Urban Sprawl and Ecosystem Services: A Half Century Perspective in the Montreal Area (Quebec, Canada)

Rapid urbanization drives land cover change, affecting urban ecosystems and inducing serious environmental issues. The study region of Changchun, China was divided into three urbanization categories according to different urbanization levels and the characteristics of urban sprawl and changes and relationships between typical ecosystem services (ESs) under rapid urbanization were analysed. The results showed that Changchun has undergone considerable urban expansion since 2000, which has significantly impacted all ESs in terms of spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Habitat suitability and crop yield have relatively stronger service capacity in the study area. Since the expansion of large-scale infrastructures, the mean ES values of developed urban areas are the lowest among the three zones, except for water retention and sandstorm prevention in 2015, when the balance between all services decreased. Over the past 16 years, habitat suitability in developing urban areas has decreased to a large extent due to urban sprawl. Because of the improvement in agricultural science and technology, crop yield in three regions increased, while the area of cropland reduced from 1720 km2 to 1560 km2 (9.3%). Synergies between habitat suitability and carbon storage and habitat suitability and soil retention were detected in three areas. A trade-off between habitat suitability and water retention was detected in three areas. The interactions between crop yield and carbon storage, habitat suitability, and soil retention were more complex in this study region. In addition to water retention, urbanization index has a negative correlation with ESs. According to the results, some suggestions to alleviate ES loss during the process of rapid urbanization were proposed, which may guide scientific urban planning for sustainable urban development.

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Auckland’s Urban Sprawl, Policy Ambiguities and the Peri-Urbanisation to Pukekohe

Urban Science ◽

10.3390/urbansci3010001 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Cristian Silva

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Urban Space ◽

Urban Sprawl ◽

Agricultural Activities ◽

Environmentally Sustainable ◽

City Regions ◽

The Creation ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Over Time

Urban sprawl has been discussed extensively with regard to its negative impacts. On this basis, regulations have been put in place to control sprawling suburbanization, including the establishment of restricted areas for expansion defined by administrative urban boundaries. Overall, these measures have not been at all successful, considering that city-regions continue to expand inorganically, often reinforcing urban sprawl patterns. As clear evidence of the weaknesses of planning regimes of control, these unsuccessful attempts are partly explained by a series of policy ambiguities that contradict the meaning of planning as a prescriptive discipline. This ambiguity is justified by the need to frame flexible regulations that allow adaptation to unforeseen events over time. In this paper, using the case of Auckland, New Zealand, it is demonstrated that instead of planning flexibility, there is planning “ambiguity” accompanied by weak opposition from rural regimes, which deliberately contributes to urban sprawl. This is relevant considering that the inorganic encroachment of rural lands diminishes the huge environmental potential of the peri-urban space of Auckland, its ecosystem services, and agricultural activities—all elements that encourage the creation of more environmentally sustainable peripheral landscapes as a counterpoint to traditional sprawling suburbanization.

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Multi-scale evolution of ecosystem services’ supply in Sierra Nevada (Spain): An assessment over the last half-century

Ecosystem Services ◽

10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101204 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 46 ◽

pp. 101204

Author(s):

R. Moreno-Llorca ◽

A.S. Vaz ◽

J. Herrero ◽

A. Millares ◽

F.J. Bonet-García ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Sierra Nevada ◽

Half Century ◽

Multi Scale ◽

Scale Evolution

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Urban Sprawl Detection Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case of Chennai, Tamilnadu

10.20944/preprints201701.0023.v1 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Rajchandar Padmanaban ◽

Pedro Cabral ◽

Avit K. Bhowmik ◽

Alexander Zamyatin ◽

Oraib Almegdadi

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Urban Planning ◽

Urban Sprawl ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Agricultural Lands ◽

