Changes in human settlement environments and their drivers in valley cities located in arid and semi-arid regions:A case study of Lanzhou in Western China

Development of urban human settlement environments(HSEs)is an integral part of promoting high-quality and sustainable regional development and constructing a beautiful China.The city of Lanzhou,located at the geometric center of China,is the only provincial capital traversed by the Yellow River.Given the constraints posed by the valley topography and the need for economic development,the development of this HSE,which is located within an arid region,poses considerable challenges.Evidently,an understanding of the evolution of HSEs and drivers of changes in them contributes to high-quality,sustainable urban development in arid and semi-arid regions.An analytical model was developed using the parameters of relief degree of land surface,human comfort days,the land cover index,nighttime light index,and precipitation.This model was used in combination with population density and the gross domestic product to analyze the spatial distribution of Lanzhou's HSE and its drivers.The results showed that landscapes in Lanzhou underwent significant changes between 2000 and 2022,with an increase in building-up land(+0.946%),cultivated land(+0.134%),and forest land(+0.018%)and a decrease in grassland(-1.10%).There was significant outward expansion of the main urban zone of Lanzhou and of various county towns,with the increase in building-up land being most prominent.During this period,there were significant changes in the periphery of the core urban area and county towns in Lanzhou,with decreases moving from the urban center(the highest value)to the surrounding areas(Yongdeng County had the lowest value).The correlation between the HSE and population density grew stronger in Anning and Chengguan Districts but became weaker in Xigu and Qilihe Districts.Spatiotemporal variations in the HSE were primarily caused by climate change,followed by human activities,and were also influenced by the valley topography.Overall,the spatial distribution of population density and the HSE in Lanzhou demonstrated good consistency under the in-fluence of economic development and urbanization.

Reflections on the Improvement of Rural Human Settlement Environment from the Perspective of Beauty and Livability

The construction of beautiful and livable villages is one of the important tasks of ruralrevitalization in the new era, and the development of rural areas attaches more and more importanceto the improvement of human settlement environment. By investigating the construction status andexisting problems of Zhaoba Village in Nanjing, it tries to take “beauty” and “livability” as the planningrequirements. The village positioning is planned accurately, and the functional layout is carried outreasonably. According to the characteristic industries, landscape features and infrastructure of ZhaobaVillage, humanized construction strategies are put forward, thus improving the quality of human settlementenvironment in Zhaoba Village.

Protection and Management for Ancient Villages from the Perspective of Human Settlement Environment——A Case Study of Xichong Village,Sikou Town,Wuyuan County

As urbanization continues, traditional villages are confronted by the conflict between protection and development, especially for ancient villages in living envi- ronment. China landscape is so vast, dominated by rural areas. Human settlement environment of ancient villages is so important for studying domestic human settle- ment environment, including ancient structure analysis and eco-resource organization. The research explored Xichong Village, Sikou Town, Wuyuan County and detailed how to improve its environment, providing references for ancient village development in settlement environment.

Difficulties and Countermeasures of Rural Human Settlement Environment Governance in Tianjin

The course of rural human settlement environment governance in Tianjin could be roughly divided into four stages:germination,initiation,promotion and deepening.After the development for nearly 20 years,rural human settlement environment governance of Tianjin is faced with many difficulties,such as imperfect village construction planning,poor use effect of sewage facilities,low participation of farmers,and insufficient financial investment.Therefore,some countermeasures and suggestions are put forward,such as scientific planning and overall consideration,innovating financing mechanism,encouraging diversified investment of funds,and strengthening the publicity of rural human settlement environment governance.

Fringe View: Problems and Construction of Human Settlement Environment for "Village-in-City"

The construction of human settlement environment is one of the important contents in the domain of sustainable development. We try to annotate human settlement environment for "village- in-city" from the angle of fringe view. According to the macro-system thought of human settlement environment science, the evolvement, which can be generalized into four phases, connotation and problems (including social, economic, and environmental problems) of "village-in-city" are discussed primarily in this paper. Some domestic and international researches and practices are also summarized and assessed in the paper. Based on the analysis, some appropriate clues and suggestions for the construction of "village-in-city" have been put forward.

