Spatio-temporal dynamics and evolution of land use change and landscape pattern in response to rapid urbanization

Analyzing spatio-temporal characteristics of land use change is essential for understanding and assessing ecological consequence of urbanization. More importantly, such analysis can provide basic information for appropriate decision-making. By integrating historical high spatial-resolution SPOT images and spatial metrics, this study explored the spatio-temporal dynamics and evolution of land use change and landscape pattern in response to the rapid urbanization process of a booming-developing city in China from 1996 to 2006. Accurate and consistent land use change information was first extracted by the change detection method proposed in this study. The changes of landscape pattern were then analyzed using a series of spatial metrics which were derived from FRAGSTATS software. The results indicated that the rapid urbanization process has brought about enormous land use changes and urban growth at an unprecedented scale and rate and, consequently, given rise to substantial impacts on the landscape pattern. Findings further revealed that cropland and water were the major land use types developed for urban sprawl. Meanwhile, the landscape pattern underwent fundamental transition from agricultural-land-use dominant landscape to urban-land-use dominant landscape spanning the 10 years. The results not only confirmed the applicability and effectiveness of the combined method of remote sensing and metrics, but also revealed notable spatio-temporal features of land use change and landscape pattern dynamics throughout the different time periods (1996–2000, 2000–2003 and 2003–2006).     

Soil erosion dynamics response to landscape pattern

Simulating soil erosion variation with a temporal land use database reveals long-term fluctuations in landscape patterns, as well as priority needs for soil erosion conservation. The application of a multi-year land use database in support of a Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) led to an accurate assessment, from 1977 to 2006, of erosion in the upper watershed of the Yellow River. At same time, the impacts of land use and landscape service features on soil erosion load were assessed. A series of supervised land use classifications of Landsat images characterized variations in land use and landscape patterns over three decades. The SWAT database was constructed with soil properties, climate and elevation data. Using water flow and sand density data as parameters, regional soil erosion load was simulated. A numerical statistical model was used to relate soil erosion to land use and landscape. The results indicated that decadal decrease of grassland areas did not pose a significant threat to soil erosion, while the continual increase of bare land, water area and farmland increased soil erosion. Regional landscape variation also had a strong relationship with erosion. Patch level landscape analyses demonstrated that larger water area led to more soil erosion. The patch correlation indicated that contagious grassland patches reduced soil erosion yield. The increased grassland patches led to more patch edges, in turn increasing the sediment transportation from the patch edges. The findings increase understanding of the temporal variation in soil erosion processes, which is the basis for preventing local pollution.     

Planning an ecological network of Xiamen Island (China) using landscape metrics and network analysis

Most Chinese municipal governments and urban planners have attempted to conserve and create urban greenspace in response to rapid urbanization. It is a major task for urban landscape planners to construct an effective and harmonious urban ecological network and maintain a sustainable urban development environment. In this paper, the present situation and a recent greenway augment plan of Xiamen Island were assessed using a series of landscape metrics. The results showed that the recent greenway augment plan could improve the present greenway system considerably. The improvements were indicated by decrease in patch density, and increase in total class area and edge density on the patch level, landscape diversity, landscape evenness and landscape connectivity on the landscape level. On the basis of these analyses, a number of alternative planning scenarios were designed by using network analysis methods for improving the ecological network of Xiamen Island. An alternative planning scenario was proposed to decrease the degree of landscape fragmentation, increase the shape complexity of greenway patches and enhance the landscape connectivity. The results indicated that methods which integrate landscape metrics with network analyses could not only quantitatively assess the present situation and the rationality of planning for urban greenway systems, but also facilitate the design of planning scenarios for urban ecological networks, enabling them to meet the principles of conformity, harmony, circulation, safety, diversity and sustainability. The principles and methods of landscape ecology, and the greenway concepts that have originated in the West can be useful for Chinese landscape planning and can be applied to greenway development in China.     

