Regional assessment of pan-Pacific urban environments over 25 years using annual gap free Landsat data

Urbanization and the associated change in land cover has been intensifying across the globe in recent decades. Regional studies on the rate and amount of urban expansion are critical for understanding how patterns of change differ within and among cities with varying structure and development characteristics. Yet spatially consistent and timely information on urban development is difficult to access particularly across international jurisdictions. Remote sensing based technologies offer a unique perspective on urban land cover with the data offering significant potential to urban studies due to its consistent and ubiquitous nature. In this research we applied a pixel-based image composite technique to generate annual gap-free surface reflectance Landsat composites from 1984 to 2012 for 25 urban environments across 12 countries in the Pacific Rim. Using time series composites, spectral indices were calculated and compared using a hexagonal grid ring model to assess changes in vegetative and urban patterns. Trajectories were then clustered to further investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics and relationships among the 25 cities. Performance of the clustering analyses varied depended on the temporal and spatial metrics however overall clustering results indicated relatively strong spatio-temporal similarities among a number of key cities. Three pairs of cities—Melbourne and Sydney; Tianjin and Manila; and Singapore City and Kuala Lumpur were found to be highly similar in their urban and vegetation dynamics temporally and spatially. In contrast Vancouver and Las Vegas had no similar analogous. This work demonstrates the value of utilising annual Landsat time series composites for assessing urban vegetation and urban dynamics at regional scales and potential use in sustainable urban planning, resources allocation, and policy making.     

Contamination,bioaccessibility and human health risk of heavy metals in exposed-lawn soils from 28 urban parks in southern China's largest city,Guangzhou

The total concentrations and oral bioaccessibility of heavy metals in surface-exposed lawn soils from 28 urban parks in Guangzhou were investigated, and the health risks posed to humans were evaluated. The descending order of total heavy metal concentrations was Fe > Mn > Pb > Zn > Cu > Cr > Ni > Cd, but Cd showed the highest percentage bioaccessibility (75.96%). Principal component analysis showed that Grouped Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu and Zn, and grouped Cr and Mn could be controlled two different types of human sources. Whereas, Ni and Fe were controlled by both anthropogenic and natural sources. The carcinogenic risk probabilities for Pb and Cr to children and adults were under the acceptable level (<1 × 10⁻⁴). Hazard Quotient value for each metal and Hazard Index values for all metals studied indicated no significant risk of non-carcinogenic effects to children and adults in Guangzhou urban park soils.     

Influence of urban expansion on the urban heat island effect in Shanghai

The urban heat island (UHI) effect resulting from rapid urbanization is attracting increasing attention among the global scientific community. This research analyzed the relationship between urban expansion and the UHI effect utilizing an integrated approach, including urban land interpretation and retrieving land surface temperature based on remote sensing, and spatial overlay analysis for revealing the relationship for different time periods between 1984 and 2014 in Shanghai, China. The results show that (1) the spatiotemporal changes in UHI are consistent with the expansion of urban land, and rapid urban expansion leads to an expansion of the UHI, in particular along roadways. (2) The mode of urban expansion is an important factor influencing the UHI effect. Urban sprawl (urban expansion in the edge-expansion way) is a form of typical expansion that leads to the rapid increase in the UHI. When the urban compactness ratio is less than 0.15, a compact design can effectively control the expansion rate of the UHI and mitigate its range of influence and intensity. However, when the urban compactness ratio is greater than 0.15, the urban design has a marked influence on the UHI ratio index: a more compact form produces a stronger UHI effect. So, finding an equilibrium between urban compactness ratio and urban expansion rate is good for effective urban management and planning.     

Spatiotemporal change patterns of urban lakes in China’s major cities between 1990 and 2015

China has experienced unprecedented urbanization in the past decades, resulting in dramatic changes in the physical, limnological, and hydrological characteristics of lakes in urban landscapes. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics in distribution and abundance of urban lakes in China remain poorly understood. Here, we characterized the spatiotemporal change patterns of urban lakes in China’s major cities between 1990 and 2015 using remote-sensing data and landscape metrics. The results showed that the urban lake landscape patterns have experienced drastic changes over the past 25 years. The total surface area of the urban lakes has decreased by 17,620.02?ha, a decrease of 24.22%, with a significant increase in the landscape fragmentation and a reduction in shape complexity. We defined three lake-shrinkage types and found that vanishment was the most common lake-shrinkage pattern, followed by edge-shrinkage and tunneling in terms of lake area. Moreover, we also found that urban sprawl was the dominant driver of the lake shrinkage, accounting for 67.89% of the total area loss, and the transition from lakes to cropland was also an important factor (19.86%). This study has potential for providing critical baseline information for government decision-making in lake resources management and urban landscape design.     

