JOURNAL OF NANJING FORESTRY UNIVERSITY ›› 2020, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (1): 154-162.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1000-2006.201807016

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Quantifying effects of socioeconomic development on urban landscape fragmentation

CHE Tong1(), LUO Yunjian1,2,*()   

  1. 1. College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
    2. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
  • Received:2018-07-10 Revised:2019-03-25 Online:2020-02-08 Published:2020-02-02
  • Contact: LUO Yunjian E-mail:tongche1995@sina.com;yjluo@yzu.edu.cn

Abstract:

【Objective】 We analyzed spatial patterns of urban landscape fragmentation by taking Yangzhou City as a case study. Here, we further quantitatively explore the effects of socioeconomic factors on landscape fragmentation.【Method】 Multi data sources (e.g., Landsat-5 TM imagery with 30 m spatial resolution, and the Statistical Yearbook of Yangzhou City) and several data analysis methods (e.g., landscape pattern analysis and the boosted regression trees machine learning technique) were employed. 【Result】 ① Arable land was the dominant land use, covering 54.9% of the total area of the city in 2010, followed by water (22.0%), built-up land (21.9%), and forestland and grassland (1.1%). As the distance from the city center increased, the degree of landscape fragmentation first increased and then decreased, whereby the turning point was at the edge of the city. ② The degree of landscape fragmentation increased with increasing level of urbanization, and reached an extremum at 35%-45% before declining gradually. ③ At the landscape level, social factors (i.e., total population and population density) generally had an inhibiting role on landscape fragmentation, while economic factors (i.e., per capita GDP, per capita revenue, primary and tertiary industries) usually promoted landscape fragmentation. In comparison to landscape level, socioeconomic factors had greater impacts at the class-level, and their relationships with class-level fragmentation indices (patch density, edge density, landscape division index and aggregation index) showed distinct differences. For example, per capita revenue promoted the division of landscape at the landscape level, but inhibited it at class level.【Conclusion】 Socioeconomic development played an important role in landscape fragmentation, not only at different levels (landscape and class levels), but also in terms of different driving roles (inhibition or promotion) of fragmentation indices. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the scale effect, impact intensity, and impact direction of socioeconomic factors in order to effectively alleviate urban landscape fragmentation.

Key words: urbanization, landscape fragmentation, spatial pattern, socioeconomic development, Yangzhou City

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