Exploring well-being disparities between urban and rural areas:A case study in the Stavropol Territory,Russia

Rural areas are crucial for a country’s sustainable economy.New strategies are needed to develop rural areas to improve the well-being of rural population and generate new job opportunities.This is especially important in countries where agricultural production accounts for a significant share of the gross product,such as Russia.In this study,we identified the key indicators of satisfaction and differences between rural and urban citizens based on their social,economic,and environmental backgrounds,and determined whether there are well-being disparities between rural and urban areas in the Stavropol Territory,Russia.We collected primary data through a survey based on the European Social Survey framework to investigate the potential differences between rural and urban areas.By computing the regional well-being index using principal component analysis,we found that there was no statistically significant difference in well-being between rural and urban areas.Results of key indicators showed that rural residents felt psychologically more comfortable and safer,assessed their family relationships better,and adhered more to traditions and customs.However,urban residents showed better economic and social conditions(e.g.,infrastructures,medical care,education,and Internet access).The results of this study imply that we can better understand the local needs,advantages,and unique qualities,thereby gaining insight into the effectiveness of government programs.Policy-makers and local authorities can consider targeted interventions based on the findings of this study and strive to enhance the well-being of both urban and rural residents.

Spatio-temporal Evolution Characteristics and Driving Forces of Winter Urban Heat Island:A Case Study of Rapid Urbanization Area of Fuzhou City,China

Under the influence of anthropogenic and climate change,the problems caused by urban heat island(UHI)has become increasingly prominent.In order to promote urban sustainable development and improve the quality of human settlements,it is significant for exploring the evolution characteristics of urban thermal environment and analyzing its driving forces.Taking the Landsat series images as the basic data sources,the winter land surface temperature(LST)of the rapid urbanization area of Fuzhou City in China was quantitatively retrieved from 2001 to 2021.Combing comprehensively the standard deviation ellipse model,profile analysis and GeoDetector model,the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the winter urban thermal environment were systematically analyzed.The results showed that the winter LST presented an increasing trend in the study area during 2001–2021,and the winter LST of the central urban regions was significantly higher than the suburbs.There was a strong UHI effect from 2001 to 2021with an expansion trend from the central urban regions to the suburbs and coastal areas in space scale.The LST of green lands and wetlands are significantly lower than croplands,artificial surface and unvegetated lands.Vegetation and water bodies had a significant mitigation effect on UHI,especially in the micro-scale.The winter UHI had been jointly driven by the underlying surface and socio-economic factors in a nonlinear or two-factor interactive enhancement mode,and socio-economic factors had played a leading role.This research could provide data support and decision-making references for rationally planning urban layout and promoting sustainable urban development.

Metropolitan Housing Development in Urban Fringe Areas-A Case Study of Three Metropolitan Cities of South Africa: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane

Purpose:The metropolitan cities of Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane play an important role in the economy of the Gauteng province in South Africa.The region constitutes to 22.4 percent of the total population of South Africa and has a strong presence and contributes in areas of manufacturing sector,financial and business services,retail and wholesale trade,etc.The rapid urban population,increase in the informal settlements and socio-economic opportunities has resulted in considerable urban sprawl in and around the urban fringe areas of these metropolitan cities.The urban fringe areas of these metros often come under the influence of rapid urbanization process and pressures.Coupled with the economical and potential land dynamics and lack of priority of spatial development guidelines,these areas attract rapid and haphazard development from communities and developers.Research Design/Methodology:This research is based on a qualitative approach through a comprehensive literature review that included content analysis of key documents on housing sector such as IDPs(Integrated Development Plans),Municipal Annual Reports,Growth Development Strategies,and among other sectoral documents on housing sector.Some of the key priority issues considered in the housing sector included:eradication of housing backlogs,spatial restructuring of housing,provision of choice in terms of location,tenure and housing typology.Findings:The current paper discusses the approaches of metropolitan housing development processes in three metropolitan cities of South Africa from Gauteng region,namely:Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.The paper discusses the existing housing sectoral scenario along with the fringe areas in three cities with focus on:formal and informal settlements,housing segregation and the backlogs,current institutional arrangements,role of public private participation,and scope for alternate mechanisms.The paper concludes in discussion on sustainable development options for housing development in urban fringe areas.

