Search Results (7,213)

Over the past two decades, the rate of urbanization has increased significantly worldwide, with more than half of the population already living in cities; this trend continues in numerous countries and regions. Tunisia is a North African country with a rich history and diverse cultural heritage. In Greater Tunis, its capital city, urbanization has accelerated since 1960. Rapid urbanization has increased the demand for grey infrastructure and led to changes in land-use patterns and the destruction of the environment. This study aims to understand and depict the relationship between urban expansion and the green infrastructure in the Greater Tunis area. This study uses land-use data, administrative boundaries vector data, and Google satellite imagery datasets to calculate and analyze the changes in the land use transfer matrix and landscape pattern index of built-up land and green spaces in the Tunisian capital for three periods: 2000, 2010, and 2020. We found that the expansion of built-up areas in Tunis has increased from 8.8% in 2000 to 12.1% in 2020, and changes in green spaces have decreased from 23% in 2000 to 20.9% in 2020. Without planning guidelines, the layout of green spaces has become more fragmented and disorganized. For this reason, we provide programs and suggestions for building a complete ecological network of green spaces in order to provide references and lessons for related studies and cities facing the same problems. Full article

This study aims to examine the impact of land use variations on carbon emissions by incorporating the development of photovoltaics as a scenario. To meet this end, we investigate the carbon emissions fluctuations resulting from different development scenarios: natural development, low-carbon strategies, and widespread adoption of photovoltaic technology. We identify important influencing factors related to these changes and utilize multi-objective optimization and the PLUS model to simulate land use patterns in Lingbao City projected for 2035, with a focus on achieving carbon neutrality. Through multiple scenarios, we analyze differences in carbon emissions, economic benefits, ecological impacts, and land use allocations. Our findings demonstrate that the photovoltaic scenario leads to a substantial 3500-ton reduction in carbon emissions and boosts overall benefits by RMB 85 million compared to the low-carbon scenario. This highlights the significant role of photovoltaic systems inefficient land utilization, meeting carbon emission targets, and generating economic gains. This research explores the relationship between land use alterations and carbon emissions, aiming to achieve ambitious carbon reduction objectives by integrating photovoltaic applications across diverse land types. It provides fresh perspectives for examining urban land utilization and strategies to reduce carbon emissions. Full article

Ecological security is related to human well-being, is closely linked to a region’s sustainable development, and is an essential cornerstone of any national security system. The Demonstration Zone of Green and Integrated Ecological Development (DZGIED) of the Yangtze River Delta is a critical point in implementing the integrated development strategy of the Yangtze River Delta. This paper used the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework to evaluate the regional ecological security (RES) in the DZGIED based on multi-source remote sensing and GIS data. And the analysis was conducted from the overall and administrative division perspective. The results show that (1) from 2000 to 2020, the ecological security of the DZGIED shows a slight decline overall. The RES decreased from 0.60 to 0.53. The RES level is kept above the critical security level and needs further improvement. (2) Significant differences in the RES across townships, with more pronounced changes in extreme values. The ecological security status of more than 80% of the townships shows solid positive spatial correlations. The ecological security of the DZGIED is more critical to the central area. (3) Human disturbance is the most important factor causing the decline in ecological security and the impact of environmental safety on the central area is more enormous. (4) The ecological security state of the DZGIED shows an improving trend, but it is still necessary to promote the construction of various demonstration projects. This paper aims to ensure the sustainable development of the DZGIED in the future and to provide guidance for policy formulation on ecological safety in the DZGIED from the perspective of administrative divisions. It also provides a reference for small-scale regional ecological safety evaluation studies such as townships. Full article

