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Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Ecology and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 39860

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Pingping Luo

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Guest Editor

School of Water and Environment, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China
Interests: urban flood; flood management; hydrological modeling; water quality analysis; statistical analysis; sustainable water resource management; ecohydrology
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Prof. Dr. Jianzhong Pei

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School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi'an 710064, China
Interests: road construction; highway materials; sponge road; urban sustainable road construction

Prof. Dr. Quanhua Hou

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Guest Editor

School of Architecture, Chang'an University, Xi’an 710061, China
Interests: urban and rural planning; spatial resilience; land transfer; urban–rural integration
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Prof. Dr. Wenke Wang

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Guest Editor

School of Water and Environment, Chang’an University, Xi'an 710054, China
Interests: urban planning; sustainable groundwater management; hydrological modeling; environment management; ecohydrology

Prof. Dr. Jiahong Liu

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Guest Editor

China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100044, China
Interests: urban hydrology; water ecosystem protection and restoration; digital watershed; water resource management

Prof. Dr. Jingming Hou

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School of Water Resources and Hydro-electric Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, China
Interests: hydrodynamic modeling; flood management; low-impact development measures; eco-hydraulics; environmental hydraulics; sediment transport
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Prof. Dr. Van-Thanh-Van Nguyen

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Interests: climate change impact and adaptation in water resources; modelling of hydrologic extremes; watershed modelling for sustainable water resource development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid development of social economy and urbanization has led to large-scale urban expansion, which has destroyed the original hydrological environment and reduced the bearing capacity of the urban ecosystem to cope with various natural disasters, so that many cities are faced with frequent flood, water loss, ecological environment imbalance, and other issues. Due to the continuous development of urbanization, impervious pavements and building roofs have been added, which further change the hydrological cycle of the city. This has led to the occurrence of urban flood disasters caused by the rainstorm season, which is harmful to the lives and property of the people. Based on the current problems of flood disaster and water resources, it is necessary to form a sustainable urban management strategy of rainwater utilization.

With the increase of global urban population, the pressure of urban water resources will continue to rise. Therefore, urban management must be carried out under the concept of sustainable development in order to improve the shortage of water resources and mitigate the impact of flood and inundation disasters. In the process of urban management, we should promote the comprehensive utilization of rainwater and flood resources and the protection of ecological environment under the concept of sustainable urban development, which can avoid the occurrence of flood disasters in the city, improve the utilization rate of water resources, and ensure the balanced development of urban ecology.

This Special Issue focuses on highlighting state-of-the-art research that promotes the concept of the sponge city in the process of urban management to reduce urban flood disasters and ensure sustainable development of the urban ecological environment and put forward reasonable ideas for sponge city management and construction through numerical simulation. This Special Issue seeks articles that utilize approaches including, but not limited to, numerical simulation, empirical methods, and related methods using urban planning and management under sustainable development.

Prof. Dr. Pingping Luo
Prof. Dr. Jianzhong Pei
Prof. Dr. Quanhua Hou
Prof. Dr. Wenke Wang
Prof. Dr. Jiahong Liu
Prof. Dr. Jingming Hou
Prof. Dr. Van-Thanh-Van Nguyen
Guest Editors

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Keywords

sponge city
rainwater resource utilization
urban planning
urban management
waste water treatment
sustainable water resource management

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Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development–Second Edition in Sustainability (2 articles)

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Research

15 pages, 4493 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water Purification Effect of Ecological Floating Bed Combination Based on the Numerical Simulation

by Lanqing Qiu, Ping Yu, Shaofei Li, Huixin Ma, Danying Li and Jianzhu Li

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12276; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912276 - 27 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1807

Abstract

The Wuqing urban section of the North Canal Basin, Tianjin, is a significant gathering place for multisource pollution, showing the characteristics of a stagnant water body supplied by unconventional water sources. With the development of the economy and society, the water quality of the Wuqing urban section of the North Canal Basin, Tianjin, has been seriously polluted due to the discharge of sewage outlets and the influx of nonpoint source pollution from farmland. In this study, based on the results of special water experiments, a two-dimensional hydrodynamic water quality model was constructed. The concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), total phosphorus (TP), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the study area were simulated, and the model parameters were calibrated and verified with the measured values. Based on the model verification, the water quality improvement scheme of the ecological floating bed with different plant ratios was set up to simulate the water quality. The research results showed that the average concentrations of NH₃-N, TP, and COD decreased by 10.4%, 15.7%, and of d 26.3%, respectively, after the ecological floating bed was arranged. During model parameter calibration and validation, the RMSE ranges of NH₃-N, TP, and COD were 0.09~0.22 mg/L, 0.00~0.02 mg/L, and 0.37~2.42 mg/L, respectively. Other statistical indicators are also within a reasonable range, and the model accuracy and reliability are high. The simulation results of different scenarios showed that the optimal ratio of ecological floating bed plants was 700 m² of Scirpus validus Vahl and 700 m² of Canna in zone 1 of the floating bed combination, 430 m² of Scirpus validus Vahl, and 170 m² of Iris in zone 2 of the floating bed combination, and 200 m² of Iris and 200 m² of Lythrum salicaria in zone 3 of the floating bed combination. This study can provide a theoretical basis for the sustainable development of water purification in the North Canal. It can also provide a model approach for the implementation of river water purification schemes, exemplified by the North Canal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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17 pages, 4460 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparative Assessment of Sponge City Constructing in Public Awareness, Xi’an, China

by Pingping Luo, Yue Zheng, Yiyi Wang, Shipeng Zhang, Wangqi Yu, Xi Zhu, Aidi Huo, Zhenhong Wang, Bin He and Daniel Nover

Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11653; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811653 - 16 Sep 2022

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 3297

Abstract

Climate change and urbanization are causing increasingly frequent urban flooding in countries around the world. Various innovative approaches have emerged to address this challenge. In China, the Sponge City was first proposed in 2012 to achieve an urban hydrological balance through natural storage, natural infiltration and natural purification. This article presents a comparative investigation (using a survey method) of new and old communities in Xixian New District and Xi’an in September 2021 to investigate public awareness of the Sponge City and understand levels of satisfaction and acceptance. Individuals of the same age or education residing in the Sponge City generally know more about the Sponge City and were more willing to accept it than those in traditional cities. Moreover, the residents of Sponge City understand the Sponge City concept well, with a majority of the respondents (71.82%) expressing clear understanding on the conception of Sponge City. However, residents in a traditional city exhibited much less understanding of the concept (44.24%). Furthermore, for those living in the same area, people who are younger or have higher education exhibited a clearer understanding of and acceptance of the Sponge City and local government. In this survey, the average scores (assign values to the different responses, then average and percent it) of respondents in Xixian New District with master’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees and high school degrees or below were evaluated at 76.88, 67.94 and 62.15, respectively, compared to 62.07, 50.18 and 50.78 in Xi’an. Lastly, we found that differences in living environment have a significant influence on residents’ perceptions. Residents living in the Sponge City are generally satisfied with the travel and living conditions and greatly support the local government. Meanwhile, this study will help relevant authorities pay more attention to residents’ opinions and help them to formulate policies to spread the concept of Sponge City and encourage residents’ participation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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19 pages, 7024 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identifying Population Hollowing Out Regions and Their Dynamic Characteristics across Central China

by Bin Guo, Yi Bian, Lin Pei, Xiaowei Zhu, Dingming Zhang, Wencai Zhang, Xianan Guo and Qiuji Chen

Sustainability 2022, 14(16), 9815; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14169815 - 9 Aug 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2179

