Evolution Of Urban Landscape Research Articles

Spatiotemporal evolution of urban landscapes in Chinese historic water towns (1918–2021)

This study explores the spatiotemporal evolution of urban landscapes in 19 Chinese historic water towns in the northern Zhejiang plain. Utilising historical maps and remote sensing images, we derived 2-D morphological patterns from town ground plans in 1918, 1969, 2000, and 2021 to represent urban landscape fractions (buildings, lands, and waters). Morphology-based landscape metrics reveal three distinct periods of urban landscape dynamics over the past century: stabilisation (1918–1969), accelerated growth (1969–2000), and high-speed growth (2000–2021). Our findings present a diminishing role of rivers in shaping land fragments and urban riverscapes, behind which is the weakening conventional water-human relationship during water towns’ modern urbanisation. The results offer insights into shifting water town landscape patterns and regional landscape heterogeneity, prompting further considerations of hydrology-oriented urban design and planning to conserve historic urban landscapes.

'Share the Pleasures with the Public': Evolution of Urban Landscapes in Nanjing in Song Dynasty China (976–1279)

ABSTRACT This study investigates the cultural and political implications of urban landscapes in Song Dynasty China through a case study of Nanjing’s greenspace. The increasing urban population and thriving city-centred culture prompted urban greenspaces in Nanjing to assume additional social and cultural functions, contributing to the multi-level and multi-functional development of the city’s greenspaces under commercialised and popularised aesthetics and landscaping theories. Meanwhile, under the political principle of ‘sharing the pleasures with the public’, the imperial court and local officials attached importance to landscaping, using urban gardens as a tool to achieve political and cultural control and social edification.

The transformative role of rivers in the evolution of urban landscapes: a case study from urban rivers of Chelmsford in Essex

ABSTRACT Urban rivers across Europe have a long history of anthropogenic intervention and active use that make up a key part of our cultural landscapes. This article focuses on the morphological transformation processes of urban rivers in Europe. It approaches the topic through a review of the function, meaning and identity of rivers within the urban context. This is illustrated here using the case study of the urban sections of the rivers Chelmer and Can in Chelmsford, Essex, tracing the formation and transformation of their urban character and identifying the determinants of the development of Chelmsford’s urban form over time.

Exploration of Urban Interaction Features Based on the Cyber Information Flow of Migrant Concern: A Case Study of China's Main Urban Agglomerations.

In the context of “space of flow”, urban interaction has become the key force impacting urban landscape evolution and urban sustainable development. Current research on urban interaction analysis is mainly conducted based on the interaction of geographical elements, the virtual flow of information in cyberspace has not been given sufficient attention, particularly the information flows with explicit geographical meaning. Considering the dramatic population migration and the explosive growth of cyberspace in China’s main urban agglomerations, we constructed the information flow of migrant attention (IFMA) index to quantify the urban information interaction derived from public migrant concern in cyberspace. Under the framework coupling spatial pattern analysis and spatial network analysis, exploration spatial data analysis (ESDA) and complex network analysis (CNA) were adopted to identify the urban interaction features depicted by IFMA index in the three main urban agglomerations in China. The results demonstrated that, in the study area: (1) The IFMA index presented a reasonable performance in depicting geographical features of cities; (2) the inconformity between urban role in the network and development positioning confirmed by national planning existed; (3) in the context of New-type urbanization of China, urban interaction feature can be a beneficial reference for urban spatial reconstruction and urban life improvement. Using the cyber information flow with geographical meaning to analyze the urban interaction characteristics can extend the research angle of urban relationship exploration, and provide some suggestion for the adjustment of urban landscape planning.

