Identifying the Impact of Landscape Pattern on Ecosystem Services in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomerations, China

Clarifying the impact mechanisms of landscape patterns on ecosystem services is highly important for effective ecosystem protection, policymaking, and landscape planning. However, previous literature lacks knowledge about the impact mechanisms of landscape patterns on ecosystem services from a spatial perspective. Thus, this study measured landscape patterns and the ecosystem services value (ESV) using a series of landscape pattern metrics and an improved benefit transfer method based on land-use data from 2015. It explores the impact mechanisms of the landscape pattern metrics on the ESV using the ordinary least-squares method and spatial regression models in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomerations (MRYRUA), China. We found that forestland was the main landscape type in the MRYRUA, followed by cultivated land, and the fragmentation degree of cultivated land was significantly higher than that of forestland. The findings demonstrate that landscape pattern metrics had a significant impact on ecosystem services, but could vary greatly. Moreover, ecosystem services in the MRYRUA exhibited significant spatial spillover effects and cross-regional collaborative governance was an effective means of landscape planning. This paper acts as a scientific reference and effective guidance for landscape planning and regional ecosystem conservation in MRYRUA and other similarly fast-growing urban agglomerations.

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Impacts of Landscape Patterns on Ecosystem Services Value: A Multiscale Buffer Gradient Analysis Approach

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13132551 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 2551

Author(s):

Wanxu Chen ◽

Jie Zeng ◽

Yumei Chu ◽

Jiale Liang

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Landscape Pattern ◽

Gradient Analysis ◽

Buffer Zone ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

Analysis Approach ◽

Landscape Pattern Metrics ◽

Pattern Metrics ◽

Ecosystem Services Value

In recent decades, substantial changes have occurred in the spatial structure and form of landscapes in metropolises; these have greatly impacted ecosystem provision capacities. Clarifying the impact mechanism of landscape patterns on ecosystem services can provide insights into regional ecological conservation and sustainable development measures. Although previous studies have explored the impacts of landscape patterns on ecosystem services at multiple scales, few studies have been conducted using the buffer gradient analysis approach. Using land-use/cover change data, this study measured the evolution of spatiotemporal features of landscape patterns and ecosystem services value (ESV) with 1, 2, and 3 km buffer-zone scales in Wuhan, China. Econometric models were then used to analyze the impacts of landscape patterns on ecosystem services at different buffer-zone scales. The results demonstrated that rapid urbanization in Wuhan has led to significant changes in landscape patterns, and the landscape pattern metrics exhibited significant spatial heterogeneity. The ESV in Wuhan exhibited a steady decline during the study period. Hydrological regulations and waste treatment functions contributed to the largest proportion of ESV, and raw material production functions contributed to the lowest proportion. Landscape pattern metrics exerted a significant influence on ESV; however, this influence varied greatly. The results of this study provide a new understanding of the influence mechanism of landscape patterns on ecosystem services at 1, 2, and 3 km buffer-zone scales. These findings are critical for facilitating landscape planning and regional sustainable development.

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A Preliminary Study on the Impact of Landscape Pattern Changes Due to Urbanization: Case Study of Jakarta, Indonesia

Land ◽

10.3390/land10020218 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 218

Author(s):

Dikman Maheng ◽

Assela Pathirana ◽

Chris Zevenbergen

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Landscape Pattern ◽

Temperature Regulation ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

Water Retention Capacity ◽

Lulc Change ◽

Preliminary Study ◽

The Impact

Urbanization is changing land use–land cover (LULC) transforming green spaces (GS) and bodies of water into built-up areas. LULC change is affecting ecosystem services (ES) in urban areas, such as by decreasing of the water retention capacity, the urban temperature regulation capacity and the carbon sequestration. The relation between LULC change and ES is still poorly examined and quantified using actual field data. In most ES studies, GS is perceived as lumped areas instead of distributed areas, implicitly ignoring landscape patterns (LP), such as connectivity and aggregation. This preliminary study is one of the first to provide quantitative evidence of the influence of landscape pattern changes on a selection of urban ecosystem services in a megacity as Jakarta, Indonesia. The impact of urbanization on the spatiotemporal changes of ES has been identified by considering connectivity and aggregation of GS. It reveals that LP changes have significantly decreased carbon sequestration, temperature regulation, and runoff regulation by 10.4, 12.4, and 11.5%, respectively. This indicates that the impact of GS on ES is not only determined by its area, but also by its LP. Further detailed studies will be needed to validate these results.

