Abstract
Urban rivers are important physical elements and important ecological corridors. They not only play important ecological roles but also supply bases of stability, comfort, and sustainability in urban development. Due to the complex interaction between inner and outer elements of urban river landscapes, it is necessary to use the theory of landscape ecology to analyze the pattern, function, context, fragmentation and temporal change of urban river landscapes with appropriate scale. It will support the management and sustainable development of urban rivers. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the urban river landscapes from landscape ecological perspective. This paper firstly reviews the relevant studies in urban river landscapes, and then it carries out the research on the pattern of river corridors and river networks and the service functions. Next, it probes into the river landscape dynamic change at pattern and function aspects and the scale of relative study. Specially, because urban rivers are widely influenced by human activities, so this paper analyzes the disturbance of urban rivers further. This paper has proposed a basal framework for the research on urban rivers by the use of fundamental topics including pattern, function and dynamic change and so on in landscape ecology. It will play a directive role to understand urban rivers, resolve the water environment problems and to realize the sustainable development of urban river resources.
Highlights
IntroductionRiver segments, which originate or flow in urban regions, as well as canals or channels (which are man-made but have, over time, achieved characteristics of natural rivers)
Urban rivers include rivers, or river segments, which originate or flow in urban regions, as well as canals or channels
Urban rivers have a prime role in urban ecological construction and sustainable development
Summary
River segments, which originate or flow in urban regions, as well as canals or channels (which are man-made but have, over time, achieved characteristics of natural rivers). Human activities have vastly altered the structure and the function of urban river landscapes. This has occurred through the accelerated conversion of forestland and wetland to agricultural or urban land, the straightening of the meanderings of rivers, channel maintenance, and industrial development. Some researchers have discussed how the change of other urban landscape components (especially land use and land cover change) affects the river landscapes. Studies in this field are going deeper and deeper from the early exam field research [20,21] to the present application of different watershed hydrological models [2227]. These models could make it possible to generally estimate the hydrological effects of river landscapes at many different scales
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