Abstract

Continuous urbanization and industrialization lead to plenty of rural residents migrating to cities for a living, which seriously accelerated the population hollowing issues. This generated series of social issues, including residential estate idle and numerous vigorous laborers migrating from undeveloped rural areas to wealthy cities and towns. Quantitatively determining the population hollowing characteristic is the priority task of realizing rural revitalization. However, the traditional field investigation methods have obvious deficiencies in describing socio-economic phenomena, especially population hollowing, due to weak efficiency and low accuracy. Here, this paper conceives a novel scheme for representing population hollowing levels and exploring the spatiotemporal dynamic of population hollowing. The nighttime light images were introduced to identify the potential hollowing areas by using the nightlight decreasing trend analysis. In addition, the entropy weight approach was adopted to construct an index for evaluating the population hollowing level based on statistical datasets at the political boundary scale. Moreover, we comprehensively incorporated physical and anthropic factors to simulate the population hollowing level via random forest (RF) at a grid-scale, and the validation was conducted to evaluate the simulation results. Some findings were achieved. The population hollowing phenomenon decreasing gradually was mainly distributed in rural areas, especially in the north of the study area. The RF model demonstrated the best accuracy with relatively higher R² (Mean = 0.615) compared with the multiple linear regression (MLR) and the geographically weighted regression (GWR). The population hollowing degree of the grid-scale was consistent with the results of the township scale. The population hollowing degree represented an obvious trend that decreased in the north but increased in the south during 2016–2020 and exhibited a significant reduction trend across the entire study area during 2019–2020. The present study supplies a novel perspective for detecting population hollowing and provides scientific support and a first-hand dataset for rural revitalization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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24 pages, 6573 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Legal Governance in the Smart Cities of China: Functions, Problems, and Solutions

by Wei He, Wanqiang Li and Peidong Deng

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9738; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159738 - 8 Aug 2022

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3806

Abstract

The development approach to creating smart cities focused on data collection and processing relies on the construction of an efficient digital infrastructure and a safe trading environment under the protection of legal governance. Thus, studying the role and improvement of legal authority in the construction of smart cities is vital. This study first described the digital economy index of 31 provinces in China from 2014 to 2020, and analyzed the function of the legal governance in the development of local smart cities based on the promulgation and implementation of regulations on smart cities in the same period. The results indicate that perfect central legislation can provide a safe and stable environment for smart cities, and there is a positive correlation between the number of local norms and the development of digital economy. However, the limitation in legislation and its implementation causes legal gray areas, which hamper the development of smart cities. After conducting text analysis on multiple legal documents, we identified that the most critical issues are data security issue, data alienation issue, public data opening, and sharing issue. To this end, we examined the role that legal governance plays in the smart cities of New York and London in a case-comparison approach. Overall, we proposed future coping mechanisms for legal governance in smart city construction, such as promoting multi-subject participation in formulating legal norms, changing the model before legal regulation, and using local legal norms to determine the scope and quality of government data disclosure. This study further filled the gap in the study of China’s smart cities from the legal system of risk identification and control, which could help regulatory bodies, policymakers, and researchers to make better decisions to overcome the challenges for developing sustainable smart cities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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26 pages, 2988 KiB

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Nonlinear Impact of Circulation-Industry Intelligentization on the Urban–Rural Income Gap: Evidence from China

by Haoyun Meng, Peidong Deng and Jinbo Zhang

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9405; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159405 - 1 Aug 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2254

Abstract

Integrating informatization into the circulation industry has led to the concept of circulation-industry intelligence. By reducing transportation costs and increasing total factor productivity, the incomes of rural-area residents can be improved; a new pattern of regional economy can be established; urban, rural, social, and economic development can become more coordinated; and social sustainable development can be promoted. In this study, we used China’s provincial panel data corresponding to the 2007–2019 period to measure the intelligence index of the circulation industry in each region and determine the factors that affect the urban–rural income gap; thereafter, we conducted comparative analyses. Further, a fixed-effects model was established based on the theory of agglomeration and diffusion effects to analyze the relationship between these two variables. Our analysis identified innovation investment as a significant intermediary mechanism. The robustness of this finding was verified by substituting variables and controlling for endogeneity. Thus, the effect was shown to be regionally heterogeneous. This study innovatively integrated informatization into the circulation industry, and the results obtained provide a reference for formulating transportation infrastructure as well as informatization strategies for promoting urban–rural coordination and sustainable development globally. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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21 pages, 4418 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of China’s Provincial Government Debt on Economic Growth and Sustainable Development

by Wanping Yang, Zhenya Zhang, Yajuan Wang, Peidong Deng and Luyao Guo

Sustainability 2022, 14(3), 1474; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031474 - 27 Jan 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3576

