Perspective Of Land Use Research Articles

Grid scale measurement of carbon compensation in Chongqing City: Based on the perspective of land use

Grid scale measurement of carbon compensation in Chongqing City: Based on the perspective of land use

Classification of urban rail transit lines and determinants of the ridership from the perspective of land use

Classification of urban rail transit lines and determinants of the ridership from the perspective of land use

The Impact of Land Use on Time-Varying Passenger Flow Based on Site Classification

During the different periods of a day, the imbalanced distribution of inbound ridership, that is related to land use, results in extreme flow, which makes metro management challenging. The causes of imbalanced passenger flow from the perspective of land use in metro station areas are studied in this paper. More specifically, based on site classification, the impact of land use, including the floor area ratio and gross floor area on passenger flow, was explored by using a multiple linear regression model. The results first indicate that the impact intensities of the floor area ratio on peak hourly flow were 0.41, 0.21, and 0.20 around business, residential, and mixed sites, respectively. Second, for the abovementioned sites, the types with the greatest impact intensities of gross floor area on peak hourly flow were commercial and business facilities (B), residential (R), as well as administration and public services (A), which were 0.73, 0.32, and 0.87, respectively. Finally, for the land-development-control schemes for business, residential, and mixed sites, the maximum values of the floor area ratio were roughly 7.2, 5.3, and 8.2, respectively. The results presented in this study provide guidance for land development in metro station areas and contribute to avoiding the emergence of extreme passenger flow.

Spatiotemporal evolution of urban carbon balance and its response to new-type urbanization: A case of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomerations, China

In recent years, low-carbon sustainable development has attracted increasing attention worldwide. However, the spatiotemporal evolution of carbon balance and the impact of various urban development indicators are still uncertain, especially in the current scenario of climate change, rapid urbanization, and ecosystem degradation. This study proposes a flexible framework for analyzing the carbon balance and the factors that drive it. This framework is used to investigate the dynamics and heterogeneity of the regional carbon balance from the perspective of land use. New-type urbanization is introduced to explore the impacts of population, economic, spatial, and ecological urbanization on carbon emission using the PLS–STIRPAT model. The proposed method is applied to analyze the urban carbon balance in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration (MRYRUA) in China. The results show that the MRYRUA was in a state of carbon deficit between 2000 and 2020, while the growth rate decreased significantly during 2005–2020. The urban carbon balance model can classify into five categories: the high carbon emissions–high carbon balance index (CBI), the high carbon emissions–low CBI, the medium carbon emissions–high CBI, the low carbon emissions–high CBI, and the low carbon emissions–low CBI. In addition, the indicators of ecological urbanization, population density, and road density in new-type urbanization were found to have a positive effect on curbing the growth in carbon emissions. In conclusion, this study provides appropriate guidelines for carbon reduction policies for cities and is valuable for achieving sustainable development goals.

Does intensive land use decoupled from carbon emissions? an empirical study from the three grand economic zones of China

In the context of the increasingly severe global carbon emission crisis, smoothly reducing emissions without affecting economic development and the continuous improvement of people’s living standards has become an important problem facing China, the country with the largest carbon emissions in the world. From the perspective of intensive land use (ILU), this paper uses standard deviational ellipse, decoupling theory, and a logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) model to analyze the level of ILU and carbon emissions in 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China and explores ways to reduce emissions. The results show that: 1) The level of ILU in China’s 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) has shown steady progress and the overall carbon emissions from land use have shown a slow growth trend, but the carbon emissions of some provinces have shown a downward trend; 2) The ILU and the carbon emissions standard deviational ellipse have good spatial consistency, both of which have a north by east to south by west distribution pattern. The center of the carbon emission standard deviational ellipse moves to the northwest as a whole; 3) 63.33% of provinces are in the ideal decoupling stage of ILU and carbon emissions; 4) According to their contribution value, the influencing factors of China’s carbon emissions are, in descending order, energy intensity, economic scale, population scale, land use structure, energy carbon emission intensity, and land scale. Important directions for future efforts include actively adjusting the industrial structure and economic development mode, increasing the proportion of clean energy and energy utilization rate, controlling the speed of construction and land expansion, and promoting low-carbon emissions.

