Assessing impacts of urban form on GHG emission with high-resolution spatial grids to implement nature-based solutions for carbon neutral cities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Page ◽  
Haozhi Pan ◽  
Zahra Kalantari
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Land Use Pattern ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
The Impact

<p>Globally, urban areas contribute significantly to the emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) which are leading to anthropogenic climate change. To achieve long-term sustainable development goals, urban regions will need to grow and develop in such a way that they can both provide a good quality of life for all of their inhabitants, and also reduce and offset their GHG emissions to reach and maintain net-zero GHG emissions.</p><p>This work aims to further our understanding of the impact of urban form and growth on GHG emissions, to identify ways in which nature-based solutions (NBS) can be integrated into urban planning to help cities reach net zero emissions while continuing to grow sustainably. We will conduct a high-resolution (1x1km) spatial accounting and mapping of GHG emissions from selected urban anthropogenic activities (residential, commercial, transportation) for Stockholm, Sweden which includes those factors relevant to and impacted by urban form (such as density, land use pattern transportation networks, green spaces) to allow for the analysis of different types of city spatial patterns and planning decisions and their implications in GHG emissions. The results will be further expanded to cities across the European Union (EU) for comparison. Conclusions will be drawn about where and how NBS interventions should be used most effectively to reduce urban GHG emissions and facilitate sustainable city growth in the future.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Sustainable cities; Land-use; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Nature-based Solutions</p>

scholarly journals Effects of land use and water quality on greenhouse gas emissions from an urban river system

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Ho ◽  
Ruben Jerves-Cobo ◽  
Matti Barthel ◽  
Johan Six ◽  
Samuel Bode ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Flow Characteristics ◽  
River System ◽  
Urban River ◽  
Polluted Water ◽  
Land Use Types

Abstract. Rivers act as a natural source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that can be released from the metabolisms of aquatic organisms. Anthropogenic activities can largely alter the chemical composition and microbial communities of rivers, consequently affecting their GHG emissions. To investigate these impacts, we assessed the emissions of CO2, CH4, and N2O from Cuenca urban river system (Ecuador). High variation of the emissions was found among river tributaries that mainly depended on water quality and neighboring landscapes. By using Prati and Oregon Indexes, a clear pattern was observed between water quality and GHG emissions in which the more polluted the sites were, the higher were their emissions. When river water quality deteriorated from acceptable to very heavily polluted, their global warming potential (GWP) increased by ten times. Compared to the average estimated emissions from global streams, rivers with polluted water released almost double the estimated GWP while the proportion increased to ten times for very heavily polluted rivers. Conversely, the GWP of good-water-quality rivers was half of the estimated GWP. Furthermore, surrounding land-use types, i.e. urban, roads, and agriculture, significantly affected the river emissions. The GWP of the sites close to urban areas was four time higher than the GWP of the nature sites while this proportion for the sites close to roads or agricultural areas was triple and double, respectively. Lastly, by applying random forests, we identified dissolved oxygen, ammonium, and flow characteristics as the main important factors to the emissions. Conversely, low impact of organic matter and nitrate concentration suggested a higher role of nitrification than denitrification in producing N2O. These results highlighted the impacts of land-use types on the river emissions via water contamination by sewage discharges and surface runoff. Hence, to estimate of the emissions from global streams, both their quantity and water quality should be included.

scholarly journals Urban form and economic sustainability in housing projects

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mahmoud Ahmed Abdel Ghaffar ◽  
Noha Ahmed Abd El Aziz
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Land Use Pattern ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
Urban Economic ◽  
The Impact

AbstractUrban areas in metropolitan cities like Cairo suffer from economic, social, and environmental predicaments. Urban economic sustainability is an approach that reforms the urban performance to gain direct benefits such as minimizing costs and maximizing profits and indirect benefits as better social, environmental, and cultural aspects. This research suggests applying such an approach to enhance Egyptian housing projects. The main research question is how to evaluate the economic sustainability of urban forms?. The study presents a “Sustainable Urban Economy model” (SUE model) linking urban fabric, land use pattern, transportation, and street network design with economic sustainability. Research methods and tools include interviews (Delphi method) with 25 urban planning/design and urban economic experts to refine the model. Results show the most effective components of the urban form on economic sustainability (accessibility and degree of permeability, population density, built, and the impact of sub-indicators on the main components. Moreover, results indicate that the seven most influential indicators are the built-up to total space ratio, mixed-use ratio, built-up ratio, population density, floor area ratio, degree of accessibility, and public transportation. Experts suggested values for the seven indicators to measure how the urban form can achieve high economic, environmental, and social performance in the Egyptian context.

