Unveiling the adaptation strategies of woody plants in remnant forest patches to spatiotemporal urban expansion through leaf trait networks

Background:With the expansion of urban areas,the remnants of forested areas play a crucial role in preserving biodiversity in urban environments.This study aimed to explore the impact of spatiotemporal urban expansion on the networks of leaf traits in woody plants within remnant forest patches,thereby enhancing our understanding of plant adaptive strategies and contributing to the conservation of urban biodiversity.Methods:Our study examined woody plants within 120 sample plots across 15 remnant forest patches in Guiyang,China.We constructed leaf trait networks (LTNs) based on 26 anatomical,structural,and compositional leaf traits and assessed the effects of the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban expansion on these LTNs.Results and conclusions:Our results indicate that shrubs within these patches have greater average path lengths and diameters than trees.With increasing urban expansion intensity,we observed a rise in the edge density of the LTN-shrubs.Additionally,modularity within the networks of shrubs decreased as road density and urban expansion intensity increased,and increases in the average path length and average clustering coefficient for shrubs were observed with a rise in the composite terrain complexity index.Notably,patches subjected to‘leapfrog’expansion exhibited greater average patch length and diameter than those experiencing edge growth.Stomatal traits were found to have high degree centrality within these networks,signifying their substantial contribution to multiple functions.In urban remnant forests,shrubs bolster their resilience to variable environmental pressures by augmenting the complexity of their leaf trait networks.

Urban Three-dimensional Expansion and Its Driving Forces——A Case Study of Shanghai,China

Urban expansion is a phenomenon of urban space increase,and an important measuring index of the process of urbanization.Taking Shanghai as an example,the changes of urban average height and built-up area were studied to represent city's vertical and horizontal increases respectively,and statistical methods were used to analyze the driving forces of urban expansion.The research drew following conclusions:1) The urban expansion process of Shanghai from 1985 to 2006 had a clear periodic feature,and could be divided into three stages:vertical expansion in dominance,coordinated vertical and horizontal expansion,and horizontal expansion in dominance.2) The average height and quantity of buildings in core city were significantly bigger than those in suburbs,but the changing speed of the latter was faster.And 3) urbanization process was the major driving force for the city's horizontal expansion,while industrial structure improvement was the key driving factor for the vertical expansion.Those two driving forces were simultaneously affected by city's political factors.

Modelling urban expansion using a multi agentbased model in the city of Changsha

Although traditional urban expansion simulation models can simulate dynamic features, these models fail to address complex changes produced by different agents＇ behaviors. The paper has built up a set of spatial-temporal land resource allocation rules and developed a dynamic urban expansion model based on a multi-agent system, which can simulate the interaction among different agents, such as residents, peasants, and governments. This model is applied to simulate urban expansion process taking Changsha City, in China as a study area. The results show that this model can not only reflect basic characteristics of urban expansion, but also help explain the reasons for urban expansion process and understand the effect of agents＇ behavior on the expansion process, and provide insights into the causing factors behind the expansion. In addition, in contrast to simulation results with land use classification map from remote sensing images, the precision of the simulation reached over 68% with higher precision than cellular automata model according to the cell-by-cell comparison. The results suggest that the model can help to provide land use decision making support to government and urban planners.

Urban Expansion and Its Influencing Factors in Natural Wetland Distribution Area in Fuzhou City,China

This paper principally focuses on land use dynamics,urban expansion and underlying driving forces in the Natural Wetland Distribution Area(NWDA)of Fuzhou City in the southeastern China.Based on time series Landsat TM/ETM+imageries and historical data,relationships between urban land expansion and its influencing factors from 1989 to 2009 were analyzed by using an integrated approach of remote sensing(RS)and geographic information system(GIS)techniques.The results showed that built-up land increased from 151.16 km2in 1989 to 383.76 km 2in 2009. Approximately 64.25%of the newly emerging built-up land was converted from cropland(29.47%),forest and shrub (25.78%),water(3.73%),wetland(4.61%),and bare land(0.66%)during 1989 and 2009.With a remarkable decrease in cropland,the proportion of non-agricultural population increased by 23.6%.Moreover,rapid development of infrastructures,facilities,industrial parks,and urban and rural settlements along the Minjiang River resulted in the eastward and southward expansion of built-up land.Additionally,the growth pattern of built-up land in the NWDA is highly correlated with socio-economic factors,including the gross domestic product(GDP),GDP per capita,and structure of industry.As a result,the observed environmental degradation such as loss of cropland and wetland due to heavy pressure of rapid urbanization have greatly impaired the carrying capacity of city.Thus,in addition to scientific and rational policies towards minimizing the adverse effects of urbanization,coordination between the administrative agencies should be urgently strengthened to balance the conflicts between urban development and ecological conservation to make sure the sustainable land use.