Local and landscape scale variables impact parasitoid assemblages across an urbanization gradient

Urbanization is a major driver of land cover change worldwide, yet little is known about how urbanization affects beneficial arthropod communities. This study examined how local and landscape scale variables associated with urbanization influenced parasitic Hymenoptera abundance and diversity in residential and commercial properties along a rural to urban landscape gradient in Wisconsin. At a landscape scale, 300 m surrounding sites, land cover percentages were calculated for five cover classes: impervious cover, forest, grassland, agriculture, and urban green space. In addition, habitat diversity (Simpson's index) was calculated for the landscape surrounding study sites. At a local scale (within the boundaries of an individual property), flower diversity, flower area, tree density, and hardscape were measured and related to parasitoid abundance and diversity. During 2006 and 2007, parasitoids were sampled twice a month June-August using yellow sticky cards. Parasitoid abundance was a positive function of flower diversity, a local scale variable. The positive relationship between parasitoid abundance and flower diversity only occurred in areas containing high to moderate levels of urban development, suggesting parasitoids locally benefited from the increased availability of floral resources in urban but not rural sites. Parasitoid diversity decreased as impervious cover increased in the surrounding landscape. Parasitoid diversity decreased by approximately 10% in highly urbanized sites relative to rural sites, a pattern driven by several parasitoid families not detected in urban sites. These results suggest conservation strategies that focus on landscape variables at multiple scales can play an integral role in preserving beneficial arthropods across urban landscapes.     

Relationship between landscape visual attributes and spatial pattern indices: A test study in Mediterranean-climate landscapes

The analysis of the relationships between landscape visual quality and landscape structural properties is an active area of environmental perception research. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between landscape spatial pattern and the rating of visual aesthetic quality. Eight landscape photographs were evaluated for 11 visual attributes by 98 respondents. The scores obtained for these 11 attributes were subjected to principal components analysis in order to summarize the qualities used by the respondents and thus determine their visual preferences. For each photograph, three window sizes were defined (with respect to a landcover map) to cover the different areas corresponding to the visual field (foreground, mid-ground and background). The landscape spatial structure for each window was analyzed using spatial metrics. The correlation between each dimension and the spatial pattern indices of the landscape were then calculated. Positive correlations were obtained between visual aesthetic quality and a number of landscape pattern indices. The results suggest that landscape heterogeneity might be an important factor in determining visual aesthetic quality.     

Analyses of urban landscape dynamics using multi-temporal satellite images: A comparison of two petroleum-oriented cities

Rapid urbanization, as a result of population growth and migration from rural to urban, has been recognized as a critical process in urban areas. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal landscape dynamics using multi-temporal satellite images in two petroleum-based cities: Houston, Texas in the United States and Daqing, Heilongjiang province in China. Both cities expanded rapidly on the basis of the petroleum industries during the last 50 years; however, under different socio-political contexts. Comparing the landscape pattern and dynamics in these two cities, we can identify how the urbanization in these two petroleum-based cities affects the landscape pattern, especially in the natural landscapes. A set of landscape indices with supplementary ecological meanings was chosen to facilitate our analyses of spatial dynamics over a span of 20 years. On the basis of the derived indices, a general trend of landscape change was revealed in these two cities: natural landscapes such as grassland and wetland were degraded or fragmented into a more heterogeneous pattern, while the human landscapes such as residential area expanded greatly by replacing other natural classes.     

An evaluation of VEGETATION-1 imagery for broad-scale landscape mapping of Russia: effects of resolution on landscape pattern

The problem of efficient use of multi-scale data for land-cover and landscape mapping has already attracted considerable attention in landscape ecology and some other disciplines. Over the last few decades, however, with the development of satellite remote sensing techniques, the questions of efficient planetary and macro-regional ecological mapping and modeling and integration of multi-scale data have become especially pertinent. The purpose of this study is to test the suitability of the coarse-resolution VEGETATION/SPOT imagery for landscape mapping. Effects of changing spatial resolution on land-cover proportion estimates were examined in 16 different landscapes using spatially degraded high-resolution imagery from the Russian satellite, RESURS-F. Comparison of simulated coarse-resolution data and original images and ancillary data for sites with different landscape patterns, showed strong scale dependence of the landscape characteristics (land-cover proportion, fragmentation, patchiness) in different case study areas, such as sub-boreal forest, sub-urban areas, and an agricultural region in the steppe zone.     

