Ecological Heterogeneity in Urban Ecosystems: Reconceptualized Land Cover Models as a Bridge to Urban Design

2012 ◽  
pp. 107-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. Cadenasso ◽  
S. T. A. Pickett ◽  
Brian McGrath ◽  
Victoria Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Ecosystems

scholarly journals The luxury effect beyond cities: bats respond to socioeconomic variation across landscapes

BMC Ecology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Li ◽  
Kevin A. Parker ◽  
Matina C. Kalcounis-Rueppell
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Evergreen Forest ◽  
Positive Interaction ◽  
Bat Activity ◽  
The North ◽  
Interaction Term ◽  
Hoary Bat

Abstract Background The luxury effect describes the positive relationship between affluence and organism diversity or activity in urban ecosystems. Driven by human activities, the luxury effect can potentially be found at a broader scale across different landscapes. Previously, the luxury effect relationship has been established within a city for two bat species, the red bat (Lasiurus borealis) and the evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis). We examined landscape-scale patterns of bat activity distribution—using empirical data for seven bat species for the luxury effect. We also identified bat-land cover associations for each species. Across North Carolina, USA, we used the mobile transect survey protocol of the North American Monitoring Program to record bat activity at 43 sites from 2015 to 2018. We collected land cover and income data at our transect locations to construct generalized linear mixed models to identify bat-land cover and bat-income relationships. Results We found that across landscapes, activity of the red bat and the evening bat was positively correlated to income independent of land cover, consistent with previous single-city results. We found a negative relationship between hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) activity and income. All seven species had specific land cover associations. Additionally, we found a positive interaction term between income and evergreen forest for the red bat and a positive interaction term between income and woody wetland for hoary bat. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that the luxury effect is an ecological pattern that can be found at a broad spatial scale across different landscapes. We highlight the need for multi-scale ecology studies to identify the mechanism(s) underlying the luxury effect and that the luxury effect could cause inequity in how people receive the ecosystem services provided by bats.

scholarly journals A High-Resolution Map of Singapore’s Terrestrial Ecosystems

Data ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaw ◽  
Yee ◽  
Richards
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
High Resolution Satellite Images ◽  
High Resolution Map ◽  
City State ◽  
Resolution Map

The natural and semi-natural areas within cities provide important refuges for biodiversity, as well as many benefits to people. To study urban ecology and quantify the benefits of urban ecosystems, we need to understand the spatial extent and configuration of different types of vegetated cover within a city. It is challenging to map urban ecosystems because they are typically small and highly fragmented; thus requiring high resolution satellite images. This article describes a new high-resolution map of land cover for the tropical city-state of Singapore. We used images from WorldView and QuickBird satellites, and classified these images using random forest machine learning and supplementary datasets into 12 terrestrial land classes. Close to 50 % of Singapore’s land cover is vegetated while freshwater fills about 6 %, and the rest is bare or built up. The overall accuracy of the map was 79 % and the class-specific errors are described in detail. Tropical regions such as Singapore have a lot of cloud cover year-round, complicating the process of mapping using satellite imagery. The land cover map provided here will have applications for urban biodiversity studies, ecosystem service quantification, and natural capital assessment.

scholarly journals Landscape Greening Policies-based Land Use/Land Cover Simulation for Beijing and Islamabad—An Implication of Sustainable Urban Ecosystems

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahid Naeem ◽  
Chunxiang Cao ◽  
Khunsa Fatima ◽  
Omaid Najmuddin ◽  
Bipin Acharya
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Land Use Land Cover

scholarly journals Evaluation of Carbon and Oxygen Balances in Urban Ecosystems Using Land Use/Land Cover and Statistical Data

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Yin ◽  
Dengsheng Lu ◽  
Yichen Tian ◽  
Qianjun Zhao ◽  
Chao Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Land Use Land Cover

scholarly journals URBAN LAND COVER/USE CHANGE DETECTION USING HIGH RESOLUTION SPOT 5 AND SPOT 6 IMAGES AND URBAN ATLAS NOMENCLATURE

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B8 ◽  
pp. 789-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Akay ◽  
E. Sertel
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
Satellite Image ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Urban Land ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Urban Land Cover ◽  
Rule Sets ◽  
Spot 5

Urban land cover/use changes like urbanization and urban sprawl have been impacting the urban ecosystems significantly therefore determination of urban land cover/use changes is an important task to understand trends and status of urban ecosystems, to support urban planning and to aid decision-making for urban-based projects. High resolution satellite images could be used to accurately, periodically and quickly map urban land cover/use and their changes by time. <br><br> This paper aims to determine urban land cover/use changes in Gaziantep city centre between 2010 and 2105 using object based images analysis and high resolution SPOT 5 and SPOT 6 images. 2.5 m SPOT 5 image obtained in 5th of June 2010 and 1.5 m SPOT 6 image obtained in 7th of July 2015 were used in this research to precisely determine land changes in five-year period. In addition to satellite images, various ancillary data namely Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Difference Water Index (NDWI) maps, cadastral maps, OpenStreetMaps, road maps and Land Cover maps, were integrated into the classification process to produce high accuracy urban land cover/use maps for these two years. Both images were geometrically corrected to fulfil the 1/10,000 scale geometric accuracy. Decision tree based object oriented classification was applied to identify twenty different urban land cover/use classes defined in European Urban Atlas project. Not only satellite images and satellite image-derived indices but also different thematic maps were integrated into decision tree analysis to create rule sets for accurate mapping of each class. Rule sets of each satellite image for the object based classification involves spectral, spatial and geometric parameter to automatically produce urban map of the city centre region. Total area of each class per related year and their changes in five-year period were determined and change trend in terms of class transformation were presented. Classification accuracy assessment was conducted by creating a confusion matrix to illustrate the thematic accuracy of each class.

