakened the sea breeze penetration in this area.

  15. Spatial-temporal change of land surface temperature across 285 cities in China: An urban-rural contrast perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Jian; Ma, Jing; Liu, Qianyuan; Liu, Yanxu; Hu, Yi'na; Li, Yingru; Yue, Yuemin

    2018-09-01

    As an important theme in global climate change and urban sustainable development, the changes of land surface temperature (LST) and surface urban heat island (SUHI) have been more and more focused by urban ecologists. This study used land-use data to identify the urban-rural areas in 285 cities in China and comparatively analyzed LST in urban-rural areas with the perspective of spatial-temporal dynamics heterogeneity. The results showed that, 98.9% of the cities exhibited SUHI effect in summer nighttime and the effect was stronger in northern cities than that in southern cities. In 2010, the mean SUHI intensity was the largest in summer daytime, with 4.6% of the cities having extreme SUHI of over 4°C. From 2001 to 2010, the nighttime LST of most cities increased more quickly in urban areas compared with rural areas, with an increasing tendency of the urban-rural LST difference. The difference in the urban- rural LST change rate was concentrated in the range of 0-0.1°C/year for 68.0% of cities in winter and 70.8% of cities in summer. For the higher LST increasing in urban areas compared with rural areas, there were more cities in summer than winter, indicating that the summer nighttime was the key temporal period for SUHI management. Based on the change slope of urban-rural LST, cities were clustered into four types and the vital and major zones for urban thermal environment management were identified in China. The vital zone included cities in Hunan, Hubei and other central rising provinces as well as the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi Province. The major zone included most of the cities in Central Plain Urban Agglomeration, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. These results can provide scientific basis for SUHI adaptation in China. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Effects of Land Use/Cover Changes and Urban Forest Configuration on Urban Heat Islands in a Loess Hilly Region: Case Study Based on Yan’an City, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xinping; Hao, Hongke; Zhang, Fangfang; Hu, Youning

    2017-01-01

    In this study Yan’an City, a typical hilly valley city, was considered as the study area in order to explain the relationships between the surface urban heat island (SUHI) and land use/land cover (LULC) types, the landscape pattern metrics of LULC types and land surface temperature (LST) and remote sensing indexes were retrieved from Landsat data during 1990–2015, and to find factors contributed to the green space cool island intensity (GSCI) through field measurements of 34 green spaces. The results showed that during 1990–2015, because of local anthropogenic activities, SUHI was mainly located in lower vegetation cover areas. There was a significant suburban-urban gradient in the average LST, as well as its heterogeneity and fluctuations. Six landscape metrics comprising the fractal dimension index, percentage of landscape, aggregation index, division index, Shannon’s diversity index, and expansion intensity of the classified LST spatiotemporal changes were paralleled to LULC changes, especially for construction land, during the past 25 years. In the urban area, an index-based built-up index was the key positive factor for explaining LST increases, whereas the normalized difference vegetation index and modified normalized difference water index were crucial factors for explaining LST decreases during the study periods. In terms of the heat mitigation performance of green spaces, mixed forest was better than pure forest, and the urban forest configuration had positive effects on GSCI. The results of this study provide insights into the importance of species choice and the spatial design of green spaces for cooling the environment. PMID:28933770

  17. Effects of Land Use/Cover Changes and Urban Forest Configuration on Urban Heat Islands in a Loess Hilly Region: Case Study Based on Yan’an City, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xinping Zhang

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available In this study Yan’an City, a typical hilly valley city, was considered as the study area in order to explain the relationships between the surface urban heat island (SUHI and land use/land cover (LULC types, the landscape pattern metrics of LULC types and land surface temperature (LST and remote sensing indexes were retrieved from Landsat data during 1990–2015, and to find factors contributed to the green space cool island intensity (GSCI through field measurements of 34 green spaces. The results showed that during 1990–2015, because of local anthropogenic activities, SUHI was mainly located in lower vegetation cover areas. There was a significant suburban-urban gradient in the average LST, as well as its heterogeneity and fluctuations. Six landscape metrics comprising the fractal dimension index, percentage of landscape, aggregation index, division index, Shannon’s diversity index, and expansion intensity of the classified LST spatiotemporal changes were paralleled to LULC changes, especially for construction land, during the past 25 years. In the urban area, an index-based built-up index was the key positive factor for explaining LST increases, whereas the normalized difference vegetation index and modified normalized difference water index were crucial factors for explaining LST decreases during the study periods. In terms of the heat mitigation performance of green spaces, mixed forest was better than pure forest, and the urban forest configuration had positive effects on GSCI. The results of this study provide insights into the importance of species choice and the spatial design of green spaces for cooling the environment.

  18. Effects of Land Use/Cover Changes and Urban Forest Configuration on Urban Heat Islands in a Loess Hilly Region: Case Study Based on Yan'an City, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xinping; Wang, Dexiang; Hao, Hongke; Zhang, Fangfang; Hu, Youning

    2017-07-26

    In this study Yan'an City, a typical hilly valley city, was considered as the study area in order to explain the relationships between the surface urban heat island (SUHI) and land use/land cover (LULC) types, the landscape pattern metrics of LULC types and land surface temperature (LST) and remote sensing indexes were retrieved from Landsat data during 1990-2015, and to find factors contributed to the green space cool island intensity (GSCI) through field measurements of 34 green spaces. The results showed that during 1990-2015, because of local anthropogenic activities, SUHI was mainly located in lower vegetation cover areas. There was a significant suburban-urban gradient in the average LST, as well as its heterogeneity and fluctuations. Six landscape metrics comprising the fractal dimension index, percentage of landscape, aggregation index, division index, Shannon's diversity index, and expansion intensity of the classified LST spatiotemporal changes were paralleled to LULC changes, especially for construction land, during the past 25 years. In the urban area, an index-based built-up index was the key positive factor for explaining LST increases, whereas the normalized difference vegetation index and modified normalized difference water index were crucial factors for explaining LST decreases during the study periods. In terms of the heat mitigation performance of green spaces, mixed forest was better than pure forest, and the urban forest configuration had positive effects on GSCI. The results of this study provide insights into the importance of species choice and the spatial design of green spaces for cooling the environment.

  19. ANALYSIS OF THE INTRA-CITY VARIATION OF URBAN HEAT ISLAND AND ITS RELATION TO LAND SURFACE/COVER PARAMETERS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Gerçek

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Along with urbanization, sealing of vegetated land and evaporation surfaces by impermeable materials, lead to changes in urban climate. This phenomenon is observed as temperatures several degrees higher in densely urbanized areas compared to the rural land at the urban fringe particularly at nights, so-called Urban Heat Island. Urban Heat Island (UHI effect is related with urban form, pattern and building materials so far as it is associated with meteorological conditions, air pollution, excess heat from cooling. UHI effect has negative influences on human health, as well as other environmental problems such as higher energy demand, air pollution, and water shortage. Urban Heat Island (UHI effect has long been studied by observations of air temperature from thermometers. However, with the advent and proliferation of remote sensing technology, synoptic coverage and better representations of spatial variation of surface temperature became possible. This has opened new avenues for the observation capabilities and research of UHIs. In this study, "UHI effect and its relation to factors that cause it" is explored for İzmit city which has been subject to excess urbanization and industrialization during the past decades. Spatial distribution and variation of UHI effect in İzmit is analysed using Landsat 8 and ASTER day & night images of 2015 summer. Surface temperature data derived from thermal bands of the images were analysed for UHI effect. Higher temperatures were classified into 4 grades of UHIs and mapped both for day and night. Inadequate urban form, pattern, density, high buildings and paved surfaces at the expanse of soil ground and vegetation cover are the main factors that cause microclimates giving rise to spatial variations in temperatures across cities. These factors quantified as land surface/cover parameters for the study include vegetation index (NDVI, imperviousness (NDISI, albedo, solar insolation, Sky View Factor (SVF, building

  20. Analysis of the Intra-City Variation of Urban Heat Island and its Relation to Land Surface/cover Parameters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerçek, D.; Güven, İ. T.; Oktay, İ. Ç.

    2016-06-01

    Along with urbanization, sealing of vegetated land and evaporation surfaces by impermeable materials, lead to changes in urban climate. This phenomenon is observed as temperatures several degrees higher in densely urbanized areas compared to the rural land at the urban fringe particularly at nights, so-called Urban Heat Island. Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is related with urban form, pattern and building materials so far as it is associated with meteorological conditions, air pollution, excess heat from cooling. UHI effect has negative influences on human health, as well as other environmental problems such as higher energy demand, air pollution, and water shortage. Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect has long been studied by observations of air temperature from thermometers. However, with the advent and proliferation of remote sensing technology, synoptic coverage and better representations of spatial variation of surface temperature became possible. This has opened new avenues for the observation capabilities and research of UHIs. In this study, "UHI effect and its relation to factors that cause it" is explored for İzmit city which has been subject to excess urbanization and industrialization during the past decades. Spatial distribution and variation of UHI effect in İzmit is analysed using Landsat 8 and ASTER day & night images of 2015 summer. Surface temperature data derived from thermal bands of the images were analysed for UHI effect. Higher temperatures were classified into 4 grades of UHIs and mapped both for day and night. Inadequate urban form, pattern, density, high buildings and paved surfaces at the expanse of soil ground and vegetation cover are the main factors that cause microclimates giving rise to spatial variations in temperatures across cities. These factors quantified as land surface/cover parameters for the study include vegetation index (NDVI), imperviousness (NDISI), albedo, solar insolation, Sky View Factor (SVF), building envelope

  1. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MARKOV RANDOM FIELD FOR URBAN LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION OF UAV VHIR DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jati Pratomo

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV has grown rapidly in various fields, such as urban planning, search and rescue, and surveillance. Capturing images from UAV has many advantages compared with satellite imagery. For instance, higher spatial resolution and less impact from atmospheric variations can be obtained. However, there are difficulties in classifying urban features, due to the complexity of the urban land covers. The usage of Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC has limitations since it is based on the assumption of the normal distribution of pixel values, where, in fact, urban features are not normally distributed. There are advantages in using the Markov Random Field (MRF for urban land cover classification as it assumes that neighboring pixels have a higher probability to be classified in the same class rather than a different class. This research aimed to determine the impact of the smoothness (λ and the updating temperature (Tupd on the accuracy result (κ in MRF. We used a UAV VHIR sized 587 square meters, with six-centimetre resolution, taken in Bogor Regency, Indonesia. The result showed that the kappa value (κ increases proportionally with the smoothness (λ until it reaches the maximum (κ, then the value drops. The usage of higher (Tupd has resulted in better (κ although it also led to a higher Standard Deviations (SD. Using the most optimal parameter, MRF resulted in slightly higher (κ compared with MLC.

  2. Influence of the land use pattern on the concentrations and fluxes of priority pollutants in urban stormwater.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zgheib, S; Moilleron, R; Chebbo, G

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents the results of the concentrations (μg/L) and fluxes (g/ha) of priority substances in stormwater from three watersheds with different land use patterns (namely, residential, urban dense, high urban density). Samples were collected at the outlet of these watersheds. Thirteen chemical groups were investigated corresponding to 88 individual substances before treatment. Results showed that stormwater discharges contained 55 substances, among them some metals, organotins, PAHs, PCBs, alkylphenols, pesticides, phthalates, cholorophenols and volatile organic compounds. Therefore, stormwater was highly contaminated. However, this contamination was often comparable from site to site, since no significant difference of the pollutant load was observed between the land use patterns.

  3. Nitrogen deposition, land cover conversion, climate, and contemporary carbon balance of Europe (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Churkina, G.; Zahle, S.; Hughes, J.; Viovy, N.; Chen, Y.; Jung, M.; Ramankutty, N.; Roedenbeck, C.; Heimann, M.; Jones, C.

    2009-12-01

    In Europe, atmospheric nitrogen deposition has more than doubled, air temperature was rising, forest cover was steadily increasing, while agricultural area was declining over the last 50 years. What effect have these changes had on the European carbon balance? In this study we estimate responses of the European land ecosystems to nitrogen deposition, rising CO2, land cover conversion and climate change. We use results from three ecosystem process models such as BIOME-BGC, JULES, and ORCHIDEE (-CN) to address this question. We discuss to which degree carbon balance of Europe has been altered by nitrogen deposition in comparison to other drivers and identify areas which carbon balance has been affected by anthropogenic changes the most. We also analyze ecosystems carbon pools which were affected by the abovementioned environmental changes.

  4. LAND USE PLANNING AND URBAN PLANS: TERRITORIAL BALANCE AS ETHICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eunice Helena Sguizzardi Abascal

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The article suggests a necessary link between urban planning and territorial organization, in order to, through the synergistic relationship between planning tools and their application to planning, implementing a policy of urban and regional management. By linking the development plan for territorial development plans and categories of land use, this methodology helps to streamline operations at multiple scales. The establishment of this network of instruments and shapes the actions of government action against the rapid and intense increase of only economic forces that shape the territory today, suggesting that it is possible to regulate the action of the housing market through planned interventions, valuing the regional balance, social and environmental - ethical by definition. It is suggested that the possible effects predatory natural and built environment can be reversed or prevented by an action articulating these planning instruments are linked to the development and implementation of plans (and projects at multiple scales, approaching from the regional to the local and metropolitan, from regional policies to sectors, that are incidents in the municipal territory. However, the speed and magnitude of the occupation and transformation of soil occur mainly in periods of heating housing, often jeopardize the balance and environmental quality, natural heritage, urban and landscape. It assumes the argument that the overcoming of undesirable environmental effects, triggered by occupation of the ground guided by the real estate sector fast action can be successful with the articulation of levels of planning and intervention. It is proposed that the complexity of contemporary urban and metropolitan requires the articulation of different scales through the use of innovative urban instruments. By articulating these different scales, at the municipal and other levels supra, contributes to, through a network plan to overcome the undesirable dichotomy

  5. Forest Conversion to Land of Rubber and Palm Oil Farming and Its Effect on Run Off and Soil Erosion in Batang Pelepat Watershed

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sunarti

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available Forest conversion to some land use happened in all watershed, includes Batang Pelepat watershed. The objectives of this research are to know effect of forest conversion to land of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis and palm oil (Elaeis guinensis Jack farming on run off and soil erosion and different of erosion rate on agro technology of rubber and palm oil farming in Batang Pelepat watershed. The research was carried out during 3 months, begin October to December 2006. Run off and soil erosion measured plot with gutter in the lower of plot. Experimental design for this research is randomized complete block design, with land use type as treatment and slope class as replication or block. Data analyzed statistically by variance analysis (F-test and Duncan New Multiple Range Test on confidence 95% (á = 0.05. The results of this research show that area of forest coverage in Batang Pelepat watershed was decreasing. In 1986 this area still 94.50% of watershed area, but in 1994 area of forest only 78.17% and in 2006 forest area 64.20% of watershed area. Forest conversion was carried out to land of rubber and palm oil farming with some actual agro technologies. Land of monoculture rubber I resulted the highest run off and soil erosion more than the other land use type and showed different of run off and soil erosion on land of secondary forest.

  6. Unraveling Landscape Complexity: Land Use/Land Cover Changes and Landscape Pattern Dynamics (1954-2008) in Contrasting Peri-Urban and Agro-Forest Regions of Northern Italy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smiraglia, D; Ceccarelli, T; Bajocco, S; Perini, L; Salvati, L

    2015-10-01

    This study implements an exploratory data analysis of landscape metrics and a change detection analysis of land use and population density to assess landscape dynamics (1954-2008) in two physiographic zones (plain and hilly-mountain area) of Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. The two areas are characterized by different landscape types: a mixed urban-rural landscape dominated by arable land and peri-urban settlements in the plain and a traditional agro-forest landscape in the hilly-mountain area with deciduous and conifer forests, scrublands, meadows, and crop mosaic. Urbanization and, to a lesser extent, agricultural intensification were identified as the processes underlying landscape change in the plain. Land abandonment determining natural forestation and re-forestation driven by man was identified as the process of change most representative of the hilly-mountain area. Trends in landscape metrics indicate a shift toward more fragmented and convoluted patterns in both areas. Number of patches, the interspersion and juxtaposition index, and the large patch index are the metrics discriminating the two areas in terms of landscape patterns in 1954. In 2008, mean patch size, edge density, interspersion and juxtaposition index, and mean Euclidean nearest neighbor distance were the metrics with the most different spatial patterns in the two areas. The exploratory data analysis of landscape metrics contributed to link changes over time in both landscape composition and configuration providing a comprehensive picture of landscape transformations in a wealthy European region. Evidence from this study are hoped to inform sustainable land management designed for homogeneous landscape units in similar socioeconomic contexts.

