Vegetation change and fragmentation in the mega city of Delhi: Mapping 25 years of change

Delhi, the worlds' second most populous city, has experienced rapid, planned and unplanned expansion at the cost of its green cover in recent decades. In this study, we use satellite images from 1986, 1999 and 2010 to map changes in urban and green cover, assess the fragmentation of green spaces, and identify the drivers of change. We find that urban patterns of development have shaped the distribution and fragmentation of green spaces, with the city center containing more green spaces with less fragmentation compared to intermediate areas and the peri-urban periphery. Yet, the city core has also experienced the greatest degree of vegetation clearing and fragmentation over time due to infrastructural expansion, while the peri-urban periphery has shown an increase in vegetation and a decrease in fragmentation due to recent compensatory plantation in these peripheral areas. Forests, archaeological sites, and military and academic campuses have played a major role in protecting green cover and limiting fragmentation in the core and intermediate areas of the city. This research helps in advancing our understanding of the pattern–process relationship between urbanization and land cover change/fragmentation in India's largest city.     

Hydrologic variation with land use across the contiguous United States: Geomorphic and ecological consequences for stream ecosystems

Using daily discharge data from the USGS, we analyzed how hydrologic regimes vary with land use in four large hydrologic regions that span a gradient of natural land cover and precipitation across the continental United States. In each region we identified small streams (contributing area < 282 km²) that have continuous daily streamflow data. Using a national database, we characterized the composition of land cover of the watersheds in terms of aggregate measures of agriculture, urbanization, and least disturbed (“natural”). We calculated hydrologic alteration using 10 ecologically-relevant hydrologic metrics that describe magnitude, frequency, and duration of flow for 158 watersheds within the Southeast (SE), Central (CE), Pacific Northwest (NW), and Southwest (SW) hydrologic regions of the United States. Within each watershed, we calculated percent cover for agriculture, urbanized land, and least disturbed land to elucidate how components of the natural flow regime inherent to a hydrologic region is modified by different types and proportions of land cover. We also evaluated how dams in these regions altered the hydrologic regimes of the 43 streams that have pre- and post-dam daily streamflow data. In an analysis of flow alteration along gradients of increasing proportion of the three land cover types, we found many regional differences in hydrologic responses. In response to increasing urban land cover, peak flows increased (SE and CE), minimum flows increased (CE) or decreased (NW), duration of near-bankfull flows declined (SE, NW) and flow variability increased (SE, CE, and NW). Responses to increasing agricultural land cover were less pronounced, as minimum flows decreased (CE), near-bankfull flow durations increased (SE and SW), and flow variability declined (CE). In a second analysis, for three of the regions, we compared the difference between least disturbed watersheds and those having either > 15% urban and > 25% agricultural land cover. Relative to natural land cover in each region, urbanization either increased (SE and NW) or decreased (SW) peak flows, decreased minimum flows (SE, NW, and SW), decreased durations of near-bankfull flows (SE, NW, and SW), and increased flow variability (SE, NW, and SW). Agriculture had similar effects except in the SE, where near-bankfull flow durations increased. Overall, urbanization appeared to induce greater hydrologic responses than similar proportions of agricultural land cover in watersheds. Finally, the effects of dams on hydrologic variation were largely consistent across regions, with a decrease in peak flows, an increase in minimum flows, an increase in near-bankfull flow durations, and a decrease in flow variability. We use this analysis to evaluate the relative degree to which land use has altered flow regimes across regions in the US with naturally varying climate and natural land cover, and we discuss the geomorphic and ecological implications of such flow modification. We end with a consideration of what elements will ultimately be required to conduct a more comprehensive national assessment of the hydrologic responses of streams to land cover types and dams. These include improved tools for modeling hydrologic metrics in ungauged watersheds, incorporation of high-resolution geospatial data to map geomorphic and hydrologic drivers of stream response to different types of land cover, and analysis of scale dependence in the distribution of land-use impacts, including mixed land uses. Finally, ecological and geomorphic responses to human alteration of land cover will have to be calibrated to the regional hydroclimatological, geologic, and historical context in which the streams occur, in order to determine the degree to which stream responses are region-specific versus geographically independent and broadly transferable.     

Crossing-over between land cover and land use: Exploring spatially varying relationships in two large US metropolitan areas

Difficulties in identifying actual uses of land space from remote sensing-based land cover products often result in lost opportunities to enhance the capacity of applied research on human settlements. In an attempt to address these difficulties, this study investigates how land cover and land use are interrelated with each other and what determines the relationship patterns by analyzing detailed land use and land cover data for two large US metropolitan areas – the five-county Los Angeles and six-county Chicago regions – where a broad spectrum of human settlements, ranging from urban cores to less-urbanized edges, coexist. The analysis shows that the land cover-land use relationship substantially varies not only across regions but across neighborhoods within each region. Through multivariate regression, it is also found that the intraregional variation is highly associated with the neighborhood's stage of urbanization, median housing age, and other development characteristics, suggesting that the relationship pattern can largely be shaped by the history and evolution of urban design/development.     

The Spatial Structure of Land Use from 1970–2000 in the Phoenix,Arizona, Metropolitan Area

This article explores the dimensions of rapid urbanization in the Phoenix Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) over the past thirty years with respect to land use change. We devote primary attention to developing an understanding of what land transformations took place, the extent to which they occurred, and where they occurred. Our findings indicate that 32 percent of the Phoenix SMSA changed between 1970 and 2000. More than half of the overall change was from agriculture to some form of urban land use, and although a large percentage of the region remains open desert the parcels of desert are increasingly fragmented. This has significant implications for urban ecology and biodiversity. The growth indicates that rather than a pattern that reflects the agglomeration effects of a polycentric metropolis, the central business district of the City of Phoenix dominates the region. This has implications with respect to employment patterns, traffic congestion, and urban air quality and climate.     

长江三角洲生态用地破碎度及其城市化关联

破碎化是当今地表自然景观演化的重要形式。基于县(区) 行政单元,利用GIS 技术和景观生态方法,定量探讨了长江三角洲生态用地破碎分区及其城市化关联,研究结论有：① 建立了生态用地破碎度综合模型,并与城市化规模和空间构型等参数聚类,将全区划为2 个 高破碎区、3 个中等破碎区和2 个低破碎区;② 基于区县尺度和30 m 分辨率影像的生态用 地破碎度是城市化、生态用地特征及其他干扰源的综合表现,与城镇化水平和城镇用地比例 等规模参数相关性不明显,相关系数分别为0.303、0.432,但与城镇用地聚合度呈现明显的负相关,相关系数为-0.807;③ 破碎分区及破碎度的城市化关联为不同生态用地空间战略的选择提供依据,对面向生态保护的城市化空间引导和规划具有指导意义。     

Unsupervised regionalization of the United States into landscape pattern types

We present a pattern-based regionalization of the conterminous US – a partitioning of the country into a number of mutually exclusive and exhaustive regions that maximizes the intra-region stationarity of land cover patterns and inter-region disparity between those patterns. The result is a discretization of the land surface into a number of landscape pattern types (LPTs) – spatial units each containing a unique quasi-stationary pattern of land cover classes. To achieve this goal, we use a recently developed method which utilizes machine vision techniques. First, the entire National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) is partitioned into a grid of square-size blocks of cells, called motifels. The size of a motifel defines the spatial scale of a local landscape. The land cover classes of cells within a motifel form a local landscape pattern which is mathematically represented by a histogram of co-occurrence features. Using the Jensen–Shannon divergence as a dissimilarity function between patterns we group the motifels into several LPTs. The grouping procedure consists of two phases. First, the grid of motifels is partitioned spatially using a region-growing segmentation algorithm. Then, the resulting segments of this grid, each represented by its medoid, are clustered using a hierarchical algorithm with Ward’s linkage. The broad-extent maps of progressively more generalized LPTs resulting from this procedure are shown and discussed. Our delineated LPTs agree well with the perceptual patterns seen in the NLCD map.     

Administrative hierarchy and urban land expansion in transitional China

In a growing body of literature on urbanization in China, scholars have emphasized the proactive role of the Chinese local state in urban land expansion. Drawing upon official land use change data from 1998 to 2008, this study investigates the relationship between the hierarchical structure of the Chinese urban administrative system and urban land expansion. We find that urban land expansion coincides with administrative hierarchy, and cities with higher administrative levels (ranked by central government) tend to expand more rapidly while controlling for other economic and demographic drivers of urban expansion. Spatial regime models reveal that economic and demographic drivers of urban growth are also sensitive to a city's administrative rank. By quantifying the link between a city's rank and urban land expansion, we conclude that considering the hierarchical structure of the Chinese cities will result in a fuller understanding of the rapid urban growth in China.     