scholarly journals Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Sustainability: An Ecosystem Services Assessment of Plans for Singapore’s First “Forest Town”

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley Anne Tan ◽  
Leon Yan-Feng Gaw ◽  
Mahyar Masoudi ◽  
Daniel Rex Richards
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Modeling Tools ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Future Scenario ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Urban Planning And Design ◽  
Tropical Cities ◽  
Spatially Explicit Modeling

Rapid urbanization in many parts of the world has increasingly put the environment under pressure, with natural landscapes cleared to make way for built infrastructure. Urban ecosystems, and the services that they provide, can offer nature-based solutions to the challenges of urbanization. There is increasing interest in better incorporating ecosystems into urban planning and design in order to deliver greater provision of ecosystem services and enhance urban liveability. However, there are few examples of built or proposed urban developments that have been designed specifically with ecosystem services in mind–partly because there are few modeling tools available to support urban planners and designers by informing their design workflows. Through using Singapore’s latest nature-centric town as a case study, this article assesses the impacts of nature-based solutions in urban design on ecosystem services performance, through a spatially explicit modeling approach. The proposed future scenario for the nature-centric town was projected to result in substantial declines in the provision of all ecosystem services, as a result of the removal of large areas of natural vegetation cover. However, the future scenario compared favourably against three older towns that have been constructed in Singapore, showing the best performance for four out of six ecosystem services. This simulation exercise indicates that designing towns with ecosystem services in mind, and incorporating nature-based solutions into urban design, can help to achieve enhanced performance in providing ecosystem services. The models developed for this study have been made publicly available for use in other tropical cities.

scholarly journals Urban Design and the Role of Placemaking in Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions. Learning From the Bibliotheca Degli Alberi Case Study in Milan

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judit Boros ◽  
Israa Mahmoud
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Urban Regeneration ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Urban Planning And Design

Nature-based solutions' (NBS) relevance for tackling environmental challenges has been on the frontiers of urban regeneration mechanisms since the beginning of the 2010s. There is an increasing interest in applying NBS in urban planning and design to build support and engagement for sustainable urban development. However, NBS's operational use as deliberate design interventions is not widely reflected in the scientific discourse, more evidence is needed on how functional and viable aspects of urban nature can be conceptualized in urban design. This calls to explore the ways urban design can advance their understanding as part of place-specific, designed urban spaces. Through an ex-post analysis, the authors examined the design and implementation process of an exemplary NBS project, the Biblioteca degli Alberi park in Milan, part of one of the largest, recent urban regeneration projects in Europe. In a synthetic analysis, design drivers, enablers, and deficiencies are discussed, which affect the park's performance both from human-centered and nature-based perspectives. The park's case demonstrates design actions and considerations affecting all stages of the life-cycle of an NBS, from the creative design phase to the development, use, and management phases, and how urban design can create conditions for amplifying the multifunctional potential of urban ecosystems. The results highlight the importance of integrating an urban ecology perspective in the entirety of the design process when implementing NBS, consequently for a successful re-scoping of urban design and planning practices to infuse human-centeredness with “nature-basedness.”

scholarly journals URBAN LAND COVER/USE CHANGE DETECTION USING HIGH RESOLUTION SPOT 5 AND SPOT 6 IMAGES AND URBAN ATLAS NOMENCLATURE

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B8 ◽  
pp. 789-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. S. Akay ◽  
E. Sertel
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
Satellite Image ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Urban Land ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Urban Land Cover ◽  
Rule Sets ◽  
Spot 5

Urban land cover/use changes like urbanization and urban sprawl have been impacting the urban ecosystems significantly therefore determination of urban land cover/use changes is an important task to understand trends and status of urban ecosystems, to support urban planning and to aid decision-making for urban-based projects. High resolution satellite images could be used to accurately, periodically and quickly map urban land cover/use and their changes by time. <br><br> This paper aims to determine urban land cover/use changes in Gaziantep city centre between 2010 and 2105 using object based images analysis and high resolution SPOT 5 and SPOT 6 images. 2.5 m SPOT 5 image obtained in 5th of June 2010 and 1.5 m SPOT 6 image obtained in 7th of July 2015 were used in this research to precisely determine land changes in five-year period. In addition to satellite images, various ancillary data namely Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Difference Water Index (NDWI) maps, cadastral maps, OpenStreetMaps, road maps and Land Cover maps, were integrated into the classification process to produce high accuracy urban land cover/use maps for these two years. Both images were geometrically corrected to fulfil the 1/10,000 scale geometric accuracy. Decision tree based object oriented classification was applied to identify twenty different urban land cover/use classes defined in European Urban Atlas project. Not only satellite images and satellite image-derived indices but also different thematic maps were integrated into decision tree analysis to create rule sets for accurate mapping of each class. Rule sets of each satellite image for the object based classification involves spectral, spatial and geometric parameter to automatically produce urban map of the city centre region. Total area of each class per related year and their changes in five-year period were determined and change trend in terms of class transformation were presented. Classification accuracy assessment was conducted by creating a confusion matrix to illustrate the thematic accuracy of each class.

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