Abstract
Land use changes have significantly altered the natural environment in which humans live. In urban areas, diminishing air quality poses a large threat to human health. In order to investigate the relationship between land use/cover change (LUCC) and air pollutants of Wuyishan City between 2014–2017, an integrated approach was used by combining remote sensing techniques with a landscape ecology methods. Annual, seasonal, and weekly mean values of air pollutant (SO2, NO2, CO, PM10, O3, PM2.5, black carbon) concentration and atmospheric visibility were calculated to develop a Pearson correlation between LUCC and air pollutants concentration. Results showed an increase in forested areas (1.79%) and water areas (15.89%), with a simultaneous reduction in cultivated land (6.47%), bare land (72.61%), and built-up land (16.03%) from 2014 to 2017. The transition matrix of land use types revealed that (i) forest expansion took place mainly at the expense of cultivated land (13.94%) and bare land (27.48%); and (ii) water area expansion took place mainly at the expense of cultivated land (1.29%) and forests (0.21%). In 2017, the proportion of days with AQI level I (94.52%) was higher than that in 2014 (88.77%). Additionally, the annual average visibility in 2017 (37.42 km) was higher than 2014 (27.46 km). The concentration of SO2, CO, O3, and black carbon was positively correlated with the cultivated land. The concentration of SO2, CO, and black carbon negatively correlated with the increase of forests. PM10, and PM2.5 is negatively correlated with the water area. Visibility was found to be positively correlated with forested area, and negatively correlated with cultivated land. The findings from this study represent a valuable gain in understanding of policies aimed at improving, safeguarding, and monitoring air quality. These results can be used to inform land-use planning decisions in a comprehensive way and could be a valuable tool for LUCC rational management strategies.
Highlights
Since China’s reform, rapid urban development has brought great benefits to its economy and society, and China is the most industrialized country and the second largest economy in the world.despite these achievements, China’s rapid development has brought many social and environmental problems
The reason may be due to bare land mainly turned into cultivated land and forestr, and our research found that cultivated land is positively correlated with many air pollutants [55], while forestry land is negatively correlated with many air pollutants [59], which leads to the insignificant correlation between bare land and air pollutants
This paper analyzed the relationship between urban land use/cover change (LUCC) and air quality in the city of Wuyishan
Summary
Since China’s reform, rapid urban development has brought great benefits to its economy and society, and China is the most industrialized country and the second largest economy in the world. Despite these achievements, China’s rapid development has brought many social and environmental problems. Atmospheric pollutants have led to various social and environmental issues, including those associated with acid rain, ozone layer depletion, human health, as well as economic, and aesthetic impacts associated with ground level air pollution [2,3,4]. Research has shown that air pollution has a significant impact on public health [5,6]. Issues with China’s air pollution have raised
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