珠江三角洲土地覆盖变化对地表温度的影响

由于经济的快速增长,1978年以来的25年中,珠江三角洲地区的土地覆盖变化,特别是城市扩展速度非常之快。通过把遥感和地理信息系统相结合,研究了土地覆盖变化及城市增长状况,并且评估了城市增长对地表温度的影响。利用陆地卫星多时段数据监测了土地利用和土地覆盖变化;通过陆地卫星热红外单波段反演了地表温度,研究了土地覆盖变化特别是城市增长对地表温度的影响。结果发现,珠江三角洲地区土地覆盖变化明显,城市增长显著且不平衡。城市的发展使城市化地区的地表温度提高了8.9K。研究表明,遥感和地理信息系统的结合,在监测和分析土地覆盖变化,特别是城市增长状况以及评估城市化对地表温度的影响方面,是十分有效的。     

深圳市近20年城市景观格局演变及其驱动因素

基于深圳市1996—2015年土地利用数据,利用景观指数、景观转移矩阵和景观扩张指数等方法探究了深圳市近20年景观格局时空变化、主要景观类型转移和建筑用地扩张模式,最后使用Binary Logit模型考察了市级和区级建筑用地景观扩张的主要驱动因素。结果表明：① 1996—2015年,深圳市建筑用地景观优势性逐步增强,面积增加15.81%,以蔓延式（61.9%）和填充式（36.27%）扩张为主;② 1996—2006年为城市化快速扩张期,建筑用地扩张呈集中开发形态,景观多样性和均匀性增加,城市扩张中心略微向北部和东部移动,2006—2015为城市化低速过渡期,景观破碎化加剧,城市扩张重心向北部和西部偏移;③ 在市级尺度上,GDP密度和人口密度对建筑用地景观扩张有显著正影响,生态控制线、高程、坡度和至道路的距离有着显著负影响。每单位生态控制线范围、坡度的增加分别将使建筑用地景观扩张的机会比率将平均减少到原来0.8168倍、0.8841倍。各驱动因素表现出区域和尺度差异性,GDP对宝安区、南山区和坪山区,人口增长对宝安区、龙华区,以及交通可达性对大鹏新区、龙岗区驱动分别最为突出。研究结果可以为中国城市快速扩张过程中的景观格局变化提供科学实践。     

Urban expansion in Centre County,Pennsylvania: Spatial dynamics and landscape transformations

Sprawling urban development is a major driving force of landscape fragmentation and loss of agricultural land. Despite this understanding, science has yet to realize a coherent suite of methods to analyze all circumstances of sprawl. Consequently, this paper contributes to this realization by combining three methods to address sprawl in a small US metropolitan area – Centre County, Pennsylvania: cross-tabulation to identify systematic non-random land use transitions; logistic regression to determine explanatory variables of urban land use location resulting from these transitions; and the CLUE-S regional modeling framework to project future urban land use patterns in the county. The results demonstrate the versatility of the methodology because of its ability to detect land use change despite the large proportion of the landscape that remained uncharged during the two periods under consideration, and because of its ability to distinguish systematic non-random land use transitions from random ones. The strength of the methodology is further demonstrated by its capability to allocate land use change according to change in land use location as well as to net change in land use quantity. The methodology identified soil and topography as the primary explanatory drivers of urban land use location in Centre County. Although the model is able to simulate urban land use location at the county level, it is less able to simulate these locations at the sub-county level, thereby suggesting that the explanatory variables for urban land location are not fully captured at this scale. Overall, the methodology for sprawl analyses presented in the study is robust and adds to the tools available to decision makers for assessing sprawl dynamics.     

Methodological Advances in the Spatial Analysis of Land Fragmentation

This article evaluates the effect of moving window (MW) size on observed fragmentation spatial patterns and proposes a method to identify an effective MW size using Simpson's diversity index. To test the robustness of the proposed method, we demonstrate its use in six cities in the Phoenix metropolitan area that have substantial variation in land composition and configuration. Next we explore the effects of gradient observation scale and the role of scale in removing noise. We compare and discuss two popular approaches to measuring urban-to-rural fragmentation gradients—concentric ring- and transect-based approaches—highlighting the usefulness of each approach in an extensive and rapidly urbanizing region. This study provides a new method for selecting window size, offers insights on scale effects, and provides guidance on gradient scale selection to achieve the best representation of land fragmentation patterns for urban analysis.     

