Assessment of Urban Green Space Based on Bio-Energy Landscape Connectivity: A Case Study on Tongzhou District in Beijing, China

Kunyuan Wanghe,Xiaofeng Luan,Xinle Guo,Kai Li

doi:10.3390/su11184943

Abstract

Green infrastructure is one of the key components that provides critical ecosystems services in urban areas, such as regulating services (temperature regulation, noise reduction, air purification), and cultural services (recreation, aesthetic benefits), but due to rapid urbanization, many environmental impacts associated with the decline of green space have emerged and are rarely been evaluated integrally and promptly. The Chinese government is building a new city as the sub-center of the capital in Tongzhou District, Beijing, China. A series of policies have been implemented to increase the size of green urban areas. To support this land-use decision-making process and achieve a sustainable development strategy, accurate assessments of green space are required. In the current study, using land-use data and environmental parameters, we assessed the urban green space in the case study area. The bio-energy and its fluxes, landscape connectivity, as well as related ecosystem services were estimated using a novel approach, the PANDORA model. These results show that (1) in the highly urbanized area, green space is decreasing in reaction to urbanization, and landscape fragmentation is ubiquitous; (2) the river ecology network is a critical part for ecosystem services and landscape connectivity; and (3) the alternative non-green patches to be changed to urban, urban patches which can improve landscape quality the most by being changed to green, and conservation priority patches for biodiversity purposes of urban green were explicitly identified. Conclusively, our results depict the spatial distribution, fluxes, and evolution of bio-energy, as well as the conservation prioritization of green space. Our methods can be applied by urban planners and ecologists, which can help decision-makers achieve a sustainable development strategy in these rapidly urbanizing areas worldwide.

Highlights

Due to the increasing urbanization, as well as its direct and indirect impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, sustainable development strategy plays a decisive role in the urban areas around the world [1]
The bio-energy landscape unit (BELU) 139 was the major part of the river ecology network, which associated with other 54 BELUs accounting for 42.9% of the total area
This result emphasized that BELUs of the river ecology network were more important for the landscape connectivity compared with other parts of the

Summary

Introduction

Due to the increasing urbanization, as well as its direct and indirect impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, sustainable development strategy plays a decisive role in the urban areas around the world [1]. With the continued urban development, about 50% of the world’s population and approximately 76% in developed countries are urban dwellers [2,3]. It is predicted that by the end of the 21st century, 90% of the world’s population will live in cities [4,5]. The ecological perspective of sustainable urban development is moving in the direction of a win-win strategy [6]. Some specific interventions are implemented in the urban ecosystem to achieve this win-win strategy, primarily through the optimized and reasonable assessment of green space [8,9]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion