Dynamics of Urbanization and Ecosystem Services Provision II

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Contexts and Urban-Rural Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2024 | Viewed by 5233

Special Issue Editors

ISPRA - Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, 00144 Rome, Italy
Interests: land cover; remote sensing; land consumption; climate change; ecosystem services
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
ISPRA - Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, 00144 Rome, Italy
Interests: land degradation; ecosystem services; land consumption
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
ISPRA - Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, 00144 Rome, Italy
Interests: desertification; land degradation; land consumption; urban planning; landscape; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ecosystem services are heavily affected by urbanization, with consequences that can be negative for the environment and people’s health. The provision of services is strictly dependent on the ecological condition of the land that is hosting the ecosystem. Many classification systems were established for ecosystems, with different levels and detail, but all require a spatial reference system to allow for the assessment of ecosystem services and related environmental and socio-economic factors.

Modifications of the extent of an ecosystem, its capacity and function, and its capability to provide ecosystem services are influenced by settlement structures, urban sprawl and landscape fragmentation, contributing to land degradation. Among urbanization processes, land consumption (the conversion from natural or agricultural surfaces to impervious surfaces) is one of the main drivers of environmental change and is assessed through the evolution of land cover and the related changes in the land condition and biophysical features of the environment, such as bioclimate and vegetation potential.

The availability of remote sensing technology allows for an effective improvement in monitoring land cover changes in order to grasp the complexity of urbanization processes, even over large areas. Furthermore, new methodologies and indicators are being used to assess the conditions/features of ecosystems (and habitats).

This Special Issue of Land is intended as a multidisciplinary opportunity to describe innovative methodologies based on remote sensing, and the monitoring and analysis of the relationship between urbanization and ecosystem services on the different scales.

We invite papers that describe the use of innovative technologies for land cover change monitoring, ecosystem services modeling and mapping, innovation in land use planning, and which highlight the potential of technologies to tackle challenges such as sustainability of urbanization, climate change adaptation, sustainable land management, and food security. In this frame, we also invite papers that analyze the links between land degradation (caused by urbanization) and the effects thereof on ecosystem services, land productivity and soil organic carbon.

Dr. Luca Congedo
Dr. Francesca Assennato
Dr. Michele Munafò
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ecosystem services
  • land consumption
  • land cover change
  • remote sensing
  • spatial analysis
  • indicators

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1158 KiB  
Article
Interplay of Urbanization and Ecological Environment: Coordinated Development and Drivers
by Ruixu Chen, Yang Chen, Oleksii Lyulyov and Tetyana Pimonenko
Land 2023, 12(7), 1459; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12071459 - 21 Jul 2023
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 1824
Abstract
The interplay between urbanization and ecological environmental efficiency has gained increasing significance in the context of sustainable development, as rapid urban growth poses challenges to resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and the overall ecological well-being of urban areas. Understanding and analyzing the coordinated [...] Read more.
The interplay between urbanization and ecological environmental efficiency has gained increasing significance in the context of sustainable development, as rapid urban growth poses challenges to resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and the overall ecological well-being of urban areas. Understanding and analyzing the coordinated development of urbanization and ecological environmental efficiency, as well as assessing the influence of drivers on this relationship, is crucial for developing effective policies and strategies that promote environmentally sustainable urban development. This study establishes an urbanization index based on four key aspects: economy, society, population, and ecology. This investigation focuses on 30 provinces in China spanning from 2011 to 2020. The following methods are applied: global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index, entropy method, TOPSIS model, coupled coordination degree model, panel-corrected standard error (PCSE), and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) models. The empirical results demonstrate a favorable level of coordinated development between urbanization and the ecological environment overall, with more pronounced regional evolution trends. The trade openness, energy structure, and digitalization level play significant roles in effectively promoting the coordinated development of urbanization and the ecological environment to varying extents. The growth of trade openness and digitalization level promote coordinated development between urbanization and the ecological environment by 0.125 and 0.049, respectively. However, the increase in the energy structure decreases it by 0.509. These results have significant implications for policymakers, urban planners, and stakeholders, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that prioritizes ecological environmental protection in urbanization efforts. This study underscores the importance of sustainable urban development strategies to ensure long-term ecological and environmental sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics of Urbanization and Ecosystem Services Provision II)
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27 pages, 5634 KiB  
Article
Impact of Urbanization on Ecosystem Service Value from the Perspective of Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity: A Case Study from the Yellow River Basin
by Yonghui Cheng, Qi Kang, Kewei Liu, Peng Cui, Kaixu Zhao, Jianwei Li, Xue Ma and Qingsong Ni
Land 2023, 12(7), 1301; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12071301 - 28 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2653
Abstract
Ecosystem services are the beneficial goods and services that ecosystems provide to humans. Urbanization is an important feature of human social development. While promoting economic and social development, it also brings about land degradation, resource depletion, environmental pollution and other problems, intensifying the [...] Read more.
Ecosystem services are the beneficial goods and services that ecosystems provide to humans. Urbanization is an important feature of human social development. While promoting economic and social development, it also brings about land degradation, resource depletion, environmental pollution and other problems, intensifying the transformation of natural ecosystems into semi-natural and artificial ecosystems, ultimately leading to the loss of ecosystem service functions and declining value. The study of the impact of urbanization on the value of ecosystem services is of critical importance for the conservation of ecosystems and sustainable development. This study examined the spatio-temporal patterns of urbanization’s impacts on ecosystem service value in the Yellow River Basin from the perspective of spatio-temporal heterogeneity. Findings: (1) Both the ecosystem service value (ESV) and urbanization level (UL) in the Yellow River Basin were on the rise on the whole, but they were significantly spatially negatively correlated and mainly characterized by the high–low spatial clustering of “low ESV–high UL” and “high ESV–low UL”. This negative correlation was gradually weakened with the transformation of the urbanization development mode and ecological restoration projects in the Yellow River Basin. (2) The impacts of the five urbanization subsystems on the value of ecosystem services were diverse. Landscape urbanization had a negative impact on the value of ecosystem services in all regions; economic urbanization and innovation urbanization changed from having a negative to a positive impact; and demographic urbanization and social urbanization had both a positive and a negative impact. (3) To promote the coordinated development of ecological environmental protection and urbanization in the YRB, this paper proposes to change the urbanization development model, implement ecological restoration by zoning, and formulate classified development plans. This study compensates for the shortcomings of current studies that ignore the different impacts of urbanization subsystems on ecosystem service value and lack sufficient consideration of the spatio-temporal heterogeneity characteristics of urbanization and ESVs, enriches the theoretical understanding of the interrelationships between natural and human systems in basin areas, and provides a scientific basis for the rational formulation of urban planning and ecological protection policies in the region, which is of great theoretical and practical significance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics of Urbanization and Ecosystem Services Provision II)
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