Common features and different trajectories of land cover changes in six Western Mediterranean urban regions

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) dynamics have been particularly strong in the Mediterranean region, due to its historical development and to agro-pedoclimatic conditions favorable to human settlement. This area has undergone in the 1950s and the 1980s intense urbanization processes that has followed different trajectories. Urban expansion commonly occurs at the expense of agricultural land, leading to the fragmentation of natural areas and conflicts over access to land resources. These dynamics mainly concern the fringe between urban and agricultural land, e.g. the peri-urban areas usually included within functional urban regions. Here, to identify common features of LULCC in Western Mediterranean urban regions, we investigated two main features: direct changes due to urbanization and indirect changes affecting non-artificial land uses. We compared LULCC dynamics in 6 case studies from the north and south of the Western Mediterranean region: the urban regions of Montpellier and Avignon (France), Pisa (Italy), Madrid (Spain), Meknes (Morocco), and Constantine (Algeria), using a 30-year multitemporal spatial analysis (1980–2010). Two series of Landsat TM images were acquired for each case study and land cover data were analyzed both for dynamics and for land patterns, using landscape and class metrics. We found no significant north-south differences in LULCC dynamics between the investigated Western Mediterranean urban regions. Differences are more pronounced between small–medium cities and large metropolitan areas in type of urban diffusion, which is more sprawled in small–medium cities and more compact in large metropolitan areas. Rather, differences occur in LULCC not directly affected by urbanization, since in Northern Mediterranean urban regions afforestation and abandonment of agricultural areas are prevalent and closer to the urban areas, whereas transformation of natural areas into agricultural ones occurs mainly in Southern Mediterranean urban regions at a similar distance from urban areas than it happens for afforested or abandoned areas. In attempting for the first time to assess LULCC in these Mediterranean urban regions, we provide a preliminary comprehensive analysis that can contribute to the active LULCC research in the Mediterranean basin and that can be easily applied to other Mediterranean urban regions.     

民国时期江西省城市用地与城市化水平

定量重建历史时期城市土地利用规模、结构和城市化水平数据集有助于更好地模拟土地覆被变化的环境效应。根据日本侵华战争军事地形图资料,在ArcGIS平台定量重建民国时期江西省范围内县级以上城市用地规模和结构,取得了一套可用于历史时期土地利用模型的城垣周长、城市用地面积、城垣内非建设用地、城垣外建设用地情况的综合数据集,并在此基础上分析了县域尺度下的土地城市化水平。与更为详细的大比例尺地图的比较表明,本套数据集误差在±10%之内。有“城内田”现象的城市为20个,有“城外市”现象的城市为28个,分别占江西省全部城市数的25%和35%。城市用地重建结果表明,江西省80个县级及以上城市总建设用地面积为87.99 km²,约占全省总面积的0.053%。民国时期江西的整体城市化率为0.047%,最高的南昌为0.19%,最低的遂川县仅为0.007%,城市化水平与县域人口总量呈正相关（r = 0.457,P < 0.001）。空间格局分析表明,江西省县域城市化水平具有北高南低的特点。江西省民国时期城市用地和城市化水平数据集可以为相关全球环境变化模型提供直接的用地基础数据。     

深圳市不透水表面的遥感监测与时空格局

定量监测城市不透水表面扩展过程,是分析城市景观格局动态,深入剖析城市地区空间镶嵌体内部异质性景观相互转化的重要基础。以深圳市为例,通过定量划分城市不透水表面等级体系,计算不透水表面的转移矩阵与景观格局指数,分析不透水表面的时空动态,结果表明:1990～2005年间,高盖度及极高盖度的不透水表面持续增加,中盖度及低盖度不透水表面先增加后减少,而自然地表及极低盖度的不透水表面则为先减少后恢复,反映了城市化进程对城市地表覆被的结构性影响。景观格局变化显示景观多样性程度较高,且经历了低-高-低-高的变化;斑块在1990年以自然地表为主,1995年以后以中盖度等级为主,高盖度等级显著增加。自然地表和中等盖度的不透水表面变化分别主导着前期和中后期的变化过程。城市建设的迅速扩张,将林地、农田、水体及滩涂等自然地表快速地转变为不同功能的建设用地,主导着不透水表面等级分布的梯度性变化。     

Urban hypotheses and spatiotemporal characterization of urban growth in the Treasure Valley of Idaho,USA

Spatiotemporal patterns of urban growth can help identify impacts of urbanization, assess conceptual models of that growth, help predict future change, and inform associated urban management policies. Using multi-temporal spatial data (1938-2014), we categorized the newly urbanized area in Treasure Valley, Idaho into four urban growth forms and six urban land use classes. A time series analysis of new development revealed the existence of decadal-scale variability of urbanization at various levels of urban land use. Alternating dominance of dispersion and compaction processes were observed at the urban patch level. A similar periodicity was observed between edge-expansion and infill in terms of growth forms, and between residential and commercial development at the land use level. Our observations also indicate that recent urban densification is occurring in the Treasure Valley, similar to some other metropolitan regions in the United States.     