Shape-weighted landscape evolution index: An improved approach for simultaneously analyzing urban land expansion and redevelopment

Urban redevelopment and the improvement of urban green coverages have become an important form of urban landscape evolution and have led to a decline in imperviousness. However, in the quantitative analyses of landscape patterns, such form has not been as widely considered as urban expansion dynamics represented by the growth of impervious surfaces. Furthermore, existing metrics ignore the different patch shapes in the identification of spatial evolution types, thereby significantly affecting the recognition of spatial relationships between new and existing patches. This study proposes a shape-weighted landscape evolution index (SWLEI) for simultaneously analyzing the landscape expansion and shrinkage types of patches in two or more periods. Compared with existing landscape expansion metrics, the SWLEI can depict the spatial relationships between new and old patches from a more detailed perspective and is thus more comprehensive and meaningful in terms of geospatial recognition. Empirical analysis in Hubei Province in central China indicated that dramatic urban expansion and small-scale urban built-up land use change occurred in 1990–2015. The changed urban patches can reflect the spatial patterns and distribution of urban redevelopment, and indicate the characteristics of the spatial optimization of urban land uses and urban greening. The characteristics of urban expansion and redevelopment patterns showed a distinctive disparity in different cities and periods. Urban growth became increasingly compact after 2005, and most cities experienced redevelopment at the early stage of urbanization and after 2005. Furthermore, the newly developed and changed urban patches were clustered in the central and eastern areas with advantageous physical and economic conditions.

Spatiotemporal changes of landscape pattern using impervious surface in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China.

Impervious surface is a key indicator for urbanization degree and the quality of urban environment. It is of great ecological significance to study the evolution of urban landscape based on impervious surface. We explored the spatiotemporal changes of impervious surface landscape pattern in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area from 2006 to 2016 using multi-temporal Landsat images based on landscape pattern index. The results showed that the impervious surface area (ISA) significantly increased in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area from 12127.69 km2 in 2006 to 20188.87 km2 in 2016, with an annual growth rate of 806.12 km2. High-density ISA was distributed in Guangzhou-Foshan and Shenzhen-Dongguan districts on the east and west of the Pearl River, respectively. In general, patch numbers, patch density, and edge density, as well as shape complexity and its fragmentation kept increasing during the past decade. The landscape pattern tended to be disordered, fragmented, and irregular. Moreover, the difference of impervious surface landscape pattern is obvious between cities. The areas with highest connectivity, stability and regularization were distributed in Hong Kong and Macao, while the landscape pattern in Huizhou and Jiangmen trended to be fragmentized and complex.

Toward a sustainable city of tomorrow: a hybrid Markov–Cellular Automata modeling for urban landscape evolution in the Hanoi city (Vietnam) during 1990–2030

The targets and challenges of the sustainable city of tomorrow are wide. In Hanoi city (Vietnam), the sustainable aspects of the urban landscape evolution are affected by a rapid urbanization, inefficient urban spatial planning, and the pressures of contemporary socioeconomic growth. This paper describes the evolution of urban landscape in Hanoi during the period 1990–2030. The background is the urbanization and the changes in urban planning. Urban land use/land cover of Hanoi city in 1993, 2000, 2007, 2012, and 2015 is described using LANDSAT satellite images. Land use/land cover of Hanoi in 2030 is projected by the Markov–cellular automata, which are a hybrid model of Markov chain analysis, multi-criteria evaluation, and cellular automata. The results show that Hanoi is becoming a metropolis, gradually having more dynamics and more diversity, but having less green in its pattern until 2030. All over Hanoi city, the built-up areas expanded, while the non-built area and water bodies narrowed. Residential, industrial, commercial, and service areas grow increasingly faster and become dense in the southwestern and southeastern parts of the city. New lakescapes and water corridors orient new urban development. Green areas become smaller and more fragmented. Agricultural rings have been cleared and replaced by new urban areas. Planning and managing the urban evolution toward sustainable development are imperative in Hanoi. The methods described in this paper can be effective tools expected to help planners, managers, and residents to deal with these concerns in the future. Moreover, socioeconomic development, environmental protection, improving urban planning efficiency, and integrating local governance into urban planning should be prioritized for a sustainable Hanoi city in the future.

Urban landscape evolution as a consequence of an invasive pest: The case of a small sicilian town

The Red Palm Weevil (RPW), after its accidental introduction in Italy in 2005, determined a progressive disruption of Canary palms mostly in the central and southern regions. As it is difficult to undertake the management of this pest, the possibility of substituting the killed/symptomatic palms with other ornamental trees has been recently discussed. In this context, understanding the citizens' needs about green areas can improve the management of public parks and urban greening. Involving citizens on the natural resource management using public participation processes is crucial. The case study of a small town of Sicily (Italy) was treated and the spread of this pest was monitored. Moreover, the possibility of substituting the killed palms with other ornamentals was discussed by involving a sample of the population through a direct survey aimed at detecting the preferences in respect to certain tree species (as potential substitutes of the killed palms) listed in a questionnaire administered face-to-face. The citizen's samples showed great interest in the green areas (97%) and indicated a traditional Mediterranean plant as Nerium oleander as the preferred palm substitute candidate.