Relationships between visual landscape preferences and map-based indicators of landscape structure

There is increasing awareness of the need to monitor trends in our constantly changing agricultural landscapes. Monitoring programmes often use remote sensing data and focus on changes in land cover/land use in relation to values such as biodiversity, cultural heritage and recreation. Although a wide range of indicators is in use, landscape aesthetics is a topic that is frequently neglected. Our aim was to determine whether aspects of landscape content and configuration could be used as surrogate measures for visual landscape quality in monitoring programmes based on remote sensing. In this paper, we test whether map-derived indicators of landscape structure from the Norwegian monitoring programme for agricultural landscapes are correlated with visual landscape preferences. Two groups of people participated: (1) locals and (2) non-local students. Using the total dataset, we found significant positive correlations between preferences and spatial metrics, including number of land types, number of patches and land type diversity. In addition, preference scores were high where water was present within the mapped image area, even if the water itself was not visible in the images. When the dataset was split into two groups, we found no significant correlation between the preference scores of the students and locals. Whilst the student group preferred images portraying diverse and heterogeneous landscapes, neither diversity nor heterogeneity was correlated with the preference scores of the locals. We conclude that certain indicators based on spatial structure also have relevance in relation to landscape preferences in agricultural landscapes. However, the finding that different groups of people prefer different types of landscape underlines the need for care when interpreting indicator values.     

Landscape change and the urbanization process in Europe

Urbanization is one of the fundamental characteristics of the European civilization. It gradually spread from Southeast Europe around 700 . ., across the whole continent. Cities and the urban networks they formed were always an important factor in the development and shaping of their surrounding regions. Polarization of territory between urban and rural and accessibility are still important aspects in landscape dynamics. Urbanization and its associated transportation infrastructure define the relationship between city and countryside. Urbanization, expressed as the proportion of people living in urban places shows a recent but explosive growth reaching values around 80% in most European countries. Simultaneously the countryside becomes abandoned. Thinking, valuing and planning the countryside is done mainly by urbanites and future rural development is mainly focused upon the urban needs. Thinking of urban places with their associated rural hinterland and spheres of influence has become complex. Clusters of urban places, their situation in a globalizing world and changing accessibility for fast transportation modes are some new factors that affect the change of traditional European cultural landscapes. Urbanization processes show cycles of evolution that spread in different ways through space. Urbanization phases developed at different speeds and time between Northern and Southern Europe. Main cities are affected first, but gradually urbanization processes affect smaller settlements and even remote rural villages. Functional urban regions (FURs) are a new concept, which is also significant for landscape ecologists. Local landscape change can only be comprehended when situated in its general geographical context and with all its related dynamics. Patterns of change are different for the countryside near major cities, for metropolitan villages and for remote rural villages. Planning and designing landscapes for the future requires that this is understood. Urbanized landscapes are highly dynamic, complex and multifunctional. Therefore, detailed inventories of landscape conditions and monitoring of change are urgently needed in order to obtain reliable data for good decision-making.     

Evaluation of five landscape-level metrics for measuring the effects of urbanization on landscape structure: the case of Tucson, Arizona, USA

Landscape-level metrics can be used to measure changes in landscape structure over time. Four landscape-level metrics and rank-size distributions were used to describe changes in landscape structure caused by urbanization in a portion of the Tucson, Arizona metropolitan area between 1984 and 1998. This analysis describes what each metric conveys regarding how urbanization affects landscape structure. It also compares the efficacy of rank-size distributions with the other metrics. Results indicate all five metrics provided information about a specific aspect of landscape structure including patch size, shape, or dispersion. Results indicate that rank-size distributions and their scaling exponents are useful because they provide information not available from the other metrics. Rank-size distributions describe the patch-size scaling properties of specific land-cover types, the relative effect of large and small patches on the distribution of patch sizes, the magnitude of change in patch size, where patch sizes differ from what is expected by the regression model, and the range of patch sizes displaying fractal patterns.     

Spatiotemporal Landscape Pattern Change in Response to Future Urbanisation in Maricopa County,Arizona, USA

Urban growth combined with increasing population modifies landscape structure and functions at various scales. Identifying the accumulated effects of urbanisation on landscape composition and configuration over time is crucial to anticipate the functional change of altered landscape and to gauge landscape sustainability. Focusing on critical ecosystems, this study aims to understand how landscape patterns will evolve in response to the proposed development plans in Maricopa County, Arizona. Two primary GIS data layers were developed including the urban ecosystem layer with different natural land cover types (e.g. desert shrub, grassland, green space, and agriculture) and the urbanisation layer with residential, commercial, and recreational land use. To examine the spatiotemporal pattern change, urbanisation scenarios were designed with a basis on development status and implementation certainty, along with landscape metrics calculation. The findings demonstrated how the landscape metrics behave differently across different urbanisation conditions and which type of landscape will be most likely sensitive to future urbanisation processes. The study provides significant implications for landscape planning and guides planners to seek more optimal alternatives among various policy decisions.     