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The Ecosystem Services Value Change and Its Driving Forces Responding to Spatio-Temporal Process of Landscape Pattern in the Co-Urbanized Area

Land ◽

10.3390/land10101043 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 1043

Author(s):

Xinyu Zhang ◽

Huawei Li ◽

Hua Xia ◽

Guohang Tian ◽

Yuxing Yin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Landscape Pattern ◽

Driving Forces ◽

Yellow River ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

Rapid Expansion ◽

Edge Density ◽

Cultivated Land ◽

Construction Land ◽

Patch Density

The development of urbanization is still expanding on the earth, and the rapid expansion of cities has changed the regional landscape pattern and significantly affected the value of regional ecosystem services in developing countries such as China. Zhongmu County, as the core area of Zhengzhou-Kaifeng integration, studying the temporal and spatial transformations of its landscape pattern and ecosystem service value (ESV) is of great significance to the region’s sustainable development. Based on remote sensing images and socioeconomic data, this study aims to explore the landscape pattern of Zhongmu County from 2005 to 2018 and its impact on ESV. Research methods include an ESV equivalent factor method, landscape pattern index, spatial autocorrelation, and other methods. The results showed that: (1) During the study period, the patch density and shape complexity, landscape diversity, and fragmentation of the overall landscape in the study area continued to increase while landscape connectivity decreased. (2) The total amount of ESV increased by 10.05 million USD; ESV had certain differences in spatial distribution: high-value clusters were mainly located at the boundary of the Yellow River in the north, while low-value clusters had a significant eastward expansion trend. (3) ESV increased significantly in areas where cultivated land was transferred to waters and forests, and ESV in areas where waters transferred to construction land and cultivated land was significantly reduced. (4) ESV had a significant positive spatial correlation with patch density, edge density, mean patch fractal dimension, mean patch size, and the landscape shape index, and a spatially negative correlation with the contagion index and cohesion index. The spatial and temporal changes in landscape patterns and ESV were all mainly driven by the regional development “Zhengzhou-Kaifeng integration” policy. Therefore, the ESV can be improved, and the ecological security of the urban integration area can be guaranteed through policy measures such as optimizing the layout of construction land and adjusting the uniform distribution of green areas by the land-use policy.

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Ecosystem Services and Their Driving Forces in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomerations, China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17103717 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (10) ◽

pp. 3717

Author(s):

Wanxu Chen ◽

Guangqing Chi ◽

Jiangfeng Li

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Driving Forces ◽

Spatial Regression ◽

Spillover Effect ◽

Spillover Effects ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Road Density ◽

Urban Agglomerations ◽

The Impact

The impact of human activities on ecosystems can be measured by ecosystem services. The study of ecosystem services is an essential part of coupled human and natural systems. However, there is limited understanding about the driving forces of ecosystem services, especially from a spatial perspective. This study attempts to fill the gap by examining the driving forces of ecosystem services with an integrated spatial approach. The results indicate that more than US$430 billion of ecosystem services value (ESV) is produced annually in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Urban Agglomerations (MRYRUA), with forestland providing the largest proportion of total ESV (≥75%) and hydrological regulation function accounting for the largest proportion of total ESV (≥15%). The average ESV in the surrounding areas is obviously higher than those in the metropolitan areas, in the plains areas, and along major traffic routes. Spatial dependence and spatial spillover effects were observed in the ecosystem services in the MRYRUA. Spatial regression results indicate that road density, proportion of developed land, and river density are negatively associated with ecosystem services, while distance to a socioeconomic center, proportion of forestland land, elevation, and precipitation are positively associated with ecosystem services. The findings in this study suggest that these driving factors and the spillover effect should be taken into consideration in ecosystem protection and land-use policymaking in urban agglomerations.

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Effects of Urbanization on Landscape Patterns in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Region

Land ◽

10.3390/land10101025 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 1025

Author(s):

Yang Yi ◽

Chen Zhang ◽

Guilian Zhang ◽

Luqi Xing ◽

Qicheng Zhong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Landscape Pattern ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Diversity Index ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