The influencing factors of urban land expansion in Changsha

This research systematically analyses land-use map of Changsha city in different periods of time. The spatial form and structural evolution was analysed by studying indices such as city land-use structure proportion, expansion intensity, economic flexibility, population flexibility, changing compactness index and so on. The dynamic mechanism of urban land expansion has been discussed by integrating the regional social economy development situation and many aspects such as the physiographical surrounding, population and economic development, traffic infrastructure, planning and regional development tactic and system innovation. The research indicates that the urban land expansion speed and intensity have steadily increased in Changsha from 1949 to 2004. The expansion form has been from a single external expansion to a combination form of external and internal expansion, from a circular or linear continuous form to a blocky or agglomeration shape. Overall, the urban land expansion of Changsha city is a phasic, diversified and complex process. And no matter what the stage is, it is an organic system containing multiple speed, pattern and shape, which are driven by multiple impetuses. The dominant feature at different stages was highlighted because of the balance and fluctuation between different forces, and the existing urban land border and shape have resulted from the joint efforts of these phasic forces.

Urban Expansion in China Based on Remote Sensing Technology：A Review

Urban areas and its evolution are important anthropogenic indicators and human ecological footprints, and play decisive roles in environmental change analysis, global geo-conditional monitoring, and sustainable development. China has the highest rate of urban expansion and has emerged as an urban expansion hotspot worldwide. In this paper, the progress of studies on Chinese urban expansion based on remote sensing technology are summarized and analyzed from the aspects of urban area definition, remotely sensed imagery applied in urban expansion, monitoring methods of urban expansion, and urban expansion applications. Existing issues and future directions of Chinese urban expansion are discussed and proposed. Results indicate that: 1) The fusion of multi-source remotely sensed imagery is imperative to meet the needs of urban expansion with various monitoring terms and frequencies on different scales and dimensions. 2) To guarantee the classification accuracy and efficiency and describe urban expansion and its influences on local land use simultaneously, the combination of visual interpretation and automatic classification is the tendency of future monitoring methods of urban areas. 3) Urban expansion data have become the prerequisite for recognizing the urban development process, excavating its driving forces, simulating and predicting the future development directions, and also is conducive to revealing and explaining urban ecological and environmental issues. 4) In the past decades, Chinese scholars have promoted the application of remote sensing technology in the urban expansion field, with data construction, methods and models developing from the quotation stage to improvement and innovation stage; however, an independent and consistent urban expansion data on the national scale with long-term and high-frequency(such as annual monitoring) monitoring is still lacking.

Impacts of Urban Expansion on the Urban Thermal Environment:A Case Study of Changchun,China

Urbanization,especially urban land expansion,has a profound influence on the urban thermal environment.Cities in Northeast China face remarkably uneven development and environmental issues,and thus it is necessary to strengthen the diagnosis of thermal environmental pressure brought by urbanization.In this study,multi remote sensing imageries and statistical approaches,involving piecewise linear regression(PLR),were used to explore urban expansion and its effects on the thermal environment of Changchun City in Jilin Province,China.Results show that Changchun experienced rapid urban expansion from 2000 to 2020,with urban built-up areas increasing from 171.77 to 525.14 km^(2).The area of the city’s urban heat island(UHI)increased dramatically,during both day and night.Using PLR,a positive linear correlation of built-up density with land surface temperature(LST)was detected,with critical breakpoints of 70%-80%during the daytime and 40%-50%at nighttime.Above the thresholds,the magnitude of LST in response to built-up density significantly increased with intensifying urbanization,especially for nighttime LST.An analysis of the relative frequency distributions(RFDs)of LST reveals that rapid urbanization resulted in a significant increase of mean LST in newly urbanized areas,but had weak effects on daytime LST change in existing urban area.Urban expansion also contributed to a constant decrease of spatial heterogeneity of LST in existing urban area,especially at daytime.However,in newly urbanized areas,the spatial heterogeneity of LST was decreased during the daytime but increased at nighttime due to urbanization.