Drought is a common hydrometeorological phenomenon and a pervasive global hazard. To monitor global drought-wetness conditions comprehensively and promptly, this research proposed a spatial distance drought index (SDDI) which was constructed by four drought variables based on multisource remote sensing (RS) data, including the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), land surface temperature (LST), soil moisture (SM), and precipitation (P), using the spatial distance model (SDM). The results showed that the consistent area of SDDI with the 1-month and 3-month standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI1 and SPEI3), and the self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index (scPSDI) accounted for 85.5%, 87.3%, and 85.1% of the global land surface area, respectively, indicating that the index can be used to monitor global drought-wetness conditions. Over the past two decades (2001–2020), a discernible spatial distribution pattern has emerged in global drought-wetness conditions. This pattern was characterized by the extreme drought mainly distributed deep within the continent, surrounded by expanding moderate drought, mild drought, and no drought areas. On the annual scale, the global drought-wetness conditions exhibited an upward trend, while on the seasonal and monthly scales, it fluctuated steadily within a certain cycle. Through this research, we found that the sensitive areas of drought-wetness conditions were mainly found on the east coast of Australia, the Indus Basin of the Indian Peninsula, the Victoria and Katanga Plateau areas of Africa, the Mississippi River Basin of North America, the eastern part of the Brazilian Plateau and the Pampas Plateau of South America. Full article

In this study, we evaluated the performance of GeoSLAM ZEB Horizon and Stonex X120GO SLAM handheld mobile laser scanners (HMLS) to address two primary objectives. First, we aimed to assess and compare the accuracy of positioning achieved using HMLS instruments. Second, we sought to investigate the influencing factors and their impact on estimation accuracies. The factors influencing the accuracy of positioning in HMLS Simultaneous Localization and Mapping-aided solutions were defined, considering the scanner type, distance from the trajectory, forest structure, tree species, and Diameter at Breast Height. The same type of trajectory was tested in five different stand structures. The evaluation of GeoSLAM HMLS point clouds yielded an average positional RMSE of 17.91 cm, while the data extracted from the Stonex HMLS resulted in an average positional RMSE of 17.33 cm. These results underscore the significant potential of HMLS technology in addressing the critical need for precise positioning data in various applications, from forestry management to environmental monitoring, wildlife habitat assessment, and climate change studies. By harnessing the power of handheld mobile laser scanners, our research aims to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of geospatial data capture in challenging. Full article

Analysis of land use sustainability (LUS) coupling socioeconomic and ecological systems has drawn the interest of researchers and decision-makers concerned with sustainable development. Exploring the relationships between land use systems can offer a coordinated route for localized and effective land governance strategies. We proposed a new theoretical framework for LUS considering coordinated development between socioeconomy and ecology. We applied it further to the Xiongan New Area, typical of a new region with government-led construction in eastern China, to explore in depth the coupling and coordination relationship among land use systems and their driving factors. Results revealed that: (1) ecological sustainability grew while socioeconomic sustainability declined in most areas of Xiongan New Area during 2010–2020 at the township level, (2) relationships among land use systems in 2010–2020 showed a trend of coordinated development, but generally, their coordination was still only at a primary and moderate level, with a shift from prominent ecological lag to prominent socioeconomic lag, (3) economic factors are critical to the coordinated development of land use systems, while the influence of ecological factors is also increasing, and (4) four development types were identified for the towns: coupling and developed, coupling and undeveloped, tradeoff and developed, and tradeoff and undeveloped. Policymakers can better appreciate the importance of government interventions in future land use planning in terms of sustainable development with the help of land use zoning optimization and sustainable land governance. Full article

Understanding crop types and their annual cycles is key to managing natural resources, especially when the pressures on these resources are attributable to climate change and social, environmental, and economic policies. In recent years, the space sector’s development, with programs such as Copernicus, has enabled a greater availability of satellite data. This study uses a multi-sensor approach to retrieve crop information by developing a Proof of Concept for the integration of high-resolution SAR imagery and optical data. The main goal is to develop a pre-automatized processing chain that explores the temporal dimension of different crop. Results are related to the advantage of using a multi-sensor approach to retrieve vegetation biomass and vertical structure for the identification of phenological stages and different crops. The novelty consists of investigating the multi-temporal pattern of radiometric indices and radar backscatter to detect the different phenological stages of each crop, identifying the Day of the Year (DoY) in which the classes showed greater separability. The current study could be considered a benchmark for the exploitation of future multi-sensor missions in downstream services for the agricultural sector, strengthening the evolution of Copernicus services. Full article