The history of the Kharkiv city landscape formation: experience and methodological features of the study

Purpose of the article is to study the history of mapping the formation of the landscape of the city of Kharkiv from the beginning of active urban development to the present day (the end of the XVIII - the beginning of the XXI century), which was carried out in view of the prospects of involving the results in the process of territorial planning of the city's modern development. Methods. The research was based on the application of the principles of diachronic and comparative-historical methodological approaches and the use of cartographic, geoinformation, historical-geographical method and the method of historical sections. Results. The methodological features of carrying out of historical and geographical research are best taken into account by means of the use of GIS. The article presents the results of cartographic modeling of the development of the city's territory, the difficulties in conducting this operation and the probable errors caused by the methodology of the operation. outlined the possibility of using such studies to solve the problems of urban planning practice. The approach outlined in this article allowed researchers from different scientific fields - historians of the city, archaeologists, demographers, economists, etc. - to interpret phenomenology of cities according to different thematic keys. Conclusions. The methodology used in this study allows the effective use of GIS methods for solving applied constructive and geographic tasks, namely, the study of the evolution of urban landscapes on the basis of the analysis and synthesis of cartographic works for the entire period of city formation.

A brightness–darkness–greenness model for monitoring urban landscape evolution in a developing country – A case study of Shanghai

To monitor and model the evolution of urban landscapes, we develop a brightness–darkness–greenness (B–D–G) model. It is based on the vegetation–impervious surface–soil (V–I–S) model, proposed by Ridd (1995) to simplify urban environments to three basic ground components. The model integrates the knowledge of urban landscape composition and spectra of remote sensing. The B–D–G model is a fast and effective method to analyze urban landscape composition and its evolution based on remotely sensed images, by employing an explicit endmember evolution implication via the endmember spectrum dynamics. We verify this new method through in situ measurements of spectrum and high resolution images. Then, B–D–G model is used to detect the pattern and types of urban renewal. Despite some limitations, B–D–G model provides a new perspective of modeling urban dynamics and monitoring urban landscape evolution.

Analysing urban dynamics using multi-temporal satellite images in the case of a mountain area, Sinaia (Romania)

The purpose of this study is to produce an analysis of the urban expansion in the case of a mountain resort in the Romanian Carpathians through the integration of different cartographic and ancillary material in the remote sensing imagery processing. The spatial pattern analysis of the changes underwent by the urban landscape was based on multi-temporal information sources, covering 28 years, which highlighted the major turning points in landscape evolution, meaning industrial development under the communist production planning and residential expansion in recent years. To fully exploit the combination of satellite image processing in IDRISI, the manual image classification and database interrogation in ArcGis, we used a uniform grid, representing a set of vector data for each year available from the Landsat image archive. The image comparison was completed by using appropriate quantitative techniques. In conclusion the urban landscape evolution was linked to the socio-economic context. At a historic scale the main phenomenon identified is the concentration of mass tourism facilities, located in contiguity to a protected area, a situation reflected in the constant fragmentation of surfaces covered with vegetation at the urban fringe. In the digital earth science, the interplay between mountain ecosystems and human activities encompasses a key role in the management of viable mountain landscapes.

Guide of Urban Open Space for Research on the Urban Landscape in Xi'an

A series of urban construction activities has taken place in Xian in recent years. Changes can be shown on whether urban landscape, ecological environment or culture aspect. This paper will first discriminate some basic concepts about urban open space, and then bring the research on the urban landscape evolution of Xian. The research will focus on the development and changes of different type of urban public space and based on case studies which mainly about scale, style, colour, pattern, vegetation, place and ecology of urban landscape. Urban public space mainly includes urban green space and urban open space which will be squares and streets. The most important aim is though represent of phenomenal to reveal the objective law and the agent of the evolution of urban landscape in Xian.