Multi-source Data-driven Identification of Urban Functional Areas:A Case of Shenyang,China

Urban functional area(UFA)is a core scientific issue affecting urban sustainability.The current knowledge gap is mainly reflected in the lack of multi-scale quantitative interpretation methods from the perspective of human-land interaction.In this paper,based on multi-source big data include 250 m×250 m resolution cell phone data,1.81×105 Points of Interest(POI)data and administrative boundary data,we built a UFA identification method and demonstrated empirically in Shenyang City,China.We argue that the method we built can effectively identify multi-scale multi-type UFAs based on human activity and further reveal the spatial correlation between urban facilities and human activity.The empirical study suggests that the employment functional zones in Shenyang City are more concentrated in central cities than other single functional zones.There are more mix functional areas in the central city areas,while the planned industrial new cities need to develop comprehensive functions in Shenyang.UFAs have scale effects and human-land interaction patterns.We suggest that city decision makers should apply multi-sources big data to measure urban functional service in a more refined manner from a supply-demand perspective.

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.

Rainwater harvesting systems: An urban flood risk mitigation measure in arid areas

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems have been developed to compensate for shortage in the water supply worldwide. Such systems are not very common in arid areas, particularly in the Gulf Region, due to the scarcity of rainfall and their reduced efficiency in covering water demand and reducing water consumption rates. In spite of this, RWH systems have the potential to reduce urban flood risks, particularly in densely populated areas. This study aimed to assess the potential use of RWH systems as urban flood mitigation measures in arid areas. Their utility in the retention of stormwater runoff and the reduction of water depth and extent were evaluated. The study was conducted in a residential area in Bahrain that experienced waterlogging after heavy rainfall events. The water demand patterns of housing units were analyzed, and the daily water balance for RWH tanks was evaluated. The effect of the implementation of RWH systems on the flood volume was evaluated with a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model. Flood simulations were conducted in several rainfall scenarios with different probabilities of occurrence. The results showed significant reductions in the flood depth and flood extent, but these effects were highly dependent on the rainfall intensity of the event. RWH systems are effective flood mitigation measures, particularly in urban arid regions short of proper stormwater control infrastructure, and they enhance the resilience of the built environment to urban floods.

Monitoring Study of Long-Term Land Subsidence during Subway Operation in High-Density Urban Areas Based on DInSAR-GPS-GIS Technology and Numerical Simulation

During subway operation,various factors will cause long-term land subsidence,such as the vibration subsidence of foundation soil caused by train vibration load,incomplete consolidation deformation of foundation soil during tunnel construction,dense buildings and structures in the vicinity of the tunnel,and changes in water level in the stratum where the tunnel is located.The monitoring of long-term land subsidence during subway operation in high-density urban areas differs from that in low-density urban construction areas.The former is the gathering point of the entire urban population.There are many complex buildings around the project,busy road traffic,high pedestrian flow,and less vegetation cover.Several existing items requiremonitoring.However,monitoring distance is long,and providing early warning is difficult.This study uses the 2.8 km operation line between Wulin Square station and Ding’an Road station of Hangzhou Subway Line 1 as an example to propose the integrated method of DInSAR-GPS-GIS technology and the key algorithm for long-term land subsidence deformation.Then,it selects multiscene image data to analyze long-termland subsidence of high-density urban areas during subway operation.Results show that long-term land subsidence caused by the operation of Wulin Square station to Ding’an Road station of Hangzhou Subway Line 1 is small,with maximumsubsidence of 30.64 mm,and minimumsubsidence of 11.45 mm,and average subsidence ranging from 19.27 to 21.33 mm.And FLAC3D software was used to verify the monitoring situation,using the geological conditions of the soil in the study area and the tunnel profile to simulate the settlement under vehicle load,and the simulation results tended to be consistent with the monitoring situation.

Architecture as a Means of Developing Social Exchange:Learning from a Danish Case Study of Refurbishment and Urban Transformation in a Disadvantaged Housing Area

Disadvantaged housing areas from the postwar period typically consist of relatively monotonous and monofunctional multi-storey blocks and have a separate traffic system rendering the areas isolated enclaves in the urban fabric.It is argued that this spatial isolation contributes to social isolation,and current refurbishments are therefore aimed at linking the housing areas with the surrounding neighbourhoods to enable social exchange between the residents and people from the surrounding areas.Based on a case study in a Danish social housing area,this paper discusses to what extent architectural development and urban strategic transformations can contribute to enabling social exchange in disadvantaged housing areas.Do neighbours enter the disadvantaged housing area as intended?If so,how does this influence their perception of the housing area?The analysis shows that architectural development and urban transformations are interdependent in establishing a social mix in disadvantaged housing areas.It is argued that refurbishments can reduce the stigma surrounding the housing area and its residents.However,the applicability of such strategies is highly dependent on the local context of the housing area.

Influence of Transportation Accessibility on Urban-rural Income Disparity and Its Spatial Heterogeneity

Transportation accessibility has been treated as an important means of reducing the urban-rural income disparity.However,only a few studies have examined the effects of different types of transportation accessibility on urban-rural income disparity and their spatial heterogeneity.Based on data from 285 prefecture-level(and above)Chinese cities in 2000,2005,2010,2015,and 2020,this study uses spatial econometric models to examine how highway accessibility and railway accessibility influence the urban-rural income disparity and to identify their spatial heterogeneity.The result reveals that highway accessibility and railway accessibility have‘coreperiphery’ring-like circle structures.The urban-rural income disparity exhibits strong spatial clustering effects.Both highway accessibility and railway accessibility are negatively associated with urban-rural income disparity,and the former having a greater effect size.Moreover,there is a substitution effect between highway accessibility and railway accessibility in the whole sample.Furthermore,these associations differ in geographic regions.In the central region,highway accessibility is more important in reducing the urban-rural income disparity,but its effect is weakened with the increase of railway accessibility.In the western region,railway accessibility has a larger effect on narrowing the urban-rural income disparity,and this effect is strengthened by the increase of highway accessibility.We conclude that improving transportation accessibility is conducive to reducing the urban-rural income disparity but its effect is spatial heterogenetic.Highways and railways should be developed in a coordinated manner to promote an integrated transport network system.

Fundamental Ideas and Basic Concepts of HSR Route Selection in Complicated Urban Areas

Up till now,no systematic studies on railway route selection in urban areas,HSR route selection in particular,have been taken in China.Based on the Shenzhen Railway Terminal Project and the Shenzhen-Shanwei Railway Project,research on HSR route selection in complicated urban areas has been conducted.An optimal route selection plan is determined after studying the local geological and environmental conditions and the complexity of tunnel construction.The research concludes that there are four major concerns in HSR route selection:the match between the new route and the urban planning,the potential economic return for the massive investment,the likely impacts of land expropriation on social stability,and the best synthesis of multiple controlling factors to meet the HSR standard.Moreover,six principles should be followed in railway route selection in complicated urban areas:the new route should be in alignment with the railway deployment;the route should align with the existing passage as much as possible;extensive analysis and in-depth demonstrations should be done to find the most appropriate combination of open and hidden excavation in tunnel construction;geological conditions and tunnel construction complexities are among the priorities;environmental sensitive sites and environmental vibration noise should be avoided as much as possible;special attention should be paid to the relocation of the power supply,television and communication facilities and the rearrangement of tubes and wires.

