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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainability in Geographic Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 August 2020) | Viewed by 43478

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Prof. Dr. Hasi Bagan

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Guest Editor

School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
Interests: machine learning; data fusion; urban growth analysis; land cover change mapping
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Hajime Seya

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan
Interests: spatial big data analysis; land use model; spatial statistics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will comprise a selection of papers addressing land cover change (LCC) phenomena or issues in relation to sustainable urban growth (SUG). Studies on land cover change have been accumulating especially in the field of geography and remote sensing, but such vast knowledge base is not well recognized by researchers and practitioners working in SUG. This Special Issue will try to fill this gap and discuss the further potential of LCC studies for investigating SUG. Of course, papers focused on other topics such as infrastructure are also welcome, if they are linked to LCC and SUG. Studies can range from past to future phenomena (e.g., scenario studies) and from local to global scale. We are looking forward to receiving interesting papers.

Prof. Hasi Bagan
Dr. Hajime Seya
Guest Editors

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Keywords

land cover change
land use change
sustainable urban growth
GIS
remote sensing
land use and transport
past land use
land use scenario

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 6441 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improvement of an Urban Growth Model for Railway-Induced Urban Expansion

by Alvin Christopher G. Varquez, Sifan Dong, Shinya Hanaoka and Manabu Kanda

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6801; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176801 - 21 Aug 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3131

Abstract

Increasing population in urban areas drives urban cover expansion and spatial growth. Developing urban growth models enables better understanding and planning of sustainable urban areas. The SLEUTH model is an urban growth simulation model which uses the concept of cellular automata to predict land cover change using six spatial inputs of historical data (slope, land use, exclusion, urban, transportation, and hill-shade). This study investigates the potential of SLEUTH to capture railway-induced urban growth by testing methods that can consider railways as input to the model, namely (1) combining the exclusion layer with a station map; (2) creating a new input layer representing stations in addition to the default six inputs. Districts in Tsukuba, Japan and Gurugram, India which historically showed evidence of urban growth by railway construction are investigated. Results reveal that both proposed methods can capture railway impact on urban growth, while the former algorithm under the right settings may perform better than the latter at finer resolutions. Coarser resolution representation (300-m grid-spacing) eventually reduces the differences in accuracy among the default SLEUTH model and the proposed algorithms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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21 pages, 6564 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on Land Use/Cover Change and Ecosystem Services in Harbin, China

by Dao Riao, Xiaomeng Zhu, Zhijun Tong, Jiquan Zhang and Aoyang Wang

Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 6076; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156076 - 28 Jul 2020

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2968

Abstract

Land use/cover change (LUCC) and ecosystem service functions are current hot topics in global research on environmental change. A comprehensive analysis and understanding of the land use changes and ecosystem services, and the equilibrium state of the interaction between the natural environment and the social economy is crucial for the sustainable utilization of land resources. We used remote sensing image to research the LUCC, ecosystem service value (ESV), and ecological economic harmony (EEH) in eight main urban areas of Harbin in China from 1990 to 2015. The results show that, in the past 25 years, arable land—which is a part of ecological land—is the main source of construction land for urbanization, whereas the other ecological land is the main source of conversion to arable land. There is no significant change in the value ratio of ESV, however, it is also inclined to the southeast of the study area in spaces like the barycenter of LUCC. The EEH degree has risen from the potential crisis area to the medium coordination degree, and then dropped to the low coordination degree. This shows that although there has been limited change of LUCC, ESV, and EEH in eight main urban areas of Harbin in 25 years, there is a contradiction between the allocation of ecological land and non-ecological land. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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15 pages, 7286 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Detecting and Analyzing the Increase of High-Rising Buildings to Monitor the Dynamic of the Xiong’an New Area

by Liwei Li, Jinming Zhu, Lianru Gao, Gang Cheng and Bing Zhang

Sustainability 2020, 12(11), 4355; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114355 - 26 May 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2053

Abstract

As an effort to monitor the urban dynamic of the Xiong’an new area, this paper proposed a novel procedure to detect the increase of High-Rising Buildings (HRBs) from multi-temporal Sentinel-2 data based on Fully Convolutional Networks. The procedure was applied to detect the increase of HRBs between 2017 and 2019 in 39 counties in the center of the Xiong’an new area. The detected increases were validated and then analyzed in terms of their quantities, spatial distribution and driving forces at the county level. The results indicate that our method can effectively detect the increase of HRBs in large urban areas. The quantity and spatial distribution of the increased HRBs varies a lot in the 39 counties. Most of the increase is located in the north-east and the mid-west of the study region. As to the driving forces, it seems that no single factor can fully explain the increase. Among the five selected factors, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and transportation accessibility have clear high impacts than others. Number of Permanent Residents (NPR) and policy follow as the secondary group. The terrain has the lowest influence on the increase. Our method provides a useful tool to dynamically monitor HRBs in large areas and also the increase of HRBs can be employed as a new indicator to characterize urban development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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21 pages, 7945 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Land Use Changes in Four Municipalities of China Based on Intensity Analysis

by Siqin Tong, Gang Bao, Ah Rong, Xiaojun Huang, Yongbin Bao and Yuhai Bao

Sustainability 2020, 12(9), 3687; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093687 - 2 May 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2596

