Multi-scenario Simulation of the Impact of Land Use Change on the Ecosystem Service Value in the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou Metropolitan Area,China

As the most economically developed metropolitan area in China’s Yangtze River Delta,the rapid changing land use patterns of Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou(Su-Xi-Chang) metropolitan area have profound impacts on the ecosystem service value(ESV).Based on the patterns of land use change and the ESV change in Su-Xi-Chang metropolitan area from 2000 to 2020,we set up four scenarios:natural development scenario,urban development scenario,arable land protection scenario and ecological protection scenario,and simulated the impact of land use changes on the ESV in these scenarios.The results showed that:1) the area of built-up land in the Su-XiChang metropolitan area increased significantly from 2000 to 2020,and the area of other types of land decreased.Arable land underwent the highest transfer-out area,and was primarily converted into built-up land.The total ESV of Su-Xi-Chang metropolitan area increased initially then declined from 2000–2020,and the value of almost all individual ecosystem services decreased.2) Population density,GDP per area,night lighting intensity,and road network density can negatively impact the ESV.3) The total ESV loss under the natural development and urban development scenarios was high,and the expansion of the built-up land and the drastic shrinkage of the arable land contributed to the ESV decline under both scenarios.The total ESV under arable land protection and ecological protection scenarios increases,and therefore these scenarios are suitable for future land use optimization in Su-Xi-Chang.This study could provide a certain reference for land use planning and allocation,and offer guidance for the rational allocation of land resources.

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.

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.

Spatial-temporal Heterogeneity of Green Development Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in Growing Metropolitan Area: A Case Study for the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area

This study analyzed the spatial-temporal heterogeneity of green development efficiency and its influencing factors in the growing Xuzhou Metropolitan Area for the period 2000–2015.The slacks-based measure(SBM)model,spatial autocorrelation,and the geographically weighted regression(GWR)model were used to conduct the analysis.The conclusions were as follows:first,the overall efficiency of green development of the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area decreased,the regional differences and spatial agglomeration shrunk and differences within the region were the main contributors to the regional differences of green development efficiency.Second,the counties with high-efficiency green development were distributed along the coast,and along the routes of the Beijing-Shanghai and the Eastern Longhai railways.A developing axis of the high-efficiency counties was the main feature of the spatial pattern for green development efficiency.Third,regarding spatial correlation and green development efficiency,the High-High type counties in the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area formed a centralized distribution corridor along the inter-provincial border areas of Henan and Jiangsu,whereas the Low-Low type counties were concentrated in the external,marginal parts of the metropolitan area.Fourth,the major factors(ranked in decreasing order of impact)influencing green development efficiency were innovation,government regulations,the economic development level,energy consumption,and industrial structure.These factors exerted their influence to varying extents;the influence of the same factor had different effects in different regions and obvious spatial differences were observed for the different regions.

Spatial Accessibility of Road Network in Wuhan Metropolitan Area Based on Spatial Syntax

Based on space syntax theory, the spatial accessibility of the road network in Wuhan Metropolitan Area has been quantitatively analyzed by building a series of accessibility variables. Topologic connectivity in the accessible rings appears to be broken;traffic axis network is in spatial structure of hub-and-spoke and fishbone-like. Meanwhile, the differences in classified road network have led to inefficiency of its network servo and its ever-worsening capability to respond to traffic jams. Besides, two band-like integrated cores of which one is east to west along the Yangtze River and the other is north to south along Beijing to Guangzhou Railway, have become the first level traffic axis in the whole network, which is responsible for the connectivity of the entire metropolitan area network. This consequently has strengthened the dominant position of Wuhan which is located on the bands’ crossing. In short, the spatial accessibility of that classified space morphology, the urban system, the transport infrastructure as well as the social and economic development of Wuhan Metropolitan Area are highly interrelated to each other, especially to the high level highway network featured by freeways, the development level of which is well in line with that of road network accessibility.