The Yangtze River ◽

Landscape Pattern Metrics ◽

Ecological Protection ◽

River Region ◽

Regional Sustainable Development

The middle reaches of the Yangtze River region (MRYRR) are China’s first trans-regional urban agglomeration, located in the center of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The MRYRR is an important ecological reserve, and its land cover changes are affected by both socio-economic development and geographical environment. In this paper, Landsat ETM/TM/OLI remote sensing images were used to monitor land use and landscape patterns from 1990 to 2015. Through supervised classification, land use transfer matrix, landscape pattern metrics and correlation analysis, the spatial-temporal patterns of land use change and its relationship with socio-economic in the study area were revealed. The results showed that: (1) the main land use types in the study area were cropland (CL) and forestland (FL), accounting for more than three-quarters of the study area. During the study period, built-up land (BL) increased, CL decreased, FL increased first and then decreased; (2) the BL expanded mainly by occupying CL and FL, and regional landscape pattern was gradually fragmented, with complex patch shape and increasing diversity and heterogeneity. Among them, the BL is gradually gathered, and the FL and CL are gradually fragmented; (3) in the past 25 years, the urbanization process in this region has been obvious, and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased by 36 times. The socioeconomic variables were positively correlated with BL, orchard (OL) and Shannon diversity index (SHID), and negatively correlated with CL, Wasteland (WL), mean patch size (MPS) and contagion size (CONTAG). The results showed that the urbanization development has a great impact on the region, and the ecological protection task is still challenging. It is necessary to protect high-quality cropland and draw a red line for ecological protection. We should strengthen the construction of ecological corridors and ecological nodes to adapt to regional sustainable development.

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Identifying Landscape Pattern Metrics for the Hani Terrace in Yunnan, China

Journal of Resources and Ecology ◽

10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2013.03.004 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 212-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Xu Yuantao ◽

Min Qingwen ◽

Yuan Zheng ◽

Bai Yanying ◽

Sun Yehong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Landscape Pattern ◽

Landscape Pattern Metrics ◽

Pattern Metrics

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Ecosystem Services of Hospital Gardens - Based on Microclimate Analyses of Green and Blue Garden Elements

Acta Biologica Marisiensis ◽

10.2478/abmj-2021-0006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 60-72

Author(s):

Vera Takácsné Zajacz ◽

Kinga M Szilágyi

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Urban Environment ◽

Landscape Planning ◽

Large Body ◽

Well Being ◽

Biologically Active ◽

Extreme Weather Events ◽

Local Climate ◽

The Impact

Abstract The increasing urbanization process of the last decades has resulted in negative impacts and changes in the quality of the urban environment, as reflected in mortality and morbidity data (Páldy, 2018). The quality of the environment, the urban climate, the increased frequency and duration of extreme weather events, ultimately threaten human well-being. To design and build liveable cities, the quality of the urban environment must be improved, and improving micro- or local climate is an important factor in this. Increasing the proportion and quality of biologically active surfaces, i.e. the ecosystem services provided by green spaces, is one of the most effective tools for urban conditioning and enhancing human well-being. Determining the proportions of the green area, the design of vegetation, the choice of pavements and microarchitectures all determine the microclimate of an open-space. This has been confirmed by a large body of research and implemented work, but it is also important for designers to make a preliminary prediction of the impact of any intervention on the climatic conditions of the design site. These predictions will help cost-effective designing to determine which intervention will result in climate change. This research uses two specific examples to examine the effectiveness of each landscape designing tool and to show which designing tool produces what and how much climatic impact. For these studies, we used a climate modeling program (ENVI-MET), which runs simulations to infer the climate modifying effects of landscape planning tools. In the course of the research, we have shown that the local climate of hospital gardens could be significantly influenced by favorable, environmental-friend paving, a higher green cover ratio, and a well-developed and sufficiently dense tree canopy, and various water features.

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Spatiotemporal analysis of landscape patterns and its effect on soil loss in the Rmel river basin, Tunisia

Soil and Water Research ◽

10.17221/84/2019-swr ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (No. 1) ◽

pp. 39-49

Author(s):

Sana Bouguerra ◽

Sihem Jebari ◽

Jamila Tarhouni

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Soil Loss ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

Delivery Ratio ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Sediment Export ◽

The Impact

Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are generally associated with environment pollution and the degradation of natural resources. Detecting LULC changes is essential to assess the impact on ecosystem services. The current research studies the impact of the LULC change on the soil loss and sediment export in a period of 43 years from 1972 to 2015. Landsat imageries were classified into five classes using a supervised classification method and the maximum likelihood Algorithm. Then, the sediment retention service for avoiding reservoir sedimentation was assessed using the InVEST SDR (integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs sediment delivery ratio) model. The results showed that the changes are very important in this study period (1972–2015). Forests were reduced by 18.72% and croplands were increased by approximately 54%. The InVEST SDR model simulation results reveal an increase in the sediment export and soil loss, respectively, from 1.68 to 5.57 t/ha/year and from 15.22 to 43.61 t/ha/year from the year 1972 to 2015. These results highlight the need for targeted policies on integrated land and water resource management. Then, it is important to improve the common understanding of land use and land cover dynamics to the different stakeholders. All these can help in projecting future changes in the LULC and to investigate more appropriate policy interventions for achieving better land and water management.

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