scholarly journals Assessing and analysing the impact of land take pressures on arable land

Solid Earth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 683-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ece Aksoy ◽  
Mirko Gregor ◽  
Christoph Schröder ◽  
Manuel Löhnertz ◽  
Geertrui Louwagie
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Renewable Resource ◽  
Soil Protection ◽  
The European Union ◽  
High Productivity ◽  
Soil Sealing ◽  
Thematic Strategy ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Land, and in particular soil, is a finite and essentially non-renewable resource. Across the European Union, land take, i.e. the increase of settlement area over time, annually consumes more than 1000 km2 of which half is actually sealed and hence lost under impermeable surfaces. Land take, and in particular soil sealing, has already been identified as one of the major soil threats in the 2006 European Commission Communication Towards a Thematic Strategy on Soil Protection and the Soil Thematic Strategy and has been confirmed as such in the report on the implementation of this strategy. The aim of this study is to relate the potential of land for a particular use in a given region with the actual land use. This allows evaluating whether land (especially the soil dimension) is used according to its (theoretical) potential. To this aim, the impact of several land cover flows related to urban development on soils with good, average, and poor production potentials were assessed and mapped. Thus, the amount and quality (potential for agricultural production) of arable land lost between the years 2000 and 2006 was identified. In addition, areas with high productivity potential around urban areas, indicating areas of potential future land use conflicts for Europe, were identified.

Analysis of spatial dimensions and explicit multifractal modelling for the deployment of green areas in an urban agglomeration.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leydy Alejandra Castellanos Diaz ◽  
Olivier Bonin ◽  
Pierre Antoine Versini ◽  
Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Urban Agglomeration ◽  
Green Spaces ◽  
Land Use Patterns ◽  
Urban Dynamics ◽  
Green Areas ◽  
The Impact

<p>The need to adapt and increase the resilience of urban areas regarding the issues induced by urbanization and climate change effects (e.g. floods, Urban Heat Island, pandemics, etc.), has led to propose several strategies as the Natural-Based Solutions (NBS), which are focus on restoring natural processes such as infiltration and evapotranspiration (ET) in urban areas. In consequence, the increasing interest on NBS installation (highly supported by the H2020 program of the European Commission) by urban planners, decision-makers, researchers and the residing population has conducted to question the most efficient ways of NBS deployment. In this context, the urban dynamics (e.g. population density, land use patterns, transport network, etc.) and the distribution of green areas at different spatial scales play a key role that characterise the urban development in the territory.</p><p>Based on the study of an urban agglomeration named Est-Ensemble, located at the east of Paris (France), this research aims to: i) determinate the fractal dimension of the built-up and green areas by using 2 different box-counting methods; ii) set the potential areas to install NBS, through the development of an iterative downscaling scheme over the built-up structure with the software Fractalopolis, and following a polycentric approach inspired on the urban form of Ile de France Region, and iii) assess the population access to the nearest green spaces and deficit of green spaces.</p><p>Further, from local scale measurements of ET made close to Est-Ensemble agglomeration, the authors carried out a multifractal analysis of the ET data to better evaluate the observed scaling behaviour. This will be coupled with spatial approach developed above to evaluate the impact of temperature reduction of different land use scenarios. This research is partly supported by the French ANR EVNATURB project.</p>

scholarly journals Phosphorus and Nitrogen Status in the Terengganu River Basin, Malaysia

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 935-940
Author(s):  
Y.Y. Hee ◽  
S. Suratman
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Peninsular Malaysia ◽  
Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Nutrients ◽  
The Impact

This study has been carried out in the Terengganu River basin, southern South China Sea (Malaysia), to determine the concentrations of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) based nutrients and their possible sources. The dissolved inorganic nutrients in this river were found to be related to land use, where higher concentrations of dissolved inorganic nutrients were recorded at the stations near to the agricultural activities and urban areas. In contrast, dissolved organic and particulate forms of P and N were generally higher in the largely undisturbed part of the upstream, suggesting that these forms of nutrients can originate from dead organic matter and living organisms, excretion of waste by animals, soil runoff and sewage discharge. When comparing with other selected rivers in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Terengganu river basin showed a relatively higher concentration of P- and N-based nutrients, probably because of the fact that the river had received high impacts of anthropogenic activities. Therefore, a regular monitoring program in this basin is important in order to capture the impact of increasing population densities, land-use changes and social-economic development to the river, which has important implications for the sustainability of Terengganu as well as of Malaysian economy.