Serengeti’s futures: Exploring land use and land cover change scenarios to craft pathways for meeting conservation and development goals

Rapid land use transformations and increased climatic uncertainties challenge potential sustainable development pathways for communities and wildlife in regions with strong economic reliance on natural resources. In response to the complex causes and consequences of land use change, participatory scenario development approaches have emerged as key tools for analyzing drivers of change to help chart the future of socio-ecological systems. We assess stakeholder perspectives of land use and land cover change (LULCC) and integrate co-produced scenarios of future land cover change with spatial modeling to evaluate how future LULCC in the wider Serengeti ecosystem might align or diverge with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Across the wider Serengeti ecosystem, population growth, infrastructural development, agricultural economy, and political will in support of climate change management strategies were perceived to be the key drivers of future LULCC. Under eight scenarios, declines in forest area as a proportion of total land area ranged from 0.1% to 4% in 2030 and from 0.1% to 6% in 2063, with the preservation of forest cover linked to the level of protection provided. Futures with well-demarcated protected areas, sound land use plans, and stable governance were highly desired. In contrast, futures with severe climate change impacts and encroached and degazetted protected areas were considered undesirable. Insights gained from our study are important for guiding pathways toward achieving sustainability goals while recognizing societies’ relationship with nature. The results highlight the usefulness of multi-stakeholder engagement, perspective sharing, and consensus building toward shared socio-ecological goals.

Scale Effects and Regional Disparities of Land Use in Influencing PM2.5 Concentrations: A Case Study in the Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area, China

Land use has been demonstrated to have an important influence on PM2.5 concentrations; however, how the scale effects and regional disparities in land use influence PM2.5 concentrations remains unclear. This study investigated the scale differences in spatial variations in PM2.5 concentrations, in spatial associations between PM2.5 concentrations and land use, and explored the effects of the spatial heterogeneity and action scale of land use on PM2.5 concentrations. The main findings indicated greater intra-unit variation at small scales and greater inter-unit variation at large scales. PM2.5 concentrations had a positive association with the surrounding cultivated land and artificial surface, and had a negative association with surrounding forest and grass; the positive spatial association between PM2.5 concentrations and the surrounding artificial surface was stronger at small scales. Cultivated land and forest negatively influenced PM2.5 concentrations generally. Artificial surfaces showed a strong positive influence on PM2.5 concentrations in most urban areas. The action scale of cultivated land in influencing PM2.5 concentrations was the largest (4698.05 m). The findings provide a new interpretation of the relationship between PM2.5 concentrations and land use, and may contribute to effective policy making from the perspective of land use planning to PM2.5 pollution control and abatement.

Study on the optimization of community space and governance in typical units of Chengdu--Take xinguidong community as an example

with the development of national economy, the level of national productivity and the level of urbanization have been further improved. However, a large number of unit communities in the city are difficult to meet the daily life needs of community residents due to their old facilities, internal poverty and the gathering of elderly population. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out research on the Optimization Countermeasures of space and governance of unit communities, In order to promote the sustainable development of the city. However, the current domestic research on the direction of unit community space mainly discusses from the perspectives of land use, community space form, service facilities, transportation system, residential landscape, etc., but there is still a lack of discussion on the optimization of unit community space and community management. Taking xinguidong community in Chengdu as an example, this paper puts forward the concept of "complete community" by optimizing the space and management of the unit community, and integrates it with the "harmony" of living, so as to build an overall "harmonious community", and use the method of building a safe and healthy unit, The three-level urban public space system of large open block, middle prevention and control residential area and small isolation group has been established, which combines emergency response with normal prevention and control, and makes xinguidong community a typical case of high-quality, harmonious and livable living community in Chengdu.

