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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2023) | Viewed by 9241

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Dr. Wanxu Chen

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Guest Editor

Department of Geography, School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, China
Interests: ecological and environmental effects of urbanization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jie Zeng‬‬‬‬

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Department of Geography, School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, China
Interests: land use change; ecosystem services; ecosystem health; socio-ecosystem; spatial resilience; regional sustainable development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jingwei Xiang

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Guest Editor

Department of Land Resource Management, School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: land use change; cultivated land use transition; sustainable utilization of land resources

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global environmental change is causing dangerous and widespread natural damage, such as heat waves, droughts and floods, affecting the lives of billions of people around the world. Land use and land cover change are important causes of global environmental change. Increasing attention has been focused on global environmental change and land use and increasing efforts have been made to reduce these issues through planning. Uncovering the rules and mechanisms of global environmental change and land use is of great significance to cope with climate disasters and promote sustainable development of coupled human and natural systems. This Special Issue seeks novel scientific papers related to environment, planning and land use, especially, but not limited to, original empirical studies and scholarly reviews on conceptual and methodological advances and on the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research paradigms.

Dr. Wanxu Chen
Dr. Jie Zeng‬‬‬‬
Dr. Jingwei Xiang
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

land use change
land use planning
land use efficiency
ecological assets assessment
global environmental change
low-carbon sustainable development

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 19590 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Scenario Simulation of the Relationship between Land-Use Changes and Ecosystem Carbon Storage: A Case Study in Dongting Lake Basin, China

by Wenqiang Zhou, Jinlong Wang, Yu Han, Ling Yang, Huafei Que and Rong Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(6), 4835; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064835 - 09 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1345

Abstract

High-frequency land-use changes caused by rapid economic development have become a key factor in the imbalance of carbon sequestration within regions. How to balance economic development and ecological protection is a difficult issue for regional planning. Studying the relationship between future land-use changes and ecosystem carbon storage (CS) is of important significance for the optimization of regional land-use patterns. The research used the gray prediction model and coupled the patch-generating land-use simulation (PLUS) model and the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) model. On this basis, the evolution characteristics and spatial coordination between land-use changes and CS in the Dongting Lake Basin (DLB) in different scenarios in 2030 were simulated. The results show that: (1) The spatial distribution of CS remains stable in different scenarios, while land-use types with high carbon density in the periphery of cities are constantly invaded by construction land, which results in the greatest carbon loss in the urban areas. (2) Compared with the natural evolution scenario (NES), only 195.19 km² of land-use types with high carbon density are transformed into construction land in the ecological protection scenario (EPS), generating a carbon sink gain of 182.47 × 10⁴ Mg. Conversely, in the economic development scenario (EDS), a total of over 1400 km² of farmland and ecological land are transformed into construction land, which weakens the carbon sequestration capacity of ecosystems, and more than 147 × 10⁴ Mg of carbon loss occurs in the urban areas. (3) The planned development scenario (PDS) takes ecological protection and economic development both into consideration, which not only generates a carbon sink gain of 121.33 × 10⁴ Mg but also reduces the carbon loss in urban areas by more than 50%. The PDS performs well in both land use and CS growth and can better motivate the effect of land-use changes in increasing the carbon sink, which is also proved by analysis of the coordination between land-use intensity (LUI) and CS. Therefore, the PDS better satisfies the future development demand of DLB and can provide a reference for sustainable land use in the basin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environment, Planning and Land Use)

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21 pages, 9906 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Land-Use Change on Ecosystem Services in the Wuling Mountains from a Transport Development Perspective

by Yu Chen, Yilian Liu, Shengfu Yang and Chengwu Liu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(2), 1323; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021323 - 11 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1478

Abstract

Transportation significantly affects regional land-use changes and ecosystem service functions. Exploring the correlations among transport development, spatial pattern of land-use changes, and ecosystem service changes are important for mitigating the deterioration of regional ecosystems due to human activities. In this study, 2000–2020 was selected as the study period to explore the effects of land-use changes on the ecosystem service value (ESV) in the Wuling Mountains. The results showed that: (1) the Wuling Mountains have experienced four stages of transport development and (2) transportation development has contributed to land-use change. The spatial pattern associated with construction land growth has evolved due to transport development. Garden land has gradually spread into the entire region with transport development. Policies from different periods have had more of an effect on ecological land and cropland. (3) During the study period, the ESV first increased and then declined. The periphery of the transportation axis formed a concentration zone of ESV cold spots. In contrast, ESV hot spots were more concentrated in areas along the Yangtze River. The results of this study provide guidance for land-use policy and spatial planning under the concept of green development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environment, Planning and Land Use)

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15 pages, 2382 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatially Non-Stationary Response of Carbon Emissions to Urbanization in Han River Ecological Economic Belt, China

by Weisong Li, Zhenwei Wang, Zhibin Mao and Jiaxing Cui

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 363; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010363 - 26 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1154

