Changes In Urban Regions Research Articles

Detecting socioeconomic changes of Chicago regions between 2013 and 2020 using urban region representation learning

Urban region representation learning aims to extract valuable insights for understanding urban dynamics from diverse and intricate urban data. Since human mobility is greatly related to the socioeconomic status in a city, existing studies have comprehended urban regions through human mobility. However, it is difficult to analyze temporal variation through the previous region representations, and intrinsic evaluation is also required. Therefore, this study aims to detect temporal socioeconomic changes in urban regions via region representation learning. We modify the HUGAT model to represent region embedding for all years in one latent space. Our model outperforms baselines in predicting socioeconomic levels compared to state-of-the-art models. Furthermore, we propose a temporal similarity measure to analyze the temporal variation between 2013 and 2020 and discover regions where socioeconomic changes happen due to the inflow or outflow of a social class. This result enables efficient urban planning by monitoring each region that undergoes different changes due to social phenomena such as racial segregation or gentrification in Chicago.

Impact of Urbanization and Climate on Vegetation Coverage in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region of China

Worldwide urbanization leads to ecological changes around urban areas. However, few studies have quantitatively investigated the impacts of urbanization on vegetation coverage so far. As an important indicator measuring regional environment change, fractional vegetation cover (FVC) is widely used to analyze changes in vegetation in urban areas. In this study, on the basis of a partial derivative model, we quantified the effect of temperature, precipitation, radiation, and urbanization represented as nighttime light on vegetation coverage changes in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region during its period of rapid resident population growth from 2001 to 2011. The results showed that (1) the FVC of the BTH region varied from 0.20 to 0.26, with significant spatial heterogeneity. The FVC increased in small cities such as Cangzhou and in the Taihang Mountains, while it decreased in megacities with populations greater than 1 million, such as Beijing and Zhangjiakou Bashang. (2) The BTH region experienced rapid urbanization, with the area of artificial surface increasing by 18.42%. From the urban core area to the fringe area, the urbanization intensity decreased, but the urbanization rate increased. (3) Urbanization and precipitation had the greatest effect on FVC changes. Urbanization dominated the FVC changes in the expanded area, while precipitation had the greatest impacts on the FVC changes in the core area. For future studies on the major influencing factors of FVC changes, quantitative analysis of the contribution of urbanization to FVC changes in urban regions is crucial and will provide scientific perspectives for sustainable urban planning.

The changes that occurred in land cover in postcommunist countries in Central Europe

Central European landscape has undergone dramatic changes during the last decades. Big changes in the political and economic systems resulted in a large-scale transformation in land use, especially in the agricultural and silvicultural sectors. At the same time, significant changes in urban regions were recorded. In order to quantify and compare the most important processes in land cover changes, we analyzed so-called land cover flows within four post-communist countries in Central Europe – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary – using CORINE Land Cover databases for 1990, 2000 and 2006. Contradictory processes in landscape change were recorded such as large scale agricultural extensification vs. intensification, or afforestation vs. deforestation. Moreover, there are significant regional differences in the changes in spatial patterns.

Impacts of urbanization on net primary productivity in the Pearl River Delta, China

Great changes in land use/land cover from rapid urbanization have occurred in the PearlRiver Delta, China. As the primary cause of land development in the urbanization process,urban expansion has mostly occurred on land with higher NPP, significantly impacting theregional ecosystems. The primary purpose of this study was to reveal the impacts of urbanexpansion on the regional NPP. The land cover datasets and three types of urban lands (urban,peri-urban and non-urban areas) were obtained to quantify the urban expansion of the PearlRiver Delta from 2000 to 2010. The Carnegie-Ames-Stanford-Approach (CASA) model wasdriven by the land cover types, NDVI data and climate data to calculate the NPP for the studyarea and analyze its spatial-temporal variations, as well as the impacts on NPP from urbanexpansion. The results showed: cropland and forest with higher NPP values and wetland werethe major source of urban expansion, which generally reduced the regional NPP values,primarily by replacing vegetation with urban land. The conversion of land to urban use resultedin a reduction of 0.103TgC from 2000 to 2005 and 0.034TgC from 2005 to 2010, cropland andforest accounted for the largest proportion of the total NPP losses. In spatial distribution, theNPP losses occurring in urban and peri-urban areas accounted for 89.63% and 75.04%,respectively, which was primarily a result of the massive vegetation with high productivitybeing replaced with impervious surfaces during the rapid urbanization process. These resultsprovided an indicator to understand and evaluate ecosystem changes in urban regions.

The Atlanta Paradox. David L. Sjoquist, editor; Segregation in Cities. David H. Kaplan and Steven R. Holloway; Globalization and Networked Societies: Urban-Regional Change in Pacific Asia. Yueman Yeung, and Urban Development in Asia: Retrospect and Prospect. Yue-man Yeung, editor

The Atlanta Paradox. David L. Sjoquist, editor; Segregation in Cities. David H. Kaplan and Steven R. Holloway; Globalization and Networked Societies: Urban-Regional Change in Pacific Asia. Yueman Yeung, and Urban Development in Asia: Retrospect and Prospect. Yue-man Yeung, editor