Study of Urban Sprawl and Its Impact on Vegetation, Land Surface Temperature and Air Pollution Using Remote Sensing and GIS in Kathmandu Valley from 2015 to 2020

The Kathmandu Valley has seen substantial urbanization over the past decades while being the nation’s economic centre. Built-up areas have expanded quickly along with the population, having a significantly negative influence on the environment. Recently, Kathmandu was named as the most polluted city in Asia. Urban sprawl has had a negative influence on Kathmandu’s residents in several ways. The state of urban sprawl and the effects it has had on the Kathmandu Valley have been examined using land sat imagery. In this study, IDW was used in GIS to analyze the pollution status using data of PM 2.5 and PM 10 obtained from various monitoring sites. A supervised classification was used to create a LULC map of Kathmandu for the years 2015, 2018, and 2020. To assess the state of the vegetation and determine whether the Kathmandu Valley is being affected by urban heat, NDVI and Land sat temperature calculations were also made. The study’s results were obtained using remote sensing and GIS technology. The built-up area in Kathmandu Valley has grown by 20% over the past five years, impacting land use patterns and deteriorating vegetation cover. Due to the rise of built-up area, which is a good heat absorber, the temperature in the Kathmandu Valley is rising along with the degradation of the vegetation cover. The pollution in the Kathmandu Valley is at its worst, and residents are compelled to breathe air that is significantly more polluted than the prescribed limit.

Diurnal Variations of Summer Precipitation in the Beijing Area and the Possible Effect of Topography and Urbanization

The present study examined the diurnal variations of summer precipitation in the Beijing area by usingsubdaily precipitation and wind observations. A combined effect of topography and urbanization on thecharacteristics of diurnal variations was suggested. It was shown that stations located in the plain areaexhibited typical night rain peaks, whereas those in the mountainous area exhibited clear afternoon peaks ofprecipitation diurnal variations. The precipitation peaks were associated with wind fields around the Beijingarea, which were found to be highly modulated by mountain-valley circulation and urban-country circulation.The lower-tropospheric wind exhibited a clear diurnal shift in its direction from north at 0800 LST to southat 2000 LST, which reflected mountain-valley circulation. The transitions from valley to mountain windand the opposite generally happened after sunset and sunrise, respectively, and both occurred earlier for thestations located closer to mountains. By comparing the diurnal variations of precipitation at stations in anortheast suburb, an urban area, and a southwest suburb, it was revealed that the northeast suburb grouphad the highest normalized rainfall frequency, but the southwest group had the lowest from late afternoon tolate evening. On the contrary, in the early morning from about 0200 to 1000 LST, the southwest group andurban group had the highest normalized rainfall frequency. This pattern might originate from the combinedeffects of mountain-valley topography and urbanization.

Numerical Study on the Impacts of Heterogeneous Reactions on Ozone Formation in the Beijing Urban Area

The air quality model CMAQ-MADRID （Community Multiscale Air Quality-Model of Aerosol Dynamics, Reaction, Ionization and Dissolution） was employed to simulate summer O3 formation in Beijing China, in order to explore the impacts of four heterogeneous reactions on O3 formation in an urban area. The results showed that the impacts were obvious and exhibited the characteristics of a typical response of a VOC-limited regime in the urban area. For the four heterogeneous reactions considered, the NO2 and HO2 heterogeneous reactions have the most severe impacts on O3 formation. During the O3 formation period, the NO2 heterogeneous reaction increased new radical creation by 30%, raising the atmospheric activity as more NO→NO2 conversion occurred, thus causing the O3 to rise. The increase of O3 peak concentration reached a maximum value of 67 ppb in the urban area. In the morning hours, high NO titration reduced the effect of the photolysis of HONO, which was produced heterogeneously at night in the surface layer. The NO2 heterogeneous reaction in the daytime is likely one of the major reasons causing the O3 increase in the Beijing urban area. The HO2 heterogeneous reaction accelerated radical termination, resulting in a decrease of the radical concentration by 44% at the most. O3 peak concentration decreased by a maximum amount of 24 ppb in the urban area. The simulation results were improved when the heterogeneous reactions were included, with the O3 and HONO model results close to the observations.

