Exploring spatial-temporal change and gravity center movement of construction land in the Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration

Urban agglomeration is caused by the continuous acceleration of the urbanization process in China. Studying the expansion of construction land can not only know the changes and development of urban agglomeration in time, but also obtain the great significance of the future management. In this study, taking Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan (Chang-Zhu-Tan) urban agglomeration in Hunan province as a study area, Landsat images from 1995 to 2014 and Autologistic-CLUE-S model simulation data were used. Moreover, several factors including gravity center, direction, distance and landscape index were considered in the analysis of the expansion. The results revealed that the construction area increased by 132.18%, from 372.28 km² in 1995 to 864.37 km² in 2014. And it might even reach 1327.23 km² in 2023. Before 2014, three cities had their own respective and discrete development directions. However, because of the integration policy implementation in 2008, the Chang-Zhu-Tan began to gather, the gravity center moved southward after 2014, and the distance between cities decreased, which was in line with the development plan of urban expansion. The research methods and results were relatively reliable, and these results could provide some reference for the future land use planning and spatial allocation in the urbanization process of Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration.

     

How forest gaps shaped plant diversity along an elevational gradient in Wolong National Nature Reserve?

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Understanding the underlying ecological processes that control plant diversity within (α-diversity) and among (β-diversity) forest gaps is important for...     

Multiscale geographically and temporally weighted regression: exploring the spatiotemporal determinants of housing prices

Understanding scale effects is important and indispensable for geography studies. However, spatial and spatiotemporal statistical tools for measuring the operational scales of different processes are rather limited. This article extends the popular geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model to consider operational scale effects by proposing multiscale GTWR (MGTWR), which offers a flexible and scalable framework for identifying and analysing multiscale processes by specifying flexible bandwidths for various covariates. Then, MGTWR is employed to explore spatiotemporal variations and how influential factors are associated with housing prices in Shenzhen. This article attempts to extend GTWR to MGTWR in consideration of scale effects, thereby highlighting the importance of different levels of spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Furthermore, the empirical results of this study can provide valuable policy implications for real estate development in areas where urban planning should address multiscale effects in both temporal and spatial dimensions.     

Parallelization of the flow-path network model using a particle-set strategy

High-performance simulation of flow dynamics remains a major challenge in the use of physical-based, fully distributed hydrologic models. Parallel computing has been widely used to overcome efficiency limitation by partitioning a basin into sub-basins and executing calculations among multiple processors. However, existing partition-based parallelization strategies are still hampered by the dependency between inter-connected sub-basins. This study proposed a particle-set strategy to parallelize the flow-path network (FPN) model for achieving higher performance in the simulation of flow dynamics. The FPN model replaced the hydrological calculations on sub-basins with the movements of water packages along the upstream and downstream flow paths. Unlike previous partition-based task decomposition approaches, the proposed particle-set strategy decomposes the computational workload by randomly allocating runoff particles to concurrent computing processors. Simulation experiments of the flow routing process were undertaken to validate the developed particle-set FPN model. The outcomes of hourly outlet discharges were compared with field gauged records, and up to 128 computing processors were tested to explore its speedup capability in parallel computing. The experimental results showed that the proposed framework can achieve similar prediction accuracy and parallel efficiency to that of the Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)-based Real-Time Integrated Basin Simulator (tRIBS).     

Hierarchical community detection and functional area identification with OSM roads and complex graph theory

An in-depth analysis of the urban road network structure plays an essential role in understanding the distribution of urban functional area. To concentrate topologically densely connected road segments, communities of urban roads provide a new perspective to study the structure of the network. In this study, based on OpenStreetMap (OSM) roads and points-of-interest (POI) data, we employ the Infomap community detection algorithm to identify the hierarchical community in city roads and explore the shaping role roads play in urban space and their relation with the distribution of urban functional areas. The results demonstrate that the distribution of communities at different levels in Guangzhou, China reflects the urban spatial relation between the suburbs and urban centers and within urban centers. Moreover, the study explored the functional area characteristics at the community scale and identified the distribution of various functional areas. Owing to the structure information contained in the identification process, the detected community can be used as a basic unit in other urban studies. In general, with the community-based network, this study proposes a novel method of combining city roads with urban space and functional zones, providing necessary data support and academic guidance for government and urban planners.     

A surface network based method for studying urban hierarchies by night time light remote sensing data

Urban hierarchies are closely related to economic growth, urban planning and sustainable urban development. Due to the limited availability of reliable statistical data at fine scales, most existing studies on urban hierarchy characterization failed to capture the detailed urban spatial structure information. Previous studies have demonstrated that night time light data are correlated with many urban socio-economic indicators and hence can be used to characterize urban hierarchies. This paper presents a novel method for studying urban hierarchies from night time light data. Night time light data were first conceptualized as continuous mathematical surfaces, termed night time light surfaces. From the morphology of these surfaces the corresponding surface networks were derived. Hereafter, a night time light intensity (NTLI) graph was defined to describe the morphology of the surface network. Then, structural similarity between the night time light surfaces of any two different cities was calculated via a threshold-based maximum common induced graph searching algorithm. Finally, urban hierarchies were defined on the basis of the structural similarities between different cities. Using the 2015 annual NPP-VIIRS night time light data, the urban hierarchies of 32 major cities in China were successfully examined. The results are highly consistent with the reference urban hierarchies.     