Urban Expansion of China from the 1970s to 2020 Based on Remote Sensing Technology

Based on Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) technology,urban expansion of 75 cities in China from the 1970s to 2020 was reconstructed by visual-interpretation method,which described the growing process of urban lands and its influences on local land use structures synchronously.By employing annual expansion area per city and urban expansion density,spatial-temporal characteristics and macro patterns of urban expansion were analyzed from the aspects of regional-distributions,administrative-levels and population-sizes comprehensively.Results indicate that:1) urban expansion in China was universal,distinct,persistent,periodic and fluctuating.In the past five decades,urban lands of 75 monitored cities in China expanded dramatically from 3606.26 km2 to 30 521.13 km2.2) Though urban expansion presented significant differences from the aspects of regional distribution,administrative levels,and population sizes,it exhibited a deceleration trend in the 13th Five-Year Plan among all kinds of cities.3) Cultivated lands were the first land resource for urban expansion,and 55.17% of newly-expanded urban lands appeared by encroaching this land use type.China’s urban expansion has caused sustained pressure on cultivated land protection,especially in super megacities,and the contradiction between urban expansion and cultivated land protection will always exist.4) The compactness of urban lands in China increased before 1987 and reduced in the next three decades,which was consistent with the implementation of major policies and the deployment of national strategies,and is expected to become compact with a stopping declining or even rebounding after the 13th Five-Year Plan.

Analysis of Urban Expansion and Driving Forces in Xuzhou City Based on Remote Sensing

Based on satellite remote sensing TM/ETM+ images of Xuzhou city,land use forms of the city in 1987,1994 and 2000 were extracted by using a neural network classification method. The expansion contribution rate and annual expansion intensity index of each administrative district have been calculated and the contribution rate matrices and spatial distribution maps of land use changes were obtained. Based on the above analysis,the characteristics of urban expansion from 1987 to 2000 have been explored. From 1987 to 1994,the expansion contribution rate of Quanshan dis-trict reached 46.80%,the highest in all administrative districts of Xuzhou city; Tongshan town was in a high-speed ex-pansion period; both Quanshan and Yunlong districts were experiencing fast-speed expansion periods while the entire city was expanding at a medium-speed with an annual expansion intensity index of 0.98; the city spread eastwards and southwards. From 1994 to 2000,the expansion contribution rate of Quanshan district reached 43.67%,the highest in Xuzhou; the entire city was in a medium-speed expansion period with an annual expansion intensity index of 1.04; the city has rapidly been extended towards the southeast. According to the contribution rate matrices of land use changes,urban expansion mainly usurps cropland and woodland. A quantitative analysis found that population growth,indus-trialization and economic development are the primary driving forces behind urban expansion.

Application of Multi-agent Models to Urban Expansion in Medium and Small Cities: A Case Study in Fuyang City,Zhejiang Province,China

In this study, three-phase satellite images were used to define rules for the allocation of time and space in construction land resources based on a complex adaptive system and game theory. The decision behavior and rules of government agent, enterprise agent and resident agent in construction land growth were explored. A distinctive and dynamic simulation model of construction land growth was built, which integrated multi-agent, GIS technology and RS data and described the interaction among influencing agents, Taking Fuyang City in the Changjiang River Delta as an example, an assessment process for the remote sensing data in construction land and scenario planning was constructed. Repast and ArcGIS were used as simulation platforms. A simulation of the spatial pattern in land-use planning and the setting of scenario planning were conducted by using the incomplete active game, which was based on different natural, social and economic levels. Through this model, a simulation of urban planning space and decision-making for Fuyang City was created. Relevant non-structured problems arising from urban planning management could be identified, and the process and logic of urban planning spatial decision-making could thus be improved. Cell-by-cell comparison showed that the simulation accuracy was over 72%. This model has great potential for use by government and town planners in decision support and technique support in the policy-making process.