Pollutant loads of surface runoff in Wuhan City Zoo, an urban tourist area

The pollutant loads of surface runoff in an urban tourist area have been investigated for two years in the Wuhan City Zoo, China. Eight sampling sites, including two woodlands, three animal yards, two roofs and one road, were selected for sampling and study. The results indicate that pollutants ranked in a predictable order of decreasing load （e.g. animal yard〉roof〉woodland〉road）, with animal yards acting as the key pollution source in the zoo. Pollutants were transported mainly by particulate form in runoff. Particulate nitrogen and particulate phosphorous accounted on average for 61%, 78% of total pollutant, respectively, over 13 monitored rainfall events. These results indicate the treatment practices should be implemented to improve particulate nutrient removal. Analysis of the M（V） curve indicate that no first flush effect existed in the surface runoff from pervious areas （e.g. woodland, animal ground yard）, whereas a first flush effect was evident in runoff from impervious surfaces （e.g. animal cement yard, roof, road）.

Analyzing land use characteristics of rural settlements on the urban fringe of Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing, China

The objective of this paper is to analyze land use characteristics of rural settlements in urban fringe so as to provide references for optimizing the regional distribution of rural settlements, consolidating rural settlements, and coordinating urban-rural integrated development. The methods of spatial statistical analysis, buffer analysis, Ripley's K function, kernel density analysis based on GIS(Geographic Information System) were used to analyze the characteristics of scale, spatial differentiation and spatial patterns of the rural settlements in Liangjiang New Area in Chongqing Municipality of China. The fractal dimension formula was also developed to reflect fractal feature of the rural settlements. The results show that, the scale of rural settlements in Liangjang New Area takes on distinct characteristics of spatial differentiation along with changes in elevation, gradient, location, geohazards distribution, and the like. The fractal characteristic of rural settlements has obvious regional variations subject to the 6 factors of location in the Liangjiang New Area. Overall, the worse the terrain conditions are, the larger the fractal dimension values become. The better the locationconditions, the larger the fractal dimension values are. The spatial pattern in the township scale presents three kinds of distribution as being aggregated, uniform and random. In contract, the spatial pattern in the plaque scale displays a banding distribution from a general view with several aggregation zones centering on each town center. From the results, we can see that the characteristics of rural settlements in urban fringe are more complicated. For such kind of rural settlements in special regions, in the rural land consolidation more attention should be paid to improve the rural living environments and public services, as well as to promote the harmonious relationship between the urban and rural areas.

TOWARD ESTABLISHING THE CONCEPT OF PHYSICAL URBAN AREA IN CHINA

This paper makes a detailed analysis of the vanous drawbacks of the continued use of adwhnistrative area in dividing urban and rural areas in spite of the serious discrepancies between urban admnistrative boundaries and the 'real' urban space in China. The autiors believe that to solve this problem, it is essential to establish the concept of physical urban area with both adaptability to Chinese situation and intemational comparability and use it as the basis of urban-rural division and statistics. It is proposed that physical urban area should be defined in terms of prescribed minimum population scale, dngee of nonaghculturalization and population density.Based on extensive substantive research and a classifiotion of the space figurations of Chinese cities and towns, a new scheme to classify physical urban areas is proposed.

Random walk modeling of wake dispersion for the exhaust tower of an underground tunnel in urban area

In this paper, some experimental studies on the impact of effluent from an exhaust tower of an underground tunnel with special construction are reported. By measuring the flow field downstream of the tower in NJU meteorological wind tunnel, some flow characteristics in the make area were established. Based on these, an advanced random\|walk dispersion model was set up and applied successfully to the simulation of dispersion in the wake area. The modelling results were in accordance with wind tunnel measurements. The computed maximum of ground surface concentration in the building case was a factor of 3-4 higher than that in the flat case and appeared much closer to the source. The simulation indicated that random walk modelling is an effective and practical tool for the wake stream impact assessment.