  7. Improved MODIS aerosol retrieval in urban areas using a land classification approach and empirical orthogonal functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levitan, Nathaniel; Gross, Barry

    2016-10-01

    New, high-resolution aerosol products are required in urban areas to improve the spatial coverage of the products, in terms of both resolution and retrieval frequency. These new products will improve our understanding of the spatial variability of aerosols in urban areas and will be useful in the detection of localized aerosol emissions. Urban aerosol retrieval is challenging for existing algorithms because of the high spatial variability of the surface reflectance, indicating the need for improved urban surface reflectance models. This problem can be stated in the language of novelty detection as the problem of selecting aerosol parameters whose effective surface reflectance spectrum is not an outlier in some space. In this paper, empirical orthogonal functions, a reconstruction-based novelty detection technique, is used to perform single-pixel aerosol retrieval using the single angular and temporal sample provided by the MODIS sensor. The empirical orthogonal basis functions are trained for different land classes using the MODIS BRDF MCD43 product. Existing land classification products are used in training and aerosol retrieval. The retrieval is compared against the existing operational MODIS 3 KM Dark Target (DT) aerosol product and co-located AERONET data. Based on the comparison, our method allows for a significant increase in retrieval frequency and a moderate decrease in the known biases of MODIS urban aerosol retrievals.

  8. Land use and air quality in urban environments: Human health risk assessment due to inhalation of airborne particles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mateos, A C; Amarillo, A C; Carreras, H A; González, C M

    2018-02-01

    Particle matter (PM) and its associated compounds are a serious problem for urban air quality and a threat to human health. In the present study, we assessed the intraurban variation of PM, and characterized the human health risk associated to the inhalation of particles measured on PM filters, considering different land use areas in the urban area of Cordoba city (Argentina) and different age groups. To assess the intraurban variation of PM, a biomonitoring network of T. capillaris was established in 15 sampling sites with different land use and the bioaccumulation of Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn was quantified. After that, particles were collected by instrumental monitors placed at the most representative sampling sites of each land use category and an inhalation risk was calculated. A remarkable intraurban difference in the heavy metals content measured in the biomonitors was observed, in relation with the sampling site land use. The higher content was detected at industrial areas as well as in sites with intense vehicular traffic. Mean PM 10 levels exceeded the standard suggested by the U.S. EPA in all land use areas, except for the downtown. Hazard Index values were below EPA's safe limit in all land use areas and in the different age groups. In contrast, the carcinogenic risk analysis showed that all urban areas exceeded the acceptable limit (1 × 10 -6 ), while the industrial sampling sites and the elder group presented a carcinogenic risk higher that the unacceptable limit. These findings validate the use of T. capillaris to assess intraurban air quality and also show there is an important intraurban variation in human health risk associated to different land use. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Ecological and socio-economic functions across tropical land use systems after rainforest conversion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drescher, Jochen; Rembold, Katja; Allen, Kara; Beckschäfer, Philip; Buchori, Damayanti; Clough, Yann; Faust, Heiko; Fauzi, Anas M; Gunawan, Dodo; Hertel, Dietrich; Irawan, Bambang; Jaya, I Nengah S; Klarner, Bernhard; Kleinn, Christoph; Knohl, Alexander; Kotowska, Martyna M; Krashevska, Valentyna; Krishna, Vijesh; Leuschner, Christoph; Lorenz, Wolfram; Meijide, Ana; Melati, Dian; Nomura, Miki; Pérez-Cruzado, César; Qaim, Matin; Siregar, Iskandar Z; Steinebach, Stefanie; Tjoa, Aiyen; Tscharntke, Teja; Wick, Barbara; Wiegand, Kerstin; Kreft, Holger; Scheu, Stefan

    2016-05-19

    Tropical lowland rainforests are increasingly threatened by the expansion of agriculture and the extraction of natural resources. In Jambi Province, Indonesia, the interdisciplinary EFForTS project focuses on the ecological and socio-economic dimensions of rainforest conversion to jungle rubber agroforests and monoculture plantations of rubber and oil palm. Our data confirm that rainforest transformation and land use intensification lead to substantial losses in biodiversity and related ecosystem functions, such as decreased above- and below-ground carbon stocks. Owing to rapid step-wise transformation from forests to agroforests to monoculture plantations and renewal of each plantation type every few decades, the converted land use systems are continuously dynamic, thus hampering the adaptation of animal and plant communities. On the other hand, agricultural rainforest transformation systems provide increased income and access to education, especially for migrant smallholders. Jungle rubber and rubber monocultures are associated with higher financial land productivity but lower financial labour productivity compared to oil palm, which influences crop choice: smallholders that are labour-scarce would prefer oil palm while land-scarce smallholders would prefer rubber. Collecting long-term data in an interdisciplinary context enables us to provide decision-makers and stakeholders with scientific insights to facilitate the reconciliation between economic interests and ecological sustainability in tropical agricultural landscapes. © 2016 The Authors.

  10. Evaluation of the WRF-Urban Modeling System Coupled to Noah and Noah-MP Land Surface Models Over a Semiarid Urban Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salamanca, Francisco; Zhang, Yizhou; Barlage, Michael; Chen, Fei; Mahalov, Alex; Miao, Shiguang

    2018-03-01

    We have augmented the existing capabilities of the integrated Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-urban modeling system by coupling three urban canopy models (UCMs) available in the WRF model with the new community Noah with multiparameterization options (Noah-MP) land surface model (LSM). The WRF-urban modeling system's performance has been evaluated by conducting six numerical experiments at high spatial resolution (1 km horizontal grid spacing) during a 15 day clear-sky summertime period for a semiarid urban environment. To assess the relative importance of representing urban surfaces, three different urban parameterizations are used with the Noah and Noah-MP LSMs, respectively, over the two major cities of Arizona: Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas. Our results demonstrate that Noah-MP reproduces somewhat better than Noah the daily evolution of surface skin temperature and near-surface air temperature (especially nighttime temperature) and wind speed. Concerning the urban areas, bulk urban parameterization overestimates nighttime 2 m air temperature compared to the single-layer and multilayer UCMs that reproduce more accurately the daily evolution of near-surface air temperature. Regarding near-surface wind speed, only the multilayer UCM was able to reproduce realistically the daily evolution of wind speed, although maximum winds were slightly overestimated, while both the single-layer and bulk urban parameterizations overestimated wind speed considerably. Based on these results, this paper demonstrates that the new community Noah-MP LSM coupled to an UCM is a promising physics-based predictive modeling tool for urban applications.

  11. Greenhouse Gas Implications of Peri-Urban Land Use Change in a Developed City under Four Future Climate Scenarios

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alison Rothwell

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Present decisions about urbanization of peri-urban (PU areas may contribute to the capacity of cities to mitigate future climate change. Comprehensive mitigative responses to PU development should require integration of urban form and food production to realise potential trade-offs. Despite this, few studies examine greenhouse gas (GHG implications of future urban development combined with impacts on PU food production. In this paper, four future scenarios, at 2050 and 2100 time horizons, were developed to evaluate the potential GHG emissions implications of feeding and housing a growing urban population in Sydney, Australia. The scenarios were thematically downscaled from the four relative concentration pathways. Central to the scenarios were differences in population, technology, energy, housing form, transportation, temperature, food production and land use change (LUC. A life cycle assessment approach was used within the scenarios to evaluate differences in GHG impacts. Differences in GHG emissions between scenarios at the 2100 time horizon, per area of PU land transformed, approximated 0.7 Mt CO2-e per year. Per additional resident this equated to 0.7 to 6.1 t CO2-e per year. Indirect LUC has the potential to be significant. Interventions such as carbon capture and storage technology, renewables and urban form markedly reduced emissions. However, incorporating cross-sectoral energy saving measures within urban planning at the regional scale requires a paradigmatic shift.

  12. Improving urban land use and land cover classification from high-spatial-resolution hyperspectral imagery using contextual information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, He; Ma, Ben; Du, Qian; Yang, Chenghai

    2010-08-01

    In this paper, we propose approaches to improve the pixel-based support vector machine (SVM) classification for urban land use and land cover (LULC) mapping from airborne hyperspectral imagery with high spatial resolution. Class spatial neighborhood relationship is used to correct the misclassified class pairs, such as roof and trail, road and roof. These classes may be difficult to be separated because they may have similar spectral signatures and their spatial features are not distinct enough to help their discrimination. In addition, misclassification incurred from within-class trivial spectral variation can be corrected by using pixel connectivity information in a local window so that spectrally homogeneous regions can be well preserved. Our experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approaches in classification accuracy improvement. The overall performance is competitive to the object-based SVM classification.

  13. Data Mining Relationships Among Urban Socioeconomic, Land Cover, and Remotely Sensed Ecological Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mennis, J.; Wessman, C.; Golubiewski, N.

    2003-12-01

    This research investigates the relationships among socioeconomic character, land cover, and ecological function in a rapidly urbanizing region, the Front Range of Colorado. We use novel spatial geographic information systems- (GIS-) based data integration and data mining techniques to integrate and analyze diverse spatial data sets. These data include elevation data, transportation data, land cover data derived from aerial photography, block group-level U.S. Census data, and vegetation greenness (NDVI) data derived from Landsat imagery. These data are used to derive a variety of U.S. block group-level variables indicating demographic, geographic, ecological, and land cover characteristics. We employ spatial association rule mining, decision tree induction, and spatial on-line analytical processing (OLAP), in addition to more conventional multivariate statistical techniques, to investigate relationships among these variables.

  14. Performance Enhancement of Land Vehicle Positioning Using Multiple GPS Receivers in an Urban Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jong-Hwa Song

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The Global Positioning System (GPS is the most widely used navigation system in land vehicle applications. In urban areas, the GPS suffers from insufficient signal strength, multipath propagation and non-line-of-sight (NLOS errors, so it thus becomes difficult to obtain accurate and reliable position information. In this paper, an integration algorithm for multiple receivers is proposed to enhance the positioning performance of GPS for land vehicles in urban areas. The pseudoranges of multiple receivers are integrated based on a tightly coupled approach, and erroneous measurements are detected by testing the closeness of the pseudoranges. In order to fairly compare the pseudoranges, GPS errors and terms arising due to the differences between the positions of the receivers need to be compensated. The double-difference technique is used to eliminate GPS errors in the pseudoranges, and the geometrical distance is corrected by projecting the baseline vector between pairs of receivers. In order to test and analyze the proposed algorithm, an experiment involving live data was performed. The positioning performance of the algorithm was compared with that of the receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM-based integration algorithm for multiple receivers. The test results showed that the proposed algorithm yields more accurate position information in urban areas.

  15. EVALUATION OF URBANIZATION INFLUENCES ON URBAN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Osondu

    2012-07-27

    Jul 27, 2012 ... climate over the cities that affect human comfort and his environment. Proper urban ... Key Words: Urbanization, Comfort, Pollution, Modification, Albedo, Urban Heat Island ... effects of land surface change on the climate of a.

  16. Urban Heat Island Simulations in Guangzhou, China, Using the Coupled WRF/UCM Model with a Land Use Map Extracted from Remote Sensing Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guang Chen

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF model coupled with an Urban Canopy Model (UCM was used for studying urban environmental issues. Because land use data employed in the WRF model do not agree with the current situation around Guangzhou, China, the performance of WRF/UCM with new land-use data extracted from Remote Sensing (RS data was evaluated in early August 2012. Results from simulations reveal that experiments with the extracted data are capable of reasonable reproductions of the majority of the observed temporal characteristics of the 2-m temperature, and can capture the characteristics of Urban Heat Island (UHI. The “UCM_12” simulation, which employed the extracted land-use data with the WRF/UCM model, provided the best reproduction of the 2-m temperature data evolution and the smallest minimum absolute average error when compared with the other two experiments without coupled UCM. The contributions of various factors to the UHI effect were analyzed by comparing the energy equilibrium processes of “UCM_12” in urban and suburban areas. Analysis revealed that energy equilibrium processes with new land use data can explain the diurnal character of the UHI intensity variation. Furthermore, land use data extracted from RS can be used to simulate the UHI.

  17. Land-Air Interactions over Urban-Rural Transects Using Satellite Observations: Analysis over Delhi, India from 1991–2016

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Madhavi Jain

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Over the past four decades Delhi, India, has witnessed rapid urbanization and change in land use land cover (LULC pattern, with most of the cultivable areas and wasteland being converted into built-up areas. Presently around 40% land is under built-up area, a drastic rise of 30% from 1977. The effect of changing LULC, at a local scale, on various variables-land surface temperature (LST, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, emissivity, albedo, evaporation, Bowen ratio, and planetary boundary layer (PBL height, from 1991–2016, is investigated. To assess the spatio-temporal dynamics of land-air interactions, we select two different 100 km transects covering the NE-SW and NW-SE expanse of Delhi and its adjoining areas. High NDVI and emissivity is found for regions with green cover and drastic reduction is noted in built-up area clusters. In both of the transects, land surface variations manifest itself in patterns of LST variation. Parametric and non-parametric correlations are able to statistically establish the land-air interactions in the city. NDVI, an indirect indicator for LULC classes, significantly helps in understanding the modifications in LST and ultimately air temperature. Significant, strong positive relationships exist between skin temperature and evaporation, skin temperature and PBL height, and PBL height and evaporation, providing insights into the meteorological changes that are associated with urbanization.

  18. Converting Paddy Rice Field to Urban Use Dramatically Altered the Water and Energy Balances in Southern China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, L.; Sun, G.; Liu, Y.; Qin, M.; Huang, X.; Fang, D.

    2017-12-01

    Paddy rice wetlands are the main land use type across southern China, which impact the regional environments by affecting evapotranspiration (ET) and other water and energy related processes. Our study focuses on the effects of land-cover change on water and energy processes in the Qinhuai River Basin, a typical subtropical humid region that is under rapid ecological and economical transformations. This study integrates multiple methods and techniques including remote sensing, water and energy balance model (i.e., Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land, SEBAL), ecohydrological model (i.e., Soil and Water Assessment Tool, SWAT), and ground observation (Eddy Covariance measurement, etc.). We found that conversion of paddy rice field to urban use led to rise in vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and reduction in ET, and thus resulted in changes in local and regional water and heat balance. The effects of the land-use change on ET and VPD overwhelmed the effects of regional climate warming and climate variability. We conclude that the ongoing large-scale urbanization of the rice paddy-dominated regions in humid southern China and East Asia will likely exacerbate environmental consequences (e.g., elevated storm-flow volume, aggravated flood risks, and intensified urban heat island and urban dry island effects). The potential role of vegetated land cover in moderating water and energy balances and maintaining a stable climate should be considered in massive urban planning and global change impact assessment in southern China.

  19. Evaluation of the Chinese Fine Spatial Resolution Hyperspectral Satellite TianGong-1 in Urban Land-Cover Classification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xueke Li

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The successful launch of the Chinese high spatial resolution hyperspectral satellite TianGong-1 (TG-1 opens up new possibilities for applications of remotely-sensed satellite imagery. One of the main goals of the TG-1 mission is to provide observations of surface attributes at local and landscape spatial scales to map urban land cover accurately using the hyperspectral technique. This study attempted to evaluate the TG-1 datasets for urban feature analysis, using existing data over Beijing, China, by comparing the TG-1 (with a spatial resolution of 10 m to EO-1 Hyperion (with a spatial resolution of 30 m. The spectral feature of TG-1 was first analyzed and, thus, finding out optimal hyperspectral wavebands useful for the discrimination of urban areas. Based on this, the pixel-based maximum likelihood classifier (PMLC, pixel-based support vector machine (PSVM, hybrid maximum likelihood classifier (HMLC, and hybrid support vector machine (HSVM were implemented, as well as compared in the application of mapping urban land cover types. The hybrid classifier approach, which integrates the pixel-based classifier and the object-based segmentation approach, was demonstrated as an effective alternative to the conventional pixel-based classifiers for processing the satellite hyperspectral data, especially the fine spatial resolution data. For TG-1 imagery, the pixel-based urban classification was obtained with an average overall accuracy of 89.1%, whereas the hybrid urban classification was obtained with an average overall accuracy of 91.8%. For Hyperion imagery, the pixel-based urban classification was obtained with an average overall accuracy of 85.9%, whereas the hybrid urban classification was obtained with an average overall accuracy of 86.7%. Overall, it can be concluded that the fine spatial resolution satellite hyperspectral data TG-1 is promising in delineating complex urban scenes, especially when using an appropriate classifier, such as the

  20. Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development and Urban-Rural Linkages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nilsson, Kjell; Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick; Aalbers, Carmen

    2014-01-01

    , identified how land use conflicts and the pressure towards peri- urban areas can be strategically managed in different development and regulatory contexts. To summarise, the following strategies were identified as important steps towards more sustainable urban-rural futures: (i) better coordination...... of transport, land use and open space planning; (ii) urban containment and densification – development a green compact city; (iii) preservation of blue and green infrastructure; and (iv) preservation of agricultural land and the promotion of local production. The need also remains to strengthen governance...... at the regional level while at the pan-European level there is clearly a need for more policy attention to be given to urban-rural linkages....