Mapping Chinese land system types from the perspectives of land use and management, biodiversity conservation and cultural landscape

Land is an integrated and complex system consisting of multiple natural and anthropogenic elements. The long-term exploitation and utilization of land resources by humans have transformed the terrestrial surface of the Earth and profoundly impacted the spatial patterns of regional land use and land cover. Land use/cover (LULC) data have been extensively used to monitor regional land changes and contribute to land use policy making. However, these products objectively reflect only the current coverage and biophysical attributes of the terrestrial surface but fail to characterize the multiple functions and attributes of the human-environment system (HES). In this study, we present an integrated land system classification for representing the regional HES based on multisource datasets that characterize the attributes of land use and management, biodiversity conservation and cultural landscapes. Then, 40 land system types (LSTs) in China were identified using the self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm. According to the land system map, we found significant east–west differentiation in land use intensity, with high-intensive LSTs occurring mostly in eastern provinces and natural and seminatural LSTs dominating in central and western regions. The multifunctional LSTs that host food production, biodiversity conservation and cultural heritage were estimated to cover 32% of the terrestrial area in China. In summary, our results can provide a basis for regional land assessment and help identify the pressures on and threats to the eco-environment. Mapping regional land systems facilitates an in-depth understanding of human-environment interactions at the landscape level and serves as a useful tool in terms of forging sustainable land use strategies.

Historical Perspectives of Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Sanga-Lake Mburo former Pastoral Rangeland Ecosystem, Uganda

Socioeconomic, political, and policy decisions by the government may influence the socioecological changes of the land use and land cover pattern for rangeland people over time. This paper examines the historical political, policy, and socioeconomic decisions that influenced land use and land cover changes in the former pastoral community in Sanga-Lake Mburo Rangeland Ecosystem in South Western Uganda. Data on historical events were documented from literature and supplemented by an opportunistic discussion with Sanga residents. Data on land use and cover change detection between 1987 and 2020 were provided by Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS images and from field observations. Images were processed using QGIS version 3.20.1 employing a semi-automatic classification plugin. Political decisions and government policies related to land tenure and reforms, socioeconomics, and demographic changes were noted as underlying drivers of land use and cover changes. The overall accuracies for classified maps of 1987 and 2020 were 80.36% and 89.81%, respectively. Notably, woodland cover in the protected area increased by 170.53% between 1987 and 2020, while built-up areas and farmland increased 1348.15% and 405.03%, respectively. In the same period, wetland cover in protected and unprotected decreased immensely by 46.06%. Bareland in the park decreased by 23%, while outside the park, it increased by 25.07%. This study concludes that land use and land cover change resulted from sociocultural changes, political and policy decisions on ranches, park management, and land tenure restructuring.

The coupling of hillslope- and gully-erosion increases their controlling efforts: A case study in Liaoning Province, China

The widespread hillslope- and gully-erosion in Liaoning Province of Northeast China, pose serious challenges to the local agricultural production. Hillslope- and gully-erosion have typically been studied separately; however, there has been little investigation on the relationship of these two types of erosion. In this study, the coupling relationship of the hillslope- and gully-erosion from the perspectives of erosion intensity and land use, as well as the slope gradient, aspect, and shape, was analysed. The study employed remote sensing and geographic information system techniques, and the universal soil loss equation and kriging were used to perform a macroscopic analysis. The results showed that gully-erosion was more severe compared with hillslope-erosion in the study area. The cultivated land has the highest level of human activities, therefore, the most intense hillslope- and gully-erosion. The threshold slope gradients for the hillslope- and gully-erosion are 14° and 6°, respectively. Above the threshold of 6°, the slope gradient is no longer the primary factor affecting the gully-erosion. Sunny slopes have observably more hillslope-erosion than shady slopes, and the highest hillslope-erosion is observed on the south-southeast-facing slopes. The effect of the slope aspect on the gully-erosion should not be ignored, as evidenced by the considerable gully density of the east-northeast-facing slopes which is obviously higher than for slopes with other slope aspects. The highest hillslope-erosion amount and gully density occur on concave slopes, followed by convex and straight slopes, and straight slopes have little effect on the hillslope-erosion, but have a marked impact on the gully-erosion. The results of this work may serve as a scientific reference for the comprehensive control of soil erosion across a slope-gully system in Northeast China.