Abstract

Land use/cover change (LUCC) is becoming one of the most important and interesting problems in the study of global environmental change. Identifying the spatiotemporal behavior and associated driving forces behind changes in land use is crucial for the regional sustainable utilization of land resources. In this study, we consider the four municipalities of China (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing) and compare their spatiotemporal changes in land use from 1990 to 2015 by employing intensity analysis and barycenter migration models. We then discuss their driving forces. The results show that the largest reduction and increase variations were mainly concentrated in arable and construction land, respectively. The decrement and increment were the largest in Shanghai, followed by Beijing and Tianjin, and the least in Chongqing. Furthermore, the results of the barycenter migration model indicate that in addition to Beijing, the migration distances of construction land were longer than those of arable land in three other cities. Moreover, the application of intensity analysis revealed that the rate of land use change was also the greatest in Shanghai and the slowest in Chongqing during the whole study period, with all of their arable land being mainly transformed into construction land. The driving force analysis results suggest that the spatial and temporal patterns of land use change were the results of the socio-economic development, national policies, and major events. In other words, where there was a high rate of economic and population growth, the intensity of land use change was relatively large. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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17 pages, 3563 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Temporal–Spatial Distribution of Ecosystem Health and Its Response to Human Interference Based on Different Terrain Gradients: A Case Study in Gannan, China

by Yu Shi, Rui Han and Luo Guo

Sustainability 2020, 12(5), 1773; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051773 - 27 Feb 2020

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2542

Abstract

The exploitation, utilization, and protection of land resources are some of the great social problems during the process of rapid urbanization in China. The status of land use directly affects ecosystem health (ESH). The evaluation of ESH and the spatial correlations between urbanization caused by human interference help us to analyze the influence of urbanization on ecosystems and also provide new insight into reasonable and scientific resource management. In this study, we evaluated the ESH of Gannan, in Jiangxi Province, China, based on ecosystem service values (ESV) and selected a series of indicators to detect the impact of urbanization on ecosystem health in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010. and 2015. Remote sensing (RS) and the Geographic Information System (GIS) were used as processing tools to calculate basic data and to map the results based on different terrain gradients. The results show that ecosystem health suffered a downward trend from 1990 to 2015. Especially, the area proportion at an unhealthy level and average health (ave-health) level increased prominently, and the area of a well state decreased. Further, the results indicate that urbanization had a negative impact on ESH. The degree of a negative correlation increases with the process of urban sprawl. In addition, we found that from 1990 to 2015, the area proportion of a degraded level and unhealthy level was the highest on the first terrain gradient, and as the terrain gradient increased, this area proportion also decreased. However, the high interference region occupies a higher proportion in the lower terrain gradient. Consequently, the results could reveal the impact of urbanization on ecosystem health and could provide an even more effective service for a sustainable development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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23 pages, 914 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on the Environmental Education Demand and Environmental Literacy Assessment of Citizens in Sustainable Urban Construction in Beijing

by En Wu, Jing-Qi Cheng and Jia-Bao Zhang

Sustainability 2020, 12(1), 241; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010241 - 27 Dec 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4049

Abstract

In the process of sustainable urban construction, citizens’ environmental literacy is a decisive factor, and environmental education is an important factor affecting the former’s level. Therefore, by determining the environmental literacy and environmental education demand of 383 citizens, the conclusion of this study is instructive for sustainable urban construction in China and other developing countries. Further, in the study, data were collected through a paper questionnaire and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SSPS) software version 25 (IBM Corp, BJ, CHN) was used for data analysis. According to our survey, the average score of Beijing citizens’ environmental literacy is 3.77 out of 5, which reflects the necessity to carry out environmental education for the citizen. In order to effectively measure citizens’ environmental literacy, we divided the sample population into three groups according to their evaluation scores of environmental literacy. The social demographic characteristics of the high- and middle-scoring groups showed a higher proportion of women and well-educated people. A higher proportion of working or living stability was reflected in the majority of civil servants, staff of citizen institutions, retirees, and housewives. There were more people over the age of 30, most of whom have lived in Beijing for a long time. “Green lifestyle” and “knowledge and skills of environmental protection” were the aspects of environmental education that the sample group of Beijing citizens generally wants to learn. In addition, citizens in the high- and middle-scoring groups are also more interested in “ecological science knowledge”, while the low-scoring group is more interested in “the knowledge of environmental factors” and “environmental ethics”. The survey respondents showed the highest preference for environmental education (natural education) when participating in outdoor activities, followed by exhibition place and activity, with a relatively low preference for lecture and community activities. Mass media is also an important channel for environmental education, and the use preference and frequency of new media such as MicroBlog, WeChat, and short video applications are much higher than those of traditional media such as television and newspapers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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19 pages, 1365 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Agricultural Land Abandonment and Farmers’ Perceptions of Land Use Change in the Indus Plains of Pakistan: A Case Study of Sindh Province

by Habibullah Rajpar, Anlu Zhang, Amar Razzaq, Khalid Mehmood, Maula Bux Pirzado and Weiyan Hu