Characterizing urban expansion of Korla City and its spatial-temporal patterns using remote sensing and GIS methods

Cities provide spatial contexts for populations and economic activities. Determining the spatial-temporal patterns of urban expansion is of particular significance for regional sustainable development. To achieve a better understanding of the spatial-temporal patterns of urban expansion of Korla City, we explore the urban expansion characteristics of Korla City over the period 1995-2015 by employing Landsat TM/ETM＋ images of 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. Urban land use types were classified using the supervised classification method in ENVI 4.5. Urban expansion indices, such as expansion area, expansion proportion, expansion speed, expansion intensity, compactness, and fractal dimension, were calculated. The spatial-temporal patterns and evolution process of the urban expansion （e.g., urban gravity center and its direction of movement） were then quantitatively analyzed. The results indicated that, over the past 25 years, the area and proportion of urban land increased substantially with an average annual growth rate of 15.18%. Farmland and unused land were lost greatly due to the urban expansion. This result might be attributable to the rapid population growth and the dramatic economic development in this area. The city extended to the southeast, and the urban gravity center shifted to the southeast as well by about 2118 m. The degree of urban compactness tended to decrease and the fractal dimension index tended to increase, indicating that the spatial pattern of Korla City was becoming loose, complex, and unstable. This study could provide a scientific reference for the studies on urban expansion of oasis cities in arid land.

Expansion of Urban Space and Land Use Control in the Process of Urbanization: an Overview

Urban expansion brought by the rapid progress of urbanization has caused many problems in China. It is a significant issue to evaluate the extent of urban expansion and to make appropriate controls over the sprawl of urban areas. With a comparative study of international experiences, this article analyzed the mechanism and consequences of urban expansion, reviewed the typical planning and financial policies adopted by other countries for controlling urban sprawl, and discussed the suitable densities of urban areas. The analysis results suggested that Chinese cities have no better choice but compact urban forms. To achieve the goal of compact development, intensive use of public transportation and high proportion of collective houses should be encouraged, and 60–100 m2 per capita is recommended as the reasonable range of urban density in large cities.

Simulation of Urban Land Expansion Under Ecological Constraints in Harbin-Changchun Urban Agglomeration,China

Under the demand of urban expansion and the constraints of China’s’National Main Functional Area Planning’policy,urban agglomerations are facing with a huge contradiction between land utilization and ecological protection,especially for HarbinChangchun urban agglomeration who owns a large number of land used for the protection of agricultural production and ecological function.To alleviate this contradiction and provide insight into future land use patterns under different ecological constraints’scenarios,we introduced the patch-based land use simulation(PLUS)model and simulated urban expansion of the Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration.After verifying the accuracy of the simulation result in 2018,we predicted future urban expansion under the constraints of three different ecological scenarios in 2026.The morphological spatial pattern analysis(MSPA)method and minimum cumulative resistance(MCR)model were also introduced to identify different levels of ecological security pattern(ESP)as ecological constraints.The predicted result of the optimal protection(OP)scenario showed less proportion of water and forest than those of natural expansion(NE)and basic protection(BP)scenarios in 2026.The conclusions are that the PLUS model can improve the simulation accuracy at urban agglomeration scale compared with other cellular automata(CA)models,and the future urban expansion under OP scenario has the least threat to the ecosystem,while the expansion under the natural expansion(NE)scenario poses the greatest threat to the ecosystem.Combined with the MSPA and MCR methods,PLUS model can also be used in other spatial simulations of urban agglomerations under ecological constraints.

Using Impervious Surfaces to Detect Urban Expansion in Beijing of China in 2000s

The change of impervious surface area(ISA) can effectively reveal the gradual process of urbanization and act as a key index for monitoring urban expansion. Experiencing rapid growth of the built environment in the 2000 s, urban expansion of Beijing has not been fully characterized through ISA. In this study, Landsat TM images of Beijing in 2001 and 2009 were obtained, and the eight-year urban expansion process in Beijing was analyzed using the ISA extracted by means of the vegetation-imperious surface-soil(V-I-S) model. From the spatial variation in ISA, the ring structure of urban expansion in Beijing was significant during the study period, with decreasing urban density from the city center to the periphery. In the ring road analysis, the most dramatic changes of ISA were found between the fifth ring and the sixth ring. This area has experienced the most new residential development, and is currently the main source of urban expansion. The typical profile lines revealed the directional characteristics of urban expansion. The east-west profile was the most urbanized axes in Beijing, while ISA change in the east-north profile was more significant than in the other five profiles. Moreover, the transition matrix of ISA levels revealed an increase in urban density in the low density built areas; the Moran′s I index showed a clear expansion of the central urban area, which spread contiguously; and the standard deviational ellipse indicated the northeast was the dominant direction of urban expansion. These findings can provide important spatial control guidelines in the next round of national economic and social development planning, overall urban and rural planning, and land use planning.

