Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index
Urban spatial expansion poses a threat to regional ecosystems and biodiversity directly through altering the size, shape, and interconnectivity of natural landscapes. Monitoring urban spatial expansion using traditional area-based metrics from remote sensing provides a feasible way to quantify this...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/7/1352 |
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| author | Meixia Lin Tao Lin Laurence Jones Xiaofang Liu Li Xing Jinling Sui Junmao Zhang Hong Ye Yuqin Liu Guoqin Zhang Xin Lu |
| author_facet | Meixia Lin Tao Lin Laurence Jones Xiaofang Liu Li Xing Jinling Sui Junmao Zhang Hong Ye Yuqin Liu Guoqin Zhang Xin Lu |
| author_sort | Meixia Lin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Urban spatial expansion poses a threat to regional ecosystems and biodiversity directly through altering the size, shape, and interconnectivity of natural landscapes. Monitoring urban spatial expansion using traditional area-based metrics from remote sensing provides a feasible way to quantify this regional ecological stress. However, variation in landscape-adjacency relationships (i.e., the adjacency between individual landscape classes) caused by urban expansion is often overlooked. In this study, a novel edge-based index (landscape-adjacency index, <i>LAdI</i>) was proposed based on the spatial-adjacency relationship between landscape patches to measure the regional ecological stress of urban expansion on natural landscapes. Taking the entire Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations (YRD) as a study area, we applied the <i>LAdI</i> for individual landscape classes (<i>V<sub>i</sub></i>) and landscape level (<i>LV</i>) to quantitatively assess change over time in the ecological stress of YRD from 1990 to 2015 at two spatial scales: municipal scale and 5 km-grid scale. The results showed that the vulnerable zones (<i>LV</i> ≥ 0.6) were mainly distributed in the north of the YRD, and cultivated land was the most vulnerable natural landscape (<i>V<sub>i</sub></i> ≥ 0.6) at the 5 km-grid scale. The most vulnerable landscape at the municipal scale was cultivated land in 19 of 26 cities in each period, and that in the remaining 7 cities varied at distinct urbanization stages. We used scatter diagrams and Pearson correlation analysis to compare the edge-based <i>LAdI</i> with an area-based index (percent of built-up area, <i>PB</i>) and found that: <i>LV</i> and <i>PB</i> had a significant positive correlation at both the municipal scale and 5 km-grid scale. But there were multiple <i>LV</i>s with different values corresponding to one <i>PB</i> with the same value at the 5 km-grid scale. Both indexes could represent the degree of urban expansion; however, the edge-based metric better quantified ecological stress under different urban-sprawl patterns sharing the same percent of built-up area. As changes in land use affect both the size and edge effect among landscape patches, the area-based <i>PB</i> and the edge-based <i>LAdI</i> should be applied together when assessing the ecological stress caused by urbanization. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:40:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-109ea453777449f5a1830af58acd25e9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T12:40:15Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-109ea453777449f5a1830af58acd25e92023-11-21T13:54:38ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922021-04-01137135210.3390/rs13071352Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency IndexMeixia Lin0Tao Lin1Laurence Jones2Xiaofang Liu3Li Xing4Jinling Sui5Junmao Zhang6Hong Ye7Yuqin Liu8Guoqin Zhang9Xin Lu10Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaKey Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaUK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Bangor LL57 2UW, UKSchool of Architecture, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, ChinaKey Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaKey Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaKey Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaKey Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaKey Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaKey Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaKey Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, ChinaUrban spatial expansion poses a threat to regional ecosystems and biodiversity directly through altering the size, shape, and interconnectivity of natural landscapes. Monitoring urban spatial expansion using traditional area-based metrics from remote sensing provides a feasible way to quantify this regional ecological stress. However, variation in landscape-adjacency relationships (i.e., the adjacency between individual landscape classes) caused by urban expansion is often overlooked. In this study, a novel edge-based index (landscape-adjacency index, <i>LAdI</i>) was proposed based on the spatial-adjacency relationship between landscape patches to measure the regional ecological stress of urban expansion on natural landscapes. Taking the entire Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations (YRD) as a study area, we applied the <i>LAdI</i> for individual landscape classes (<i>V<sub>i</sub></i>) and landscape level (<i>LV</i>) to quantitatively assess change over time in the ecological stress of YRD from 1990 to 2015 at two spatial scales: municipal scale and 5 km-grid scale. The results showed that the vulnerable zones (<i>LV</i> ≥ 0.6) were mainly distributed in the north of the YRD, and cultivated land was the most vulnerable natural landscape (<i>V<sub>i</sub></i> ≥ 0.6) at the 5 km-grid scale. The most vulnerable landscape at the municipal scale was cultivated land in 19 of 26 cities in each period, and that in the remaining 7 cities varied at distinct urbanization stages. We used scatter diagrams and Pearson correlation analysis to compare the edge-based <i>LAdI</i> with an area-based index (percent of built-up area, <i>PB</i>) and found that: <i>LV</i> and <i>PB</i> had a significant positive correlation at both the municipal scale and 5 km-grid scale. But there were multiple <i>LV</i>s with different values corresponding to one <i>PB</i> with the same value at the 5 km-grid scale. Both indexes could represent the degree of urban expansion; however, the edge-based metric better quantified ecological stress under different urban-sprawl patterns sharing the same percent of built-up area. As changes in land use affect both the size and edge effect among landscape patches, the area-based <i>PB</i> and the edge-based <i>LAdI</i> should be applied together when assessing the ecological stress caused by urbanization.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/7/1352landscape-adjacency degreeurban expansionecological stressland useYangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations |
| spellingShingle | Meixia Lin Tao Lin Laurence Jones Xiaofang Liu Li Xing Jinling Sui Junmao Zhang Hong Ye Yuqin Liu Guoqin Zhang Xin Lu Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index Remote Sensing landscape-adjacency degree urban expansion ecological stress land use Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations |
| title | Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index |
| title_full | Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index |
| title_fullStr | Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index |
| title_short | Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index |
| title_sort | quantitatively assessing ecological stress of urbanization on natural ecosystems by using a landscape adjacency index |
| topic | landscape-adjacency degree urban expansion ecological stress land use Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/7/1352 |
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