Abstract

Macroeconomic stability is the core concept of sustainable development. However, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused government debt problems worldwide. In this context, it is of practical significance to study the impact of government debt on economic growth and fluctuations. Based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2019, we used the Mann–Kendall method and Kernel Density estimation to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution of China’s provincial government debt ratio and adopted a panel model and HP filtering method to study the impact of provincial government debt on economic growth and fluctuation. Our findings indicate that, during the sample period, China’s provincial government debt promoted economic growth and the regression coefficient (0.024) was significant. From different regional perspectives, the promotion effect of the central region (0.027) is higher than that of the eastern (0.020) and western regions (0.023). There is a nonlinear relationship between China’s provincial government debt and economic growth, showing an inverted “U-shaped” curve. Fluctuations in government debt aggravate economic volatility, with a coefficient of 0.009; tax burden fluctuation and population growth rate aggravate economic changes. In contrast, the optimization of the province’s industrial structure and the improvement of the opening level of provinces slow down economic fluctuations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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22 pages, 7065 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quality Analysis on Spatial Planning Pattern of Rural Area in Southern Shaanxi, China

by Juan Xu, Mengsheng Yang, Ziliang Lu, Dan Liu and Yan Wu

Sustainability 2021, 13(22), 12668; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212668 - 16 Nov 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1866

Abstract

There have been many studies that have only focused on factors affecting the spatial distribution of rural settlements, without paying attention to their function and scale. China’s mountainous rural area has many problems, such as a fragile ecological environment, poor infrastructure and limited public service facilities. As a result, mountainous rural settlements demonstrate a disorderly and scattered layout. This research takes southern Shaanxi as its research area and uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to analyze the field survey data, revealing the spatial format of rural settlements and its influencing factors. The research results show that: (1) The spatial structure of mountainous settlements can be summarized as falling into three types—agglomeration type, belt type, and dispersion type. The individual settlements are discrete, and the spatial structure of the settlement groups exhibits small-scale clustering in a large area. (2) The influencing factors of spatial structure are ranked thus—geomorphological conditions > population quantity > land use scale. (3) The number of settlements in the study area is constantly decreasing, and their boundaries are gradually shrinking, showing randomly distributed characteristics. (4) A radius of 284.12 m can be used as a measure of the development scope of the village to control the scope of settlement construction. The objective of the research is to classify the spatial structure and propose the most optimal spatial mode in mountainous rural areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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17 pages, 5886 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation on the Change Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Function in the Northern Xinjiang Based on Land Use Change

by Yang Wang, Remina Shataer, Tingting Xia, Xueer Chang, Hui Zhen and Zhi Li

Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9679; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179679 - 28 Aug 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2279

Abstract

Monitoring the interannual changes in land use and the temporal and spatial characteristics of the ecosystem services value (ESV) can help to comprehensively and objectively understand the distribution of regional ecological patterns. The mountain–oasis–desert transition zone in the northern Tianshan Mountain region of Xinjiang, China, is a geographically unique area with a highly sensitive ecosystem. As a data source, the study uses Landsat TM images from 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2018 along with GIS-extracted data to calculate the dynamic degree of land use. As well, the spatial and temporal patterns of land use change and ESV are quantitatively analyzed by using the equivalent factor method, sensitivity index, and spatial correlation studies. The results reveal the following: (1) From 1990 to 2018, the land use changes in the northern Tianshans are relatively drastic, mainly due to the increase in cultivated land, grassland and construction land, and the decrease in forest land, water, and unused land. (2) The ESV increases and then decreases, for a total loss of about 271.63 × 10⁸ yuan. The largest decrease is in forest value, and the largest increase (around 129.94%) is in construction land. (3) The spatial distribution pattern of ESV in the northern Tianshans is apparent, showing high in the north and southwest, and low in the central and southeast portions of the study area. Additionally, there is a visible spatial correlation and aggregation in ESV. The present research can provide theoretical support for the environmental protection of the ecologically vulnerable area of the northern Tianshans as well as for further construction across the region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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16 pages, 1328 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Risk Analysis for Short-Term Operation of the Power Generation in Cascade Reservoirs Considering Multivariate Reservoir Inflow Forecast Errors

by Yueqiu Wu, Liping Wang, Yi Wang, Yanke Zhang, Jiajie Wu, Qiumei Ma, Xiaoqing Liang and Bin He

Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 3689; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073689 - 26 Mar 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1707

Abstract

In the short-term operation of the power generation of cascade reservoirs, uncertainty factors such as inflow forecast errors could cause various types of risks. The inflow to a downstream reservoir is not only affected by inflow forecast errors from upstream reservoirs but also the forecast errors associated with inflow to the stream segment between the reservoirs, such as from a tributary. The inflow forecast errors of different forecast periods may also be correlated. To address this multivariate problem, the inflow forecast error variables were jointly fitted in this study using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and a t-Copula function based on the analysis of the error distribution characteristics in different forecast periods. Therefore, a stochastic model that coupled with the GMM and t-Copula to calculate inflow forecast errors in multiple forecast periods was established. Furthermore, according to the simulation results of the stochastic model and the predicted runoff series, a set of simulated runoff processes were obtained. Then they were combined with the existing power generation plan to carry out the risk analysis for short-term operation of the power generation in a cascade reservoir. The approach was evaluated using the Jinguan cascade hydropower system within the Yalong River basin as a case study. For this case study, the risk analysis for short-term operation of the power generation was analyzed based on stochastic simulation of the inflow forecast errors; the results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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18 pages, 1533 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Meta-Evaluation for the Evaluation of Environmental Management: Standards and Practices

by Jing Ma, Zhaoyun Yin and Zhengbing Guo

Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2567; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052567 - 27 Feb 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2821

Abstract

Environmental management plays a key role in the sustainable development of cities. The effectiveness of environmental management is commonly examined through some evaluation schemes, but the effectiveness of such evaluation schemes also needs to be verified. As such, in this study, meta-evaluation was creatively introduced into environmental management to improve the evaluation of environmental management (EEM). Meta-evaluation is the evaluation of an evaluation scheme, and can verify and enhance the evaluation quality. First, a set of new meta-evaluation standards and criteria was proposed based on the unique characteristics of environmental management, which made meta-evaluation standards more adaptable and effective. After that, the efficacy of the proposed meta-evaluation standards was verified through their application to two evaluation schemes used in different fields of EEM. Based on meta-evaluation, suggestions for improving these two EEM schemes were also provided. The major contributions of this study are to introduce meta-evaluation into environmental management, establish new evaluation standards, and examine the efficacy of EEM. The research showed that it is critical to carry out meta-evaluation before and/or after the implementation of EEM. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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20 pages, 4602 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Runoff Simulations Using Deep-Learning Methods

by Yan Liu, Ting Zhang, Aiqing Kang, Jianzhu Li and Xiaohui Lei

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1336; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031336 - 27 Jan 2021

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 2997

Abstract

Runoff simulations are of great significance to the planning management of water resources. Here, we discussed the influence of the model component, model parameters and model input on runoff modeling, taking Hanjiang River Basin as the research area. Convolution kernel and attention mechanism were introduced into an LSTM network, and a new data-driven model Conv-TALSTM was developed. The model parameters were analyzed based on the Conv-TALSTM, and the results suggested that the optimal parameters were greatly affected by the correlation between the input data and output data. We compared the performance of Conv-TALSTM and variant models (TALSTM, Conv-LSTM, LSTM), and found that Conv-TALSTM can reproduce high flow more accurately. Moreover, the results were comparable when the model was trained with meteorological or hydrological variables, whereas the peak values with hydrological data were closer to the observations. When the two datasets were combined, the performance of the model was better. Additionally, Conv-TALSTM was also compared with an ANN (artificial neural network) and Wetspa (a distributed model for Water and Energy Transfer between Soil, Plants and Atmosphere), which verified the advantages of Conv-TALSTM in peak simulations. This study provides a direction for improving the accuracy, simplifying model structure and shortening calculation time in runoff simulations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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14 pages, 1247 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Relationship between Coordination Degree of the Water–Energy–Food System and Regional Economic Development

by Shasha Xu, Weijun He, Liang Yuan, Dagmawi Mulugeta Degefu, Yang Yang and Hua Li