Transportation Characteristics Change under Rapid Urban Expansion:A Case Study of Shanghai

This paper focuses on the economic development and urban morphology as well as its impact on the transportation system during the urban expansion of Shanghai in the last more than 20 years(1986-2008).Based on data from 3 comprehensive transport surveys of Shanghai since 1986,the changes in residential trip demand,vehicle use,and the spatial distribution of trips were studied to understand the demands on the transportation system.The factors contributing to those changes in transportation demand were discussed,by which the conclusions were arrived:1) economic development promotes population growth and stimulates residential trip demand greatly;2) unsynchronized migration of population and job from central district to periphery district of Shanghai make trips and congestion diffuse in the same way;and 3) urban sprawl from a city center encourages the single-occupant vehicle mode,which imposes greater pressure on the roadway system.It is concluded that urban development should coordinate with the transportation system planning and expansion.

The characteristics of oasis urban expansion and drive mechanism analysis:a case study on Ganzhou District in Hexi Corridor,China

Ganzhou District is an oasis city in the Zhangye Municipality of Gansu Province, China. Based on multi-temporal TM and ETM satellite remote sensing data in 1985, 1996, 2000, and 2012, and by using corrected figures of land use status over the same periods, the spatial area of Ganzhou District since 1985 was extracted with statistical methods, and urban spatial expansion was measured by quantitative research methods. The characteristics of spatial expansion of Ganzhou District were analyzed by urban expansion rate, expansion intensity index, compactness, fractal dimension, and the city center shift method. The results showed that the built-up area of Ganzhou District increased by 3.46 times during 1985-2012. The expansion in 1985 1996 was slow, during 1996 2000 it was rapid, and during 2000-2012 it was at a high speed. This city mainly expanded to the northeast and northwest. Government decision making had a decisive influence on urban expansion. Initially the expansion was uniform, but later the local tfansportation, economy, resources, population, and national policies factors had an obvious influence on urban expansion.

Spatial Differences of Coastal Urban Expansion in China from 1970s to 2013

As the ′economic engines′ of China,coastal cities have developed and expanded considerably since the 1970 s.In this study,information on the urban expansion process of Chinese coastal cities from the 1970 s to 2013 was retrieved.Through the analysis of stage characteristics,spatial expansion modes,influences on land use,centroid shifts,and spatial morphological evolutions,the spatial differences of coastal urban expansion were revealed.Results indicate that 1) the expansion stages of southern coastal cities are more complex than those of northern coastal cities,and the expansion ranges and speeds of the former are far higher than those of the latter;2) the spatial expansion of southern coastal cities mostly adopt a single mode,whereas northern coastal cities mostly adopt a mixed mode;3) significant spatial differences in the occupations of different land sources exist between the south and the north along the coastline;4) the centroid of coastal cities tends to migrate toward the coastline,and the centroid shift distances of southern coastal cities are clearly higher than those of northern coastal cities;and 5) the spatial morphology of southern coastal cities tends to be compact,whereas that of northern coastal cities tends to be loose.Policies have a powerful significance in terms of guiding urban expansion and its spatial differences in coastal cities.Urban expansion in coastal cities will encounter new opportunities and challenges under the guidance of new types of urbanization strategies.