  1. Evaluation of urban sprawl and urban landscape pattern in a rapidly developing region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lv, Zhi-Qiang; Dai, Fu-Qiang; Sun, Cheng

    2012-10-01

    Urban sprawl is a worldwide phenomenon happening particularly in rapidly developing regions. A study on the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban sprawl and urban pattern is useful for the sustainable management of land management and urban land planning. The present research explores the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban sprawl in the context of a rapid urbanization process in a booming economic region of southern China from 1979 to 2005. Three urban sprawl types are distinguished by analyzing overlaid urban area maps of two adjacent study years which originated from the interpretation of remote sensed images and vector land use maps. Landscape metrics are used to analyze the spatiotemporal pattern of urban sprawl for each study period. Study results show that urban areas have expanded dramatically, and the spatiotemporal landscape pattern configured by the three sprawl types changed obviously. The different sprawl type patterns in five study periods have transformed significantly, with their proportions altered both in terms of quantity and of location. The present research proves that urban sprawl quantification and pattern analysis can provide a clear perspective of the urbanization process during a long time period. Particularly, the present study on urban sprawl and sprawl patterns can be used by land use and urban planners.

  2. Linking river nutrient concentrations to land use and rainfall in a paddy agriculture-urban area gradient watershed in southeast China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Yongqiu; Ti, Chaopu; She, Dongli; Yan, Xiaoyuan

    2016-10-01

    The effects of land use and land-use changes on river nutrient concentrations are not well understood, especially in the watersheds of developing countries that have a mixed land use of rice paddy fields and developing urban surfaces. Here, we present a three-year study of a paddy agricultural-urban area gradient watershed in southeast China. The annual anthropogenic nitrogen (N) input from the agricultural region to the urban region was high, yet the results showed that the monthly nutrient concentrations in the river were low in the rainy seasons. The nutrient concentrations decreased continuously as the river water passed through the traditional agriculture region (TAR; paddy rice and wheat rotation) and increased substantially in the city region (CR). The traditional agricultural reference region exported most of the nutrient loads at high flows (>1mmd(-1)), the intensified agricultural region (IAR, aquaculture and poultry farming) exported most of the nutrient loads at moderate flows (between 0.5 and 1mmd(-1)), and the CR reference area exported most of the nutrient loads under low to moderate flows. We developed a statistical model to link variations in the nutrient concentrations to the proportion of land-use types and rainfall. The statistical results showed that impervious surfaces, which we interpret as a proxy for urban activities including sewage disposal, were the most important drivers of nutrient concentrations, whereas water surfaces accounted for a substantial proportion of the nutrient sinks. Therefore, to efficiently reduce water pollution, sewage from urban areas must be addressed as a priority, although wetland restoration could also achieve substantial pollutant removal. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  3. LAND PRICE MAPPING OF JABODETABEK, INDONESIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adisti Madella Elmanisa

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Land provision is one of the biggest challenges for development in urban area. Most of the available urban land will be the object of speculation to be resold at a higher price when the time is right. In Jabodetabek, where the pace of urban development is faster than other parts of Indonesia, the prices of land show an abnormal increase; they seem to rise too fast. This paper discusses the increasing land prices in Jabodetabek area and argues that the increasing land price has encourages the private developer to bank the land in the area. Based on land price survey in Jabodetabek, urban activity is moving to south Jakarta. The highest land prices were found at East Kuningan, Setiabudi, and South Jakarta. By constrast, the lowest prices were observed in Sumur Batu and Cimuning (Bantar Gebang, Bekasi.It can be concluded that the land price increase also triggered land banking practice in Jabodetabek reaching in total approximately 60% of total area of Jakarta.

  4. Analyzing the Relative Linkages of Land Use and Hydrologic Variables with Urban Surface Water Quality using Multivariate Techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, S.; Abdul-Aziz, O. I.

    2015-12-01

    We used a systematic data-analytics approach to analyze and quantify relative linkages of four stream water quality indicators (total nitrogen, TN; total phosphorus, TP; chlorophyll-a, Chla; and dissolved oxygen, DO) with six land use and four hydrologic variables, along with the potential external (upstream in-land and downstream coastal) controls in highly complex coastal urban watersheds of southeast Florida, U.S.A. Multivariate pattern recognition techniques of principle component and factor analyses, in concert with Pearson correlation analysis, were applied to map interrelations and identify latent patterns of the participatory variables. Relative linkages of the in-stream water quality variables with their associated drivers were then quantified by developing dimensionless partial least squares (PLS) regression model based on standardized data. Model fitting efficiency (R2=0.71-0.87) and accuracy (ratio of root-mean-square error to the standard deviation of the observations, RSR=0.35-0.53) suggested good predictions of the water quality variables in both wet and dry seasons. Agricultural land and groundwater exhibited substantial controls on surface water quality. In-stream TN concentration appeared to be mostly contributed by the upstream water entering from Everglades in both wet and dry seasons. In contrast, watershed land uses had stronger linkages with TP and Chla than that of the watershed hydrologic and upstream (Everglades) components for both seasons. Both land use and hydrologic components showed strong linkages with DO in wet season; however, the land use linkage appeared to be less in dry season. The data-analytics method provided a comprehensive empirical framework to achieve crucial mechanistic insights into the urban stream water quality processes. Our study quantitatively identified dominant drivers of water quality, indicating key management targets to maintain healthy stream ecosystems in complex urban-natural environments near the coast.

  5. Characterizing urbanization impacts on floodplain through integrated land use, hydrologic, and hydraulic modeling: Applications to a watershed in northwest Houston, TX

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gori, A.; Juan, A.; Blessing, R.; Brody, S.; Bedient, P. B.

    2017-12-01

    The FEMA 100 year floodplain serves as the benchmark for characterizing and managing flood risk in the United States. However, it is usually generated by using methodologies that are too simplistic to accurately depict the spatial reality of flood risk, and often fail to consider non-stationary variables such as changing land use conditions or precipitation patterns. The impacts of these limitations are evidenced in Houston, TX, where rainfall-induced flooding has resulted in billions of dollars in commercial and residential damage over the past two decades, much of which has occurred outside of the 100 year floodplain. Specifically, rapid urbanization has drastically increased overland runoff and resulting peak flows, thereby exposing new areas to flood risks. It is therefore crucial to examine the impacts of future land development on floodplain depth and extent in order to develop effective long-term stormwater management and mitigation strategies. This study presents a methodology for characterizing the impacts of future development on flood risk in an urbanizing watershed by integrating land use projection and high-resolution hydrologic / hydraulic modeling. Development projections are generated by identifying historical land use/ land cover change (LULCC) drivers, which are incorporated into an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict development conditions out to 2040. Hydrologic modeling of current and projected land cover conditions is achieved through a physics-based distributed hydrologic model. Finally, a coupled 1D/2D unsteady hydraulic model is used to simulate floodplain depths and extents, and to generate floodplain maps for all considered scenarios. This methodology is applied to the Cypress Creek watershed in northwest Houston, TX, a partially-developed watershed which is expected to rapidly urbanize for the next few decades. The study quantifies floodplain changes (i.e., extent and depth) and the number of impacted residences, and also

  6. Urban growth in American cities : glimpses of U.S. urbanization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auch, Roger; Taylor, Janis; Acevedo, William

    2004-01-01

    The Earth's surface is changing rapidly. Changes are local, regional, national, and even global in scope. Some changes have natural causes, such as earthquakes or drought. Other changes, such as urban expansion, agricultural intensification, resource extraction, and water resources development, are examples of human-induced change that have significant impact upon people, the economy, and resources. The consequences that result from these changes are often dramatic and widespread (Buchanan, Acevedo, and Zirbes, 2002)It is the role of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to provide useful and relevant scientific information both to the agencies within the Department of the Interior and to the Nation in general. In an effort to comply with this task, USGS scientists are assessing the status of, and the trends in, the Nation's land surface. This assessment provides useful information for regional and national land use decisionmaking. This knowledge can be used to deal with issues of significance to the Nation, such as quality-of-life, ecology of urban environments, ecosystem health, ecological integrity, water quality and quantity concerns, resource availability, vulnerability to natural hazards, safeguards to human health, air and land quality, and accessibility to scientific information. Results of these assessments can also be analyzed to reveal rates and trends in land use change. Results from urban growth studies provide a firm foundation for continuing research that explores the consequences of human modification of the landscape.The USGS seeks to illustrate and explain the spatial history of urban growth and corresponding land use change. Scientists are studying urban environments from a regional perspective and a time scale of decades to measure the changes that have occurred in order to help understand the impact of anticipated changes in the future.Within this booklet are pairs of images of selected urbanized regions from across the Nation. These image pairs

  7. Exchanges across land-water-scape boundaries in urban systems: strategies for reducing nitrate pollution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cadenasso, M L; Pickett, S T A; Groffman, P M; Band, L E; Brush, G S; Galvin, M F; Grove, J M; Hagar, G; Marshall, V; McGrath, B P; O'Neil-Dunne, J P M; Stack, W P; Troy, A R

    2008-01-01

    Conservation in urban areas typically focuses on biodiversity and large green spaces. However, opportunities exist throughout urban areas to enhance ecological functions. An important function of urban landscapes is retaining nitrogen thereby reducing nitrate pollution to streams and coastal waters. Control of nonpoint nitrate pollution in urban areas was originally based on the documented importance of riparian zones in agricultural and forested ecosystems. The watershed and boundary frameworks have been used to guide stream research and a riparian conservation strategy to reduce nitrate pollution in urban streams. But is stream restoration and riparian-zone conservation enough? Data from the Baltimore Ecosystem Study and other urban stream research indicate that urban riparian zones do not necessarily prevent nitrate from entering, nor remove nitrate from, streams. Based on this insight, policy makers in Baltimore extended the conservation strategy throughout larger watersheds, attempting to restore functions that no longer took place in riparian boundaries. Two urban revitalization projects are presented as examples aimed at reducing nitrate pollution to stormwater, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay. An adaptive cycle of ecological urban design synthesizes the insights from the watershed and boundary frameworks, from new data, and from the conservation concerns of agencies and local communities. This urban example of conservation based on ameliorating nitrate water pollution extends the initial watershed-boundary approach along three dimensions: 1) from riparian to urban land-water-scapes; 2) from discrete engineering solutions to ecological design approaches; and 3) from structural solutions to inclusion of individual, household, and institutional behavior.

  8. Conversion of wastelands into state ownership for the needs of high-rise construction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ganebnykh, Elena

    2018-03-01

    High-rise construction in big cities faces the problem of land shortage in downtown areas. Audit of economic complexes showed a large volume of wastelands. The conversion of wastelands into state and municipal ownership helps in part to solve the problem of the lack of space for high-rise construction in the urban area in the format of infill construction. The article investigates the problem of the conversion of wastelands into state and municipal ownership. The research revealed no clear algorithm for converting wastelands into state and municipal ownership. To form a unified system for identifying such plots, a universal algorithm was developed to identify and convert ownerless immovable property into state or municipal ownership.

  9. Modeling the Warming Impact of Urban Land Expansion on Hot Weather Using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model: A Case Study of Beijing, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xiaojuan; Tian, Guangjin; Feng, Jinming; Ma, Bingran; Wang, Jun; Kong, Lingqiang

    2018-06-01

    The impacts of three periods of urban land expansion during 1990-2010 on near-surface air temperature in summer in Beijing were simulated in this study, and then the interrelation between heat waves and urban warming was assessed. We ran the sensitivity tests using the mesoscaleWeather Research and Forecasting model coupled with a single urban canopy model, as well as high-resolution land cover data. The warming area expanded approximately at the same scale as the urban land expansion. The average regional warming induced by urban expansion increased but the warming speed declined slightly during 2000-2010. The smallest warming occurred at noon and then increased gradually in the afternoon before peaking at around 2000 LST—the time of sunset. In the daytime, urban warming was primarily caused by the decrease in latent heat flux at the urban surface. Urbanization led to more ground heat flux during the day and then more release at night, which resulted in nocturnal warming. Urban warming at night was higher than that in the day, although the nighttime increment in sensible heat flux was smaller. This was because the shallower planetary boundary layer at night reduced the release efficiency of near-surface heat. The simulated results also suggested that heat waves or high temperature weather enhanced urban warming intensity at night. Heat waves caused more heat to be stored in the surface during the day, greater heat released at night, and thus higher nighttime warming. Our results demonstrate a positive feedback effect between urban warming and heat waves in urban areas.

  10. A Hierarchical Object-oriented Urban Land Cover Classification Using WorldView-2 Imagery and Airborne LiDAR data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, M. F.; Sun, Z. C.; Yang, B.; Yu, S. S.

    2016-11-01

    In order to reduce the “salt and pepper” in pixel-based urban land cover classification and expand the application of fusion of multi-source data in the field of urban remote sensing, WorldView-2 imagery and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data were used to improve the classification of urban land cover. An approach of object- oriented hierarchical classification was proposed in our study. The processing of proposed method consisted of two hierarchies. (1) In the first hierarchy, LiDAR Normalized Digital Surface Model (nDSM) image was segmented to objects. The NDVI, Costal Blue and nDSM thresholds were set for extracting building objects. (2) In the second hierarchy, after removing building objects, WorldView-2 fused imagery was obtained by Haze-ratio-based (HR) fusion, and was segmented. A SVM classifier was applied to generate road/parking lot, vegetation and bare soil objects. (3) Trees and grasslands were split based on an nDSM threshold (2.4 meter). The results showed that compared with pixel-based and non-hierarchical object-oriented approach, proposed method provided a better performance of urban land cover classification, the overall accuracy (OA) and overall kappa (OK) improved up to 92.75% and 0.90. Furthermore, proposed method reduced “salt and pepper” in pixel-based classification, improved the extraction accuracy of buildings based on LiDAR nDSM image segmentation, and reduced the confusion between trees and grasslands through setting nDSM threshold.

  11. [Ecological suitability assessment and optimization of urban land expansion space in Guiyang City].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Cong-hao; Li, Yang-bing; Feng, Yuan-song

    2015-09-01

    Based on the case study of Guiyang City, the minimum cumulative resistance model integrating construction land source, ecological rigid constraints and ecological function type resistance factor, was built by use of cost-distance analysis of urban spatial expansion resistance value through ArcGIS 9.3 software in this paper. Then, the ecological resistance of city spatial expansion of Guiyang from 2010 was simulated dynamically and the ecological suitability classification of city spatial expansion was assessed. According to the conflict between the newly increased city construction land in 2014 and its ecological suitability, the unreasonable city land spatial allocation was discussed also. The results showed that the ecological suitability zonation and the city expansion in the study area were basically consistent during 2010-2014, but the conflict between the new city construction and its land ecological suitability was more serious. The ecological conflict area accounted for 58.2% of the new city construction sites, 35.4% of which happened in the ecological control area, 13.9% in the limited development area and 8.9% in the prohibition development area. The intensification of ecological land use conflict would impair the ecological service function and ecological safety, so this paper put forward the city spatial expansion optimal path to preserve the ecological land and improve the construction land space pattern of Guiyang City so as to ensure its ecological safety.