Uncertainty evaluation of the coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy in Changsha city

The coordinated development of human settlement environment and economy is of vital significance to urban sustainable development and urban ecosystem health. Urban human settlement and economic systems exist in urban ecosystems, which are a structural complexity. Therefore the research is being challenged by some uncertain factors between human settlements and economic systems. However most of the researches were focused on its determinate objective aspects and qualitative analyses while less concern on the quanti- tative evaluation of coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy, especially little on its uncertain aspect. At present, the urgent task is to study the coordinated development of urban settlement environment and economy in terms of the effect of uncertainty. This study analyzed the uncertain characteristics, which would be confronted at different stages, such as confirming the index categories, their bound values, and their construction rate, etc. According to the actual urban conditions, many construction principles based on uncertainties are put forward and an indicating system for human settlement and economic evaluation is established. Moreover, the application of fuzzy mathematics presents a new method and a calculation model for the comprehensive assessment of the coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy. The application of the method and model in Changsha city of China showed that the assessment results can reflect not only the overall coordination degree of the city, but also the mode of interactive mechanism between urban economic system and human settlement environment.

Natural environment suitability for human settlements in China based on GIS

With the degeneration of environment and acceleration of urbanization,human environment has attracted great attention worldwide.This paper sets up the Human Settlements Environment Index(HEI) model and evaluates the natural environment suitability for Human Settlements in China based on GIS technology.The results show that the HEI of China decreases from southeast to northwest in general,HEI is significantly correlated with population density at grid size and the correlation coefficient(r) between them reaches 0.93,which indicates that natural environment suitability for Human Settlements has a significant influence on population distribution.Most people in China mainly concentrate in areas with high natural environment suitability.The total suitable area is 430.47×104 km2,which accounts for nearly 45% of the total land area in China,while the proportion of people living in the area reaches 96.56%.With a population density of 18 people per square kilometer,the critical area is the transitional region for people to live in China.The critical area covers 225.11×104 km2 with a population of 41.12 million.The non-suitable area covers 304.42×104 km2 with a population of only 2.49 million.

Spatial-temporal variations of natural suitability of human settlement environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area A case study in Fengjie County,China

With rapid environmental degeneration and socio-economie development,the human settlement environment (HSE)has experienced dramatic changes and attracted attention from different communities.Consequently,the spatial-temporal evaluation of natural suitability of the human settlement environment (NSHSE)has become essential for understanding the patterns and dynamics of HSE,and for coordinating sustainable development among regional populations,resources,and environments.This study aims to explore the spatialtemporal evolution of NSHSE patterns in 1997,2005,and 2009 in Fengjie County near the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA).A spatially weighted NSHSE model was established by integrating multi-source data (e.g.,census data,meteorological data,remote sensing images,DEM data,and GIS data)into one framework,where the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS)linear regression model was applied to calculate the weights of indices in the NSHSE model.Results show that the trend of natural suitability has been first downward and then upward, which is evidenced by the disparity of NSHSE existing in the south,north,and central areas of Fengjie County. Results also reveal clustered NSHSE patterns for all 30 townships.Meanwhile,NSHSE has significant influence on population distribution,and 71.49% of the total population is living in moderate and high suitable districts.

Study on the Outdoor Wind Environment Simulation and Design Strategies of Rural Settlements in Cold Areas

To improve the outdoor environment of rural settlement and reduce the energy consumption of rural houses in winterin cold areas,the seriously bad wind environment should been controlled and considered. This paper applies the method of numerical simulation to simulate the wind environment of some typical arrangement of building and courtyard in winter,and concludes the optimal building and courtyard arrangement types and strategies. It aims to provide some technical supports for improving the wind environment of rural settlements in cold regions.

ON THE RELATION BETWEEN THE EVOLUTION OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN FACTORS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN SETTLEMENT——Take the Lanzhou Valley Basin as An Examples

Lanzhou Valley Basin is composed of two smaller diamond-shaped basins striking from NW to SE and including 6 river terraces. The lower terraces remaining even and smooth are main sites for city buildings. The main function of Lanzhou urban settlement is a ferry and transport centre. Lanzhou used to be an im-portant crossing site and post on the 'silk road',and then became a transport and trade centre in Northwest China. In the middle part of the 17th century, Lanzhou became the capital of Gansu,a new province. The development process of Lanzhou urban settlement indicates that urban settlement is a system consisting of natural environment and human society based on the former.