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has become a dominant form of spatial planning and land use in large cities internationally. As the intersections of urban space and rail transportation, metro station areas play a key public service function in the lives of city residents. Based on the “5D” index and Node-Place theory in the metro station area, current research on the built environment in metro station areas focuses on improving the economic and transportation efficiency while neglecting public perception of the construction of station space. Sentiments, as an important part of the individual’s perception, are closely related to the built environment. Therefore, this study takes 187 metro stations within the fifth ring road of Beijing, China, as an example and extracts public sentiment information from social media data using a wide range of natural language processing techniques to quantitatively analyze the distribution of the public’s sentiment characteristics (including intensity, polarity, and category) in the metro station area and deeply explores the spatial correlation with the distribution of the objective built environment elements. The study shows that influenced by the spatial design of the metro station, density, land use functions, etc., the sentiment intensity of the station area within the Fifth Ring Road of Beijing is “strong in the east and weak in the west, strong in the north and weak in the south”, and the sentiment polarity has the characteristic of gradually negative from inside to outside in a circular pattern. Synthesizing the sentiment perception in the metro station area, our study further divided the Beijing metro station area into four major categories and eight specific subtypes. Full article

Nowadays, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is on the political agenda as one of the main objectives in order to respond to the increasing degradation processes affecting soils and territories. Nevertheless, proper implementation of environmental policies is very difficult due to a lack of the operational, reliable and easily usable tools necessary to support political decisions when identifying problems, defining the causes of degradation and helping to find possible solutions. It is within this framework that this paper attempts to demonstrate a new valuable web-based operational LDN tool as a component of an already running Spatial Decision Support System (S-DSS) developed on a Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure (GCI). The tool could be offered to EU administrative units (e.g., municipalities) so that they may better evaluate the state and the impact of land degradation in their territories. The S-DSS supports the acquisition, management and processing of both static and dynamic data, together with data visualization and on-the-fly computing, in order to perform modelling, all of which is potentially accessible via the Web. The land degradation data utilized to develop the LDN tool refer to the SDG 15.3.1 indicator and were obtained from a platform named Trends.Earth, designed to monitor land change by using earth observations, and post-processed to correct some of the major artefacts relating to urban areas. The tool is designed to support land planning and management by producing data, statistics, reports and maps for any EU area of interest. The tool will be demonstrated through a short selection of practical case studies, where data, tables and stats are provided to challenge land degradation at different spatial extents. Currently, there are WEBGIS systems to visualize land degradation maps but—to our knowledge—this is the first S-DSS tool enabling customized LDN reporting at any NUTS (nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) level for the entire EU territory. Full article

Urban green space (UGS) has important impacts on human health, but an integrated participatory approach to UGS design for improved residents’ health has been lacking to date. The aim of our study was to develop and evaluate such a novel approach to address this gap. The approach was developed following guiding principles from the literature and tested with groups of children and elderly as participants in two neighborhoods of Maastricht (The Netherlands) with a low score in economic and health indicators. The novel aspects of the approach are the inclusion of both positive and negative health effects, the combination of resident self-assessment and model-based assessment of the health effects of UGS designs, and the use of maps to visualize UGS designs and health effects. The participant-generated UGS designs resulted in a considerable (up to fourfold) self-assessed increase in the use of the UGSs for meeting, stress reduction, and leisure-based physical activity as compared to the current situation. The model-assessed positive and negative health effects of the participant-generated UGS designs were limited: heat stress slightly decreased (by 0.1 °C), active transport slightly increased (by 30 m per day), and the perceived unsafety slightly increased (8%). The effects on unattractive views, air pollution, tick bite risk, and traffic unsafety were negligible. The major strength of this approach is that it combines active participation of residents in UGS (re)design with assessment of the health effects of these UGS designs. While in other participatory approaches to UGS design, it often remains unclear whether the resulting designs represent an improvement in terms of health, our combination of computer model-based assessment and a participatory process produced clear outcomes regarding the health benefits and use of UGS designs. A major recommendation for improvement is to involve decision makers already in the initial steps of the approach. Full article