Current-induced scour beneath initially elevated subsea pipelines

When a subsea pipeline is laid on an uneven seabed, certain sections may have an initial elevation with respect to the far-field seabed, e_o, and thus potentially affecting the on-bottom stability of the pipeline. This paper focuses on quantifying the effects of the upstream dimensionless seabed shear stress, θ_∞, and Reynolds number, Re, on: (1) the maximum dimensionless seabed shear stress beneath the pipe, θ_max, to be compared to the critical shear stress in order to determine whether scour would occur and progress towards an equilibrium state; and, (2) the dimensionless equilibrium scour depth beneath the pipe, S_eq/D. Using a 2-D Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach along with the k-ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model, a parametric study involving 243 computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations was conducted. The simulation results were used to develop a closed-form equation for the prediction of θ_max. Subsequently, experimental measurements of S_eq/D have been compiled from published literature, to develop a new closed-form equation for the prediction of S_eq/D with a high correlation to the experimental data. In summary, we present two closed-form equations for the prediction of θ_max and S_eq/D for pipelines with an initial e_o/D, which are applicable for both clear-water and live-bed conditions. The effects of θ_∞ and Re have been included, albeit Re having a small influence as compared to the other parameters.     

基于支持向量机的京津冀城市群热环境时空形态模拟

城市群热环境作为区域生态重要组成部分,已成为近年来的研究热点。而如何选择针对城市群这种复杂地地貌特征的热环境量化工具一直是亟待解决的技术难点,基于此本研究提出了一种解决多样本、非线性、非平稳及高维函数拟合的计算方法,并建立了基于支持向量机(SVM)的京津冀城市群热环境曲面模型来揭示城市群热环境的时空形态变化。研究结果表明：① SVM模型在刻画多核心、多种土地利用类型城市群热环境的空间分布方面具有理论与实践可行性,能够根据热环境的整体空间布局通过高斯核函数进行局部优化差值,最大限度减少缺省值对模型拟合结果的影响。相比于对照方法可以模拟出更高精度的复杂地貌特征城市群热岛空间分布格局;② 在SVM模型曲面拟合的过程中,拟合精度和拟合时间是衡量拟合结果的重要指标,而原始影像的分辨率则是影响该指标的决定性因素;③ 2003-2013年区域内北京市与天津市的城市热岛效应变化最为明显,热岛面积分别增加7091 km²与4196 km²,空间上呈现出逐年接近连片发展趋势,热岛重心移动轨迹具有明显的时空分异性。北京城市热岛特征为东南部地区异速增长,西部地区缓慢增长;天津城市热岛特征为以城市中心为圆心向周围扩展。本研究进一步丰富了城市群热环境评测的定量方法,可以在实践上对城市群的城市规划、城市建设、环境保护和区域可持续发展等提供定量化、可视化的决策支持。     

Examining the Relationship Between Spatial Configurations of Urban Impervious Surfaces and Land Surface Temperature

The urban heat island(UHI) effect has significant effects on the quality of life and public health. Numerous studies have addressed the relationship between UHI and the increase in urban impervious surface area(ISA), but few of them have considered the impact of the spatial configuration of ISA on UHI. Land surface temperature(LST) may be affected not only by urban land cover, but also by neighboring land cover. The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of the abundance and spatial association of ISAs on LST. Taking Harbin City, China as an example, the impact of ISA spatial association on LST measurements was examined. The abundance of ISAs and the LST measurements were derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM) imagery of 2000 and 2010, and the spatial association patterns of ISAs were calculated using the local Moran’s I index. The impacts of ISA abundance and spatial association on LST were examined using correlation analysis. The results suggested that LST has significant positive associations with both ISA abundance and the Moran’s I index of ISAs, indicating that both the abundance and spatial clustering of ISAs contribute to elevated values of LST. It was also found that LST is positively associated with clustering of high-ISA-percentage areas(i.e.,>50%) and negatively associated with clustering of low-ISA-percentage areas(i.e.,<25%). The results suggest that, in addition to the abundance of ISAs,their spatial association has a significant effect on UHIs.     

利用夜间灯光数据的城市群格局变化分析

针对传统的统计数据具有行政单元统计约束的缺点、DMSP/OLS夜间灯光数据存在分辨率低、像元辐射值饱和的问题,该文使用NPP/VIIRS夜间灯光数据、城区边界、列车时刻表、百度地图API等数据,通过空间统计、标准差椭圆、位序-规模分布、空间联系测度研究中国九大城市群2012与2017年的空间格局变化。结果表明:长三角、珠三角、京津冀城市群的灯光总量和平均灯光均位于前列;长三角、珠三角、成渝、哈长、关中平原城市群灯光变分散,京津冀、长江中游、中原、北部湾城市群灯光变集中,成渝城市群夜间灯光重心移动最大,向重庆方向移动;长江中游城市群接近捷夫分布,中原城市群为序列分布,其他城市群为首位分布;长三角、珠三角、京津冀城市群的总体联系强度最高,各城市群边缘中小城市与核心城市空间联系较弱。