Food Self-Sufficiency in Slovakia from the Perspective of Land Use and Production Approach

Abstract If a country cannot secure a sufficient amount of quality food from the domestic market for various reasons, it is necessary to import it from abroad. This is the case in Slovakia, which lags behind the EU average in food self-sufficiency. Therefore, this contribution aims to point out the development of Slovakia’s food self-sufficiency in basic agro-commodities in the past two decades. We strive to do this by applying two approaches to self-sufficiency research – the land use approach and the production approach. While the first is based on assessing the availability of resources where agricultural production can be implemented, the second approach considers agricultural production, consumption and the foreign trade balance. The results show that although a few decades ago, Slovakia was a self-sufficient country in most agri-food commodities, at present, it is not self-sufficient even in the basic ones (such as vegetables, fruits, pork and poultry). The indicated trend of agro sector development conflicts with the Concept of Agricultural Development of the Slovak Republic for 2013–2020, the goal of which was to achieve food self-sufficiency at an 80% level by 2020. Later, therefore, we discuss what lies behind the success or failure of attaining food self-sufficiency in Slovakia and point to the complementarity of self-sufficiency goals at the EU and national levels.

Energy effect of urban diversity: An empirical study from a land-use perspective

Rapid urbanization not only consumes substantial amounts of valuable land resources but also changes the pattern of land-use. Diversity of land use measures the functional composition of urban land and reflects the structure of urban activities from a land perspective. This paper explores the relationship between urbanization and energy use, by empirically investigating the impact of land use diversity on energy consumption in urban areas with a panel dataset of prefecture-level cities in China. The instrumental variables method is employed to address the endogeneity of land-use diversity. It is found that the land-use diversity of China's cities has exerted an energy-saving effect, while the effect only works for medium-sized cities. The findings imply the possibility of promoting urban energy saving by moderate control of city size and diversity of land use.

Economic Assessment and Management of Agroforestry Productivity from the Perspective of Sustainable Land Use in the South of the Russian Plain

Recent international climate documents emphasize the great importance of the afforestation of agricultural land having a positive impact on CO2 levels, not only by absorbing carbon by trees, but also by replacing fossil fuels with biomass. In Russia, until recently, the importance of forest plantations in the production of wood was underestimated, which created the problem of its accounting and effective management. When justifying modern protective afforestation programs, ambiguity in the estimates of tree productivity of plantings is one of the reasons for significant uncertainty regarding their impact on the energy security of the country. The purpose of this study was to undertake an economic assessment and assess the regularities of the dynamics of tree productivity of protective forest plantations on the flat terrain and slopes of the forest-steppe zone in the south of the Russian Plain for the effective management of agroforestry taking into account environmental aspects. At the level of the simulation unit—the protective forest cover of the agricultural territory—the main forest reclamation strategies were modeled from the perspective of sustainable land use, depending on the type of relief, the level of forest protection of land and the erosive state of soils. These models comprehensively analyzed the wood productivity of the main forest-forming species, which differ in functionality and service life. It is established that the productivity of 1 ha of forest stands in the forest-steppe is 320–400 m3 of wood, and the commercial effect of its harvesting is EUR 14675–EUR 56567. The specific (per 1 ha of land use) wood productivity of trees on flat terrain increases with the growth of forest protection of the site (due to the reduction of inter-band space) by 1.2–1.8 times. On the slopes, with an increase in their steepness, the specific effect of harvesting wood also increases by almost twofold. On steep slopes with highly eroded soils, the efficiency of forest reclamation decreases by 23%–24% due to a decrease in the width of forest stands and the inclusion of a hydraulic element in their systems. The use of long-lasting forest-forming species for all forest reclamation strategies is more profitable than the use of fast-growing species—the value of the specific average annual (discounted) income per 1 ha of the agroforest landscape is, respectively, EUR 427–EUR 970 and EUR 166–EUR 545. The study will confirm the need to finance forest reclamation measures not only to ensure sustainable rural development, but also Russia’s qualitative transition to a low-carbon economy.

