The inhabited environment, infrastructure development and advanced urbanization in China's Yangtze River Delta Region

This paper analyzes the relationship among the inhabited environment, infrastructure development and environmental impacts in China's heavily urbanized Yangtze River Delta region. Using primary human environment data for the period 2006-2014, we examine factors affecting the inhabited environment and infrastructure development: urban population, GDP, built-up area, energy consumption, waste emission, transportation, real estate and urban greenery. Then we empirically investigate the impact of advanced urbanization with consideration of cities' differences. Results from this study show that the growth rate of the inhabited environment and infrastructure development is strongly influenced by regional development structure, functional orientations, traffic network and urban size and form. The effect of advanced urbanization is more significant in large and mid-size cities than huge and mega cities. Energy consumption, waste emission and real estate in large and mid-size cities developed at an unprecedented rate with the rapid increase of economy. However, urban development of huge and mega cities gradually tended to be saturated. The transition development in these cities improved the inhabited environment and ecological protection instead of the urban construction simply. To maintain a sustainable advanced urbanization process, policy implications included urban sprawl control polices, ecological development mechanisms and reforming the economic structure for huge and mega cities, and construct major cross-regional infrastructure, enhance the carrying capacity and improvement of energy efficiency and structure for large and mid-size cities

Robustness and edge addition strategy of air transport networks : a case study of 'the Belt and Road'

Air transportation is of great importance in "the Belt and Road" (the B&R) region. The achievement of the B&R initiative relies on the availability, reliability, and safety of air transport infrastructure. A fundamental step is to find the critical elements in network performance. Considering the uneven distributions of population and economy, the current literature focusing on centrality measures in unweighted networks is not sufficient in the B&R region. By differentiating power and centrality in the B&R region, our analysis leads to two conclusions: (1) Deactivating powerful nodes causes a larger decrease in efficiency than deactivating central nodes. This indicates that powerful nodes in the B&R region are more critical than central nodes for network robustness. (2) Strategically adding edges between high powerful and low powerful nodes can enhance the network's ability to exchange resources efficiently. These findings can be used to adjust government policies for air transport configuration to achieve the best network performance and the most cost effective

Spatial assessment and management of regional ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta Region