scholarly journals Planning the Urban Waterfront Transformation, from Infrastructures to Public Space Design in a Sea-Level Rise Scenario: The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Case

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
Francesca Dal Cin ◽  
Fransje Hooimeijer ◽  
Maria Matos Silva
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Space Design ◽  
Urban Waterfront ◽  
Mies Van Der Rohe ◽  
The Impact

Future sea-level rises on the urban waterfront of coastal and riverbanks cities will not be uniform. The impact of floods is exacerbated by population density in nearshore urban areas, and combined with land conversion and urbanization, the vulnerability of coastal towns and public spaces in particular is significantly increased. The empirical analysis of a selected number of waterfront projects, namely the winners of the Mies Van Der Rohe Prize, highlighted the different morphological characteristics of public spaces, in relation to the approximation to the water body: near the shoreline, in and on water. The critical reading of selected architectures related to water is open to multiple insights, allowing to shift the design attention from the building to the public space on the waterfronts. The survey makes it possible to delineate contemporary features and lay the framework for urban development in coastal or riverside areas.

scholarly journals Цифровізація розвитку міст: Urban Atlas на основі відкритих даних для міст України

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Андрій Юрійович Шелестов ◽  
Алла Миколаївна Лавренюк ◽  
Богдан Ялкапович Яйлимов ◽  
Ганна Олексіївна Яйлимова
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Project Smart ◽  
Unified Algorithm ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Ukraine is an associate member of the European Union and in the coming years it is expected that all data and services already used by EU countries will be available to Ukraine. The lack of quality national products for assessing the development and planning of urban growth makes it impossible to assess the impact of cities on the environment and human health. The first steps to create such products for the cities of Ukraine were initiated within the European project "SMart URBan Solutions for air quality, disasters and city growth" (SMURBS), in which specialists from the Space Research Institute of NAS of Ukraine and SSA of Ukraine received the first city atlas for the Kyiv city, which was similar to the European one. However, the resulting product had significantly fewer types of land use than the European one and therefore the question of improving the developed technology arose. The main purpose of the work is to analyze the existing technology of European service Urban Atlas creation and its improvement by developing a unified algorithm for building an urban atlas using all available open geospatial and satellite data for the cities of Ukraine. The development of such technology is based on our own technology for classifying satellite time series with a spatial resolution of 10 meters to build a land cover map, as well as an algorithm for unifying open geospatial data to urban atlases Copernicus. The technology of construction of the city atlas developed in work, based on the intellectual model of classification of a land cover, can be extended to other cities of Ukraine. In the future, the creation of such a product on the basis of data for different years will allow to assess changes in land use and make a forecast for further urban expansion. The proposed information technology for constructing the city atlas will be useful for assessing the dynamics of urban growth and closely related social and economic indicators of their development. Based on it, it is also possible to assess indicators of achieving the goals of sustainable development, such as 11.3.1 "The ratio of land consumption and population growth." The study shows that the city atlas obtained for the Kyiv city has a high level of quality and has comparable land use classes with European products. It indicates that such a product can be used in government decision-making services.

scholarly journals Impact of Multitemporal Land Use and Land Cover Change on Land Surface Temperature Due to Urbanization in Hefei City, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 809
Author(s):  
Jing Sun ◽  
Suwit Ongsomwang
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Land Surface Temperature ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Decomposition Analysis ◽  
Lulc Change ◽  
Main Components ◽  
The Impact

Land surface temperature (LST) is an essential parameter in the climate system whose dynamics indicate climate change. This study aimed to assess the impact of multitemporal land use and land cover (LULC) change on LST due to urbanization in Hefei City, Anhui Province, China. The research methodology consisted of four main components: Landsat data collection and preparation; multitemporal LULC classification; time-series LST dataset reconstruction; and impact of multitemporal LULC change on LST. The results revealed that urban and built-up land continuously increased from 2.05% in 2001 to 13.25% in 2020. Regarding the impact of LULC change on LST, the spatial analysis demonstrated that the LST difference between urban and non-urban areas had been 1.52 K, 3.38 K, 2.88 K and 3.57 K in 2001, 2006, 2014 and 2020, respectively. Meanwhile, according to decomposition analysis, regarding the influence of LULC change on LST, the urban and built-up land had an intra-annual amplitude of 20.42 K higher than other types. Thus, it can be reconfirmed that land use and land cover changes due to urbanization in Hefei City impact the land surface temperature.

