Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine Platform

Hefei’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate ranks first among all cities in China, and it was the fastest-growing city in China from 2000 to 2020. The high-speed economic development inevitably led to rapid changes in land cover types, e.g., an increment in artificial features (built-up) and de...

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Main Authors: Jun Geng, Lichen Xu, Yuping Wang, Lili Tu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-03-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/6/1604
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author Jun Geng
Lichen Xu
Yuping Wang
Lili Tu
author_facet Jun Geng
Lichen Xu
Yuping Wang
Lili Tu
author_sort Jun Geng
collection DOAJ
description Hefei’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate ranks first among all cities in China, and it was the fastest-growing city in China from 2000 to 2020. The high-speed economic development inevitably led to rapid changes in land cover types, e.g., an increment in artificial features (built-up) and decrement in natural features (vegetation). However, (1) many previous studies focus on the land cover change in metropolis or at the global scale, yet few focus on underdeveloped but fast-growing cities; (2) land cover studies mainly focus on global variations, yet seldom on local characteristics. Thus, it is of great significance to monitor the land cover change for the city with the fastest economic growth in China based on the long time-series satellite images from both global and local perspectives. In this study, with support from huge amounts of data (including 719 Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI satellite images, land surface temperature, nighttime satellite images, DEM, multiple land cover products, and various auxiliary data), processing and parallel computing abilities of the GEE platform, classification maps of land cover in Hefei from 2000 to 2020 are produced based on a random forest machine learning method, and the spatio-temporal variations and driving factors are analyzed from both global and local viewpoints. The results show that: (1) the classification accuracy is excellent; the average overall accuracy is 93% and the Kappa coefficient is 0.88; (2) the general spatio-temporal variations in land cover in Hefei from 2000 to 2020 are obvious; the built-up area expanded from 419.72 km<sup>2</sup> to 1530.20 km<sup>2</sup>, with a total growth rate of 264.58%. With the expansion of the built-up area, the vegetation coverage decreased by 16.61% (1652.56 km<sup>2</sup>); (3) the land surface temperature shows an increment trend in the new town yet a decrement trend in the old town due to the change in vegetation coverage and the decentration of administration centers; further analysis shows that the population and the social economy are two driving factors for land cover changes. It is worth noting that both the area and coverage of vegetation in the old town and water body area in Hefei increased significantly, although the fast urbanization inevitably caused a decrement in vegetation and water area in the whole city, indicating both the high-speed economic development and improvement in green surfaces simultaneously experienced in Hefei from 2000 to 2020.
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spelling doaj.art-3717a72500554b12afb75174c170f9f32023-11-17T13:39:23ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922023-03-01156160410.3390/rs15061604Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine PlatformJun Geng0Lichen Xu1Yuping Wang2Lili Tu3School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, ChinaSchool of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, ChinaSchool of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, ChinaSchool of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, ChinaHefei’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate ranks first among all cities in China, and it was the fastest-growing city in China from 2000 to 2020. The high-speed economic development inevitably led to rapid changes in land cover types, e.g., an increment in artificial features (built-up) and decrement in natural features (vegetation). However, (1) many previous studies focus on the land cover change in metropolis or at the global scale, yet few focus on underdeveloped but fast-growing cities; (2) land cover studies mainly focus on global variations, yet seldom on local characteristics. Thus, it is of great significance to monitor the land cover change for the city with the fastest economic growth in China based on the long time-series satellite images from both global and local perspectives. In this study, with support from huge amounts of data (including 719 Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI satellite images, land surface temperature, nighttime satellite images, DEM, multiple land cover products, and various auxiliary data), processing and parallel computing abilities of the GEE platform, classification maps of land cover in Hefei from 2000 to 2020 are produced based on a random forest machine learning method, and the spatio-temporal variations and driving factors are analyzed from both global and local viewpoints. The results show that: (1) the classification accuracy is excellent; the average overall accuracy is 93% and the Kappa coefficient is 0.88; (2) the general spatio-temporal variations in land cover in Hefei from 2000 to 2020 are obvious; the built-up area expanded from 419.72 km<sup>2</sup> to 1530.20 km<sup>2</sup>, with a total growth rate of 264.58%. With the expansion of the built-up area, the vegetation coverage decreased by 16.61% (1652.56 km<sup>2</sup>); (3) the land surface temperature shows an increment trend in the new town yet a decrement trend in the old town due to the change in vegetation coverage and the decentration of administration centers; further analysis shows that the population and the social economy are two driving factors for land cover changes. It is worth noting that both the area and coverage of vegetation in the old town and water body area in Hefei increased significantly, although the fast urbanization inevitably caused a decrement in vegetation and water area in the whole city, indicating both the high-speed economic development and improvement in green surfaces simultaneously experienced in Hefei from 2000 to 2020.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/6/1604land cover changerapid developmentGoogle Earth EngineHefeispatio-temporal variation
spellingShingle Jun Geng
Lichen Xu
Yuping Wang
Lili Tu
Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine Platform
Remote Sensing
land cover change
rapid development
Google Earth Engine
Hefei
spatio-temporal variation
title Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine Platform
title_full Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine Platform
title_fullStr Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine Platform
title_full_unstemmed Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine Platform
title_short Study of Land Cover Change in the City with the Fastest Economic Growth in China (Hefei) from 2000 to 2020 Based on Google Earth Engine Platform
title_sort study of land cover change in the city with the fastest economic growth in china hefei from 2000 to 2020 based on google earth engine platform
topic land cover change
rapid development
Google Earth Engine
Hefei
spatio-temporal variation
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/6/1604
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