Carbon Dioxide Concentration and Flux in an Urban Residential Area in Seoul,Korea

The carbon dioxide （CO2） concentrations and fluxes measured at a height of 17.5 m above the ground by a sonic anemometer and an open-path gas analyzer at an urban residential site in Seoul, Korea from February 2011 to January 2012 were analyzed. The annual mean CO2 concentration was found to be 750 mg m-3, with a maximum monthly mean concentration of 827 mg m-3 in January and a minimum value of 679 mg m-3 in August. Meanwhile, the annual mean CO2 flux was found to be 0.45 mg m-2 s-1, with a maximum monthly mean flux of 0.91 mg m-2 s-1 in January and a minimum value of 0.19 mg m-2 s-1 in June. The hourly mean CO2 concentration was found to show a significant diurnal variation; a maximum at 0700-0900 LST and a minimum at 1400-1600 LST, with a large diurnal range in winter and a small one in summer, mainly caused by diurnal changes in mixing height, CO2 flux, and surface complexity. The hourly mean CO2 flux was also found to show a significant diurnal variation, but it showed two maxima at 0700-0900 LST and 2100-2400 LST, and two minima at 1100-1500 LST and 0300-0500 LST, mainly caused by a diurnal pattern in CO2 emissions and sinks from road traffic, domestic heating and cooking by liquefied natural gas use, and the different horizontal distribution of CO2 sources and sinks near the site. Differential advection with respect to wind direction was also found to be a cause of diurnal variations in both the CO2 concentration and flux.

Urban surface water system in coastal areas: A comparative study between Almere and Tianjin Eco-city

In the purpose of defining typical urban water management challenges in coastal lowlands in the context of global climate change, a comparative study was conducted between two coastal new towns respectively located in the Netherlands and Northern China. Comparative method is applied to define main functioning patterns of urban water systems in the two cases, then computer simulations were used to furthercompare drainage capacity in order to reveal the trends of urban water management. Major resulthas shown that Almere in the Netherlands generally more advanced in urban water management asmultiple functioning patterns are available.Strong dykes maintain competence for land subsidence and sea level rise. Open water system decreases local runoff and increaseswater retention level. Systematic control ofsluicesand locks which serve for shipping and waterfront landscaping are simultaneously isolating contaminants from outer water body. Tianjin Eco-city in China has shown both strengths and weaknesses. It takes large amount of reclaimed water as main landscaping water source, which adapts to local water pollution and shortage while requires highly centralized facilities. Large water body is reserved and huge scale underground drainage system built, but it is still vulnerable to heavy storms due to the lack of efficient surface water drainage system. Coastal line control does not adequately prevent from increasing storm surge risks in the future. SWMMsimulations have supported the viewpoint ofdistributed surface water with a higher efficiency for storm drainage. Meanwhile, surface water system returns more added values to urban development. The study is corresponding well with the theory of water sensitive city. As a conclusion, urban water system should always incorporate methods to achieve higher system resilience based on multiple functioning patterns.

Rapid Urbanization Induced Extensive Forest Loss to Urban Land in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China

China has experienced rapid urbanizations with dramatic land cover changes since 1978. Forest loss is one of land cover changes, and it induces various eco-environmental degradation issues. As one of China’s hotspot regions, the Guangdong-Hong KongMacao Greater Bay Area(GBA) has undergone a dramatic urban expansion. To better understand forest dynamics and protect forest ecosystem, revealing the processes, patterns and underlying drivers of forest loss is essential. This study focused on the spatiotemporal evolution and potential driving factors of forest loss in the GBA at regional and city level. The Landsat time-series images from 1987 to2017 were used to derive forest, and landscape metrics and geographic information system(GIS) were applied to implement further spatial analysis. The results showed that: 1) 14.86% of the total urban growth area of the GBA was obtained from the forest loss in1987–2017;meanwhile, the forest loss area of the GBA reached 4040.6 km2, of which 25.60%(1034.42 km2) was converted to urban land;2) the percentages of forest loss to urban land in Dongguan(19.14%), Guangzhou(18.35%) and Shenzhen(15.81%) were higher than those in other cities;3) the forest became increasingly fragmented from 1987–2007, and then the fragmentation decreased from2007 to 2017);4) the landscape responses to forest changes varied with the scale;and 5) some forest loss to urban regions moved from low-elevation and gentle-slope terrains to higher-elevation and steep-slope terrains over time, especially in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.Urbanization and industrialization greatly drove forest loss and fragmentation, and, notably, hillside urban land expansion may have contributed to hillside forest loss. The findings will help policy makers in maintaining the stability of forest ecosystems, and provide some new insights into forest management and conservation.