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) metropolitan region is one of the most rapidly urbanized regions in China and has experienced a remarkable period of population growth (at an annual growth rate of 3.0%), and urbanization (at an annual growth rate of 9.2%). Rapid urbanization has dramatically changed land use/land cover patterns and ecosystems in the region, causing widespread environmental problems such as habitat fragmentation, aggravation of environmental pollution, decline in biodiversity and ecosystem degredation. These problems have restricted the sustainable development of socio-economic system of the Yangtze River Delta Region. Facing the challenges, the Yangtze River Delta Region is carrying out the practice of regional integration planning and cooperation in environmental governance, which urgently needs the guidance of relevant theories and methods. Some of the key environmental policy pilots have been carried on in this region, such as the Ecological Red Line Policy (Bai et al, 2016; Lü et al, 2013). This policy has one of the main objectives of protecting important eco-function areas i.e. ecosystem service hot spots, to deliver services such as water storage, clean drinking water, and carbon sequestration, and to maintain ecological safety to support economic and social development, which an important policy orientation of ecosystem services approach.Ecosystem services are the contributions of ecosystem structure and function to human well-being, connecting natural and socio-economic systems. The ecosystem services approach is considered to be one of the important decision support tools for guiding and formulating environmental policies. Based on the theories and methods of ecosystem services, combined with local expert knowledge, remote sensing and GIS technologies, this dissertation aims is mainly to develop a comprehensive framework of ecosystem services assessment and decision support for rapid urbanization regions.Based on this framework, the spatial characteristics, supply-demand relationship and flow direction of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta Region are analysed and evaluated. Main results of this thesis are as follows:(1) According to the characteristics of the regional ecosystems of the Yangtze River Delta Region, combined with local expert knowledge, the Burkhard’s scoring and assessment method of ecosystem services was improved, and the score matrix between twelve ecosystem types and twenty-three ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta Region was established.(2) Based on DPSIR model, the characteristics of the social-ecological complex ecosystem and change of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta Region were analysed. The main ecological and environmental problems were identified. Causes and main driving forces of decline in ecosystem services were revealed in the region.(3) Based on ARCGIS platform, the status quo of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta region was analysed and evaluated. The spatial differentiation characteristics and main impact factors of ecosystem services in the Yangtze River Delta region were clarified. The hot spots of total ecosystem services were aggregated in the southwest areas, while the cold spots were distributed in the middle and northeast areas of the region. The hot spots of supporting services and regulating services aggregately distributed in the southwest mountainous areas while hot spots of provisioning services mainly in the northeast plain, and high value of cultural services widespread in the waterbodies and southwest mountainous areas. The spatial heterogeneity is determined by biophysical features and land use types. Based on the assessment, six major ecosystem services functional zones were divided: (I) South Ecological Integrity Conservation Zone, (II) Southwest Mountainous and Hilly Forest Ecological Zone, (III) Northeast Plain Agriculture Ecological Zone, (IV) Middle Aquatic Ecological Conservation Zone, (V) Eastern Coastal Estuaries Ecological Zone, and (VI) Urban Development Area., and the corresponding management strategies on the basis of environmental problems and ecosystem services characteristics in each of the functional zones were put forward.(4) Using regional spatial data in net primary productivity, the quality levels of forest and cropland were graded and the previous scores of ecosystem services in forest and cropland were calibrated. Then, the hot spots and clustering patches of forest and farmland ecosystem services were identified by ARCGIS tools. Finally, the forest ecosystem conservation areas (red line) and cropland ecosystem conservation areas (red line) in the Yangtze River Delta region were delineated.(5) Based on the improved Burkhard’s supply-demand budget of ecosystem services method, the budgets of three regulating services (erosion regulating service, flood regulating service and water purification regulating service) of the sixteen core cities in the region were established, and the characteristics of surplus and deficit of three services of the cities in the region were analysed. Combing the budget with analysis of flow direction of ecosystem services, the potential provisioning cities and the benefiting cities of ecosystem services are identified. On the basis of the results, the potential model of regional inter-city environmental cooperation is proposed.This dissertation not only improves the methods of ecosystem service assessment and decision support in rapidly urbanized regions, but also makes contributions to the guidance in delineation of ecological red line, regional environmental cooperation and sustainable development in the Yangtze River Delta Region

An Integrated Approach for Assessing Aquatic Ecological Carrying Capacity: A Case Study of Wujin District in the Tai Lake Basin, China

Aquatic ecological carrying capacity is an effective method for analyzing sustainable development in regional water management. In this paper, an integrated approach is employed for assessing the aquatic ecological carrying capacity of Wujin District in the Tai Lake Basin, China. An indicator system is established considering social and economic development as well as ecological resilience perspectives. While calculating the ecological index, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is extracted from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) time-series images, followed by spatial and temporal analysis of vegetation cover. Finally, multi-index assessment of aquatic ecological carrying capacity is carried out for the period 2000 to 2008, including both static and dynamic variables. The results reveal that aquatic ecological carrying capacity presents a slight upward trend in the past decade and the intensity of human activities still exceeded the aquatic ecological carrying capacity in 2008. In terms of human activities, population has decreased, GDP has quadrupled, and fertilizer application and industrial wastewater discharge have declined greatly in the past decade. The indicators representing aquatic ecosystem conditions have the lowest scores, which are primarily attributed to the water eutrophication problem. Yet the terrestrial ecosystem is assessed to be in better condition since topographic backgrounds and landscape diversity are at higher levels. Based on the work carried out, it is suggested that pollutant emission be controlled to improve water quality and agricultural development around Ge Lake (the largest lake in Wujin District) be reduced