Earthquake risk assessment for Istanbul metropolitan area

The impact of earthquakes in urban centers prone to disastrous earthquakes necessitates the analysis of associ- ated risk for rational formulation of contingency plans and mitigation strategies.In urban centers,the seismic risk is best quantified and portrayed through the preparation of'Earthquake Damage and Loss Scenarios.'The components of such scenarios are the assessment of the hazard,inventories and the vulnerabilities of elements at risk.For the development of the earthquake risk scenario in Istanbul,two independent approaches,one based on intensities and the second on spectral displacements,are utilized.This paper will present the important features of a comprehensive study,highlight the method- ology,discuss the results and provide insights to future developments.

Ambient noise as the new source for urban engineering seismology and earthquake engineering: a case study from Beijing metropolitan area

In highly populated urban centers, traditional seismic survey sources can no longer be properly applied due to restrictions in modern civilian life styles. The ambient vibration noise, including both microseisms and microtremor, though are generally weak but available anywhere and anytime, can be an ideal supplementary source for conducting seismic surveys for engineering seismology and earthquake engineering. This is funda- mentally supported by advanced digital signal processing techniques for effectively extracting the useful information out from the noise. Thus, it can be essentially regarded as a passive seismic method. In this paper we first make a brief survey of the ambient vibration noise, followed by a quick summary of digital signal processing for passive seismic surveys. Then the applications of ambient noise in engi- neering seismology and earthquake engineering for urban settings are illustrated with examples from Beijing metro- politan area. For engineering seismology the example is the assessment of site effect in a large area via microtremor observations. For earthquake engineering the example is for structural characterization of a typical reinforced con- crete high-rise building using background vibration noise.By showing these examples we argue that the ambient noise can be treated as a new source that is economical, practical, and particularly valuable to engineering seis- mology and earthquake engineering projects for seismic hazard mitigation in urban areas.

Spatiotemporal Measurement of Regional Expansion in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Metropolitan Area Based on Nighttime Light Data

The research purpose is to accurately reveal the temporal and spatial law of the urban expansion of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan, one of the seven major urban agglomeration areas in China, and provide decision-making basis for the future urban construction land layout and regional development policy-making. Based on the night lighting data (DMSP/OLS), this paper extracts the boundary of the urban construction land of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration from 1993 to 2017, and quantitatively studies the spatial and temporal characteristics of the expansion of the metropolitan area in the past 25 years according to the methods of spatial expansion analysis, center of gravity migration measurement, landscape pattern index, spatial autocorrelation, etc. The results show that: 1) it is scientific and feasible to extract urban agglomeration construction land by the method of auxiliary data comparison for the study of urban expansion;2) the expansion of regional space in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan metropolitan area shows a trend of “weakening first and strengthening later”. The construction land keeps increasing, and the expansion form gradually changes from extensive type to intensive type;3) the center of gravity of the metropolitan area fluctuated and repeated in part during the past 25 years, but it was always located in the municipal district of Changsha city. The eastern region, mainly Changsha city, was still the core area of urban agglomeration expansion;4) strengthening the territorial space protection and control of ecological green core in the metropolitan area is a key measure for the high-quality development of urban agglomeration.

Road Centrality and Landscape Spatial Patterns in Wuhan Metropolitan Area,China

Road network is a corridor system that interacts with surrounding landscapes,and understanding their interaction helps to develop an optimal plan for sustainable transportation and land use.This study investigates the relationships between road centrality and landscape patterns in the Wuhan Metropolitan Area,China.The densities of centrality measures,including closeness,betweenness,and straightness,are calculated by kernel density estimation(KDE).The landscape patterns are characterized by four landscape metrics,including percentage of landscape(PLAND),Shannon′s diversity index(SHDI),mean patch size(MPS),and mean shape index(MSI).Spearman rank correlation analysis is then used to quantify their relationships at both landscape and class levels.The results show that the centrality measures can reflect the hierarchy of road network as they associate with road grade.Further analysis exhibit that as centrality densities increase,the whole landscape becomes more fragmented and regular.At the class level,the forest gradually decreases and becomes fragmented,while the construction land increases and turns to more compact.Therefore,these findings indicate that the ability and potential applications of centrality densities estimated by KDE in quantifying the relationships between roads and landscapes,can provide detailed information and valuable guidance for transportation and land-use planning as well as a new insight into ecological effects of roads.