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1305; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031305 - 27 Jan 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2227

Abstract

The sustainable development of the water–energy–food (WEF) system has gained global attention as a result of limited land resources, inadequate energy supply and growing water stress. Coordination degree is an important indicator to measure the sustainable development of the WEF system. Improving the coordination degree contributes to the sustainable development of the WEF system and affects regional economic development. The extended Cobb–Douglas function is applied to examine the relationship between coordination degree of the WEF system and regional economic development in 31 provinces of China during the period of 2007–2018. By using the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation, empirical results indicate that in the regions with low coordination degree, improved coordination degree of the WEF system will hinder regional economic growth. In the regions with high coordination degree, it will promote regional economic growth. The results indicate that there is a lag period for the influence of improved coordination degree on regional economic growth. When making resources management policies, shortening the lag period is conducive to achieving sustainable development and promoting regional economic development. Governments of various regions should formulate different resource management policies based on the conditions of each region and the different relationships between coordination degree of the WEF system and regional economic development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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18 pages, 6049 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Basin Water Sensitivity and Its Impact on Spatial Expansion: A Case Study of the Taihu Basin, China

by Wei Sun, Yi Wang, Wen Chen, Bin He and Chong-Gang Liu

Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10353; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410353 - 11 Dec 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2049

Abstract

Water is the most important and sensitive factor controlling urban development in basins. This paper developed a novel approach to construct a Basin Water Sensitivity Index (BWSI) from the perspective of integrated basin management. The correlation between the spatial expansion of development and water sensitivity over the past 30 years in the Taihu Basin was analyzed using BWSI and urban development data. The analysis found that, (1) from 1985 to 1995 the spatial expansion of developed areas in the Taihu Basin was unrelated to BWSI; (2) from 1995 to 2007 the expansion intensity decreased with an increase in BWSI; and (3) from 2007 to 2017 there was a significant increase in the spatial development expansion intensity and the area of expansion was concentrated in low BWSI areas, while the constraints of water sensitivity on spatial expansion were more obvious than in previous years. The analysis illustrated how BWSI affected spatial growth in a basin and this research can be used to help formulate a spatial growth management policy that includes water sensitivity and provides a scientific basis for coordinating the relationship between economic and social development with water resources and the environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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21 pages, 3419 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Soil Quality Assessment Based on a Minimum Data Set: A Case Study of a County in the Typical River Delta Wetlands

by Mingliang Jiang, Ligang Xu, Xiaobing Chen, Hua Zhu and Hongxiang Fan

Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 9033; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12219033 - 30 Oct 2020

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4269

Abstract

Purpose: The Yellow River delta boasts rich land resources but lacks fresh water and exhibits poor natural conditions. To rationally develop and utilize the land resources therein, it is necessary to evaluate the soil quality. Methods: Adopting specific screening conditions, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to construct a minimum data set (MDS) from 10 soil indicators. Then, a complete soil quality evaluation index system of the Yellow River delta was developed. The soil quality comprehensive index (SQI) method was used to assess the soil quality in the Kenli District, and the soil quality grades and spatial distribution were analyzed. Results: (1) The average SQI of the Kenli District is 0.523, and the best soil quality is concentrated near the Yellow River, especially in Huanghekou town. (2) The normalized difference vegetation index was positively correlate with SQI, whereas Dr (nearest distance between the sampling site and Yellow River) and Ds (nearest distance between the sampling site and Bohai Sea) were negatively correlated with SQI. Elev (sampling site elevation) was not correlated with SQI. (3) The SQI of agricultural planting is greater than that of the natural land type and significantly greater than that of nudation. The main factors limiting farmland soil quality are SK (water-soluble potassium) and pH, whereas the factor limiting the natural land type are the soil nutrient indicators. Conclusions: To improve soil quality and develop and utilize land resources, the towns should adopt systematic land development/utilization methods based on local conditions. These results have important guiding significance and practical value for the more objective and accurate evaluation of soil quality in coastal areas and the development and utilization of land resources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Management Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development)

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