Impact of urban expansion on regional temperature change in the Yangtze River Delta

Based on non-radiance-calibrated DMSP/OLS nighttime light imagery from 1992 to 2003, urban land area statistical data, meteorological data and land surface temperature data retrieved by MODIS and NOAA/AVHRR data, the influence of urbanization on regional climatic trend cf temperature in the Yangtze River Delta （YRD） was analyzed. Conclusions are as follows： 1） There is a significant urbanization process from 1992 to 2003 in the YRD. Four city clusters of Nanjing-Zhenjiang-Yangzhou, Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou Bay form a zigzag city belt. The increase rate of annual mean air temperature in city-belt is 0.28-0.44℃/10a from 1991 to 2005, which is far larger than that of non-city-belt. 2） The urban heat island （UHI） effect on regional mean air temperature in different seasons is summer〉autumn〉spring〉winter. 3） The UHI intensity and the urban total population logarithm are creditably correlated. 4） The UHI effect made the regional annual mean air temperature increased 0.072℃ from 1961 to 2005, of which 0.047℃ from 1991 to 2005, and the annual maximum air temperature increased 0.162℃, of which 0.083℃ from 1991 to 2005. All these indicating that the urban expansion in the YRD from 1991 to 2005 may be regarded as a serious climate signal.

Urban Expansion in Major Grain Producing Area from 1978 to 2017:A Case Study of Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area,China

The spatial form of urbanization in China has developed from single-core city expansion to a multi-center metropolitan area.However,little attention has been paid to the growth process of the emerging metropolitan area situated in major grain producing locations in the central China.Taking the Zhengzhou metropolitan area(ZZMA)as a case study,we developed an inverse S-shape model to characterize the spatial distribution of urban land density,and constructed an urban expansion core index,urban expansion intensity index,and urban compactness index to quantify the spatial structure change that has taken place from 1978 to 2017 during the process of urban expansion.Moreover,cropland contribution rate(CR)was constructed to evaluate the impacts of urban expansion on croplands.We uncovered four key findings.First,over the past 40 yr,the ZZMA has experienced dramatic expansion,and the central city of Zhengzhou expanded faster than other cities.The gravity centers of urban expansion of surrounding cities were moving toward to Zhengzhou City.Second,the urban land density decreased with the distance from the city center to the outskirts.As the only large city,Zhengzhou has experienced the fastest and most compact centralized urban expansion,especially after 2000,while other medium-and small-sized cities have experienced low-intensity decentralized expansion.Third,the urban core has been gradually expanding outward.From 1978 to 2017,the hot-zone of urban growth has moved progressively with the acceleration of urbanization.All cities except Jiaozuo had a single peak in different periods.Forth,the cities in national core grain-producing areas has higher cropland contribution rates and lower urban expansion areas,which was closely related to cropland protection.Further analysis showed that large city was relatively better positioned than smaller cities in the efficiency of their urban infrastructure and the effectiveness of wealth creation efficiency in the urbanized area could be tested in all cities,and the policy factor seemed to play an important role in the urban expansion process.

The Impact of Urban Expansion on Plant Diversity Change in Karst Regions of Southwest China

Biodiversity is vital for the integrity and stability of ecosystems and sustainable development.Karst regions of Southwest China is featured for undulating and broken karst terrain as well as high plant diversity.Land use changes induced by the growing population and expanding human settlement have threatened biodiversity preservation in this region.However,the impact of urban expansion on plant diversity remains unclear here.This study focuses on how expanding countryside landscapes affect the recovery rate of plant diversity and demonstrate how urban expansion affects plant diversity conservation in karst regions of Southwest China.In situ biodiversity investigations and multisource remote sensing images were combined to analyze the role of human settlement evolution in the conservation of plant diversity using descriptive statistics and regression analysis.Unmanned vehicle images,historical aerial photographs,and long-term remote sensing images were used to observe the human settlement pattern changes over 40 yr and found that plant diversity is restored faster in countryside ecosystems than in island ecosystems restricted by water.Forests,however,contribute the most to plant diversity conservation in both ecosystems.While the forest area is stable during urban expansion,massive forest patches play an essential role in plant diversity conservation.Arable lands and grasslands shrank but with a fragmenting trend,which was conducive to preserving plant diversity,whereas increased and regularized large patches of built-up areas were not beneficial to plant diversity.Accordingly,forest protection should be prioritized to coordinate future socioeconomic development and plant diversity conservation in karst and broader regions.Furthermore,large built-up patches should be limited,and the irregularity should be improved during urban expansion.Irregular shaped cultivated land and grassland were suggested to promote biological information exchanges as landscape corridors.