Human Settlement Analysis Based on Multi-temporal Remote Sensing Data： A Case Study of Xuzhou City, China

To evaluate urban human settlement, we propose a human settlement environment development index(HSEDI) model by choosing vegetation coverage, land surface temperature, impervious surfaces, slope, wetness, and water condition as the evaluation factors. We applied the proposed model to Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China. Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper(TM) images from 1998 to 2010 and digital elevation model(DEM) data with a 30-m resolution were used to calculate the values of the six evaluation factors. The HSEDI value in Xuzhou City was found to be between 2.24 and 8.10 from 1998 to 2010, and it was further divided into five levels, uninhabitable, moderately uninhabitable, generally inhabitable, moderately inhabitable, and inhabitable. The best HSEDI value was in 2007. The generally inhabitable region was about 100.98 km^2, covering 30.87% of the total area in 2007; the moderately inhabitable region was about 170.58 km2 covering 52.15% of the total area; the inhabitable region was about 32.03 km^2, covering 9.79% of the total area; the percentage of the uninhabitable region was zero; and that of the moderately uninhabitable region was very small, less than 1.00%. Moreover, we analyzed the habitability in the respect of spatial patterns and change detection. Results show that the degraded regions of habitability quality are mainly located in the urban fringe and the improved regions are mainly located in the main urban and rural areas. Reason for the degraded habitability quality is the rapid progress of urbanization. However, the increase in urban green spaces and the construction of the main urban area promoted the improved habitability quality. Besides, we further analyzed socio-economic and socio-demographic data to confirm the results of the habitability analysis. The results indicate that the human settlement in Xuzhou City is in a satisfactory condition, but some efforts should be made to control the possible uninhabitable and moderately uninhabitable regions, and to improve the quality of the generally inhabitable regions.

Analysis of the Choice of Return Mechanism of PPP Model in Rural Human Settlement Improvement under the Rural Revitalization Strat­egy:Research Based on the Perspective of Evolutionary Game

The improvement of rural human settlement environment is a significant direction of the rural revitalization strategy.Based on the finite rational evolutionary game theory,a cooperative behavior evolutionary game model of rural human settlement environment improvement PPP model with local government,social capital and rural residents as the main game players with the reward mechanism of Government Payment and one with the reward mechanism of Viability Gap Funding are constructed.Comparing the total project revenue of two reward mechanisms,the thesis will obtain the effects of choosing the reward mechanism of rural human settlement improvement PPP.Finally,available suggestions are made to the decision of the reward mechanism of PPP project about rural human settlement environment,thus promoting the application and development of PPP in rural environmental management and to promote sustainable improvement of rural habitat improvement.

A Field Assessment on Natural Ventilation and Thermal Comfort of Historical District--A Case of the Wugoushui Settlement in Taiwan

Due to the urban and town development, it is common to see historical buildings and new buildings intermingled with one and another inside historical regions in Taiwan. With the increase of new buildings, natural ventilation becomes harder, which leads to the impact on the preservation of historical building and the reduction of thermal comfort for residents. Besides, problems of new buildings＇ construction and design affect the developments of cities and towns in historical district, which has existed for hundreds of years. The Wugoushui Settlement is located in Pingtung County, the southernmost part of Taiwan, and its hot season of a year is pretty long and belongs to warm and humid tropical climate. In 2008, the Pingtung County Government officially registered and announced Wugoushui as traditional settlement and meanwhile, provided the maintenance and preservation for buildings in this region on government subsidies. This paper is based on one-year-long field experiments of Wugoushui Settlement. Residents in Wugoushui Settlement continue constructing new buildings near by the traditional buildings. With the fact that constructions of new buildings result in huge impact on the circumstances of natural ventilation and thermal comfort, which have been for hundreds of years, the simple weather station is set up to collect the data of local microclimate. In addition, four representative traditional architectures were selected to be measured their indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction and thermal radiation both in winter （December to February） and in summer （May to September）. The measurement time of each building is one week and every data record is kept every minute. Besides, residents were asked to fill out the comfort survey. Based on these data, the distributions of indoor and outdoor thermal environment as well as the thermal comfort of living space under the condition of the natural ventilation are assessed. Finally, focused on the indoor living space of historical districts in southern Taiwan, there are two main suggestions given in the essay： first, a provisional comfort zone in summer is planned and proposed; second, the preliminary suggestions for the design and norms of new buildings in historical district are provided.

Human settlement's social network analysis based on spatial trend surface model:a case study of Chongqing Municipality

Integrated with GIS and remote sensing(RS) technology,a systematic analysis and its methodology for human-settlements social environment has been introduced.This methodology has been called spatial trend field model(STFM).STFM's application history in the field of human-settlements social environment has been discussed at first.Then,some index data models have been created through STFM,which include population density trend field,human activity strength trend field,city-town spatial density trend field,urbanization ratio trend field,road density trend field,GDP spatial density trend field and PER-GDP spatial density trend field.With all above-mentioned indexes as input data,through Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Techniques Algorithm(ISODATA),this paper makes a verification study of Chongqing municipality.The result of the case study confirms that STFM methodology is credible and has high efficiency for regional human-settlements study.