  12. Can Strategic Spatial Planning Contribute to Land Degradation Reduction in Urban Regions? State of the Art and Future Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo Oliveira

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Land degradation is becoming a serious environmental issue threatening fertile agricultural soils and other natural resources. There are many driving forces behind land degradation. The expansion of artificial surfaces due to various economic activities, such as housing, industry, and transport infrastructure, known as soil sealing, constitutes one of the most intensive forms of land degradation in urban regions. Measures to halt and reverse land degradation require both strong land-use management policies, as well as effective spatial planning mechanisms. In this regard, strategic spatial planning has been increasingly practised in many urban regions worldwide, as a means to achieve sustainable land-use patterns and to guide the location of development and physical infrastructures. It is reasonable, therefore, to expect that strategic spatial planning can counteract the outlined undesired land degradation effects, specifically those resulting from soil sealing. In this paper, we review strategic spatial planning literature published between 1992 and 2017. The focus is on the phenomena causing land degradation that are addressed by strategic spatial planning literature, as well as on the mechanisms describing the role of strategic spatial planning in land degradation reduction. Results show that sustainable development and environmental concerns have become core objectives of strategic planning in recent years, yet references to the drivers of land degradation are rare. The mechanisms that exist are mainly intended to address environmental issues in general, and are not aimed at reducing particular forms of land degradation. The paper concludes by sketching future research directions, intended to support strategic spatial planning and land-use policymaking related to coping with the global phenomenon of land degradation.

  13. Identifying Generalizable Image Segmentation Parameters for Urban Land Cover Mapping through Meta-Analysis and Regression Tree Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brian A. Johnson

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The advent of very high resolution (VHR satellite imagery and the development of Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA have led to many new opportunities for fine-scale land cover mapping, especially in urban areas. Image segmentation is an important step in the GEOBIA framework, so great time/effort is often spent to ensure that computer-generated image segments closely match real-world objects of interest. In the remote sensing community, segmentation is frequently performed using the multiresolution segmentation (MRS algorithm, which is tuned through three user-defined parameters (the scale, shape/color, and compactness/smoothness parameters. The scale parameter (SP is the most important parameter and governs the average size of generated image segments. Existing automatic methods to determine suitable SPs for segmentation are scene-specific and often computationally intensive, so an approach to estimating appropriate SPs that is generalizable (i.e., not scene-specific could speed up the GEOBIA workflow considerably. In this study, we attempted to identify generalizable SPs for five common urban land cover types (buildings, vegetation, roads, bare soil, and water through meta-analysis and nonlinear regression tree (RT modeling. First, we performed a literature search of recent studies that employed GEOBIA for urban land cover mapping and extracted the MRS parameters used, the image properties (i.e., spatial and radiometric resolutions, and the land cover classes mapped. Using this data extracted from the literature, we constructed RT models for each land cover class to predict suitable SP values based on the: image spatial resolution, image radiometric resolution, shape/color parameter, and compactness/smoothness parameter. Based on a visual and quantitative analysis of results, we found that for all land cover classes except water, relatively accurate SPs could be identified using our RT modeling results. The main advantage of our

  14. Remote Sensing of Atlanta's Urban Sprawl and the Distribution of Land Cover and Surface Temperature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laymon, Charles A.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Quattrochi, Dale A.; Goodman, H. Michael (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    Between 1973 and 1992, an average of 20 ha of forest was lost each day to urban expansion of Atlanta, Georgia. Urban surfaces have very different thermal properties than natural surfaces-storing solar energy throughout the day and continuing to release it as sensible heat well after sunset. The resulting heat island effect serves as catalysts for chemical reactions from vehicular exhaust and industrialization leading to a deterioration in air quality. In this study, high spatial resolution multispectral remote sensing data has been used to characterize the type, thermal properties, and distribution of land surface materials throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area. Ten-meter data were acquired with the Advanced Thermal and Land Applications Sensor (ATLAS) on May 11 and 12, 1997. ATLAS is a 15-channel multispectral scanner that incorporates the Landsat TM bands with additional bands in the middle reflective infrared and thermal infrared range. The high spatial resolution permitted discrimination of discrete surface types (e.g., concrete, asphalt), individual structures (e.g., buildings, houses) and their associated thermal characteristics. There is a strong temperature contrast between vegetation and anthropomorphic features. Vegetation has a modal temperature at about 20 C, whereas asphalt shingles, pavement, and buildings have a modal temperature of about 39 C. Broad-leaf vegetation classes are indistinguishable on a thermal basis alone. There is slightly more variability (+/-5 C) among the urban surfaces. Grasses, mixed vegetation and mixed urban surfaces are intermediate in temperature and are characterized by broader temperature distributions with modes of about 29 C. Thermal maps serve as a basis for understanding the distribution of "hotspots", i.e., how landscape features and urban fabric contribute the most heat to the lower atmosphere.

  15. Effects of distributed and centralized stormwater best management practices and land cover on urban stream hydrology at the catchment scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loperfido, J. V.; Noe, Gregory B.; Jarnagin, S. Taylor; Hogan, Dianna M.

    2014-11-01

    Urban stormwater runoff remains an important issue that causes local and regional-scale water quantity and quality issues. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) have been widely used to mitigate runoff issues, traditionally in a centralized manner; however, problems associated with urban hydrology have remained. An emerging trend is implementation of BMPs in a distributed manner (multi-BMP treatment trains located on the landscape and integrated with urban design), but little catchment-scale performance of these systems have been reported to date. Here, stream hydrologic data (March, 2011-September, 2012) are evaluated in four catchments located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: one utilizing distributed stormwater BMPs, two utilizing centralized stormwater BMPs, and a forested catchment serving as a reference. Among urban catchments with similar land cover, geology and BMP design standards (i.e. 100-year event), but contrasting placement of stormwater BMPs, distributed BMPs resulted in: significantly greater estimated baseflow, a higher minimum precipitation threshold for stream response and maximum discharge increases, better maximum discharge control for small precipitation events, and reduced runoff volume during an extreme (1000-year) precipitation event compared to centralized BMPs. For all catchments, greater forest land cover and less impervious cover appeared to be more important drivers than stormwater BMP spatial pattern, and caused lower total, stormflow, and baseflow runoff volume; lower maximum discharge during typical precipitation events; and lower runoff volume during an extreme precipitation event. Analysis of hydrologic field data in this study suggests that both the spatial distribution of stormwater BMPs and land cover are important for management of urban stormwater runoff. In particular, catchment-wide application of distributed BMPs improved stream hydrology compared to centralized BMPs, but not enough to fully replicate forested

  16. Effects of distributed and centralized stormwater best management practices and land cover on urban stream hydrology at the catchment scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loperfido, John V.; Noe, Gregory B.; Jarnagin, S. Taylor; Hogan, Dianna M.

    2014-01-01

    Urban stormwater runoff remains an important issue that causes local and regional-scale water quantity and quality issues. Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) have been widely used to mitigate runoff issues, traditionally in a centralized manner; however, problems associated with urban hydrology have remained. An emerging trend is implementation of BMPs in a distributed manner (multi-BMP treatment trains located on the landscape and integrated with urban design), but little catchment-scale performance of these systems have been reported to date. Here, stream hydrologic data (March, 2011–September, 2012) are evaluated in four catchments located in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: one utilizing distributed stormwater BMPs, two utilizing centralized stormwater BMPs, and a forested catchment serving as a reference. Among urban catchments with similar land cover, geology and BMP design standards (i.e. 100-year event), but contrasting placement of stormwater BMPs, distributed BMPs resulted in: significantly greater estimated baseflow, a higher minimum precipitation threshold for stream response and maximum discharge increases, better maximum discharge control for small precipitation events, and reduced runoff volume during an extreme (1000-year) precipitation event compared to centralized BMPs. For all catchments, greater forest land cover and less impervious cover appeared to be more important drivers than stormwater BMP spatial pattern, and caused lower total, stormflow, and baseflow runoff volume; lower maximum discharge during typical precipitation events; and lower runoff volume during an extreme precipitation event. Analysis of hydrologic field data in this study suggests that both the spatial distribution of stormwater BMPs and land cover are important for management of urban stormwater runoff. In particular, catchment-wide application of distributed BMPs improved stream hydrology compared to centralized BMPs, but not enough to fully replicate forested

  17. A World at Risk: Aggregating Development Trends to Forecast Global Habitat Conversion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oakleaf, James R.; Kennedy, Christina M.; Baruch-Mordo, Sharon; West, Paul C.; Gerber, James S.; Jarvis, Larissa; Kiesecker, Joseph

    2015-01-01

    A growing and more affluent human population is expected to increase the demand for resources and to accelerate habitat modification, but by how much and where remains unknown. Here we project and aggregate global spatial patterns of expected urban and agricultural expansion, conventional and unconventional oil and gas, coal, solar, wind, biofuels and mining development. Cumulatively, these threats place at risk 20% of the remaining global natural lands (19.68 million km2) and could result in half of the world’s biomes becoming >50% converted while doubling and tripling the extent of land converted in South America and Africa, respectively. Regionally, substantial shifts in land conversion could occur in Southern and Western South America, Central and Eastern Africa, and the Central Rocky Mountains of North America. With only 5% of the Earth’s at-risk natural lands under strict legal protection, estimating and proactively mitigating multi-sector development risk is critical for curtailing the further substantial loss of nature. PMID:26445282

  18. A World at Risk: Aggregating Development Trends to Forecast Global Habitat Conversion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oakleaf, James R; Kennedy, Christina M; Baruch-Mordo, Sharon; West, Paul C; Gerber, James S; Jarvis, Larissa; Kiesecker, Joseph

    2015-01-01

    A growing and more affluent human population is expected to increase the demand for resources and to accelerate habitat modification, but by how much and where remains unknown. Here we project and aggregate global spatial patterns of expected urban and agricultural expansion, conventional and unconventional oil and gas, coal, solar, wind, biofuels and mining development. Cumulatively, these threats place at risk 20% of the remaining global natural lands (19.68 million km2) and could result in half of the world's biomes becoming >50% converted while doubling and tripling the extent of land converted in South America and Africa, respectively. Regionally, substantial shifts in land conversion could occur in Southern and Western South America, Central and Eastern Africa, and the Central Rocky Mountains of North America. With only 5% of the Earth's at-risk natural lands under strict legal protection, estimating and proactively mitigating multi-sector development risk is critical for curtailing the further substantial loss of nature.

  19. A World at Risk: Aggregating Development Trends to Forecast Global Habitat Conversion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James R Oakleaf

    Full Text Available A growing and more affluent human population is expected to increase the demand for resources and to accelerate habitat modification, but by how much and where remains unknown. Here we project and aggregate global spatial patterns of expected urban and agricultural expansion, conventional and unconventional oil and gas, coal, solar, wind, biofuels and mining development. Cumulatively, these threats place at risk 20% of the remaining global natural lands (19.68 million km2 and could result in half of the world's biomes becoming >50% converted while doubling and tripling the extent of land converted in South America and Africa, respectively. Regionally, substantial shifts in land conversion could occur in Southern and Western South America, Central and Eastern Africa, and the Central Rocky Mountains of North America. With only 5% of the Earth's at-risk natural lands under strict legal protection, estimating and proactively mitigating multi-sector development risk is critical for curtailing the further substantial loss of nature.

  20. Modeling Urban Expansion in Bangkok Metropolitan Region Using Demographic–Economic Data through Cellular Automata-Markov Chain and Multi-Layer Perceptron-Markov Chain Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chudech Losiri

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Urban expansion is considered as one of the most important problems in several developing countries. Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR is the urbanized and agglomerated area of Bangkok Metropolis (BM and its vicinity, which confronts the expansion problem from the center of the city. Landsat images of 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2011 were used to detect the land use and land cover (LULC changes. The demographic and economic data together with corresponding maps were used to determine the driving factors for land conversions. This study applied Cellular Automata-Markov Chain (CA-MC and Multi-Layer Perceptron-Markov Chain (MLP-MC to model LULC and urban expansions. The performance of the CA-MC and MLP-MC yielded more than 90% overall accuracy to predict the LULC, especially the MLP-MC method. Further, the annual population and economic growth rates were considered to produce the land demand for the LULC in 2014 and 2035 using the statistical extrapolation and system dynamics (SD. It was evident that the simulated map in 2014 resulting from the SD yielded the highest accuracy. Therefore, this study applied the SD method to generate the land demand for simulating LULC in 2035. The outcome showed that urban occupied the land around a half of the BMR.

  1. [Effects of land cover change on soil organic carbon and light fraction organic carbon at river banks of Fuzhou urban area].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Hong-Da; Du, Zi-Xian; Yang, Yu-Sheng; Li, Xi-Bo; Zhang, Ya-Chun; Yang, Zhi-Feng

    2010-03-01

    By using Vario EL III element analyzer, the vertical distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and light-fraction organic carbon (LFOC) in the lawn, patch plantation, and reed wetland at river banks of Fuzhou urban area were studied in July 2007. For all the three land cover types, the SOC and LFOC contents were the highest in surface soil layer, and declined gradually with soil depth. Compared with reed wetland, the lawn and patch plantation had higher SOC and LFOC contents in each layer of the soil profile (0-60 cm), and the lawn had significantly higher contents of SOC and LFOC in 0-20 cm soil layer, compared with the patch plantation. After the reed wetland was converted into lawn and patch plantation, the SOC stock in the soil profile was increased by 94.8% and 72.0%, and the LFOC stock was increased by 225% and 93%, respectively. Due to the changes of plant species, plant density, and management measure, the conversion from natural wetland into human-manipulated green spaces increased the SOC and LFOC stocks in the soil profile, and improved the soil quality. Compared with the SOC, soil LFOC was more sensitive to land use/cover change, especially for those in 0-20 cm soil layer.

  2. Urban biomass - not an urban legend

    Science.gov (United States)

    Utilizing biomass from urban landscapes could significantly contribute to the nation’s renewable energy needs. There is an estimated 16.4 million hectares of land in urban areas cultivated with turfgrass and associated vegetation. Vegetation in urban areas is intensely managed which lead to regula...

  3. Calibrating and Validating a Simulation Model to Identify Drivers of Urban Land Cover Change in the Baltimore, MD Metropolitan Region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claire Jantz

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available We build upon much of the accumulated knowledge of the widely used SLEUTH urban land change model and offer advances. First, we use SLEUTH’s exclusion/attraction layer to identify and test different urban land cover change drivers; second, we leverage SLEUTH’s self-modification capability to incorporate a demographic model; and third, we develop a validation procedure to quantify the influence of land cover change drivers and assess uncertainty. We found that, contrary to our a priori expectations, new development is not attracted to areas serviced by existing or planned water and sewer infrastructure. However, information about where population and employment growth is likely to occur did improve model performance. These findings point to the dominant role of centrifugal forces in post-industrial cities like Baltimore, MD. We successfully developed a demographic model that allowed us to constrain the SLEUTH model forecasts and address uncertainty related to the dynamic relationship between changes in population and employment and urban land use. Finally, we emphasize the importance of model validation. In this work the validation procedure played a key role in rigorously assessing the impacts of different exclusion/attraction layers and in assessing uncertainty related to population and employment forecasts.

  4. [Assessment and early warning of land ecological security in rapidly urbanizing coastal area: A case study of Caofeidian new district, Hebei, China].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Li; Chen, Ying; Wang, Shu-tao; Men, Ming-xin; Xu, Hao

    2015-08-01

    Assessment and early warning of land ecological security (LES) in rapidly urbanizing coastal area is an important issue to ensure sustainable land use and effective maintenance of land ecological security. In this study, an index system for the land ecological security of Caofeidian new district was established based on the Pressure-State-Response (P-S-R) model. Initial assessment units of 1 km x 1 km created with the remote sensing data and GIS methods were spatially interpolated to a fine pixel size of 30 m x 30 m, which were combined with the early warning method (using classification tree method) to evaluate the land ecological security of Caofeidian in 2005 and 2013. The early warning level was classed into four categories: security with degradation potential, sub-security with slow degradation, sub-security with rapid degradation, and insecurity. Result indicated that, from 2005 to 2013, the average LES of Caofeidian dropped from 0.55 to 0.52, indicating a degradation of land ecological security from medium security level to medium-low security level. The areas at the levels of insecurity with rapid degradation were mainly located in the rapid urbanization areas, illustrating that rapid expansion of urban construction land was the key factor to the deterioration of the regional land ecological security. Industrial District, Shilihai town and Nanpu saltern, in which the lands at the levels of insecurity and sub-security with rapid degradation or slow degradation accounted for 58.3%, 98.9% and 81.2% of their respective districts, were at the stage of high early warning. Thus, land ecological security regulation for these districts should be strengthened in near future. The study could provide a reference for land use planning and ecological protection of Caofeidian new district.