Sustainable Utilization of Agricultural Land in Chengdu Metropolitan Area Based on Emergy Analysis

[Objectives]This study aimed to analyze the sustainable use of agricultural land in the Chengdu metropolitan area from 2006 to 2016.[Methods]Using Odum's emergy theory,an index system was constructed to evaluate the sustainable use of agricultural land,including total emergy input-output ratio,industrial emergy input-output ratio,environmental load index and sustainable use index of agricultural land based on emergy,to reflect the sustainable use of agricultural land in the Chengdu metropolitan area.The data base was a unified standard that was converted from various types of energy stored and flowing in the agricultural land system of the Chengdu metropolitan area,that is,emergy.[Results]From 2006 to 2016,the total emergy input-output ratio of agricultural land in the metropolitan area fluctuated and decreased,lower than the national average.The industrial emergy input-output ratio was generally in a fluctuating downward trend.The environmental load index of agricultural land in the metropolitan area was lower than the national average.However,it has been on the rise since 2012.During the corresponding period,the sustainable use index of the region also showed a downward trend.[Conclusions]The utilization rate of emergy in this area was low.The dependence of industrial emergy input-output ratio on industrial subsidiary energy and the degree of agricultural mechanization are constantly improving.The environmental resources in this area still have room for accommodation and have not been fully utilized.The sustainable use of agricultural land has been declining.

Suburbanization and Subcentering of Population in Beijing Metropolitan Area:A Nonparametric Analysis

This study focuses on the suburbanization and subcentering of population and examines the nature of spatial restructuring in terms of the population distribution in the Beijing metropolitan area.Instead of the classic density function approach,we employ the nonparametric analysis to characterize the spatial pattern of population densities in the Beijing metropolitan area and identify the suburban subcenters.Our findings suggest that the population has spread with rapid urban growth in the Beijing metropolitan area,and the compact urban form has been replaced by a more dispersed polycentric spatial distribution.However,compared with the decentralization of western cities,the spatial extent of the decentralization of population in the Beijing metropolitan area is quite limited.The rapid growth of population in the near suburbs has expedited the sprawl of the central city,with a larger central agglomeration of population dominating the metropolitan area.In this sense,the spatial pattern of the Beijing metropolitan area is still characterized by the continuous compactness.However,our findings do provide the evidence that the city has been turning to a polycentric structure.We find significant population subcenters have emerged in the suburbs of Beijing since the 1980s.But the polycentricity emerged in the Beijing metropolitan area is very different by nature from that observed in Western cities.The subcenters emerged are adherent to the development scheme planned for the city,so it can be referred to as the so called 'planned polycentricity'.

Mountain Land Use Planning of Metropolitan Suburbs:the Case of the Jinyun Mountain and Its Surrounding area,Chongqing,China

Open space of metropolitan suburbs in mountain region,has been increasingly becoming the coupling mosaic structure of industrial actions and landscape behaviors. However,the local governments,when making land use planning,often aim at economic development,and rarely refer to the coordination of compatibilities and conflicts between industrial actions and landscape behaviors in the mosaic structure. In this study land use in the Jinyun Mountain and its surrounding area,Chongqing is adjusted by gray multi-objective programming approach and local-level decision-making process to cope with conflicts between objectives for human welfare and objectives for landscape conservation. The results indicate that: 1) the compatibilities and conflicts among different behavior characters and different landscape types result in the compatibilities of landscape to human behavior;2) a land use planning in the study area is produced based on the sustainable land use and social-eco development,which pays more attention to the resources and environment constraints and economic objectives,and follows the distribution law of rare resources;3) in the study area,cultivated land of 1,207.27 ha can meet the demands for food and byproducts by the residents there,orchard land and forestland of 632.55 ha,2,276.61 ha,respectively can provide enough space for the local people to improve their living structure and meet their demands for recreational activities,and urban residential land,rural residential land,mining land and transportation land of 1,107.60 ha,120.27 ha,162.48 ha,100.91 ha,respectively can satisfy the resident’s economic development and infrastructures;4) the equilibrium among industrial actions,landscape accessibility and ecological conservation can be obtained by analyzing the possible impacts of human activities on landscape ecological process in open space of metropolitan suburbs in mountain areas.