A comparison of landscape metrics for conservation planning

This study examined the extent to which commonly used and easily obtained landscape metrics contribute to a conservation planning process that must be completed rapidly and economically. Specifically, we aimed to determine if landscape metrics could be used to guide the prioritization process when the importance of sites to conservation portfolios is measured in terms of irreplaceability, as measured by the probability that a particular site will be required in conservation reserve network. This question was examined in the context of a flexible planning process where the size of a conservation portfolio may vary over time. We used avian survey data from 35 riparian forest sites in central Ohio to calculate irreplaceability scores for each site. Landscape composition within a 1-km radius of each site was measured as the number of buildings and the percent forest, agriculture, roads, pavement and mowed surfaces. Multinomial logistic regression models were created and compared using Akaike Information Criterion. Results suggest that when predicting the irreplaceability value of a site, a simple yet effective method involves the use of forest coverage at the landscape-level plus one metric measuring human disturbance. This result appears to hold across a range of portfolio sizes and is therefore useful even in the context of a planning process that varies in scope over time.     

Using GIS and landscape metrics in the hedonic price modeling of the amenity value of urban green space: A case study in Jinan City, China

Urban green spaces have important amenity values that include provision of leisure opportunities and aesthetic enjoyment. However, most of these values lack a market price. Consequently, they are usually ignored or underestimated by urban planning policy-makers, with the result that remnant urban green spaces are being gradually encroached upon by urban sprawl. As a result, quantitative information regarding the implicit, non-market price benefits from urban green space is urgently required. Properties bought and sold on the market are compound commodities that embody amenity values and people are willing to pay to live in the proximity of local amenity environment. Thus hedonic models, which use such properties as proxies, can often be employed to quantify environmental amenities. In China, residential housing reform (in place since 1998) has terminated the traditional residential welfare system, and made it possible to quantify the monetary value of green space amenities based on hedonic pricing models. This study was conducted in Jinan City, and will help address the previous absence of the application of hedonic price models to the valuation of urban green space amenities in mainland China. GIS and landscape metrics were used in determining hedonic price model variables. As expected, the results proved that the hedonic pricing model performed well using this approach, and accordingly it was further improved. Results also confirmed the positive amenity impact of proximate urban green spaces on house prices, and highlighted the preferences of homeowners in Jinan City. Green space amenity variables that were statistically significant at the 5% level included the size–distance index of scenery forest, accessibility to park and plaza green space types, and the percentage of urban green space. In addition, land-use patch richness, the location sector and the education environment also proved to be highly significant variables. The results of the study should provide insights to policy-makers involved in urban planning.     

Factors affecting changes in landscape diversity in rural areas of the Fagus crenata forest region of central Japan

We compared landscape diversity in a primary forest site and a coppice forest site in rural area of the Fagus crenata forest region of central Japan. We focused on the factors affecting landscape diversity, with special reference to land ownership, and the relationship between changes in landscape diversity and the spatial distribution of landscape elements. We were able to identify two patterns that led to increased landscape diversity in the study sites. In the first, which was most apparent in the primary forest site, increased diversity resulted primarily from an increase in the number of landscape elements. In the other, which was seen in the coppice forest site, increased diversity resulted from a decrease in the difference between the numbers of grid squares dominated by each landscape element while the number of landscape elements remained unchanged. Land ownership also had different implications for the increase of landscape diversity. The changes in the Contagion Index, which decreased in private land and increased in the national forest, showed that private land contains many small patches while the landscape of the national forest consists of a few large, contiguous patches. Thus, an evaluation of changes in landscape structure requires measuring a variety of indexes in addition to the diversity.     

The influence of forest management on landscape structure in the cool-temperate forest region of central Japan

Comprehension of historical changes in landscape and forest management will provide valuable insights into current ecosystems and biodiversity and will support future management decisions and conservation strategies. This study clarified changes in the forest landscape of the cool-temperate forest region of central Japan from 1947 to 1997. We used a geographic information system to reconstruct past forest landscapes at four times (1947, 1962, 1975, and 1997) based on interpretation of aerial photographs and landscape metrics calculated using the FRAGSTATS software for spatial pattern analysis. Our results showed that secondary forests, the dominant land use in 1947, decreased greatly in area and became more fragmented, whereas coniferous plantations, which occupied approximately 20% of the total land area in 1947, became the dominant land use (almost 40% of the total land) by 1997. The young coniferous plantations have been established at increasing elevations over time and were mainly created by conversion of secondary forest until 1975. The number of young coniferous plantations and their patch spacing depended on the type of forest management. In the study area, landscape structure changed in response to changes in management of national forests, especially the expansion of afforestation in the 1950s and 1960s and changes in harvesting systems.     