Floods and their problems: Land uses and soil types perspectives

The phenomenon of flooding that occurs in almost all regions of the earth causes loss of property and damage to public facilities and causes the loss of many human lives. There are many reports related to the causes of flooding with various solutions offered to overcome the flood problem. However, it seems that these efforts have not been able to eliminate the flood problem. Hydrologists have widely reported various factors that are the cause of flooding with an extensive scope. Therefore, this paper is limited to discussing flooding and its problems, specifically the river flood, from the perspective of land use and soil types. Changes in land use in a watershed can cause an increase in the runoff coefficient. Likewise, different types of soil have different abilities in passing water into the ground. Open land (without land cover) tends to be prone to erosion, reducing the soil’s infiltration capacity and increased surface runoff. Increasing the runoff coefficient will increase the peak discharge in a watershed. The decrease in the river capacity due to sediment can cause a river flood. To support this argument, a rainfall-runoff model, particularly the tank model, is also discussed, taking into account the various uses and types of soil in a watershed. Efforts to anticipate the river flood are also considered for formulating flood disaster control policies in a watershed.

Soil Carbon Modelling in Salix Biomass Plantations: Variety Determines Carbon Sequestration and Climate Impacts

Short-rotation coppice (SRC) Salix plantations have the potential to provide fast-growing biomass feedstock with significant soil and climate mitigation benefits. Salix varieties exhibit significant variation in their physiological traits, growth patterns and soil ecology—but the effects of these variations have rarely been studied from a systems perspective. This study analyses the influence of variety on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics and climate impacts from Salix cultivation for heat production for a Swedish site with specific conditions. Soil carbon modelling was combined with a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to quantify SOC sequestration and climate impacts over a 50-year period. The analysis used data from a Swedish field trial of six Salix varieties grown under fertilized and unfertilized treatments on Vertic Cambisols during 2001–2018. The Salix systems were compared with a reference case where heat is produced from natural gas and green fallow was the land use alternative. Climate impacts were determined using time-dependent LCA methodology—on a land-use (per hectare) and delivered energy unit (per MJheat) basis. All Salix varieties and treatments increased SOC, but the magnitude depended on the variety. Fertilization led to lower carbon sequestration than the equivalent unfertilized case. There was no clear relationship between biomass yield and SOC increase. In comparison with reference cases, all Salix varieties had significant potential for climate change mitigation. From a land-use perspective, high yield was the most important determining factor, followed by SOC sequestration, therefore high-yielding fertilized varieties such as ‘Tordis’, ‘Tora’ and ‘Björn’ performed best. On an energy-delivered basis, SOC sequestration potential was the determining factor for the climate change mitigation effect, with unfertilized ‘Jorr’ and ‘Loden’ outperforming the other varieties. These results show that Salix variety has a strong influence on SOC sequestration potential, biomass yield, growth pattern, response to fertilization and, ultimately, climate impact.

Differentiation and progress of urban regionalization in China: Perspectives of land use and geography

The explosive population growth and economic development in cities have led to continuous but diverse urban regionalization. The resulting urban agglomerations (UAs) exhibit differentiation at both regional and local scales. Few studies have documented the disparities in UAs regarding land use and geography. In this study, we investigated the county-level land use features of 19 China's planned UAs by using a land use intensity (LUI) metric. We employed the spatial autocorrelation, inequality statistics, and imbalance estimation models to estimate the agglomeration, inequalities, and coordination of land use, and we combined those indicators to distinguish the development pattern of all UAs. Our findings revealed that spatial pattern of LUIs and their autocorrelations over time are closely associated with the evolution of urban regionalization. The widening gaps of land use exist more within the UAs than among them. Based on the LUI inequality and its relations to population and economy, UAs were classified into core-driven, differentiated, coordinated, and mismatched ones. Our conclusions highlighted that policy incentives for sustainable urbanization help decouple the synchronism of socioeconomic and LUI inequality.