Launching Delta Alliance, final report of phase 2

Delta Alliance is a network that aims to improve the resilience of the world’s deltas. It provides a foundation and framework for international knowledge sharing and development around delta issues. Phase 2 focussed on three components: developing the Delta Alliance organization, initiating network activities and (development of) research and knowledge sharing projects

Mangroves degradation: a local perspective on its awareness

Mangroves in Malaysia reside on the coastlines, and the largest areas of mangrove are in the Northern Sabah. Over the past decades, mangrove species have been reported to be disappearing from the globe. It is due to several natural processes that have been inserted to fill the needs of the increased population. These include illegal logging, agriculture activities and urbanisation. In this regards, awareness of the local residents about the problem of mangrove depletion is important to inhibit the problem to prolong further.Therefore, this research was conducted to determine the degree of awareness of local residents on the importance of mangroves in managing environmental quality. Consequently, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 103 respondents to examine their awareness on the subject of mangrove degradation.The respondents were selected randomly among local residents of Kuala Selangor district.It is found that only twenty percent of the total number of respondents are totallyaware of the issue and acted upon it; either taking part in the endeavours made by the government as well as those with the nongovernmental bodies or practicing mangroves replanting at their backyard

Land Use Dynamics of the Fast-Growing Shanghai Metropolis, China (1979–2008) and its Implications for Land Use and Urban Planning Policy

Through the integrated approach of remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques, four Landsat TM/ETM+ imagery acquired during 1979 and 2008 were used to quantitatively characterize the patterns of land use and land cover change (LULC) and urban sprawl in the fast-growing Shanghai Metropolis, China. Results showed that, the urban/built-up area grew on average by 4,242.06 ha yr−1. Bare land grew by 1,594.66 ha yr−1 on average. In contrast, cropland decreased by 3,286.26 ha yr−1 on average, followed by forest and shrub, water, and tidal land, which decreased by 1,331.33 ha yr−1, 903.43 ha yr−1, and 315.72 ha yr−1 on average, respectively. As a result, during 1979 and 2008 approximately 83.83% of the newly urban/built-up land was converted from cropland (67.35%), forest and shrub (9.12%), water (4.80%), and tidal land (2.19%). Another significant change was the continuous increase in regular residents, which played a very important role in contributing to local population growth and increase in urban/built-up land. This can be explained with this city’s huge demand for investment and qualified labor since the latest industrial transformation. Moreover, with a decrease in cropland, the proportion of population engaged in farming decreased 13.84%. Therefore, significant socio-economic transformation occurred, and this would lead to new demand for land resources. However, due to very scarce land resources and overload of population in Shanghai, the drive to achieve economic goals at the loss of cropland, water, and the other lands is not sustainable. Future urban planning policy aiming at ensuring a win-win balance between sustainable land use and economic growth is urgently needed

How would big data support societal development and environmental sustainability? Insights and practices

The theme of this Special Volume (SV) focuses on improving natural resource management and human health to ensure sustainable societal development. Natural resources have been exploited unduly regardless of the consequences, which has resulted in inappropriate management natural resources and has caused severe environmental degradation. Contributions in this SV addressed improved environmental management, utilization, and allocation of natural resources; evaluation of sustainable natural resource management; pollution prevention and treatment; and evaluation and suggestions for improved natural resource-related policies. The authors presented an inspiring panorama of the initiatives that have been developed throughout the world for sustainable natural resource management and improve societal development. Theoretically, new approaches to bridge the gaps between the economic development and environmental protection were increasingly dominant. Empirically, many of the papers provided case studies of regions in China and other regions. The authorship reflected growing collaboration between researchers from many different countries or universities. While the great diversity of contributions on the topic reflected the wealth of insights generated on the topic in recent years, there is much more that must be done to achieve societal sustainability in natural resource management.No Full Tex