中国县域土地城镇化的区域差异及其影响因素

中国经历了史无前例的快速城镇化进程,与之相伴随的是更加迅猛的土地城镇化过程。基于2000年和2015年中国土地利用现状遥感监测数据,综合运用空间分析、多元回归和地理加权回归的方法,深入分析了中国县域土地城镇化的区域特征及其影响因素。结果表明：① 中国县域土地城镇化率年均增长2.77%,其中近40%的区县城镇化率年均增长大于3%;在空间上呈现出不同于人口城镇化的扩散趋势。② 中国县域土地城镇化的南北分异规律较东西分异更为明显。土地城镇化的高值区域始终集中在胡焕庸线的东南半壁,而围绕主要的城市群地区则形成“组团式”增长的热点区,地区间差异趋于收敛。③ 人口集聚、经济发展、产业结构、城市特性与地理区位等要素对县域土地城镇化空间分异格局的影响较为显著、稳定,各要素对土地城镇化的影响均具有明显的时空依赖特征。分析揭示县域土地城镇化的时空特征及其动力机制,对于科学认识新型城镇化和实施城乡融合、乡村振兴战略,具有重要的理论价值与现实意义。     

中国北方农牧交错带城市扩展过程对植被净初级生产力影响研究——以呼包鄂地区为例

评价中国北方农牧交错带城市扩展过程对植被净初级生产力（Net Primary Productivity,NPP）的影响是揭示区域城市扩展过程生态效应的基础。以正在经历快速城市化的呼包鄂地区为例,基于空间分辨率为30 m的土地利用/覆盖数据,评价了该地区2000-2015 年城市扩展过程对NPP的影响。研究结果表明,呼包鄂地区城市扩展导致NPP明显增加,2000-2015 年城市扩展区域NPP均值从429.67 NDVI·PAR增加到489.71 NDVI·PAR,增加了13.97%。呼包鄂地区以城市土地占用草地为主要特征的城市扩展方式是城市扩展区域NPP增加的主要原因。     

城市地表温度对土地利用/覆被变化响应的遥感研究——以乌鲁木齐为例

 快速的城市化对城市环境产生显著的影响,基于遥感定量研究地表温度对土地利用/覆被变化（LUCC）的响应,来评估快速城市化对环境的影响,是一种快速、有效的途径。以干旱区典型绿洲型城市——乌鲁木齐为例,将遥感与地理信息系统相结合,利用1990年和2009年两期陆地卫星影像为基础数据进行土地利用/覆被分类,并基于单窗算法定量反演同期的地表温度,从而对快速城市化进程中的土地利用/覆被类型动态变化的空间特征及地表温度对快速城市化的响应情况进行了定量研究。结果显示,在近20 a间,乌鲁木齐城市迅速扩张,土地利用/覆被类型变化显著,城市建设用地增长率高达44.73%;同时城市的快速发展使地表温度提高了近6 ℃。研究表明,温度变化格局,尤其是增温区的空间分布与城市扩张的空间格局基本一致,说明地表温度对城市的土地利用/覆被变化产生了显著的响应。     

中国特大城市空间增长特征及其原因分析

1990 年以来是中国社会经济改革全面展开的阶段,城市空间增长发生了较大的变化,本文以全国52 个特大城市为样本,利用各城市1990-2008 年影像图、土地利用现状图等数据,运用空间计量、拓扑结构图示等方法对城市空间增长特征进行了分析。研究表明:1990 年以来中国特大城市空间在规模增长上表现出增长速度快且按人口规模等级顺序依次变缓,在要素增长上表现出新型化、多样化变化,在结构增长上出现带状化、多中心化转变,在形态增长上呈分散化、破碎化变化,城市空间增长方式以轴向式和跳跃式为主导,特别是2000 年以来这种变化更加明显。工业化进入中高级阶段之后的快速经济增长、快速城市化以及政府GDP导向的政绩观是导致城市空间增长上述变化的主要原因。最后文章针对中国特大城市空间增长规模过度超前、结构松散、形态破碎的问题,提出构建以规模控制、结构优化及空间紧凑性为核心的节约型城市空间增长目标。     

近30年来绵阳市城市用地扩展模式研究

城市用地扩展不仅是评价城市化水平的重要测度指标,也是土地利用/覆被变化(LUCC)研究重要领域之一.本文以多时相、多源空间数据为基础,采用RS专题信息提取与GIS空间叠加分析技术,选择扩展强度指数、紧凑度、分形维数、重心转移指数、扩展方位指数等5个景观结构与变化指标,系统地分析了中国科技城绵阳城市用地扩展模式与时空分异...