The impact of urban form on disaster resiliency

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Irajifar ◽  
Neil Sipe ◽  
Tooran Alizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
Form Factors ◽  
High Density ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Land Use Mix ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper examines the impact of urban form on disaster resiliency. The literature shows a complex relationship between urban form factors such as density and diversity and disaster recovery. The empirical analysis in this paper tests the impact of land use mix, population density, building type and diversity on the reconstruction progress in three, six and nine months after the 2010 flood in Brisbane and Ipswich as proxies of disaster resilience. Considerable debate exists on whether urban form factors are the causal incentive or are they mediating other non-urban form causal factors such as income level. In view of this, the effects of a series of established non-urban form factors such as income and tenure, already known as effective factors on disaster resilience, are controlled in the analysis. Design/methodology/approach The structure of this paper is based on a two-phase research approach. In the first phase, for identification of hypothetical relationships between urban form and disaster resiliency, information was gathered from different sources on the basis of theory and past research findings. Then in phase two, a database was developed to test these hypothetical relationships, employing statistical techniques (including multivariate regression and correlation analysis) in which disaster recovery was compared among 76 suburbs of Brisbane and Ipswich with differing levels of population density and land use mix. Findings The results indicate that population density is positively related to disaster resilience, even when controlling for contextual variables such as income level and home ownership. The association between population density and disaster reconstruction is non-linear. The progress of reconstruction to population density ratio increases from low, medium to high densities, while in very low and very high density areas the reconstruction progress does not show the same behavior, which suggests that medium-high density is the most resilient. Originality/value The originality of this paper is in extracting hypothetical relationships between urban form and resiliency and testing them with real world data. The results confirmed the contribution of density to recovery process in this case study. This illustrates the importance of attention to disaster resiliency measures from the early stages of design and planning in development of resilient urban communities.

Mapping land use on Irish raised bogs using Sentinel-2 imagery and Google Earth Engine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wahaj Habib ◽  
John Connolly ◽  
Kevin McGuiness
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Optical Sensors ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Good Prospect ◽  
Raised Bogs ◽  
Google Earth Engine ◽  
Sentinel 2

<p>Peatlands are one of the most space-efficient terrestrial carbon stores. They cover approximately 3 % of the terrestrial land surface and account for about one-third of the total soil organic carbon stock. Peatlands have been under severe strain for centuries all over the world due to management related activities. In Ireland, peatlands span over approximately 14600 km<sup>2</sup>, and 85 % of that has already been degraded to some extent. To achieve temperature goals agreed in the Paris agreement and fulfil the EU’s commitment to quantifying the Carbon/Green House Gases (C/GHG) emissions from land use, land use change forestry, accurate mapping and identification of management related activities (land use) on peatlands is important.</p><p>High-resolution multispectral satellite imagery by European Space Agency (ESA) i.e., Sentinel-2 provides a good prospect for mapping peatland land use in Ireland. However, due to persistent cloud cover over Ireland, and the inability of optical sensors to penetrate the clouds makes the acquisition of clear sky imagery a challenge and hence hampers the analysis of the landscape. Google Earth Engine (a cloud-based planetary-scale satellite image platform) was used to create a cloud-free image mosaic from sentinel-2 data was created for raised bogs in Ireland (images collected for the time period between 2017-2020). A preliminary analysis was conducted to identify peatland land use classes, i.e., grassland/pasture, crop/tillage, built-up, cutover, cutaway and coniferous, broadleaf forests using this mosaicked image. The land-use classification results may be used as a baseline dataset since currently, no high-resolution peatland land use dataset exists for Ireland. It can also be used for quantification of land-use change on peatlands. Moreover, since Ireland will now be voluntarily accounting the GHG emissions from managed wetlands (including bogs), this data could also be useful for such type of assessment.</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document