福建省晋江市城市热岛强度时空变化特征分析

利用传统的气象站法, 结合空间统计学方法(普通克里金插值法), 对福建省晋江市2010—2014年40个自动气象站逐小时温度资料加以计算处理, 分析了晋江市年、季、昼夜热岛强度时空变化规律。(1)晋江市年、季、昼夜热岛强度都呈带状分布, 等值线呈西南-东北走向, 年、季、昼夜变化趋势显著, 北部热岛强度高于南部。五年间热岛强度持续增强, 但增幅不大, 增速放缓。(2)城市化水平的提高, 会导致热岛强度高值出现季节提前, 故旅游区秋冬季热岛强度高于春夏季, 中心城区和产业经济区夏秋季热岛强度高于冬春季。(3)晋江市热岛效应昼夜空间分布格局差异性大, 夜间热岛强度显著高于白天, 最低值出现在14—16时, 中心城区和产业经济区最低值出现时间较旅游区略推迟, 三个功能区的最高值均出现在凌晨。      

城市人口分布空间自相关的功率谱分析

从理论上可以证明标准的城市人口密度负指数距离衰减模型本质上是一种空间相关函数,基于这种思想对Clark模型进行Fourier变换,可以导出城市人口密度的幂次频谱分布,且功率谱指数理应为β=2±。负指数与幂指数的这种变换关系暗示了城市地理系统简单与复杂的辩证关系。借助中国杭州市4年的人口普查资料转换的平均人口密度分布数据对上述推论进行检验,发现β渐进式趋近于2但并不约等于2。将β值进一步换算为人口过程的分维D和Hurst指数H,结果表明：城市人口具有长程负相关作用,但这种空间作用显示明确的局域化倾向。目前的城市形态演化模拟几乎无一例外地引入了长程作用,根据杭州人口分布的局域化特征,有关地理长程作用的假设和应用有必要重新探讨。     

城市环境与地质问题研究现状与发展

本文对本次会议的专题城市环境地质问题进行了综述,对城市地质环境研究进行了展望。     

Geographies of energy transition: the case of high-performing commercial office space in the central business districts of Sydney and Melbourne,Australia

As a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement, Australia committed to reduce emissions significantly by 2030. In a country highly urbanised and dependent on fossil fuels as its primary energy source, one key avenue for meeting these commitments is energy transition in the built environment. Australia has emerged as a leader in the design and construction of high-performance buildings in the premium commercial office sector. In this paper, we address a significant gap in understanding the diverse mechanisms through which building energy transition is being constituted in this sector, focusing on Sydney and Melbourne. In the absence of substantive publicly available data, we draw on mixed methods comprising a database developed around high-performing CBD office buildings and qualitative interviews with a range of sectoral stakeholders. We characterise the building stock in each city, and document five trends constituting energy transitions. We demonstrate that building energy transitions are not only shaped purposefully by dominant governance regimes but also by opportunistic responses to specific material and commercial conditions and legacies in each city. Thus the urban built environment affords significant opportunity for energy transitions, but pathways towards such transitions are necessarily multiple and ultimately shaped by material as well as institutional geographies.     

Simulation of urban expansion via integrating artificial neural network with Markov chain – cellular automata

Accurate simulations and predictions of urban expansion are critical to manage urbanization and explicitly address the spatiotemporal trends and distributions of urban expansion. Cellular Automata integrated Markov Chain (CA-MC) is one of the most frequently used models for this purpose. However, the urban suitability index (USI) map produced from the conventional CA-MC is either affected by human bias or cannot accurately reflect the possible nonlinear relations between driving factors and urban expansion. To overcome these limitations, a machine learning model (Artificial Neural Network, ANN) was integrated with CA-MC instead of the commonly used Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Logistic Regression (LR) CA-MC models. The ANN was optimized to create the USI map and then integrated with CA-MC to spatially allocate urban expansion cells. The validated results of kappa and fuzzy kappa simulation indicate that ANN-CA-MC outperformed other variously coupled CA-MC modelling approaches. Based on the ANN-CA-MC model, the urban area in South Auckland is predicted to expand to 1340.55 ha in 2026 at the expense of non-urban areas, mostly grassland and open-bare land. Most of the future expansion will take place within the planned new urban growth zone.     

基于多源遥感数据的区域生态系统服务价值年际动态监测 ——以中原城市群为例

通过对多源遥感数据在生态系统服务价值（ESV）遥感模型中的尺度效应分析,选择满足最佳空间分辨率和长时间序列的遥感数据,对中原城市群区域2001~2013年的ESV实现了逐年逐像元水平的动态监测。结果表明：该区应用于遥感模型输入数据的最适空间分辨率为30~1 000 m,相对于30 m尺度,其他尺度估算结果的相对偏差均小于0.4%;结合年际动态监测的需求,选择了MODIS数据产品（空间分辨率500 m,时间尺度1 a）作为遥感模型的最佳数据源;研究区ESV总值在研究期内整体上呈显著增长趋势,增速约为8.6亿元/a,但在持续增长过程中经历了3次波动,且表现得越来越剧烈;在空间上,研究区ESV多年均值呈现出明显的不均衡性,表现为从西南向东部递减的趋势。研究表明此方法简单易行,初步实现了区域ESV年际动态监测遥感模型的准业务化运行。