Abstract

Within the context of the “30·60 dual carbon” goal, China’s low-carbon sustainable development is affected by a series of environmental problems caused by rapid urbanization. Revealing the impacts of urbanization on carbon emissions (CEs) is conducive to low-carbon city construction and green transformation, attracting the attention of scholars worldwide. The research is rich concerning the impacts of urbanization on CEs but lacking in studies on their spatial dependence and heterogeneity at multiple different scales, especially in areas with important ecological statuses, such as the Han River Ecological Economic Belt (HREEB) in China. To address these gaps, this study first constructed an urbanization level (UL) measurement method. Then, using a bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis and geographically weighted regression model, the spatial relationships between UL and CEs from 2000 to 2020 were investigated from a multiscale perspective. The results were shown as follows. The total CEs in the HREEB witnessed an upsurge in the past two decades, which was mainly dispersed in the central urban areas of the HREEB. The ULs in different regions of the HREEB varied evidently, with high levels in the east and low levels in the central and western regions, while the overall UL in 2020 was higher than that in 2000, regardless of the research scale. During the study period, there was a significant, positive spatial autocorrelation between UL and CEs, and similar spatial distribution characteristics of the bivariate spatial autocorrelation between CEs and UL at different times, and different scales were observed. UL impacted CEs positively, but the impacts varied at different grid scales during the study period. The regression coefficients in 2020 were higher than those in 2000, but the spatial distribution was more scattered, and more detailed information was provided at the 5 km grid scale than at the 10 km grid scale. The findings of this research can advance policy enlightenment for low-carbon city construction and green transformation in HREEB and provide a reference for CE reduction in other similar regions of the world. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environment, Planning and Land Use)

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17 pages, 565 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Role of Land Transfer and Social Capital in Improving Agricultural Income under the Background of Rural Revitalization

by Haiyan Yu, Wenjie Zhang and Shuai Pang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(24), 17077; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192417077 - 19 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1748

Abstract

Under the background of rural revitalization in China, with the process of urbanization and the implementation of China’s land system reform, rural workers gradually gain multiple income streams. However, increasing agricultural income remains the final guarantee for professional farmers to shake off poverty, and land is still their last security. We applied the OLS model and mediation model to a dataset of 3789 households in 25 provinces obtained from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to investigate the influence of farmland transfer and social capital on farmers’ agricultural incomes. The results show that farmland “transfer in” and social capital significantly help to increase agricultural income directly, and farmland “transfer in” behavior plays a vital mediating role, influencing the positive effect of social capital on agricultural income. The study examined the logical social capital-agricultural land transfer-agricultural income correlation in the progression of rural society, from “hollow” to “reflux”, under the continuous expansion of rural revitalization strategies, which is of great practical significance for re-recognizing the positive role of rural social capital and agricultural land transfer in improving the income of professional farmers and realizing the overall goal of rural revitalization. The results also provide a theoretical basis for guiding and leveraging the effective use of social capital to promote agricultural land transfer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environment, Planning and Land Use)

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16 pages, 959 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Big Data Affect Urban Low-Carbon Transformation—A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China

by Ning Xu, He Zhang, Tixin Li, Xiao Ling and Qian Shen

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(23), 16351; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192316351 - 06 Dec 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1701

Abstract

As a new factor of production, data play a key role in driving low-carbon and sustainable development relying on the digital economy. However, previous studies have ignored this point. Based on the panel data of 283 cities in China from 2007 to 2019, we investigated the construction of national big data comprehensive pilot zones (NBDCPZs) in China as a quasi-natural experiment, using the difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically test the impact of NBDCPZ policies on urban low-carbon transformation. The following conclusions can be drawn: NBDCPZ construction significantly promotes urban low-carbon transformation, and a series of robustness analysis supports this conclusion. NBDCPZ constructions mainly promotes urban low-carbon transformation by stimulating urban green innovation and optimizing the allocation of urban resource elements. Compared with eastern cities, small and medium-sized cities, and resource-based cities, the construction of NBDCPZs can promote the low-carbon transformation of cities in central and western China, large cities, and non-resource-based cities. Further analysis shows that the construction of NBDCPZs can only improve the low-carbon transformation of local cities, with negative spatial spillover effects on the low-carbon transformation of surrounding cities. Therefore, in the future, it is vital to consider the promotion effect of the construction of NBDCPZs on the low-carbon transformation of local cities and prevent its negative impact on the low-carbon transformation of surrounding cities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environment, Planning and Land Use)

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27 pages, 6334 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial-Temporal Changes and Simulation of Land Use in Metropolitan Areas: A Case of the Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area, China

by Xiuyan Zhao and Changhong Miao

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(21), 14089; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114089 - 28 Oct 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1232

Abstract

Metropolitan areas are the main spatial units sustaining development. Investigating internal factor changes in metropolitan areas are of great significance for improving the quality of development in these areas. As an emerging national central city of China, Zhengzhou has experienced rapid urban expansion and urbanization. In this study, principal component analysis and the model and Geodetector model were used to comprehensively analyze the influencing factors of land use change in Zhengzhou from 1980 to 2015. Based on the CA–Markov model, we improved the accuracy of multi-criteria evaluation of suitability factors and simulated land use change in 2015. The results show that land use conversions in the study area between 1980 and 2015 were frequent, with the areas of farmland, woodland, grassland, water, and unused land decreasing by 5.00%, 17.12%, 21.59%, 18.31%, and 94.48%, respectively, while construction land increased by 53.61%. The key influences on land use change are the urbanization and growth of residential or non-agricultural populations. In 2035, the area of farmland in the study area will decrease by 11.09% compared with that in 2015 and construction land will increase by 38.94%, while the area of other land use types will not significantly change. Zhengzhou, as the center city, forms a diamond-shaped core development area of Zhengzhou–Kaifeng–Xinxiang–Jiaozuo, while Xuchang is considered an independent sub-center uniting the surrounding cities for expansion. With its radiation power of unipolar core development for many years and the developmental momentum of Zhengzhou–Kaifeng integration, Zhengzhou city jointly drives the economic development of the surrounding cities. The protection of farmland and control of the expansion of construction land are the major challenges for the Zhengzhou metropolitan area to achieve sustainable development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environment, Planning and Land Use)

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