  5. Multi-Temporal Multi-Sensor Analysis of Urbanization and Environmental/Climate Impact in China for Sustainable Urban Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ban, Yifang; Gong, Peng; Gamba, Paolo; Taubenbock, Hannes; Du, Peijun

    2016-08-01

    The overall objective of this research is to investigate multi-temporal, multi-scale, multi-sensor satellite data for analysis of urbanization and environmental/climate impact in China to support sustainable planning. Multi- temporal multi-scale SAR and optical data have been evaluated for urban information extraction using innovative methods and algorithms, including KTH- Pavia Urban Extractor, Pavia UEXT, and an "exclusion- inclusion" framework for urban extent extraction, and KTH-SEG, a novel object-based classification method for detailed urban land cover mapping. Various pixel- based and object-based change detection algorithms were also developed to extract urban changes. Several Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are selected as study areas. Spatio-temporal urbanization patterns and environmental impact at regional, metropolitan and city core were evaluated through ecosystem service, landscape metrics, spatial indices, and/or their combinations. The relationship between land surface temperature and land-cover classes was also analyzed.The urban extraction results showed that urban areas and small towns could be well extracted using multitemporal SAR data with the KTH-Pavia Urban Extractor and UEXT. The fusion of SAR data at multiple scales from multiple sensors was proven to improve urban extraction. For urban land cover mapping, the results show that the fusion of multitemporal SAR and optical data could produce detailed land cover maps with improved accuracy than that of SAR or optical data alone. Pixel-based and object-based change detection algorithms developed with the project were effective to extract urban changes. Comparing the urban land cover results from mulitemporal multisensor data, the environmental impact analysis indicates major losses for food supply, noise reduction, runoff mitigation, waste treatment and global climate regulation services through landscape structural changes in terms of decreases in service area, edge

  6. Ecological and human health risks arising from exposure to metals in urban soils under different land use in Nigeria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iwegbue, Chukwujindu M A; Martincigh, Bice S

    2018-05-01

    The concentrations of eight metals (Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu, Mn, Zn and Fe) were measured in soils under different land use in an urban environment of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. The aim was to provide information on the potential ecological and human health risks associated with human exposure to metals in these soils. The potential ecological risk due to metals in soils of these land use types falls in the range of low to moderate ecological risk with a significant contribution from Cd. The severity of the individual metals to ecological risk in these land use types followed the order Cd > Pb > Zn > Cu > Ni > Cr > Mn. The non-carcinogenic risk, expressed in terms of the hazard index (HI), arising through exposure to metals through oral, dermal and inhalation pathways, was greater than 1 for children in the majority of the land use types and less than 1 for adults for all land use types. This indicated that there are considerable non-cancer risks arising from childhood exposure to metals in soils of these land use types. The cancer risk values were within acceptable threshold values indicating a negligible cancer risk for both children and adults exposed to metals in these urban soils.

  7. Effects of urbanization on agricultural lands and river basins: case study of Mersin (South of Turkey).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duran, Celalettin; Gunek, Halil; Sandal, Ersin Kaya

    2012-04-01

    Largely, Turkey is a hilly and mountainous country. Many rivers rise from the mountains and flow into the seas surrounding the country. Mean while along fertile plains around the rivers and coastal floodplains of Turkey were densely populated than the other parts of the country. These characteristics show that there is a significant relationship between river basins and population or settlements. It is understood from this point of view, Mersin city and its vicinity (coastal floodplain and nearby river basins) show similar relationship. The city of Mersin was built on the southwest comer of Cukurova where Delicay and Efrenk creeks create narrow coastal floodplain. The plain has rich potential for agricultural practices with fertile alluvial soils and suitable climate. However, establishment of the port at the shore have increased commercial activity. Agricultural and commercial potential have attracted people to the area, and eventually has caused rapid spatial expansion of the city, and the urban sprawls over fertile agricultural lands along coastal floodplain and nearby river basins of the city. But unplanned, uncontrolled and illegal urbanization process has been causing degradation of agricultural areas and river basins, and also causing flooding in the city of Mersin and its vicinity. Especially in the basins, urbanization increases impervious surfaces throughout watersheds that increase erosion and runoff of surface water. In this study, the city of Mersin and its vicinity are examined in different ways, such as land use, urbanization, morphology and flows of the streams and given some directions for suitable urbanization.

  8. Long-term energy consumptions of urban transportation: A prospective simulation of 'transport-land uses' policies in Bangalore

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lefevre, Benoit

    2009-01-01

    The current trends of urban dynamics in the Third World are alarming with regard to climate change, because they are giving an increasingly important role to cars-to the detriment of public and non-motorized transportation. Yet this is the type of energy consumption that is expected to grow the fastest, in business-as-usual scenarios. How can these market-based urban trends be influenced? What level of emissions reduction can be achieved? This article shows that first, there is a relevant and urgent need to tackle the urban dynamics of cities in developing countries focusing on the 'transport-land uses' couple, and second, that existing transport technologies and decision-helping tools are already available to take up the climate change challenge. Through the application of an integrated 'transport-land uses' model, TRANUS, this study demonstrates that transit technologies affordable to an emerging city like Bangalore can significantly curb the trajectories of energy consumption and the ensuing carbon dioxide emissions, if and only if they are implemented in the framework of appropriate urban planning. Furthermore, this study establishes that there are tools which are available to facilitate the necessary policy-making processes. These tools allow stakeholders to discuss different political alternatives integrating energy issues, based on quantitative assessments

  9. Historical Land-Cover Change and Land-Use Conversions Global Dataset

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — A set of three estimates of land-cover types and annual transformations of land use are provided on a global 0.5 x0.5 degree lat/lon grid at annual time steps. The...

  10. Integration of deep geothermal energy and woody biomass conversion pathways in urban systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moret, Stefano; Peduzzi, Emanuela; Gerber, Léda; Maréchal, François

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Novel optimization-based methodology to integrate renewable energy systems in cities. • Multiperiod model including storage, heat integration and Life Cycle Assessment. • Case study: systematic assessment of deep geothermal and wood conversion pathways. • Identification of novel wood-geothermal hybrid systems leading to higher efficiencies. • Extensive Supplementary Material to ensure full reproducibility of the work. - Abstract: Urban systems account for about two-thirds of global primary energy consumption and energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, with a projected increasing trend. Deep geothermal energy and woody biomass can be used for the production of heat, electricity and biofuels, thus constituting a renewable alternative to fossil fuels for all end-uses in cities: heating, cooling, electricity and mobility. This paper presents a methodology to assess the potential for integrating deep geothermal energy and woody biomass in an urban energy system. The city is modeled in its entirety as a multiperiod optimization problem with the total annual cost as an objective, assessing as well the environmental impact with a Life Cycle Assessment approach. For geothermal energy, deep aquifers and Enhanced Geothermal Systems are considered for stand-alone production of heat and electricity, and for cogeneration. For biomass, besides direct combustion and cogeneration, conversion to biofuels by a set of alternative processes (pyrolysis, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and synthetic natural gas production) is studied. With a scenario-based approach, all pathways are first individually evaluated. Secondly, all possible combinations between geothermal and biomass options are systematically compared, taking into account the possibility of hybrid systems. Results show that integrating these two resources generates configurations featuring both lower costs and environmental impacts. In particular, synergies are found in innovative hybrid systems using

  11. The Urban Heat Island Impact in Consideration of Spatial Pattern of Urban Landscape and Structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, J.; Lee, D. K.; Jeong, W.; Sung, S.; Park, J.

    2015-12-01

    Preceding study has established a clear relationship between land surface temperature and area of land covers. However, only few studies have specifically examined the effects of spatial patterns of land covers and urban structure. To examine how much the local climate is affected by the spatial pattern in highly urbanized city, we investigated the correlation between land surface temperature and spatial patterns of land covers. In the analysis of correlation, we categorized urban structure to four different land uses: Apartment residential area, low rise residential area, industrial area and central business district. Through this study, we aims to examine the types of residential structure and land cover pattern for reducing urban heat island and sustainable development. Based on land surface temperature, we investigated the phenomenon of urban heat island through using the data of remote sensing. This study focused on Daegu in Korea. This city, one of the hottest city in Korea has basin form. We used high-resolution land cover data and land surface temperature by using Landsat8 satellite image to examine 100 randomly selected sample sites of 884.15km2 (1)In each land use, we quantified several landscape-levels and class-level landscape metrics for the sample study sites. (2)In addition, we measured the land surface temperature in 3 year hot summer seasons (July to September). Then, we investigated the pattern of land surface temperature for each land use through Ecognition package. (3)We deducted the Pearson correlation coefficients between land surface temperature and each landscape metrics. (4)We analyzed the variance among the four land uses. (5)Using linear regression, we determined land surface temperature model for each land use. (6)Through this analysis, we aims to examine the best pattern of land cover and artificial structure for reducing urban heat island effect in highly urbanized city. The results of linear regression showed that proportional land

  12. The Impacts of Land Use Change on Residents’ Living Based on Urban Metabolism: A Case Study in Yangzhou City of Jiangsu Province, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhanqi Wang

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Land use change is one of the fundamental influence factors of human life and well-being. The land use change due to the unprecedented urbanization in China not only causes an increase of resource consumption and threatens food security, but also affects the people’s living standard which deserves our attention. This study aims to reveal the impacts of land use change on residents’ living standard in Yangzhou based on urban metabolism by sensitivity and regression analysis. Results showed that during the period from 1995 to 2014, the flux of emergy increased about 156.56% and the ratio of fuels & electricity emergy flow had increased from 2.86% to 9.20% due to energy demands getting larger, while the built-up land increased by 415.05 km2 and the cultivated land reduced by 417.24 km2. Sensitivity analysis showed that the expansion of built-up land improved residents’ living standards and enriched their material life, while people’s lives were also increasingly dependent on energy consumption and sustainability was being reduced. The regression analysis indicated that people’s lifestyles were transforming to economical and intensive utilization of resources with the built-up area expansion. The results can provide feasible recommendations for land use planning and urban development from the aspect of human life and well-being.

  13. A Coordinated Approach to Food Safety and Land Use Law at the Urban Fringe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Stephen R

    2015-01-01

    Much has been written about the rise of the local food movement in urban and suburban areas. This essay tackles an emerging outgrowth of that movement: the growing desire of urban and suburban dwellers to engage rural areas where food is produced not only to obtain food but also as a means of tourism and cultural activity. This represents a potentially much-needed means of economic development for rural areas and small farmers who are increasingly dependent on non-farm income for survival. The problem, however, is that food safety and land use laws struggle to keep up with these changes, waffling between over-regulation and de-regulation. This essay posits a legal path forward to steer clear of regulatory extremes and to help the local food movement grow and prosper at the urban fringe. We must cultivate our garden.

  14. Problem in application carrying capacity approach for land allocation assessment in Indonesian municipal spatial planning: A case of Kutai Kartanegara Regency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wijaya, I. N. S.; Rahadi, B.; Lusiana, N.; Maulidina, I.

    2017-06-01

    Urbanization in many countries, such as Indonesia, is commonly appeared as a dynamic population of developed areas. It is followed with reducing rural uses of land for improving urban land uses such as housing, industry, infrastructure, etc. in response to the growth of population. One may not be sufficiently considered by the urban planners and the decision makers, urbanization also means escalation of natural resources consumption that should be supported by the natural capacity of the area. In this situation, balancing approach as carrying capacity calculation in spatial planning is needed for sustainability. Indonesian Spatial Planning Law 26/2007 has already expressed about the balance approach in the system. Moreover, it strictly regulates the assessment and the permission system in controlling land development, especially for the conversion. However, the reductions over the rural uses of land, especially agriculture, are continuously occurred. Concerning the planning approach, this paper aims to disclose common insufficiency of carrying capacity considerations in Indonesian spatial planning practice. This paper describes common calculation weaknesses in projecting area for the urban development by recalculating the actual gap between supply and demand of agriculture land areas. Here, municipal spatial plan of Kutai Kartanegara Regency is utilized as single sample case to discuss. As the result, the recalculation shows that: 1) there are serious deficit status of agriculture land areas in order to fulfil the demanded agriculture production for the existed population, 2) some calculation of agriculture production may be miss-interpreted because of insufficient explanation toward the productivity of each agriculture commodity.

  15. Determination of Urban Thermal Characteristics on an Urban/Rural ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Determination of Urban Thermal Characteristics on an Urban/Rural Land Cover Gradient Using Remotely Sensed Data. ... an urbanization process and the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is known to significantly compromise urban environmental quality and has been linked to climate change and associated impacts.

  16. Analyzing the effects of urban expansion on land surface temperature patterns by landscape metrics: a case study of Isfahan city, Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madanian, Maliheh; Soffianian, Ali Reza; Koupai, Saeid Soltani; Pourmanafi, Saeid; Momeni, Mehdi

    2018-03-03

    Urban expansion can cause extensive changes in land use and land cover (LULC), leading to changes in temperature conditions. Land surface temperature (LST) is one of the key parameters that should be considered in the study of urban temperature conditions. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to investigate the effects of changes in LULC due to the expansion of the city of Isfahan on LST using landscape metrics. To this aim, two Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 images, which had been acquired, respectively, on August 2, 1985, and July 4, 2015, were used. The support vector machine method was then used to classify the images. The results showed that Isfahan city had been encountered with an increase of impervious surfaces; in fact, this class covered 15% of the total area in 1985, while this value had been increased to 30% in 2015. Then LST zoning maps were created, indicating that the bare land and impervious surfaces categories were dominant in high temperature zones, while in the zones where water was present or NDVI was high, LST was low. Then, the landscape metrics in each of the LST zones were analyzed in relation to the LULC changes, showing that LULC changes due to urban expansion changed such landscape properties as the percentage of landscape, patch density, large patch index, and aggregation index. This information could be beneficial for urban planners to monitor and manage changes in the LULC patterns.

  17. Promoting Productive Urban Green Open Space Towards Food Security: Case Study Taman Sari, Bandung

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ridwan, M.; Sinatra, Fran; Natalivan, Petrus

    2017-10-01

    The common trend of urban population has been growing significantly in Indonesia for decades, are affected by urban green space conversion. Generally, this area is utilized for urban infrastructures and residences. Furthermore, urban area has grown uncontrollably that could enhance the phenomenon of urban sprawl. The conversion of green urban area and agricultural area will significantly decrease urban food security and quality of urban environment. This problem becomes a serious issue for urban sustainability. Bandung is a city with dense population where there are many poor inhabitants. Families living in poverty are subjected to food insecurity caused by the rise of food prices. Based on the urgency of urban food security and urban environment quality the local government has to achieve comprehensive solutions. This research aims to formulate the policy of productive green open space towards food security for poor people in Bandung. This research not only examines the role played by productive green open space to supply food for the urban poor but also how to govern urban areas sustainably and ensure food security. This research uses descriptive explanatory methodology that describes and explains how to generate policy and strategic planning for edible landscape to promote urban food security. Taman Sari is the location of this research, this area is a populous area that has amount of poor people and has a quite worse quality of urban environment. This study shows that urban green open space has the potential to be utilized as an urban farming land, which poor inhabitants could be main actors to manage urban agriculture to provide their food. Meanwhile, local government could contribute to subsidize the financial of urban farming activities.

  18. Vertical Land Utilization by Means of Storey Housing Development in Urban Area

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arie Sukanti

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Many international covenants and constitutions have recognized housing and shelter needs as one of many human right aspects. This paper intends to clarify the particular issues relating to paragraph 19 of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, on resolving city slum problems. The Declaration has also embedded initiative to achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers as proposed in the “Cities without Slums” by 2020. In the local perspectives, based on existing regulations analysis, the Special Region (DKI of Jakarta has many problems on forthcoming implementation. Vertical land utilization model by way of storey houses development becomes an alternative to settle the demographic and housing problems. More legal research needs to be conducted to find the best effective national policy in the future. Urban land use, proposed as starting points, will be able to explore how to provide and undertake vertical land utilization and city planning to resolve city slums problems by providing both housing needs and city attractiveness as an integrated planning.

  19. Remote Sensing of Atlanta's Urban Sprawl and the Distribution of Land Cover and Surface Temperatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laymon, Charles A.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Quattrochi, Dale A.; Arnold, James E. (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    Between 1973 and 1992, an average of 20 ha of forest was lost each day to urban expansion of Atlanta, Georgia. Urban surfaces have very different thermal properties than natural surfaces-storing solar energy throughout the day and continuing to release it as sensible heat well after sunset. The resulting heat island effect serves as catalysts for chemical reactions from vehicular exhaust and industrialization leading to a deterioration in air quality. In this study, high spatial resolution multispectral remote sensing data has been used to characterize the type, thermal properties, and distribution of land surface materials throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area. Ten-meter data were acquired with the Advanced Thermal and Land Applications Sensor (ATLAS) on May 11 and 12, 1997. ATLAS is a 15-channel multispectral scanner that incorporates the Landsat TM bands with additional bands in the middle reflective infrared and thermal infrared range. The high spatial resolution permitted discrimination of discrete surface types (e.g., concrete, asphalt), individual structures (e.g., buildings, houses) and their associated thermal characteristics. There is a strong temperature contrast between vegetation and anthropomorphic features. Vegetation has a modal temperature at about 20 C, whereas asphalt shingles, pavement, and buildings have a modal temperature of about 39 C. Broad-leaf vegetation classes are indistinguishable on a thermal basis alone. There is slightly more variability (plus or minus 5 C) among the urban surfaces. Grasses, mixed vegetation and mixed urban surfaces are intermediate in temperature and are characterized by broader temperature distributions with modes of about 29 C. Thermal maps serve as a basis for understanding the distribution of "hotspots", i.e., how landscape features and urban fabric contribute the most heat to the lower atmosphere.

