Spatial-Temporal Changes and Driving Force Analysis of Green Space in Coastal Cities of Southeast China over the Past 20 Years

Huayan Weng,Xinyi Su,Wen Zhang,Yongchao Gao,Renfeng Ma,Yanju Liu,Xiaodong Yang,Liwen Zheng,Fangyan Cheng

doi:10.3390/land10050537

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal the spatial-temporal change and driving factors of green space in coastal cities of southeast China over the past 20 years. A supervised classification method combining support vector machines (SVMs) and visual interpretation was used to extract the green space from Landsat TM/OLI imageries from 2000–2020. The landscape pattern index was used to calculate geospatial information of green space and analyze their spatial-temporal changes. The hierarchical partitioning analysis was then used to determine the influences of anthropogenic and geographic environmental factors on the spatial-temporal changes in green space. The results indicated that the total area of green space remained constant over the past 20 years in coastal cities of southeast China (1% reduction). The spatial change of green space mainly occurred in the area near the ocean and the southern region. 41.37% of forest land was transferred from cultivated land, while 44.56%, 41.83%, 43.20%, 46.31%, 41.98% and 40.20% of shrub land, sparse woodland, other woodland, high-coverage grassland, moderate-coverage grassland and low-coverage grassland were transferred from forest land. The number of patches, patch density, edge density, landscape shape index and Shannon’s diversity index increased from 2000–2015, and then decreased to the minimum in 2020, while largest patch index continued to decline from 2000–2020. The contribution of anthropogenic factors (0.53–0.61) on the spatial-temporal changes of green space continually increased over the past 20 years, which was also higher than geographical environment factors (0.39–0.41). Our study provides a new perspective to distinguish the impact of anthropogenic activities and geographical environmental factors on the change of green space area, thereby providing a theoretical support for the construction and ecological management of green space.

Highlights

Green space is a landscape composed of various types and sizes of plant cover within the city [1,2,3]
Green space decreased by 636.01 km2, but the reduction rate was only 1% over the past 20 years (Figure 2 and Table 3)
The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatial-temporal change of green space in coastal cities of southeast China over the past 20 years, and to analyze the relative contributions of socio-economic determinants and geographical environmental factors to this change

Summary

Introduction

Green space is a landscape composed of various types and sizes of plant cover within the city [1,2,3]. It provides ecosystem services, such as shading, climate regulation, carbon sinking, biodiversity conservation and pollutant removal [2,3]. It provides recreation ground for residents and beautifies the city, which is closely related to human lives [4,5,6]. Since the 1980’s, with the continuous education and publicity of the concept of ecological protection, the ecological service function of green space has attracted increasing attention from urban residents in China [3]. City” and “Eco-City”, to increase the proportion of green space in cities [7,8]. Cui et al indicated the proportion of green space in urban built-up area in coastal areas was higher than that in inland areas after comparing the change of green space among 31 provinces of China [11]

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Discussion

Conclusion