Spatial-temporal Heterogeneity of Industrial Structure Transformation and Carbon Emission Effects in Xuzhou Metropolitan Area

Employing decoupling index and industrial structure characteristic bias index methods, this study analyzed the spatial-temporal characteristics of industrial structure transformations and their resulting carbon emissions in the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area from 2000 to 2014, with a focus on their relationships and driving factors. Our research indicates that carbon emission intensity from industrial structures in the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area at first showed an increasing trend, which then decreased. Furthermore, the relationship between emissions and industrial economic growth has been trending toward absolute decoupling. From the perspective of the center-periphery, the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area formed a concentric pattern, where both progress towards low emissions and the level of technological advancement gradually diminished from the center to the periphery. In terms of variation across provinces, the ISCB index in the eastern Henan has decreased the slowest, followed by the southern Shandong and the northern Anhui, with the northern Jiangsu ranking last. During this period, resource-and labor-intensive industries were the primary growth industries in the northern Anhui and the eastern Henan, while labor-intensive industries dominated the southern Shandong and capital-intensive industries dominated the northern Jiangsu. In terms of city types, the spatial pattern for industrial structure indicates that recession resource-based cities had higher carbon emission intensities than mature resource-based cities, followed by non-resource-based cities and regenerative resource-based cities. Generally, the industrial structure in the Xuzhou Metropolitan Area has transformed from being resource-intensive to capital-intensive, and has been trending toward technology-intensive as resource availability has been exploited to exhaustion and then been regenerated. Industrial structure has been the leading factor causing heterogeneity of carbon emission intensities between metropolitan cities. Therefore, the key to optimizing the industrial structure and layout of metropolitan areas is to promote industrial structure transformation and improve the system controlling collaborative industrial development between cities.

Integrated Development of Urban and Rural Industries in the Xi'an Metropolitan Area

Based on the diagnosis of the industrial structure in the Xi'an metropolitan area,we point out the problems in the development of urban and rural industries in the Xi'an metropolitan area:there is imbalance in the industrial structure;the planning and layout is chaotic;the service system is unsound;the development of the county economy lags behind.From structural adjustment,urban-rural division of labor,technical support, and the coordination of interests,we put forward the measures for coordinating the development of urban and rural industries.

Understanding the Urban Sprawl in the Mid-Size Latin American Cities through the Urban Form:Analysis of the Concepcion Metropolitan Area(Chile)

Latin American cities, like those from North America and Europe, experience problems of urban sprawl. However, few studies have dedicated exclusively to this phenomenon in specific cities, and this omission is particularly noticeable regarding cities not considered among the megalopolis of the continent. The present work analyzes urban sprawl through an urban form in the Concepción Metropolitan Area, Chile, between 1990 and 2009, considering local aspects that may have played a role in the process. The main empirical results obtained from this study reveal a metropolitan area that has expanded intensely over a 20-year period, growing from 9000 hectares to more than 17,000 ha for a 96% increment in the built-up area. The new urban surfaces consolidate a central conurbation that strengthens the role of the main downtowns, with less-intense occupation towards the sub-centers but in a structure that follows the transportation infrastructure. Over the last 20 years, the distance between the shapes has grown progressively by around 2 km, increasing the size of the ellipse by more than 1000 km2. In particular the complexity of the urbanized surfaces has grown, becoming more irregular in shape and less compact as they come to occupy larger areas. So our principal findings include: an increment of nearly 100% in the urban surface, the importance of a polycentric urban structure in the process of consolidation as a support for analyzing different spatial dynamics, and the growing morphological irregularity of the territory of the sprawl.