  20. NILAI EKONOMI TOTAL KONVERSI LAHAN PERTANIAN DI KABUPATEN SLEMAN (Total Economic Value of the Land Agricultural Conversion in Sleman Regency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rika Harini

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRAK Konversi lahan pertanian untuk  penggunaan non pertanian  merupakan suatu  fenomena yang tidak dapat dihindarkan. Penilaian secara ekonomi maupun lingkungan perlu dilakukan untuk mengetahui tingkat keuntungan secara finansial maupun kelingkungan dari kegiatan  pertanian. Penelitian dilakukan di Kabupaten Sleman  melalui metode survai dengan 90  responden  sebagai sampel penelitian. Wilayah kajian didasarkan pada tingkat konversi lahan pertanian selama  kurun waktu 17 tahun. Melalui Citra Landsat TM 1992, 2000 dan Citra Alos 2009  dapat diketahui luas konversi lahan pertanian  di semua wilayah di Kabupaten Sleman. Analisis data  dilakukan secara  deskriptif  kualitatif maupun kuantitatif dengan  uji statistik melalui model uji Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR dan juga model Total Economic Value (TEV. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa terjadi variasi tingkat konversi lahan pertanian  di wilayah Kabupaten Sleman. Hasil perhitungan  dengan metode TEV menunjukkan bahwa pada wilayah zone 1 nilai ekonomi usahatani lahan  sawah lebih rendah dibandingkan dengan wilayah zone 2, sedangkan pada zone 3 nilai ekonomi dari usahatani lahan sawah paling tinggi. Tingkat pencemaran akibat adanya konversi lahan pertanian berdampak pada hasil kegiatan usahatani lahan sawah. Pencemaran yang dianggap paling tinggi oleh petani untuk saat ini adalah pencemaran air, sedangkan untuk pencemaran tanah dan udara belum dirasakan. Konversi lahan juga berdampak terhadap  produksi hasil komoditi lahan sawah. Meskipun hasil produksi komoditas pertanian juga dipengaruhi oleh luas lahan sawah, konversi, teknologi dan produktivitas pada setiap zone wilayah kajian.   ABSTRACT The conversion of agricultural land for non agricultural purposes is a phenomenon that inevitable. Economic and environmental assessment needs to be done to determine the level of profit financially and environmentally of farming activities on the agricultural sector. The study was

  1. QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT FOR ORCHARDS CONVERSION OF SOME LAND IN SECAŞ AREA, TIMIS COUNTY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dicu Daniel

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims at obtaining background information on soils and their morphological, physical, chemical and agrochemical characteristics, so as to substantiate the defining scientific and technical quality of an area of 19.00 ha for their conversion to orchards. After a detailed presentation of the landscape (relief, lithology, hydrology, climate, vegetation, human influences useful to explain the phenomena that occur in the soil and how these phenomena and processes can be influenced by farming, in his work were followed two distinct aspects: of production and the characterization of farmland and elements that help to define the productive capacity of land. From an economic point of view the assessment of land is made by determining evaluation notes according to soil properties (physical, physico-mechanical, hydrological, chemical, etc. and natural characteristics (geomorphology, hydrology, climate, traits that eventually determine the fertility of the soil and are closely correlated with human activity.Given the complex of climatic (corrected temperature and average of annual rainfall values, technical and edaphic (relief, ground water, flooding, soil reaction in the first 20 cm, edaphic volume, the degree of base saturation, porosity, humus reserve, calcium carbonate factors in the investigated specific perimeter, in theend was obtained a weighted average evaluation mark for the main categories of land use.

  2. High Resolution Urban Land Cover Mapping Using NAIP Aerial Photography and Image Processing for the USEPA National Atlas of Sustainability and Ecosystem Services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pilant, A. N.; Baynes, J.; Dannenberg, M.

    2012-12-01

    The US EPA National Atlas for Sustainability is a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application that allows users to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services in a specific region. The Atlas provides users with a visual method for interpreting ecosystem services and understanding how they can be conserved and enhanced for a sustainable future. The Urban Atlas component of the National Atlas will provide fine-scale information linking human health and well-being to environmental conditions such as urban heat islands, near-road pollution, resource use, access to recreation, drinking water quality and other quality of life indicators. The National Land Cover Data (NLCD) derived from 30 m scale 2006 Landsat imagery provides the land cover base for the Atlas. However, urban features and phenomena occur at finer spatial scales, so higher spatial resolution and more current LC maps are required. We used 4 band USDA NAIP imagery (1 m pixel size) and various classification approaches to produce urban land cover maps with these classes: impervious surface, grass and herbaceous, trees and forest, soil and barren, and water. Here we present the remote sensing methods used and results from four pilot cities in this effort, highlighting the pros and cons of the approach, and the benefits to sustainability and ecosystem services analysis. Example of high resolution land cover map derived from USDA NAIP aerial photo. Compare 30 m and 1 m resolution land cover maps of downtown Durham, NC.

  3. [Research on the influence of urban land use structure and pattern on nitrogen, phosphorus of wetland water environment in Xianlin New Town of Nanjing].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Chun-Xiao; Liu, Hong-Yu; Li, Yu-Feng; Wang, Cong; Hou, Ming-Hang

    2014-08-01

    The 10 typical wetlands in Xianlin New Townof Nanjing were classified into three categories, including rural wetland, suburban wetland, and urban wetland according to the influence of urbanization as well as the characteristics of wetland and LUCC of catchment regions. RDA was used to analyse the relationships between nitrogen and phosphorus in urban wetland and various types and patterns of land use. It was found that the water quality of the urban wetlands presented to be worse than that from rural wetlands, followed by sub urban wetlands. Secondly, according to all investigated wetlands, TP and TN turned out to be higher during the wet seasons than dry seasons. In addition, significant differences of TP were observed between wet and dry seasons for rural and suburban wetlands, and it was not so obvious for urban wetlands. However, the differences of TN was opposite to that of TP. Thirdly, factors affecting the water quality of wetlands were comprised of types and patterns of land use, and thus significant positive relationships were found between the concentrations of TN and TP and the impervious land, while negative correlations for meadows, woodlands and wetlands. What's more, higher remarkable differences were found in wetlands than those from meadows and woodlands. Regarding to patterns of land use, TP, TN concentrations were negatively correlated with the average patch shape in the dry and wet seasons, whereas positively relationships were observed for patch density and diversity index; furthermore, with refer to the impact of adjacent landscape, significant relationships were found between the content of TN and the patterns of land use and thus, a negative correlation in the wet season and a positive correlation in the dry season were observed, respectively.

  4. Is It Possible to Distinguish Global and Regional Climate Change from Urban Land Cover Induced Signals? A Mid-Latitude City Example

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarah Wiesner

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The local climate in cities differs from the one in rural areas, most prominently characterized by increased surface and air temperatures, known as the “(surface urban heat island”. As climate has changed and continues to change in all areas of the world, the question arises whether the effects that are noticeable in urban areas are “homemade”, or whether some of them originate from global and regional scale climate changes. Identifying the locally induced changes of urban meteorological parameters is especially relevant for the development of adaptation and mitigation measures. This study aims to distinguish global and regional climate change signals from those induced by urban land cover. Therefore, it provides a compilation of observed and projected climate changes, as well as urban influences on important meteorological parameters. It is concluded that evidence for climate change signals is found predominantly in air temperature. The effect of urban land cover on local climate can be detected for several meteorological parameters, which are air and surface temperature, humidity, and wind. The meteorology of urban areas is a mixture of signals in which the influencing parameters cannot be isolated, but can be assessed qualitatively. Blending interactions between local effects and regional changes are likely to occur.

  5. Monitoring and predicting the fecal indicator bacteria concentrations from agricultural, mixed land use and urban stormwater runoff.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paule-Mercado, M A; Ventura, J S; Memon, S A; Jahng, D; Kang, J-H; Lee, C-H

    2016-04-15

    While the urban runoff are increasingly being studied as a source of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), less is known about the occurrence of FIB in watershed with mixed land use and ongoing land use and land cover (LULC) change. In this study, Escherichia coli (EC) and fecal streptococcus (FS) were monitored from 2012 to 2013 in agricultural, mixed and urban LULC and analyzed according to the most probable number (MPN). Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between FIB and environmental parameters (physicochemical and hydrometeorological). Multiple linear regressions (MLR) were used to identify the significant parameters that affect the FIB concentrations and to predict the response of FIB in LULC change. Overall, the FIB concentrations were higher in urban LULC (EC=3.33-7.39; FS=3.30-7.36log10MPN/100mL) possibly because of runoff from commercial market and 100% impervious cover (IC). Also, during early-summer season; this reflects a greater persistence and growth rate of FIB in a warmer environment. During intra-event, however, the FIB concentrations varied according to site condition. Anthropogenic activities and IC influenced the correlation between the FIB concentrations and environmental parameters. Stormwater temperature (TEMP), turbidity, and TSS positively correlated with the FIB concentrations (p>0.01), since IC increased, implying an accumulation of bacterial sources in urban activities. TEMP, BOD5, turbidity, TSS, and antecedent dry days (ADD) were the most significant explanatory variables for FIB as determined in MLR, possibly because they promoted the FIB growth and survival. The model confirmed the FIB concentrations: EC (R(2)=0.71-0.85; NSE=0.72-0.86) and FS (R(2)=0.65-0.83; NSE=0.66-0.84) are predicted to increase due to urbanization. Therefore, these findings will help in stormwater monitoring strategies, designing the best management practice for FIB removal and as input data for stormwater models. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B

  6. Evaluation of the Chinese Fine Spatial Resolution Hyperspectral Satellite TianGong-1 in Urban Land-Cover Classification

    OpenAIRE

    Xueke Li; Taixia Wu; Kai Liu; Yao Li; Lifu Zhang

    2016-01-01

    The successful launch of the Chinese high spatial resolution hyperspectral satellite TianGong-1 (TG-1) opens up new possibilities for applications of remotely-sensed satellite imagery. One of the main goals of the TG-1 mission is to provide observations of surface attributes at local and landscape spatial scales to map urban land cover accurately using the hyperspectral technique. This study attempted to evaluate the TG-1 datasets for urban feature analysis, using existing data over Beijing, ...

  7. Land-Use and Land-Cover Change around Mobile Bay, Alabama from 1974-2008

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, Jean; Spruce, Joseph P.; Swann, Roberta; Smooth, James C.

    2009-01-01

    This document summarizes the major findings of a Gulf of Mexico Application Pilot project led by NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) in conjunction with a regional collaboration network of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA). NASA researchers processed and analyzed multi-temporal Landsat data to assess land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes in the coastal counties of Mobile and Baldwin, AL between 1974 and 2008. Our goal was to create satellite-based LULC data products using methods that could be transferable to other coastal areas of concern within the Gulf of Mexico. The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) is the primary end-user, however, several other state and local groups may benefit from the project s data products that will be available through NOAA-NCDDC s Regional Ecosystem Data Management program. Mobile Bay is a critical ecologic and economic region in the Gulf of Mexico and to the entire country. Mobile Bay was designated as an estuary of national significance in 1996. This estuary receives the fourth largest freshwater inflow in the United States. It provides vital nursery habitat for commercially and recreationally important fish species. It has exceptional aquatic and terrestrial bio-diversity, however, its estuary health is influenced by changing LULC patterns, such as urbanization. Mobile and Baldwin counties have experienced a population growth of 1.1% and 20.5% from 2000-2006. Urban expansion and population growth are likely to accelerate with the construction and operation of the ThyssenKrupp steel mill in the northeast portion of Mobile County. Land-use and land-cover change can negatively impact Gulf coast water quality and ecological resources. The conversion of forest to urban cover types impacts the carbon cycle and increases the freshwater and sediment in coastal waters. Increased freshwater runoff decreases salinity and increases the turbidity of coastal waters, thus impacting the growth potential of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV

  8. Impact of altered land use on urban hydrology and strategic management practices on flooding problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    This paper describes the impact of altered land use on urban flooding in Northwest Indiana over a 10-year time span between 1992 and 2001. The studied watershed, Great Calumet Basin, is located on the south shore of Lake Michigan, which is well known as a highly industrialized area. The flood peaks ...

  9. Modeling land use change impacts on water resources in a tropical West African catchment (Dano, Burkina Faso)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yira, Y.; Diekkrüger, B.; Steup, G.; Bossa, A. Y.

    2016-06-01

    This study investigates the impacts of land use change on water resources in the Dano catchment, Burkina Faso, using a physically based hydrological simulation model and land use scenarios. Land use dynamic in the catchment was assessed through the analysis of four land use maps corresponding to the land use status in 1990, 2000, 2007, and 2013. A reclassification procedure levels out differences between the classification schemes of the four maps. The land use maps were used to build five land use scenarios corresponding to different levels of land use change in the catchment. Water balance was simulated by applying the Water flow and balance Simulation Model (WaSiM) using observed discharge, soil moisture, and groundwater level for model calibration and validation. Model statistical quality measures (R2, NSE and KGE) achieved during calibration and validation ranged between 0.6 and 0.9 for total discharge, soil moisture, and groundwater level, indicating a good agreement between observed and simulated variables. After a successful multivariate validation the model was applied to the land use scenarios. The land use assessment exhibited a decrease of savannah at an annual rate of 2% since 1990. Conversely, cropland and urban areas have increased. Since urban areas occupy only 3% of the catchment it can be assumed that savannah was mainly converted to cropland. The conversion rate of savannah was lower than the annual population growth of 3%. A clear increase in total discharge (+17%) and decrease in evapotranspiration (-5%) was observed following land use change in the catchment. A strong relationship was established between savannah degradation, cropland expansion, discharge increase and reduction of evapotranspiration. The increase in total discharge is related to high peak flow, suggesting (i) an increase in water resources that are not available for plant growth and human consumption and (ii) an alteration of flood risk for both the population within and

  10. An Algorithm Approach for the Analysis of Urban Land-Use/Cover: Logic Filters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Şinasi Kaya

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Accurate classification of land-use/cover based on remotely sensed data is important for interpreters who analyze time or event-based change on certain areas. Any method that has user flexibility on area selection provides great simplicity during analysis, since the analyzer may need to work on a specific area of interest instead of dealing with the entire remotely sensed data. The objectives of the paper are to develop an automation algorithm using Matlab & Simulink on user selected areas, to filter V-I-S (Vegetation, Impervious, Soil components using the algorithm, to analyze the components according to upper and lower threshold values based on each band histogram, and finally to obtain land-use/cover map combining the V-I-S components. LANDSAT 5TM satellite data covering Istanbul and Izmit regions are utilized, and 4, 3, 2 (RGB band combination is selected to fulfill the aims of the study. These referred bands are normalized, and V-I-S components of each band are determined. This methodology that uses Matlab & Simulink program is equally successful like the unsupervised and supervised methods. Practices with these methods that lead to qualitative and quantitative assessments of selected urban areas will further provide important spatial information and data especially to the urban planners and decision-makers.

  11. EnerGis: A geographical information based system for the evaluation of integrated energy conversion systems in urban areas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Girardin, Luc; Marechal, Francois; Dubuis, Matthias; Calame-Darbellay, Nicole; Favrat, Daniel

    2010-01-01

    A geographical information system has been developed to model the energy requirements of an urban area. The purpose of the platform is to model with sufficient detail the energy services requirements of a given geographical area in order to allow the evaluation of the integration of advanced integrated energy conversion systems. This tool is used to study the emergence of more efficient cities that realize energy efficiency measures, integrate energy efficient conversion technologies and promote the use of endogenous renewable energy. The model is illustrated with case studies for the energetic planning of the Geneva district (Switzerland).

