Structural patterns of land types and optimal allocation of land use in Qinling Mountains

1 IntroductionMountains，as one of the huge ecosystems in the world, play a significant role during human evolution and development[1]. As the treasury of ecological resources[2], mountains have faced the challenge of the degradation of their eco-environment and the difficulty in their regional poverty relief because of human unsuitable exploitation. The 53rd Conference of United Nations has claimed the year 2002 as the International Mountains Year and called on each country to pay attention…     

Detecting spatio-temporal changes of arable land and construction land in the Beijing-Tianjin corridor during 2000–2015

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Rapid peri-urbanization has become a new challenge for sustainable urban-rural development worldwide. To clarify how unprecedented urban sprawl at the...     

Spatio-temporal prediction of regional land subsidence via ConvLSTM

Land subsidence is a geohazard phenomenon caused by the lowering of land elevation due to the compression of the sinking land soil body, thus creating an excessive constraint on the safe construction and sustainable development of cities. The use of accurate and efficient means for land subsidence prediction is of remarkable importance for preventing land subsidence and ensuring urban safety. Although the current time-series prediction method can accomplish relatively high accuracy, the predicte...     

Spatiotemporal analysis of rural–urban land conversion

Understanding the complexity of urban expansion requires an analysis of the factors influencing the spatial and temporal processes of rural–urban land conversion. This study aims at building a statistical land conversion model to assist in understanding land use change patterns. Specifically, GIS coupled with a logistic regression model and exponential smoothing techniques is used for exploring the effects of various factors on land use change. These factors include population density, slope, proximity to roads, and surrounding land use, and their influence on land use change is studied for generating a predictive model. Methods to reduce spatial autocorrelation in a logistic regression framework are also discussed. Primarily, an optimal sampling scheme that can eliminate spatial autocorrelation while maintaining adequate samples to allow the model to achieve the comparable accuracy as the spatial autoregressive model is developed. Since many of the previous studies on modeling the spatial complexity of urban growth ignored temporal complexity, a modified exponential smoothing technique is employed to produce a smoothed model from a series of bi‐temporal models obtained from different time periods. The proposed model is validated using the multi‐temporal land use data in New Castle County, DE, USA. It is demonstrated that our approach provides an effective option for multi‐temporal land use change modeling and the modeling results help interpret the land use change patterns.     

How does land consolidation affect rural development transformation?

China’s rural territory is entering a critical stage of transformation and development. Promoting rural development and transformation is an important path to achieve rural vitalization, and land consolidation is expected to become the starting point to boost rural transformation. To clarify the internal relationship between land consolidation and rural development transformation is an important scientific proposition. This paper constructs a theoretical framework of rural land consolidation(RLC...     

Exploring spatial data uncertainties in land‐use change scenarios

This paper evaluates errors and uncertainties in representing landscapes that arise from different data rasterization methods, spatial resolutions, and downscaled land‐use change (LUC) scenarios. A vector LU dataset for Luxembourg (minimum mapping unit: 0.15 ha; year 2000) was used as the baseline reference map. This map was rasterized at three spatial resolutions using three cell class assignment methods. The landscape composition and configuration of these maps were compared. Four alternative scenarios of future LUC were also generated for the three resolutions using existing LUC scenarios and a statistical downscaling method creating 37 maps of LUC for the year 2050. These maps were compared in terms of composition and spatial configuration using simple metrics of landscape fragmentation and an analysis of variance (ANOVA). Differences in landscape composition and configuration between the three cell class assignment methods and the three spatial resolutions were found to be at least as large as the differences between the LUC scenarios. This occurred in spite of the large LUC projected by the scenarios. This demonstrates the importance of the rasterization method and the level of aggregation as a contribution to uncertainty when developing future LUC scenarios and in analysing landscape structure in ecological studies.     