Remotely Sensed Data ◽

Spatial Metrics ◽

The Social ◽

Urban Settlements ◽

Urban Extent

Urban sprawl propelled by rapid population growth leads to the shrinkage of productive agricultural lands and pristine forests in the suburban areas and, in turn, substantially alters ecosystem services. Hence, the quantification of urban sprawl is crucial for effective urban planning, and environmental and ecosystem management. Like many megacities in fast growing developing countries, Chennai, the capital of Tamilnadu and one of the business hubs in India, has experienced extensive urban sprawl triggered by the doubling of total population over the past three decades. We employed the Random Forest (RF) classification on Landsat imageries from 1991, 2003, and 2016, and computed spatial metrics to quantify the extent of urban sprawl within a 10km suburban buffer of Chennai. The rate of urban sprawl was quantified using Renyi’s entropy, and the urban extent was predicted for 2027 using land-use and land-cover change modeling. A 70.35% increase in urban areas was observed for the suburban periphery of Chennai between 1991 and 2016. The Renyi’s entropy value for year 2016 was ≥ 0.9, exhibiting a two-fold rate of urban sprawl. The spatial metrics values indicate that the existing urban areas of Chennai became denser and the suburban agricultural, forests and barren lands were transformed into fragmented urban settlements. The forecasted urban growth for 2027 predicts a conversion of 13670.33ha (16.57 % of the total landscape) of existing forests and agricultural lands into urban areas with an associated increase in the entropy value of 1.7. Our findings are relevant for urban planning and environmental management in Chennai and provide quantitative measures for addressing the social-ecological consequences of urban sprawl and the protection of ecosystem services.

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Linking Social Perception and Provision of Ecosystem Services in a Sprawling Urban Landscape: A Case Study of Multan, Pakistan

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11030654 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 654 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Syed Manzoor ◽

Aisha Malik ◽

Muhammad Zubair ◽

Geoffrey Griffiths ◽

Martin Lukac

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Urban Sprawl ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Public Perception ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Urban Expansion ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Urban Ecosystem ◽

Arid Zones

Urban sprawl causes changes in land use and a decline in many ecosystem services. Understanding the spatial patterns of sprawl and exploration of citizens’ perception towards the sporadic urban expansion and its impacts on an ecosystem to deliver services can help to guide land use planning and the conservation of the urban ecosystem. Here, we spatially examined land use changes in Multan, Pakistan, and investigated public perception about urban sprawl and its impacts on the quality and provision of ecosystem services, using a survey instrument. The spatial analysis of the historical land cover of Multan indicated an exponential expansion of the city in the last decade. Large areas of natural vegetation and agricultural land were converted to urban settlements in the past two decades. The citizens of Multan believe that the quality and provision of ecosystem services have declined in the recent past and strongly correlate the deteriorating ecosystem services with urban sprawl. Education and income levels of the respondents are the strongest predictors of urban ecosystem health literacy. Citizens associated with laborious outdoor jobs are more sensitive to the changes in ecosystem services. We concluded that the rapidly expanding cities, especially in the tropical arid zones, need to be prioritized for an increase in vegetation cover, and economically vulnerable settlements in these cities should be emphasized in climate change mitigation campaigns.

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Evaluation of Ecosystem Services Loss Due to Urban Sprawl on Agricultural Land in the Context of Sustainable Development

Journal of Landscape Ecology ◽

10.2478/jlecol-2020-0020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 122-133

Author(s):

Katerina Vrublova

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Urban Development ◽

Urban Sprawl ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Wide Spread ◽

Fast Growing ◽

The Subject ◽

Czech Society

AbstractThis paper focuses on the ecosystem services which are provided by agriculture land and on the urban sprawl in the study area of municipality with extended powers Třebíč. The main focus of this article is to evaluate what ecosystem services are provided to Czech society by the agricultural land and assess their financial value and also evaluate which ecosystem services disappear or are limited due to urban sprawl on agricultural land. Generally, the topic of ecosystem services in agriculture comes under focus especially in view of the recurring drought in Europe and on-going climate change. Also the subject of urbanization and decreasing area available for agriculture is a wide-spread phenomena in Europe. The practical output of this paper will comprise of better insight on function and value of land under agriculture use which is lost due to urban development and raising the awareness amongst the society on the fast-growing trend of unsustainable urban sprawl.

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