  12. Spatially varying determinants of farmland conversion across Qiantang watershed, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Shiliang; Xiao, Rui

    2013-10-01

    This paper employed geographically weighted regression (GWR) to characterize the determinants of farmland conversion at administrative scale between 1994 and 2003 across Qiantang watershed, China. Six determinants were identified: total area of forest, distance to highway, distance to second road, distance to river, population, and gross domestic product. Relationships between these identified determinants and farmland conversion showed great spatial non-stationarity, since their character, nature, and strength varied significantly across space. Typically, for cities whose development was heavily relied on road infrastructure development, the impacts of "distance to second road" and "distance to river" was negative. However, in mountainous areas, the restriction of terrain factors led to positive impacts from these two variables. For areas undergoing rapid socio-economic development, farmland conversion was accelerated by population growth and economic development. However, for more urbanized regions, a slow-down rate of farmland conversion would be expected. Our study highlighted that the problem of spatial non-stationarity should be addressed when qualifying the determinants of farmland conversion. Linking our results within the context of farmland protection, we argue that implementing local-specific land management practices, instead of the current one-size-fits-all framework, is the key for the success of farmland protection in China.

  13. EVALUATION OF URBANIZATION INFLUENCES ON URBAN ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Osondu

    2012-07-27

    Jul 27, 2012 ... direction greatly affects dispersion of pollutants in the city and distribution of heat which affect human comfort. ... The urbanization is evidenced by the reducing urban land surface reflectivity and the ..... Government Print Press.

  14. Outlier identification and visualization for Pb concentrations in urban soils and its implications for identification of potential contaminated land

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Chaosheng; Tang Ya; Luo Lin; Xu Weilin

    2009-01-01

    Outliers in urban soil geochemical databases may imply potential contaminated land. Different methodologies which can be easily implemented for the identification of global and spatial outliers were applied for Pb concentrations in urban soils of Galway City in Ireland. Due to its strongly skewed probability feature, a Box-Cox transformation was performed prior to further analyses. The graphic methods of histogram and box-and-whisker plot were effective in identification of global outliers at the original scale of the dataset. Spatial outliers could be identified by a local indicator of spatial association of local Moran's I, cross-validation of kriging, and a geographically weighted regression. The spatial locations of outliers were visualised using a geographical information system. Different methods showed generally consistent results, but differences existed. It is suggested that outliers identified by statistical methods should be confirmed and justified using scientific knowledge before they are properly dealt with. - Outliers in urban geochemical databases can be detected to provide guidance for identification of potential contaminated land.

  15. Urban forests for sustainable urban development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sundara, Denny M.; Hartono, Djoko M.; Suganda, Emirhadi; Haeruman, S. Herman J.

    2017-11-01

    This paper explores the development of the urban forest in East Jakarta. By 2030 Jakarta area has a target of 30% green area covering 19,845 hectares, including urban forest covering an area of 4,631 hectares. In 2015, the city forest is only 646 hectares, while the city requires 3,985 hectares of new land Urban forest growth from year to year showed a marked decrease with increasing land area awoke to commercial functions, environmental conditions encourage the development of the city to become unsustainable. This research aims to support sustainable urban development and ecological balance through the revitalization of green areas and urban development. Analytical methods for urban forest area is calculated based on the amount of CO2 that comes from people, vehicles, and industrial. Urban spatial analysis based on satellite image data, using a GIS program is an analysis tool to determine the distribution and growth patterns of green areas. This paper uses a dynamic system model to simulate the conditions of the region against intervention to be performed on potential areas for development of urban forests. The result is a model urban forest area is integrated with a social and economic function to encourage the development of sustainable cities.

  16. Nature-based solutions for urban landscapes under post-industrialization and globalization: Barcelona versus Shanghai.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Peilei; Ouyang, Zutao; Basnou, Corina; Pino, Joan; Park, Hogeun; Chen, Jiquan

    2017-07-01

    Using Barcelona and Shanghai as case studies, we examined the nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban settings-specifically within cities experiencing post-industrialization and globalization. Our specific research questions are: (1) What are the spatiotemporal changes in urban built-up land and green space in Barcelona and Shanghai? (2) What are the relationships between economic development, exemplified by post-industrialization, globalization, and urban green space? Urban land use and green space change were evaluated using data derived from a variety of sources, including satellite images, landscape matrix indicators, and a land conversion matrix. The relationships between economic development, globalization, and environmental quality were analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling based on secondary statistical data. Both Barcelona and Shanghai have undergone rapid urbanization, with urban expansion in Barcelona beginning in the 1960s-1970s and in Shanghai in the last decade. While Barcelona's urban green space and green space per capita began declining between the 1950s and 1990s, they increased slightly over the past two decades. Shanghai, however, has consistently and significantly improved urban green space and green space per capita over the past six decades, especially since the economic reform in 1978. Economic development has a direct and significant influence on urban green space for both cities and post-industrialization had served as the main driving force for urban landscape change in Barcelona and Shanghai. Based on secondary statistical and qualitative data from on-site observations and interviews with local experts, we highlighted the institution's role in NBS planning. Furthermore, aspiration to become a global or globalizing city motivated both cities to use NBS planning as a place-making tool to attract global investment, which is reflected in various governing policies and regulations. The cities' effort to achieve a

  17. Urban Land Cover Mapping Accuracy Assessment - A Cost-benefit Analysis Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, T.

    2012-12-01

    One of the most important components in urban land cover mapping is mapping accuracy assessment. Many statistical models have been developed to help design simple schemes based on both accuracy and confidence levels. It is intuitive that an increased number of samples increases the accuracy as well as the cost of an assessment. Understanding cost and sampling size is crucial in implementing efficient and effective of field data collection. Few studies have included a cost calculation component as part of the assessment. In this study, a cost-benefit sampling analysis model was created by combining sample size design and sampling cost calculation. The sampling cost included transportation cost, field data collection cost, and laboratory data analysis cost. Simple Random Sampling (SRS) and Modified Systematic Sampling (MSS) methods were used to design sample locations and to extract land cover data in ArcGIS. High resolution land cover data layers of Denver, CO and Sacramento, CA, street networks, and parcel GIS data layers were used in this study to test and verify the model. The relationship between the cost and accuracy was used to determine the effectiveness of each sample method. The results of this study can be applied to other environmental studies that require spatial sampling.

  18. The impact of land use/land cover changes on land degradation dynamics: a Mediterranean case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bajocco, S; De Angelis, A; Perini, L; Ferrara, A; Salvati, L

    2012-05-01

    In the last decades, due to climate changes, soil deterioration, and Land Use/Land Cover Changes (LULCCs), land degradation risk has become one of the most important ecological issues at the global level. Land degradation involves two interlocking systems: the natural ecosystem and the socio-economic system. The complexity of land degradation processes should be addressed using a multidisciplinary approach. Therefore, the aim of this work is to assess diachronically land degradation dynamics under changing land covers. This paper analyzes LULCCs and the parallel increase in the level of land sensitivity to degradation along the coastal belt of Sardinia (Italy), a typical Mediterranean region where human pressure affects the landscape characteristics through fires, intensive agricultural practices, land abandonment, urban sprawl, and tourism concentration. Results reveal that two factors mainly affect the level of land sensitivity to degradation in the study area: (i) land abandonment and (ii) unsustainable use of rural and peri-urban areas. Taken together, these factors represent the primary cause of the LULCCs observed in coastal Sardinia. By linking the structural features of the Mediterranean landscape with its functional land degradation dynamics over time, these results contribute to orienting policies for sustainable land management in Mediterranean coastal areas.

  19. The Impact of Land Use/Land Cover Changes on Land Degradation Dynamics: A Mediterranean Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bajocco, S.; De Angelis, A.; Perini, L.; Ferrara, A.; Salvati, L.

    2012-05-01

    In the last decades, due to climate changes, soil deterioration, and Land Use/Land Cover Changes (LULCCs), land degradation risk has become one of the most important ecological issues at the global level. Land degradation involves two interlocking systems: the natural ecosystem and the socio-economic system. The complexity of land degradation processes should be addressed using a multidisciplinary approach. Therefore, the aim of this work is to assess diachronically land degradation dynamics under changing land covers. This paper analyzes LULCCs and the parallel increase in the level of land sensitivity to degradation along the coastal belt of Sardinia (Italy), a typical Mediterranean region where human pressure affects the landscape characteristics through fires, intensive agricultural practices, land abandonment, urban sprawl, and tourism concentration. Results reveal that two factors mainly affect the level of land sensitivity to degradation in the study area: (i) land abandonment and (ii) unsustainable use of rural and peri-urban areas. Taken together, these factors represent the primary cause of the LULCCs observed in coastal Sardinia. By linking the structural features of the Mediterranean landscape with its functional land degradation dynamics over time, these results contribute to orienting policies for sustainable land management in Mediterranean coastal areas.

  20. Evaluating the impact of land-use density and mix on spatiotemporal urban activity patterns: an exploratory study using mobile phone data

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jacobs-Crisioni, C.G.W.; Rietveld, P.; Koomen, E.; Tranos, E.

    2014-01-01

    Dense and mixed land-use configurations are assumed to encourage high and prolonged activity levels, which in turn are considered to be important for the condition of urban neighbourhoods. We used mobile phone usage data recorded in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as a proxy for urban activity to test

  1. Characterizing land subsidence mechanisms as a function of urban basin geohazards using space geodesy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bawden, G. W.

    2016-12-01

    Land subsidence in urban basins will likely become a more significant geohazard in many of the global sedimentary basins as population growth, resource availability, and climate change compound natural and anthropogenic contributors that influence basin elevation. Coastal basins are at the greatest risk where land subsidence is additive to sea level rise, thereby increasing the rate of exposure to coastal populations. Land surface elevation change is a function of many different parameters, including: elastic and inelastic surface response to managed and natural groundwater levels; anthropogenic activities (hydrocarbon extraction, wastewater injection, fracking, geothermal production, and mass redistribution); local tectonic deformation and regional tectonic drivers (such as repeated uplift and subsidence cycles above subduction zones); climate change (influencing the timing, magnitude, nature and duration of seasonal/annual precipitation and permafrost extent); material properties of the basin sediments (influencing susceptibility to soil compaction, oxidization, and dissolution); post glacial rebound; isostatic flexure associated with sea-level and local mass changes; and large scale gravitational processes (such as growth faults and landslides). Geodetic measurements, such as InSAR and GPS, help track spatial and temporal changes in both relative and absolute basin elevation thereby helping to characterize the mechanism(s) driving the geohazards. In addition to a number of commercial radar satellites, European Space Agency's Sentinel-1a/b satellites are beginning to provide a wealth of data over many basin targets with C-band (5.5 cm wavelength). The NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) L-band (24 cm wavelength) mission (anticipated 2021 launch) will image nearly every basin globally every 12 days and data from the mission will help characterize land subsidence and many other solid-Earth and hydrologic geohazards that impact urban basins.

  2. Three Essays In and Tests of Theoretical Urban Economics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Weihua

    This dissertation consists of three essays on urban economics. The three essays are related to urban spatial structure change, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and housing redevelopment. Chapter 1 answers the question: Does the classic Standard Urban Model still describe the growth of cities? Chapter 2 derives the implications of telework on urban spatial structure, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. Chapter 3 investigates the long run effects of minimum lot size zoning on neighborhood redevelopment. Chapter 1 identifies a new implication of the classic Standard Urban Model, the "unitary elasticity property (UEP)", which is the sum of the elasticity of central density and the elasticity of land area with respect to population change is approximately equal to unity. When this implication of the SUM is tested, it fits US cities fairly well. Further analysis demonstrates that topographic barriers and age of housing stock are the key factors explaining deviation from the UEP. Chapter 2 develops a numerical urban simulation model with households that are able to telework to investigate the urban form, congestion, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission implications of telework. Simulation results suggest that by reducing transportation costs, telework causes sprawl, with associated longer commutes and consumption of larger homes, both of which increase energy consumption. Overall effects depend on who captures the gains from telework (workers versus firms), urban land use regulation such as height limits or greenbelts, and the fraction of workers participating in telework. The net effects of telework on energy use and GHG emissions are generally negligible. Chapter 3 applies dynamic programming to investigate the long run effects of minimum lot size zoning on neighborhood redevelopment. With numerical simulation, comparative dynamic results show that minimum lot size zoning can delay initial land conversion and slow down demolition and

  3. Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development and Urban-Rural Linkages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nilsson, Kjell; Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick; Aalbers, Carmen

    2014-01-01

    of transport, land use and open space planning; (ii) urban containment and densification – development a green compact city; (iii) preservation of blue and green infrastructure; and (iv) preservation of agricultural land and the promotion of local production. The need also remains to strengthen governance......An important driving force behind urban expansion is the growth of the urban population. But for Europe, this is not a sufficient explanation. The major trend is that European cities have become much less compact. Since the mid-1950s European cities have expanded on average by 78%, whereas...... the population has grown by only 33%. In the PLUREL project - an integrated project within the EU’s 6th Research Framework Programme - more than 100 researchers from 15 countries analysed the impacts of urban land consumption at a pan-European level and, through six European and one Chinese case studies...

  4. A comparative institutional evaluation of public-private partnerships in Dutch urban land-use and revitalisation projects

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijkamp, P.; van der Burch, M.; Vindigni, G.

    2002-01-01

    In the spirit of the devolution of public policy, we have recently witnessed an increasing popularity of decentralised forms of decision-making in urban land-use policy, in which both local (or regional) authorities and the private sector play a more prominent joint role in the preparation and

  5. Simulating and Predicting the Impacts of Light Rail Transit Systems on Urban Land Use by Using Cellular Automata: A Case Study of Dongguan, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinyao Lin

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available The emergence of Light Rail Transit systems (LRTs could exert considerable impacts on sustainable urban development. It is crucial to predict the potential land use changes since LRTs are being increasingly built throughout the world. While various land use and land cover change (LUCC models have been developed during the past two decades, the basic assumption for LUCC prediction is the continuation of present trends in land use development. It is therefore unreasonable to predict potential urban land use changes associated with LRTs simply based on earlier trends because the impacts of LRT investment may vary greatly over time. To tackle this challenge, our study aims to share the experiences from previous lines with newly planned lines. Dongguan, whose government decided to build LRTs around 2008, was selected as the study area. First, we assessed the impacts of this city’s first LRT (Line R2 on three urban land use types (i.e., industrial development, commercial and residential development, and rural development at different periods. The results indicate that Line R2 exerted a negative impact on industrial development and rural development, but a positive impact on commercial and residential development during the planning stage of this line. Second, such spatial impacts (the consequent land use changes during this stage were simulated by using artificial neural network cellular automata. More importantly, we further predicted the potential impacts of Line R1, which is assumed to be a newly planned line, based on the above calibrated model and a traditional method respectively. The comparisons between them demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, which can easily take advantage of the experiences from other LRTs. The proposed method is expected to provide technical support for sustainable urban and transportation planning.

  6. A gradient analysis on urban sprawl and urban landscape pattern between 1985 and 2000 in the Pearl River Delta, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dai, Erfu; Wu, Zhuo; Du, Xiaodian

    2017-04-01

    Urbanization is an irreversible trend worldwide, especially in rapidly developing China. Accelerated urbanization has resulted in rapid urban sprawl and urban landscape pattern changes. Quantifying the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban land use and landscape pattern not only can reveal the characteristics of social transfer and economic development, but also can provide insights into the driving mechanisms of land use changes. In this study, we integrated remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS), landscape metrics, and gradient analysis to quantitatively compare the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use, urban sprawl, and landscape pattern for nine cities in the Pearl River Delta from 1985‒2000. For the whole study region, urbanization was obvious. The results show an increase in urban buildup land and shrinkage of cropland in the Pearl River Delta. However, the nine cities differed greatly in terms of the process and magnitude of urban sprawl for both the spatial and temporal dimensions. This was most evident for the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Gradient analysis on urban landscape changes could deepen understanding of the stages of urban development and provide a scientific foundation for future urban planning and land management strategies in China.

  7. Evaluating Water and Energy Fluxes across Three Land Cover Types in a Desert Urban Environment through a Mobile Eddy Covariance Platform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierini, N.; Vivoni, E. R.; Schreiner-McGraw, A.; Lopez-Castrillo, I.