The crop planting structure in the world has shown a trend of “non-grain”, which will shake the foundations of global food security in the long run. As a basic and important production factor, changes in land will have an impact on farmers’ crop planting decisions. In this paper, we take China, a country that is experiencing land transfer, “non-grain” production, and farmer differentiation, as the research area, use the household survey data at the national level, and adopt the methods of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and multiple regression models to reveal the impact of land transfer-in on the crop planting structure and its heterogeneity among farmers. The results showed that land transfer-in can drive the crop planting structure to tend to be “non-grain” in China. The research conclusion was still valid after the robustness tests of expanding the sample size, increasing the number of control variables, and introducing endogenous problem management. The heterogeneity analysis indicated that the negative impact of land transfer-in on the planting of grain crops mainly exists for large-scale farmers and farmers with agriculture as the main source of income. Based on these findings, the Chinese government should formulate targeted policies to prevent the “non-grain” tendency of crop planting structure after land transfer-in. Full article

High-quality urban parks are considered an integral part of health resources as they can deliver diverse ecosystem services. However, the quality of parks is not always similar, resulting in different levels and values of the services provided. A systematic and complete assessment frame of urban park quality is limited. From the perspective of landscape architecture and design, this study aims to propose a comprehensive assessment framework of urban park quality based on six dimensions (planning and design, cultural services, complete and various facilities, landscape planting, landscape management, and landscape ecology), consisting of 27 indicators with different weights by using the objective and subjective weighting method. Taking the city of Chengdu, China as a case study, 100 urban parks are studied via field investigation and scored using methods that consist of a category count, existence score, field measurement, experts score, and photo review and recheck (13,589 images). The results reveal the spatial distribution and differences in park quality, including six quality dimensions and five districts, and the proportion of the existing quality elements in 100 parks. Based on the results, the spatial areas (Barren area, Low-quality area, Medium-quality area, and High-quality area) are identified, which leads to the establishment of the improvement strategies of spatial equity regarding multi-quality parks. The results can help improve the assessment index system of urban parks, guide the landscape planning and design of urban parks for sustainability, as well as provide a reference for future environmental and social equity development, so as to provide insight and reference for decision-makers and designers considering the landscape planning and design of parks. Full article

Different choices of living space for urban residents are concrete reflections of a social class divide. Emerging residential space differentiation is a critical issue in Chinese cities. This paper aims to explore the current situations and mechanisms of residential spatial differentiation, and reveal its social responses in Chinese cities. Taking Wuhan, the largest city in central China, as an example, this research divides the residential space based on social resource structures. It analyzes and compares spatial differentiation and influencing factors of different residential areas and houses with different prices in Wuhan by spatial differentiation indicators and geographic detector. The results show that residential areas are divergent due to differences in urban resource spatial structure, with few and concentrated high-quality residential areas. The spatial differentiation level of different residential areas also varies, with central location, landscape, educational resources, and other dominant scarce resources being the key to residential spatial differentiation in most of China’s big cities. In addition, residential spatial differentiation can lead to issues including housing wealth inequality, resource deprivation, and class identity solidification. In the end, this paper puts forward policy implications on alleviating residential spatial differentiation and optimizing allocation of residential resources. Full article

The expansion of African cities leads to the occupation of peripheral urban areas without respecting planning rules. The Greater Lomé (Togo) is no exception to this phenomenon of high-speed horizontal spreading, which causes recurrent flooding. The objective of this research is to understand the spatio-temporal changes in the dynamics of built-up areas in Greater Lomé. The methodology used is based on the analysis of Landsat images from the years 2007, 2012, 2016, and 2020 coupled with direct field observations and a literature review. The results showed an increase in residential areas to the detriment of the other land use/cover types. Estimated at 15,481 ha in 2007, the built-up area reached 35,521 ha in 2020, an increase of 33% to the detriment of vegetation and cultivation areas. This increase was marked by constructions in the floodplain of the Zio River. The field surveys revealed an increase in the density of most of the agglomerations. From 1863 ha in 2007, they increased to 14,485 ha in 2020, an increase of 12,622 ha or approximately 33%. These results indicate that attention needs to be paid to both the planning and control of the development of spaces in the outlying areas of Greater Lomé. Full article