Abstract
Urbanization has led to the continuous expansion of built-up areas and the ever-growing urban population, threatening the quantity and quality of urban green space (UGS). Exploring the spatiotemporal variations of UGS is substantially conducive to the formulation of land-use policies to protect the ecosystems. As one of the largest megacities all around the world, Shanghai has experienced rapid urbanization in the past three decades. Insights into how UGS changes in response to urbanization and greening policies are essential for guiding sustainable urban development. This paper employed integrated approaches to characterize the changing patterns and intensities of green space in Shanghai, China from 1990 to 2015. The spatiotemporal dynamics of the UGS pattern were derived through four main methods: green space ratio, dynamic change degree (DCD), transition matrix and landscape metrics. The results showed that Shanghai’s green space decreased from 84.8% in 1990 to 61.9% in 2015 while the built-up areas increased from 15.0% to 36.5%. Among the green space sub-types, farmland was largely encroached and fragmented by urban sprawl, especially in the Outer Ring Expressway and Suburban Ring Expressway belts of the city. About 1522 km2 of the green space has transferred into built-up areas, followed by farmland, waterbody, forest, and grassland in descending order. The 2000–2010 period witnessed the strong urban expansion and dramatic changes in UGS, but then the change around 2015 turned down and stable. The landscape pattern metrics showed that the entire green space in Shanghai was growingly fragmented and isolated during the past 25 years. Combined with the green space-related planning and policies issued in 1990–2015, the results revealed that both rapid urbanization and greening policies accounted for the spatiotemporal dynamics of UGS. Based on the results, some implicants to new urban planning and policies of Shanghai were highlighted.
Highlights
IntroductionThe accelerated urbanization in the world has led to the ever-expanding built-up area and ever-shrinking urban green space (UGS) [2,3], causing ecosystem and environmental problems [4,5,6]
The global urbanization rate was predicted to reach 70% by 2050 [1]
urban green space (UGS) in Shanghai, we proposed an analysis ysis method composed of four main parts (Figure method composed of four main parts (Figure 3)
Summary
The accelerated urbanization in the world has led to the ever-expanding built-up area and ever-shrinking urban green space (UGS) [2,3], causing ecosystem and environmental problems [4,5,6]. Increasing attention has been paid to the ecosystem service of UGS, including the improvement of microclimate regulation [7], mitigation of urban heat island effects [8], urban pollution controlling [9], providing aesthetic enjoyment and entertainment opportunities and maintaining wellbeing physically and psychologically [10]. Many countries and cities formulated greening policies and UGS planning actively to protect urban ecosystems and enhance the living quality of citizens [11,12]. The United Kingdom and Brazil incorporated UGS planning into the urban planning system and issued corresponding planning policies since the 1990s [13,14].
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