Research on the Regional Ecological Environment Evaluation and Application under the Influence of the Severe Earthquake Disaster

To conduct the ecological restoration and reconstruction of disaster areas after the severe earthquake, such as Wenchuan Earthquake and Lushan Earthquake, this article uses region al ecological environment evaluation and ecological footprint to construct a quantitative analysis model on the basis of ecololgical environment indexes in Mianzhu City. Through this model, resource status of the regional environment in Mianzhu is analyzed, as well as the ecological capacity and the ecological security. Based on the evaluation and analysis, this paper provides multi-path development strategies of ecological restoration and sustainable development of human settlements after the earthquake.

Evaluation on the human settlements environment suitability in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of Chongqing based on RS and GIS

To explore geographical differences in quantitative characteristics and spatial pattern of human settlements environmental suitability （HSES） in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area （TGRA）, terrain, climate, hydrology, vegetation and other natural factors were selected to build the livable environmental evaluation, and the quantitative analysis was conducted through Remote Sensing（RS） and Geographic Informational System （GIS） to reveal geo- graphical characteristics and spatial patterns of HSES. The results are obtained as follows： （1） inhabitants of the TGRA of Chongqing are concentrated in the area with moderate h.igh HSES, which is 78% of the total population distributed in 48% of the study area; （2） the HSES is closely related to the terrain, and it forms an arc-banded spatial succession pattern： relatively low in the northeast and the southeast while comparatively high in the west and the south; （3） large numbers of people are distributed in the area with low suitability （with higher population density than the average of the western China）, but economic development level in these areas is quite low. Moreover, these areas are ecological sensitive and fragile, many kinds of eco-environmental problems have been caused by human activities. Therefore, population migration and layout are reasonable options for the development of these areas.

西宁市人居环境的空间集聚特征与政策建议

人居环境是城市规划学者关注的重点,目前关于人居环境空间集聚特征的研究缺少西部城市的实证案例。因此文章以西宁市居住区为研究对象,探究空间集聚特征并针对性地提出政策建议。研究发现,西宁市不同维度的人居环境空间在空间上呈现集聚的特征,同时其不同维度在空间上集聚程度各不相同。基于上述结论,文章分别对西宁市老城区、城市边缘区,以及城市新区的人居环境质量的改善提出了相关政策建议。

基于景观格局理论和理想风水模式的藏族乡土聚落景观空间解析——以甘肃省迭部县扎尕那村落为例

中国传统乡土聚落作为多功能景观,其保护研究是我国生态及文化保护工作的重要组成部分,是可持续科学和跨学科研究的典型载体。从文化和生态两条研究路线出发,同时运用中国传统风水生态理念和现代景观格局理论对甘肃省迭部县扎尕那村藏族乡土聚落的景观立体结构、生态要素构成进行不同角度的解构,探析理想景观模式蕴含的生态合理性及文化与环境在聚落发展中的相互关系。风水模式分析表明扎尕那聚落立体结构为"盆地-豁口-走廊"的壶天模式,符合中国人心目中理想的"山-林-屋-水-林"景观模式,其空间要素组成在水平和垂直方向上均表现出以人类活动为中心的圈层结构。综合自然地理环境要素契合"藏风得水"的理想风水格局,整体形成以寺庙为核心的组团式聚居格局,各个独立自然村落具有相似的界面特征。景观格局指数分析表明扎尕那聚落景观以有林地和裸岩为基质,景观异质性和景观连接度都较高。人工斑块比例很低,聚落属于极稀疏区,人类活动对于自然环境的干扰较小。多重文化和自然环境的综合作用是扎尕那聚落格局演化的主要驱动因子。本研究为扎尕那聚落的保护和发展模式的制定奠定了理论基础,对于文化与环境相互关系的研究及中国多功能景观研究模式的探索具有一定的理论意义和应用价值。

绿色基础设施的传统智慧：气候适宜性传统聚落环境空间单元模式分析

在中国独特的地理气候背景下,自然山水形成了多样适合人居的地形小气候空间单元。传统聚落通过建筑与自然山水空间结合的形态协同营造,共同构建传统聚落的绿色基础设施,形成良好的生境条件,以适应地域气候变化和抵御自然灾害。通过对传统聚落环境空间形态模式进行气候适宜性分析,揭示了传统聚落绿色基础设施建设的地形气候空间生态调节机制,解读了绿色基础设施建设的中国传统智慧和科学机理,提出气候适宜性聚落环境空间单元是绿色基础设施构成的一种基本生境空间单元。对其深入的研究有助于构建我国绿色基础设施建设的地域性理论和方法。