Reduction Effect and Mechanism Analysis of Carbon Trading Policy on Carbon Emissions from Land Use

The reduction of carbon emissions from land use (CELU) is critical for China to achieve carbon neutrality, which may be greatly facilitated by carbon trading policies. Previous studies of the emission reduction effects of carbon trading policies focused mostly on the reduction of carbon source emissions, and there is a lack of research from the comprehensive perspective of carbon sources and carbon sinks. Understanding the effect of carbon trading policies on emission reduction from the perspective of CELU may help to improve the evaluation system of carbon trading policies, as well as provide important implications for the construction of China’s carbon trading market in the context of global carbon neutrality. Here, based on China’s current carbon-trading pilot areas, quasi-natural experiments were conducted by using the CELU data from 2005 to 2017, the synthetic control method (SCM) and the mediation effect model, aiming to empirically study the reduction effect and mechanism of carbon trading policies on CELU. The following main findings were obtained. (1) Carbon trading policies have had a significant reduction effect on the average CELU of the pilot areas by at least four million tons per year during the study period. (2) The carbon emission reduction effect of carbon trading policies has certain regional heterogeneity. (3) Carbon trading policies reduce CELU through the intermediate effect of energy structure, whose contribution rate reaches 30.433%. (4) Carbon trading policies did not achieve the Porter effect of technological progress during the study period, and technological progress has no significant intermediate effect on the reduction of CELU by carbon trading policy. Based on the above findings, the following policy implications can be proposed. Carbon trading and carbon offset should be studied from a comprehensive perspective of land use; regional heterogeneity should be considered when promoting the carbon emission trading system nationwide; and the energy structure should be optimized continuously.

A cooled city? Comparing human activity changes on the impact of urban thermal environment before and after city-wide lockdown

The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in early 2020 reduced human outdoor activities and changed the spatial-temporal distribution of the population. To find its changes on the impact of urban thermal environment, we applied Pearson correlation analysis and OLS linear regression model from the perspective of urban land use and the local climate zone (LCZ) scheme, and selected Wuhan City in China as a case study. The results showed that the population size decreased in most urban land use and LCZ classes due to the Spring Festival and epidemic effects, which caused residents to leave Wuhan City. As a result, the normalized surface urban heat island changes (SUHInc) decreased by 9.41% at the city level, and a larger SUHInc occurred in commercial and industrial land. Among the LCZ classes, the built-up classes also tended to have a larger SUHInc than the natural land cover classes. However, the population size and human outdoor activity changes did not modify the spatial distribution of the urban thermal environment, because the same trends were observed for various urban land use and LCZ classes, which illustrated that the contribution of anthropogenic heat discharge on the urban thermal environment is relatively weaker. The above findings imply that it is necessary to apply different methods for various urban land uses and alleviate urban heat island.

Watershed farmland area and instream water quality co-determine the stream primary producer in the central Hengduan Mountains, southwestern China

As the main primary producer in stream ecosystems, periphyton is the fundamental of stream ecosystems and plays an essential role in maintaining stream biodiversity. The central Hengduan Mountains is one of the famous global biodiversity hotspots. However, for stream biodiversity conservations, the fundamental information about the spatial pattern of stream periphyton and the determining factors in this region remains largely unknown. To fill this gap, we investigated the spatial pattern of periphyton biomass (measured by chlorophyll a) in four typical streams in the central Hengduan Mountains and analyzed the driving factors, with the perspective of watershed land use and instream water quality. The results of our study found that farmland area, instream dissolved silicate (DSi), and water temperature (WT) had significant negative relationships with the stream periphyton biomass in the central Hengduan Mountains. However, the dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) had non-significant effects on the periphyton biomass in our study. Further analysis showed that the correlation between the ratio of farmland in the catchment and the DSi is non-significant (r = 0.028, P = 0.698), suggesting that the changes in farmland area will not affect the concentration of dissolved silicate in the stream. This reveals that the stream periphyton biomass was co-determined by the watershed farmland area and instream DSi and WT, but not nitrogen or phosphorus. These results highlight the importance of farmland management and instream DSi for stream ecosystems in the central Hengduan Mountains. Our study investigated the spatial pattern of the stream primary producer in the central Hengduan Mountains region and identified the main determining factors, which could improve our understanding of the high mountain stream ecosystems.