Urbanization in Southwest China, an extensive mountainous region, has been unprecedentedly rapid in the past two decades, particularly with the implementation of “Great West Development”. However, most present studies on urbanization of Chinese cities are limited to coastal area. Little is known about the urbanization pattern and underlying mechanism in this region. The main purpose of this research is to analyze the process of rapid urbanization and its impact on mountain environment, using Chongqing, the well known “mountain city” in China, as an example. Four time-series satellite images were employed to extract the landscape data. The result was assessed by several “landscape metrics”. The research also investigated how complex natural factors as well as socio-economic factors exerted influence on the urbanization. Based on examination of present landscape, a planning model which was believed suitable for mountain urban development was proposed.
Assessment of drivers of forest changes using multi-temporal analysis and boosted regression trees model: a case study of Nyeri County, Central Region of Kenya