Simulation of Optical Packet-Switched Metropolitan Area Network

This paper introduces architectures of two types optical packet switched metropolitan area networks and their media access control protocols. We have designed related network simulation systems. With these simulation systems, the characteristics and performance of the two MANs can be achieved.

Comparison of Urban Growth Modeling Using Deep Belief and Neural Network Based Cellular Automata Model—A Case Study of Chennai Metropolitan Area, Tamil Nadu, India

Urban Growth Models (UGMs) are very essential for a sustainable development of a city as they predict the future urbanization based on the present scenario. Neural Network based Cellular Automata models have proved to predict the urban growth more close to reality. Recently, deep learning based techniques are being used for the prediction of urban growth. In this current study, urban growth of Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) of 2017 was predicted using Neural Network based Cellular Automata (NN-CA) model and Deep belief based Cellular Automata (DB-CA) model using 2010 and 2013 urban maps. Since the study area experienced congested type of urban growth, “Existing Built-Up” of 2013 alone was used as the agent of urbanization to predict urban growth in 2017. Upon validating, DB-CA model proved to be the better model, as it predicted 524.14 km2 of the study area as urban with higher accuracy (kappa co-efficient: 0.73) when compared to NN-CA model which predicted only 502.42 km2 as urban (kappa co-efficient: 0.71), while the observed urban cover of CMA in 2017 was 572.11 km2. This study also aimed at analyzing the effects of different types of neighbourhood configurations (Rectangular: 3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7 and Circular: 3 × 3) on the prediction output based on DB-CA model. To understand the direction and type of the urban growth, the study area was divided into five distance based zones with the State Secretariat as the center and entropy values were calculated for the zones. Results reveal that Chennai Corporation and its periphery experience congested urbanization whereas areas away from the Corporation boundary follow dispersed type of urban growth in 2017.

Socio-Economic Vulnerability to COVID-19: The Spatial Case of Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA)

COVID-19 has presented itself with an extreme impact on the resources of its epi-centres. In Uganda, there is uncertainty about what will happen especially in the main urban hub, the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA). Consequently, public health professionals have scrambled into resource-driven strategies and planning to tame the spread. This paper, therefore, deploys spatial modelling to contribute to an understanding of the spatial variation of COVID-19 vulnerability in the GKMA using the socio-economic characteristics of the region. Based on expert opinion on the prevailing novel Coronavirus, spatially driven indicators were generated to assess vulnerability. Through an online survey and auxiliary datasets, these indicators were transformed, classified, and weighted based on the BBC vulnerability framework. These were spatially modelled to assess the vulnerability indices. The resultant continuous indices were aggregated, explicitly zoned, classified, and ranked based on parishes. The resultant spatial nature of vulnerability to COVID-19 in the GKMA sprawls out of major urban areas, diffuses into the peri-urban, and thins into the sparsely populated areas. The high levels of vulnerability (24.5% parishes) are concentrated in the major towns where there are many shopping malls, transactional offices, and transport hubs. Nearly half the total parishes in the GKMA (47.3%) were moderately vulnerable, these constituted mainly the parishes on the outskirts of the major towns while 28.2% had a low vulnerability. The spatial approach presented in this paper contributes to providing a rapid assessment of the socio-economic vulnerability based on administrative decision units-parishes. This essentially equips the public health domain with the right diagnosis to subject the highly exposed and vulnerable communities to regulatory policy, increase resilience incentives in low adaptive areas and optimally deploy resources to avoid the emancipation of high susceptibility areas into an epicentre of Covid-19.

DEVELOPING BOHAI SEA ZONE AND TIANJIN INTO A METROPOLITAN AREA IN THE EAST ASIAN & ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC BELT

Compared with the stagnanteconomy of the rest world,Asian-Pa-cific economy has been experiencingthe hightest growth since the 1980s.Now,most researchers and officials,and even entrepreneurs believe

A Three-dimensional IP-based Telecom Metropolitan Area Network Model

The Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) has faced serious problems after years of rapid development. The model of three-dimensional IP-based MAN, proposed by ZTE, is a next-generation MAN solution, which not only solves the existing problems but also brings new ideas for the development of next-generation MAN.