Many a little makes a mickle: Cumulative land cover changes and traditional land use in the Kyrö reindeer herding district,northern Finland

Traditional land use systems are threatened by land use intensification and resulting land cover transitions in northern areas. This article examines cumulative land cover changes and their impacts on reindeer grazing grounds in the Kyrö reindeer herding district in northern Finland. Land cover transitions were studied using Landsat TM and OLI images and topographic maps. The results showed that the herding district has experienced notable land cover changes during the past decades, and most of these changes were directly related to forestry. The proportion of continuous coniferous forests of the total forest cover declined from 92% to 78% between 1987 and 2013. Approximately one third of the forests outside current conservation areas were disturbed by forest management by 2013, and remaining forests were notably more fragmented than forests within conservation areas. The extent of the road and path networks expanded considerably between 1960s and 2010 as a result of increasing logging and tourism. Accumulation of disturbances gradually results in loss of key resources and declined quality of the landscape mosaic from the reindeer herding perspective, which can pose a serious threat to long-term sustainability of the livelihood. Rapid land cover changes in non-protected areas highlight an increasingly important role of conservation areas in maintaining resources for reindeer husbandry in the face of intensifying land use. Sustainable management of resources outside conservation areas requires careful participatory planning and efficient cumulative impact assessment of different land use activities.     

On arable land changes in Shandong Province and their driving forces

IntroductionAlmost all the provinces and autonomous regions in China have experienced decrease of arable land in the processes of economic development, population growth and urbanization. The situation is more serious in Shandong Province because of the big population and being an agricultural province. From 1949 to 1999, the arable land was decreased by more than 2 million ha in this province accompanied by rapid population growth. The total population in the province in 1999 was twice of t…     

Ecological footprint analysis based on RS and GIS in arid land

Sustainable development has become a primary objective for many countries and regions throughout the world now. The ecological footprint (EF) is a kind of concise method of quantifiably measuring the natural capital consumption and it can reflect the goal of sustainability. In this paper, the concept, the theory and method of ecological footprint are introduced. On this basis, the study brings forward the method of ecological footprint and capacity prediction. The method is employed for the ecological footprint prediction combining consumption model with population model and the technique is adopted for the ecological capacity (EC) prediction uniting the Geographical Cellular Automata (Geo CA) and Geographic Information System (GIS). The above models and methods are employed to calculate EF and EC in 1995 and 2000 and predict them in 2005 in Hexi Corridor. The result shows that EF is continually increasing, and EC ascended in the anterior 5 years and will descend in the posterior 5 years. This suit of method is of the character of accuracy and speediness.     

1998’s floods in the Changjiang River and the land use/land cover change in the upper and middle-lower reaches in the past 50 years

IntroductionFlood disasters have been serious since the ancient bines. AJthough we have Strengthened the harnessingofbig rivers since the founding of new Chin4 the threat still edeStS (see FigUre l). The Yellow myer hasbeen well known for its flood disasters since long time %o in China. There more than 1500 river burstShappened to the Yellow hiver in the paSt 2000 or 3000 years. Whereas floods of the Changjiang caverwere comparatively not serious in history, but its flood disasters have …     

The harmonious relationship between land use and environment in Xi’an

1 Introduction Generally, it is the urbanization that causes the structural change of landscape environment, and the structure, scale, benefit and effectiveness of LUCC are all the spatial appearance and important results of Xi’an’s urbanization. It no…     

Pop-up landscapes: a new trigger to push up land value?

Through a qualitative analysis of pop-up landscapes on Philadelphia’s Delaware Waterfront, this paper examines how entrepreneurial urban actors, such as municipal officials, urban planning agencies, and landscape designers, strategically harness to catalyze investment. While pop-up landscapes have disrupted negative associations with the waterfront, providing a space for people to reimagine the city and playing an active role as an integrative public space, the paper argues that there are reasons to be skeptical about the long-term goals the pop-up landscapes serve, given the widespread focus on real estate-led development.     