Sustainability 2019, 11(17), 4663; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174663 - 27 Aug 2019

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 10205

Abstract

Agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy. However, it has been noticed that farmers are increasingly giving up agriculture in favor of non-agricultural activities. This study was conducted in the Khairpur district of Sindh province, which is part of the Indus Plains in Pakistan. The main purpose of the study was to investigate the current and future land use change (LUC) trends and to study farmers’ perceptions of the causes and consequences of LUC and agricultural land abandonment (ALA) in the study area. The study used field survey data and secondary data obtained from the government sources. The results show that agricultural land in the region has decreased by about 9% in the past two decades. Survey data analysis confirms this because more than 80% of farmers believe that agricultural land in the area has declined over time. In addition, farmers believe that socioeconomic and environmental changes are the main reasons for LUC and ALA. We used a logistic regression model to determine the factors that influence farmers’ decisions to sell agricultural land for other uses. The results show that the age, income, land ownership, farm inheritance by successors, social networks and lack of basic facilities in the study area are the main determinants of farmers’ decisions to sell agricultural lands. In particular, farmers’ integration into the social network and their belief that the farm will be inherited by heirs reduces the possibility of selling land. As for the consequences of LUC and ALA, the results indicate that farmland prices, weeds infestation, urban diffusion, and pressure on existing infrastructure have increased in the study area. In addition, the results show that the prospects of farming in the area remain grim as most farmers indicated that they were willing to abandon agricultural lands in favor of other revenue generation activities. The study suggests that policymakers should pay close attention to controlling rapid LUC and ALA to keep lands green. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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15 pages, 1736 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Whether Urban Development and Ecological Protection Can Achieve a Win-Win Situation—The Nonlinear Relationship between Urbanization and Ecosystem Service Value in China

by Yingtao Wu, Maogang Tang, Zhonghao Zhang and Baijun Wu

Sustainability 2019, 11(12), 3277; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123277 - 13 Jun 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3017

Abstract

Most of the existing research on urbanization suggests that urbanization leads to a decline in ecosystem services values (ESV). However, the impacts of industrial structure and changes in land use patterns on ESV have often been ignored. Using provincial data in China from 2003 to 2015, this study demonstrates the possibility of achieving a win-win situation regarding urbanization and ESV enhancement at the global and regional scales. The negative effect from production processes and the influence of residents’ preferences are considered in the evaluation of ESV. The impact of urbanization on ESV is empirically analyzed by using a spatially adaptive semi-parametric model in order to mitigate both endogeneity of the parametric model and the curse of dimensionality in nonparametric model. The results show that there is a U-shaped curve relationship between urbanization and ESV for the whole country. However, most provinces of China are still located at the left side of the U-shaped curve where urbanization reduces the ESV per capita. Central and local governments should strengthen differentiated land use policies, environmental regulations, and finance and tax policies to transform the industrial structure, so that each province may achieve a win-win situation regarding urbanization and ESV enhancement. Such policy changes would promote sustainable development in China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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18 pages, 5400 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Estimation of Gridded Population and GDP Scenarios with Spatially Explicit Statistical Downscaling

by Daisuke Murakami and Yoshiki Yamagata

Sustainability 2019, 11(7), 2106; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11072106 - 9 Apr 2019

Cited by 122 | Viewed by 12245

Abstract

This study downscales the population and gross domestic product (GDP) scenarios given under Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) into 0.5-degree grids. Our downscale approach has the following features. (i) It explicitly considers spatial and socioeconomic interactions among cities, (ii) it utilizes auxiliary variables, including road network and land cover, (iii) it endogenously estimates the influence from each factor by a model ensemble approach, and (iv) it allows us to control urban shrinkage/dispersion depending on SSPs. It is confirmed that our downscaling results are consistent with scenario assumptions (e.g., concentration in SSP1 and dispersion in SSP3). Besides, while existing grid-level scenarios tend to have overly-smoothed population distributions in nonurban areas, ours does not suffer from the problem, and captures the difference in urban and nonurban areas in a more reasonable manner. Our gridded dataset, including population counts and gross productivities by 0.5 degree grids by 10 years, are available from http://www.cger.nies.go.jp/gcp/population-and-gdp.html. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Cover Changes and Sustainable Urban Growth)

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