An integrated environmental impact analysis of urban land use change: a study in Yungkang, Taiwan

Abstract

The change of urban land-use has had an environmental impact. Although there had already been many case studies discussing the impact to the natural environment for urban land-use in the past, most research failed to explain spatial analysis more deeply and to master the spatial characteristic of the environmental impact. In this paper, we developed a systematic approach for the environmental impact analysis in urban areas that integrates spatial statistical analysis and GIS technology. In terms of the impact, we describe four important environmental performance indicators to evaluate the impact of urban land use change more thoroughly on heat island effects, run-off and habitat diversity which have been used from recent studies, and then evaluated and compared the characteristics of environmental impact and spatial pattern of urban land use change. This study provides a procedure of analysis for environmental impact and future spatial planning. The results also indicated that the environmental impact of land use change was gradually reducing when considering the concept of sustainable development.