Development of land desertification in Bashang area in the past 20 years

1 Physiographic characteristics of Bashang area In broad sense, Bashang area refers to the entire Zhangbei, Kangbao and Guyuan counties, northern part of Shangyi, northern parts of Fengning and Weichang counties of Chengde Prefecture, most part of Duolun county, entire Taipusi Banner (Taipusi County), southern part of Zhenglan and Zhengxiangbai banners (counties) and northeast of Huade in Inner Mongolia, altogether 12 counties or banners covering an area of more than 42,000 km2 with a …     

Andrew U. Frank’s impact on research in land administration

Andrew U. Frank retired in October 2016 after a scientific career of 38 years with positions in Switzerland, Maine and Austria. One of the main applications that he constantly referred to and that he analysed in detail was land administration. This review article tries to give an overview of Frank’s work in the context of land administration and how he influenced the approach to land administration research. He organized his work mainly in four pillars: technical, legal, organizational and economical aspects. Each of them is discussed in the paper and the influence on international cooperation is shown.     

Spatiotemporal mismatch of land use functions and land use efficiencies and their influencing factors:A case study in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River,China

Identification of the spatial mismatch between land use functions(LUFs) and land use efficiencies(LUEs) is essential to regional land use policies. However, previous studies about LUF-LUE mismatch and its driving factors have been insufficient. In this study, we explored the spatiotemporal mismatch of LUFs and LUEs and their influencing factors from 2000 to 2018 in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River(MRYR). Specifically, we used Spearman correlation analysis to reveal the trade-off relations...     

Embodied land in China’s provinces from the perspective of regional trade

With the continuous enhancement of regional connectivity, the indirect use of land resources through the pathways of trade in goods and services plays an increasingly important role in the overall utilization of land resources. Despite this, relevant research in this field is still in its infancy, and few papers have addressed this issue. This paper uses a multi-regional input-output model to calculate the embodied land in the 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and eight regions of China from the perspective of regional trade and further analyzes the spatial pattern of characteristics associated with embodied land flows. The results show that the amount of embodied land occupied by China’s inter-regional trade accounts for 21.39% of the country’s total land, and an average of 38.54% of China’s provincial land demand is met by land exports from other provinces. More than 80% of land consumed by Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai is from other provinces. The provinces of Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Hebei are the largest net exporters of cultivated land, forest and grazing and aquatic land, fishery land, and built-up land, respectively (the outflows account for 42.26%, 27.53%, 38.66%, and 35.28% of the corresponding land types in the province); and Guangdong, Shandong, and Zhejiang are the main net importers. The flow of agricultural land (cultivated land, forest land, grazing land, and aquatic land) generally shows a shift from west to east and from north to south. The regions in northeast and northwest China have the largest scale of agricultural land outflows, mainly into East and South China. In addition, 8.43% of cultivated land, 7.47% of forest land, 6.41% of grazing land, 6.88% of aquatic land, and 18.35% of built-up land in China are provided for foreign use through international trade. This paper provides feasible ideas and a theoretical basis for solving the contradiction between land use and ecological protection, which could potentially help to achieve sustainable land use in China.     

Spatio-temporal pattern changes of land space in Hengduan Mountains during 1990–2015

Hengduan Mountains offer land space for a variety of ecological services. However, the sustainable development and management of land space has been challenged by increased human activities in recent years. This paper performs the spatial pattern analysis of the quantitative and structural changes of various landscapes at different altitudes, and uses the land use data in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2015 to reveal how various land patterns have changed. The results show that, within the production-living-ecological space schema, the ecological space dominates Hengduan Mountains, while the production and living space was mainly distributed in south region. During 1990–2015, the production-living-ecological spatial changes had been gradually accelerated and the regional differences had become more prominent. The agricultural production space had continuously decreased by 1132.31 km², and the industrial and mining production space had rapidly increased by 281.4 km² during 1990–2015. The living space had steadily increased, and the ecological space had increased with fluctuations. The land space pattern in Hengduan Mountains was greatly restricted by the terrain, such as altitude and slope. The implementations of China Western Development Strategy and the Returning Farmland to Forest Program had favorably promoted the changes of land spatial pattern in Hengduan Mountains.