Spatial characteristics of exurban settlement pattern in the United States

Despite pervasive exurban development in the United States (US) over the last several decades, a lack of relatively precise data has hindered basic research, including classification of the types of emerging exurban settlement patterns. But because exurbia transcends the traditional dichotomy of urban versus rural and metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan, standard census data are of limited value in analyzing these regions. To address this gap, we made use of a spatially explicit population database to indentify and examine the configuration of exurban settlement. We developed a multidimensional spatial patch index, which captures the variation exurban settlement across the landscape, along the lines of shape, size and contiguity typology of exurban patches. This index reveals substantial heterogeneity in fine-scale pattern not reflected by aggregate measures of exurban settlement density.Using this index, we then explored to what extent metropolitan characteristics commonly believed to influence urban decentralization also are associated with the configuration of decentralization. We find that while large, contiguous clumps of exurban settlement are correlated with these metropolitan characteristics, other exurban pattern types (such as isolated or linear patches) are not. Therefore, it appears that the factors that contribute to more urban decentralization may also lead to greater contiguity and concentration of exurban settlement. Additionally, we find that the processes that lead to isolated and dispersed exurban settlement may be different from those that foster contiguous, concentrated exurban settlement.     

Differential response of selected taxa to landscape context and agricultural intensification

Understanding the dynamics of biodiversity in changing agricultural landscapes is a goal for nature conservation and agricultural policies. Agriculture operates at several spatio-temporal levels from field to landscape, and induces differential response of communities according to their ecological traits. Reactions of several taxa to landscape and agricultural changes was conducted along landscape gradients in northern Brittany (France) gathering 14 sites. Landscapes ranged from fine grained areas, with a large proportion of permanent grasslands, wood and hedgerows, to coarse grained ones dominated by crops. Response of communities were either loss of species along the gradient (as for Diptera Chironomidae and Empididae), replacement (Coleoptera Carabidae) and no change in species composition (small mammals). In this paper, we present why these taxa react in such different ways according to their life history traits, their mobility patterns and to which parameters of landscape structure or agriculture intensification they are sensitive. Density of hedgerow networks, and permeability of individual hedgerows determine the spatial distribution of adults Diptera according to their flying ability. Mean body size of carabid beetles significantly decreases along the gradient of agricultural intensification, small species adapted to disturbance replacing large ones that are characteristic of stable habitats. The same small mammal species are found all along the two gradients, but their relative abundance is linked to the importance of crops versus more stable habitats in the landscape.We concluded that species survival in those fine grained agricultural landscapes depends on processes operating at the site scale and defining habitat quality, and processes operating at the landscape and/or metapopulation scale such as landscape modifications in connectivity and habitat availability.     

Assessment of landscape composition and configuration via spatial metrics combination: conceptual framework proposal and method improvement

Landscape transformations have been a central topic in landscape ecology due to their influence on ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Landscape dynamics can be very complex and one of the most difficult issues to analyse is the contribution and the effects of landscape composition and configuration changes to the overall impact. We enhanced an existing approach designed to assess landscape transformation via metrics combination. Based on the area and the number of patches, we defined a Landscape Dynamics Typology (LDT) with eight different dynamics. The agro-forestry areas dynamics between 1990 and 2006, in Portugal, is presented as a practical example to show the implementation steps and the outputs obtained. A diagnostic tree is provided to help identify which dynamics are present. This new method provides detailed results concerning the location of the different dynamics within a landscape. The LDT is a versatile tool and is able to accommodate upgrades.     

Landscape planning: its contributions to the evolution of the profession of landscape architecture

Landscape planning, a subdiscipline of the field of landscape architecture, has helped define the profession over the past twenty five years. Landscape planning endorses the tenets of the Natural Environmental Policy Act [NEPA, 1969. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Public Law No. 91-190 91st Congress, second session (NEPA) pp. 1–5] and thereby promotes landscape architects and landscape planners as major players in changing landscapes. Changing landscapes is focused on developing valid designs that promote ecological integrity. Aesthetic form resulting from these changes is also a concern but must respect ecological function and structure first. Landscape planning will take on an even greater role in the future by; redefining the profession; by contributing to the knowledge base of good design decisions, and creating new advances in planning and design theory.