Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Nonlinear Negative Relationship between Urbanization and Habitat Quality in Metropolitan Areas

Jingfeng Zhu,Wei Sun,Yujing Xie,Ning Ding,Dehuan Li,Xiangrong Wang

doi:10.3390/su12020669

Abstract

Urbanization intensity (UI) affects habitat quality (HQ) by changing land patterns, nutrient conditions, management, etc. Therefore, there is a need for studies on the relationship between UI and HQ and quantification of separate urbanization impacts on HQ. In this study, the relationship between HQ and UI and the direct and indirect impacts of urbanization on HQ were analyzed for the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) from 1995 to 2010. The results indicated that the regional relationship between HQ and UI was nonlinear and negative, with inflection points where urbanization reached 20% and 80%. Furthermore, depending on different urbanization impacts, the relationship types generally changed from a steady decrease to stable in different cities. Negative indirect impacts accelerate habitat degradation, while positive impacts partially offset habitat degradation caused by land conversion. The average offset extent was approximately 28.23%, 17.41%, 22.94%, and 16.18% in 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010, respectively. Moreover, the dependency of urbanization impacts on human demand in different urbanization stages was also demonstrated. The increasing demand for urban land has exacerbated the threat to ecological areas, but awareness about the need to protect ecological conditions began to strengthen after the antagonistic stage of urbanization.

Highlights

Since the 20th century, urbanization, including population shifting, urban expansion, economic development and so on, has been one of the most significant characteristics of human civilization [1,2]
We found that the nonlinear negative relationship between habitat quality (HQ) and Urbanization intensity (UI) changed from a steady decrease to stable and back to a steady decrease, with inflection points where urbanization reaches 20% and 80%
The results indicated that urbanization might lead to habitat degradation, while awareness about protecting ecological conditions began to increase after the antagonistic stage of urbanization

Summary

Introduction

Since the 20th century, urbanization, including population shifting, urban expansion, economic development and so on, has been one of the most significant characteristics of human civilization [1,2]. The progress of urbanization has led to more human demand that needs to be provided for by the ecosystem services in natural ecosystems [3]. Found that the unprecedented rates of urban population growth over the past century have occurred on less than 3% of the global terrestrial surface, yet the impact has been global, with 78% of carbon emissions, 60% of residential water use, and 76% of wood used for industrial purposes attributed to urban areas [4]. Quantifying the eco-environmental dynamic variation in the urbanization gradient and identifying the ecological impacts of urbanization provide an efficacious approach for decoupling human well-being from the consumption of natural capital [10]

Methods

Results

Conclusion