    2015-12-01

    The urbanization process transforms a natural landscape into a built environment with many engineered surfaces, leading to significant impacts on surface energy and water fluxes across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Nevertheless, the effects of different urban land covers on energy and water fluxes has been rarely quantified across the large varieties of construction materials, landscaping and vegetation types, and industrial, commercial and residential areas in cities. In this study, we deployed a mobile eddy covariance tower at three different locations in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area to capture a variety of urban land covers. The three locations each represent a common urban class in Phoenix: 1) a dense, xeric landscape (gravel cover and native plants with drip-irrigation systems near tall buildings); 2) a high-density urban site (asphalt-paved parking lot near a high-traffic intersection); and 3) a suburban mesic landscape (sprinkler-irrigated turf grass in a suburban neighborhood). At each site, we measured meteorological variables, including air temperature and relative humidity at three heights, precipitation and pressure, surface temperature, and soil moisture and temperature (where applicable), to complement the eddy covariance measurements of radiation, energy, carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes. We evaluated the tower footprint at each site to characterize the contributing surface area to the flux measurements, including engineered and landscaping elements, as a function of time for each deployment. The different sites allowed us to compare how turbulent fluxes of water vapor and carbon dioxide vary for these representative urban land covers, in particular with respect to the role of precipitation events and irrigation. While the deployments covered different seasons, from winter to summer in 2015, the variety of daily conditions allowed quantification of the differential response to precipitation events during the winter, pre

  8. A Synthesis of Studies on Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics during 1930–2015 in Bangladesh

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raju Rai

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Land use and land cover (LULC is dynamic and changes in it have important environmental and socio-economic consequences. The pathways and pace of change vary with space and time and are related to the interaction between human activities and biophysical conditions in an area. This study provides a systematic review of the changing status, patterns, and compositions of LULC in Bangladesh on national, regional, and local scales over the past 85 years. The primary LULC classes in Bangladesh are agricultural land, urban and built-up area, forest and vegetation, water bodies, and wetlands. Most of the country is covered with agricultural land, followed by urban areas; the latter has been expanding rapidly in the area surrounding the capital city, Dhaka, especially the southern capital area. Forest cover is mostly concentrated in southeast Bangladesh, the Chittagong district, and the mangrove forests are predominantly located in the southwest, with the Gangetic delta. High population growth, rapid urbanization, and infrastructure development have been directly associated with changing patterns of land use across the country. In recent decades, urban areas and water bodies have been increasing, to the detriment of both forests and agricultural land. Most of the studies reviewed here describe a general trend involving agricultural and forested land being transformed into urban areas.

  9. Impacts of Forest to Urban Land Conversion and ENSO Phase on Water Quality of a Public Water Supply Reservoir

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emile Elias

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available We used coupled watershed and reservoir models to evaluate the impacts of deforestation and l Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO phase on drinking water quality. Source water total organic carbon (TOC is especially important due to the potential for production of carcinogenic disinfection byproducts (DBPs. The Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC reservoir model is used to evaluate the difference between daily pre- and post- urbanization nutrients and TOC concentration. Post-disturbance (future reservoir total nitrogen (TN, total phosphorus (TP, TOC and chlorophyll-a concentrations were found to be higher than pre-urbanization (base concentrations (p < 0.05. Predicted future median TOC concentration was 1.1 mg·L−1 (41% higher than base TOC concentration at the source water intake. Simulations show that prior to urbanization, additional water treatment was necessary on 47% of the days between May and October. However, following simulated urbanization, additional drinking water treatment might be continuously necessary between May and October. One of six ENSO indices is weakly negatively correlated with the measured reservoir TOC indicating there may be higher TOC concentrations in times of lower streamflow (La Niña. There is a positive significant correlation between simulated TN and TP concentrations with ENSO suggesting higher concentrations during El Niño.

  10. Optimized extreme learning machine for urban land cover classification using hyperspectral imagery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Hongjun; Tian, Shufang; Cai, Yue; Sheng, Yehua; Chen, Chen; Najafian, Maryam

    2017-12-01

    This work presents a new urban land cover classification framework using the firefly algorithm (FA) optimized extreme learning machine (ELM). FA is adopted to optimize the regularization coefficient C and Gaussian kernel σ for kernel ELM. Additionally, effectiveness of spectral features derived from an FA-based band selection algorithm is studied for the proposed classification task. Three sets of hyperspectral databases were recorded using different sensors, namely HYDICE, HyMap, and AVIRIS. Our study shows that the proposed method outperforms traditional classification algorithms such as SVM and reduces computational cost significantly.

  11. No land in sight : impact of caste on slum communities' access to land in Bangalore, India

    OpenAIRE

    Narayana, Rakesh

    2012-01-01

    This study examines the impact of caste on slum communities’ access to urban land in Bangalore, India. Historically, pattern of land ownership in India was inextricably melded together with caste wherein the dominant castes owned land and excluded Dalits from land access. Slums can be seen as primarily an urban land access issue. A majority of slum residents in Bangalore are Dalits though they form a minority in the overall population. The study adopts a Social Exclusion paradigm to understan...

  12. An Approach to Evaluate Comprehensive Plan and Identify Priority Lands for Future Land Use Development to Conserve More Ecological Values

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Long Zhou

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Urbanization has significant impacts on the regional environmental quality through altering natural lands, converting them to urban built-up areas. One common strategy applied by urban planners to manage urbanization and preserve natural resources is to make a comprehensive plan and concentrate future land use in certain areas. However, in practice, planners used to make future land use planning mainly based on their subjective interpretations with limited ecological supporting evidence and analysis. Here, we propose a new approach composed of ecological modelling and land use zoning in the spatial matrix to evaluate the comprehensive plan and identify priority lands for sustainable land use planning. We use the city of Corvallis, OR, as the test bed to demonstrate this new approach. The results indicate that the Corvallis Comprehensive Plan 1998–2020 featured with compact development is not performing efficiently in conserving ecological values, and the land use plan featured with mixed-use spreading development generated by the proposed approach meets the city’s land demands for urban growth, and conserves 103% more ecological value of retaining storm water nitrogen, 270% more ecological value of retaining storm water phosphorus and 19% more ecological value in storing carbon in the whole watershed. This study indicates that if planned with scientific analysis and evidence, spreading urban development does not necessarily result in less sustainable urban environment than the compact development recommended in smart growth.

  13. The impact of urban morphology and land cover on the sensible heat flux retrieved by satellite and in-situ observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gawuc, L.; Łobocki, L.; Kaminski, J. W.

    2017-12-01

    Land surface temperature (LST) is a key parameter in various applications for urban environments research. However, remotely-sensed radiative surface temperature is not equivalent to kinetic nor aerodynamic surface temperature (Becker and Li, 1995; Norman and Becker, 1995). Thermal satellite observations of urban areas are also prone to angular anisotropy which is directly connected with the urban structure and relative sun-satellite position (Hu et al., 2016). Sensible heat flux (Qh) is the main component of surface energy balance in urban areas. Retrieval of Qh, requires observations of, among others, a temperature gradient. The lower level of temperature measurement is commonly replaced by remotely-sensed radiative surface temperature (Chrysoulakis, 2003; Voogt and Grimmond, 2000; Xu et al., 2008). However, such replacement requires accounting for the differences between aerodynamic and radiative surface temperature (Chehbouni et al., 1996; Sun and Mahrt, 1995). Moreover, it is important to avoid micro-scale processes, which play a major role in the roughness sublayer. This is due to the fact that Monin-Obukhov similarity theory is valid only in dynamic sublayer. We will present results of the analyses of the impact of urban morphology and land cover on the seasonal changes of sensible heat flux (Qh). Qh will be retrieved by two approaches. First will be based on satellite observations of radiative surface temperature and second will be based on in-situ observations of kinetic road temperature. Both approaches will utilize wind velocity, and air temperature observed in-situ. We will utilize time series of MODIS LST observations for the period of 2005-2014 as well as simultaneous in-situ observations collected by road weather network (9 stations). Ground stations are located across the city of Warsaw, outside the city centre in low-rise urban structure. We will account for differences in urban morphology and land cover in the proximity of ground stations. We will

  14. Influence of urban land cover changes and climate change for the exposure of European cities to flooding during extreme precipitation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaspersen, Per Skougaard; Høegh Ravn, N.; Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Karsten

    In this paper we present a methodology suitable for investigating the relative and combined influence of urban land cover changes and climate change for the exposure of cities to pluvial flooding. A combined hydrological-hydrodynamic modelling and remote sensing approach enables the quantificatio...... during the past 30 years caused an increase in flood exposure that is comparable to what is expected in the RCP4.5 (+2°C) climate scenario.......In this paper we present a methodology suitable for investigating the relative and combined influence of urban land cover changes and climate change for the exposure of cities to pluvial flooding. A combined hydrological-hydrodynamic modelling and remote sensing approach enables the quantification...

  15. Balancing urban and peri-urban exchange: water geography of rural livelihoods in Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Díaz-Caravantes, Rolando E

    2012-01-01

    The peri-urban area is the region where there is a more dynamic interaction between the urban and rural. The peri-urban area supplies natural resources, such as land for urban expansion and agricultural products to feed the urban population. In arid and semi-arid lands, such as northern Mexico, these areas may also be the source of water for the city's domestic demand. In addition, scholars argue that peri-urban residents may have a more advantageous geographical position for selling their labour and agricultural products in cities and, by doing so, sustaining their livelihoods. A considerable number of studies have examined the peri-urban to urban natural resources transfer in terms of land annexation, housing construction, and infrastructure issues; however, the study of the effects of the reallocation of peri-urban water resources to serve urban needs is critical as well because the livelihoods of peri-urban residents, such as those based on agriculture and livestock, depend on water availability. In the case of Hermosillo there is a tremendous pressure on the water resources of peri-urban small farm communities or ejidos because of urban demand. Based on interviews and structured surveys with producers and water managers, this paper examines how peri-urban livelihoods have been reshaped by the reallocation of the city's natural resources in many cases caused some ejido members or ejidatarios to lose livelihoods.

  16. Predicting runoff induced mass loads in urban watersheds: Linking land use and pyrethroid contamination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chinen, Kazue; Lau, Sim-Lin; Nonezyan, Michael; McElroy, Elizabeth; Wolfe, Becky; Suffet, Irwin H; Stenstrom, Michael K

    2016-10-01

    Pyrethroid pesticide mass loadings in the Ballona Creek Watershed were calculated using the volume-concentration method with a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to explore potential relationships between urban land use, impervious surfaces, and pyrethroid runoff flowing into an urban stream. A calibration of the GIS volume-concentration model was performed using 2013 and 2014 wet-weather sampling data. Permethrin and lambda-cyhalothrin were detected as the highest concentrations; deltamethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, permethrin and cyfluthrin were the most frequently detected synthetic pyrethroids. Eight neighborhoods within the watershed were highlighted as target areas based on a Weighted Overlay Analysis (WOA) in GIS. Water phase concentration of synthetic pyrethroids (SPs) were calculated from the reported usage. The need for stricter BMP and consumer product controls was identified as a possible way of reducing the detections of pyrethroids in Ballona Creek. This model has significant implications for determining mass loadings due to land use influence, and offers a flexible method to extrapolate data for a limited amount of samplings for a larger watershed, particularly for chemicals that are not subject to environmental monitoring. Offered as a simple approach to watershed management, the GIS-volume concentration model has the potential to be applied to other target pesticides and is useful for simulating different watershed scenarios. Further research is needed to compare results against other similar urban watersheds situated in mediterranean climates. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Augmenting Blue Land Uses: An adaptation approach for Climate Change in Urban Areas. A case study of Janakpur Municipalities, Nepal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ajay Chandra Lal

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Climate change has emerged as a major challenge to human kind in the 21st century and Nepal is no exception. The challenges are even more severe in the context of urban areas where most wealth and population is concentrated. Greening an area is a major strategy for adapting to climate change; however, with blue land use a major source of evaporation can act as another activity to aid the adaption to climate change, where ponds are traditionally present within a city but are often abandoned. The present research has been carried out in the city of Janakpur situated in the central southern flatland of Nepal along its Southern border with India. The research outlines the relation of blue land use and its cooling capacity in an urban area. The research adopts both qualitative and quantitative research methods, showing that blue land use does have positive a correlation with the cooling of the surrounding area. The research in Janakpur, a pond city with more than 200 ponds within the urban fabric reveals that during summer the houses along the ponds will experience temperatures 2 °C lower than houses situated more than 100 m away from the ponds.

  18. Potential future land use threats to California's protected areas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Tamara Sue; Sleeter, Benjamin Michael; Davis, Adam Wilkinson

    2015-01-01

    Increasing pressures from land use coupled with future changes in climate will present unique challenges for California’s protected areas. We assessed the potential for future land use conversion on land surrounding existing protected areas in California’s twelve ecoregions, utilizing annual, spatially explicit (250 m) scenario projections of land use for 2006–2100 based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emission Scenarios to examine future changes in development, agriculture, and logging. We calculated a conversion threat index (CTI) for each unprotected pixel, combining land use conversion potential with proximity to protected area boundaries, in order to identify ecoregions and protected areas at greatest potential risk of proximal land conversion. Our results indicate that California’s Coast Range ecoregion had the highest CTI with competition for extractive logging placing the greatest demand on land in close proximity to existing protected areas. For more permanent land use conversions into agriculture and developed uses, our CTI results indicate that protected areas in the Central California Valley and Oak Woodlands are most vulnerable. Overall, the Eastern Cascades, Central California Valley, and Oak Woodlands ecoregions had the lowest areal percent of protected lands and highest conversion threat values. With limited resources and time, rapid, landscape-level analysis of potential land use threats can help quickly identify areas with higher conversion probability of future land use and potential changes to both habitat and potential ecosystem reserves. Given the broad range of future uncertainties, LULC projections are a useful tool allowing land managers to visualize alternative landscape futures, improve planning, and optimize management practices.

  19. Using Land Surface Phenology to Detect Land Use Change in the Northern Great Plains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, L. H.; Henebry, G. M.

    2017-12-01

    The Northern Great Plains of the US have been undergoing many types of land cover / land use change over the past two decades, including expansion of irrigation, conversion of grassland to cropland, biofuels production, urbanization, and fossil fuel mining. Much of the literature on these changes has relied on post-classification change detection based on a limited number of observations per year. Here we demonstrate an approach to characterize land dynamics through land surface phenology (LSP) by synergistic use of image time series at two scales. Our study areas include regions of interest (ROIs) across the Northern Great Plains located within Landsat path overlap zones to boost the number of valid observations (free of clouds or snow) each year. We first compute accumulated growing degree-days (AGDD) from MODIS 8-day composites of land surface temperature (MOD11A2 and MYD11A2). Using Landsat Collection 1 surface reflectance-derived vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI), we then fit at each pixel a downward convex quadratic model linking the vegetation index to each year's progression of AGDD. This quadratic equation exhibits linearity in a mathematical sense; thus, the fitted models can be linearly mixed and unmixed using a set of LSP endmembers (defined by the fitted parameter coefficients of the quadratic model) that represent "pure" land cover types with distinct seasonal patterns found within the region, such as winter wheat, spring wheat, maize, soybean, sunflower, hay/pasture/grassland, developed/built-up, among others. Information about land cover corresponding to each endmember are provided by the NLCD (National Land Cover Dataset) and CDL (Cropland Data Layer). We use linear unmixing to estimate the likely proportion of each LSP endmember within particular areas stratified by latitude. By tracking the proportions over the 2001-2011 period, we can quantify various types of land transitions in the Northern Great Plains.

  20. The Impact of Urbanization to Forest Degradation in Metropolitan Semarang: A Preliminary Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sejati, A. W.; Buchori, I.; Rudiarto, I.

    2018-02-01

    This paper aims to examine the relationship of urbanization and the consequences of environmental impacts, especially the availability of forests. The analysis used remote sensing data ie Landsat 7 ETM (1990), Landsat 7 ETM (2000), and Landsat 8 OLI (2015). Analysis of forest availability used green vegetation cover parameters with NDVI techniques, while urbanization was measured by looking at the built-up area growth with NDBI techniques. The detection result in 1990 area of urban area was 74.85 km2, in 2000 was 130.83 km2, and in 2015 was 292.74 km2. Given the overall size of the metropolitan area of Semarang (932.14 km2), the proportion of the built up area in 2015 was 31% with an average of 6% per year change in 1990-2000 and 8.2% per year in 2000-2015. Urbanization in this region is characterized by forest conversion into residential and industrial buildings. With increasing area and built-up density, NDBI is found to be proportionately increasing, while NDVI decrease is significant. The results show that NDBI-NDVI correlation is negative (-0.99). It is very important for policy makers to formulate land use control policies in Metropolitan Semarang particularly in responding to the issue of forest conversion.