The purpose of this research is to find out how transport modes shape the configuration of a metropolitan area in terms of population. Evolutionary analysis is undertaken to ascertain the impact of mobility on population distribution over a number of stages. The case study analysis puts the spotlight on the Valencia Metropolitan Area (Spain) over a long period of time, from 1900 to 2021. The research focuses on quantification, first in terms of how different means of transport affect population distribution, and subsequently, on the time gap between the emergence of a means of transport and its potential in distributing the population. Results show that the prevalence of the means of transport in structuring a metropolitan area has varied over time. At first, trains and trams played a major role in shaping the urban area while, in more recent eras, cars have remodelled the urban space. It was found that municipalities which did not have a railway service had very low, or even negative, increases in population until 1981. By contrast, since then, they have outstripped the increases in municipalities with rail connections. The time gap between the emergence of a means of transport and its potential to distribute the population is quantified in terms of decades. Automobiles took less time than trains and trams to have an impact on population distribution. These results can be understood as an indicator of the length of time needed to change previous dynamics and can be used to guide new policies in the field. Full article

The research on the land resources embodied in the inter-regional economic linkages is of great significance for the ecological compensation and sustainable use of the cultivated land. We constructed a model to estimate the agricultural land transfer embodied in inter-regional trade by using the agricultural land footprint model and the multi-regional input–output model. Taking China as an example, using a 2017 multi-regional input–output table and agricultural land and production data, we evaluated the agricultural land footprints embodied in the inter-provincial demand–supply chain in China and explored their characteristics, revealing the balance of income and expenditure that makes up the agricultural land footprint in each region. The results show that: (1) In 2017, China’s total agricultural land footprint was 557.63 million ha². Developed areas such as Shandong, Guangdong, and Jiangsu in the East generally had a greater footprint than the underdeveloped areas in the west. Provinces with more agricultural land do not necessarily have larger agricultural footprints. (2) The Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry, and Fishing industry and the Food, Beverages, and Tobacco industry were the main two sectors that contributed to the agricultural land footprint for each province, accounting for more than 60% of the total agricultural land footprint in China. (3) The embodied agricultural land transfer between regions showed two main directions on the whole: one was from north to south and the other from west to east, reflecting the transfer law of movement from the less developed regions to those that were more developed. Full article

Obtaining accurate plant population estimates has been integral in listing, recovery, and delisting species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 and for monitoring vegetation in response to livestock grazing. Obtaining accurate population estimates remains a daunting and labor-intensive task. Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs or drones) may provide an effective alternative to ground surveys for rare and endangered plants. The objective of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of sUASs (DJI Phantom 4 Pro) for surveying the Wright fishhook cactus (Sclerocactus wrightiae), a small (1–8 cm diameter) endangered species endemic to grazinglands in the southwest desert of Utah, USA. We assessed sUAS-based remotely sensed imagery to detect and count individual cacti compared to ground surveys and estimated optimal altitudes (10 m, 15 m, or 20 m) for collecting imagery. Our results demonstrated that low altitude flights provided the best detection rates (p < 0.001) and counts (p < 0.001) compared to 15 m and 20 m. We suggest that sUASs can effectively locate cactus within grazingland areas, but should be coupled with ground surveys for higher accuracy and reliability. We also acknowledge that these technologies may have limitations in effectively detecting small, low-growing individual plants such as the small and obscure fishhook cactus species. Full article

COVID-19 has caused significant disruptions regarding the extent to which households can access basic services and resources in cities around the world. Previous studies have indicated a predictive relationship between the consistency of resource access and food access among urban households. These investigations, however, have predominantly been isolated to Southern Africa and have not accounted for other dimensions of food security. To test whether these results are observable outside Southern Africa, and with a more multidimensional measure of food security, this investigation proposes a method for building an index of urban household food access, utilization and stability. The scores for the constructed index are then compared across household survey samples collected from five cities in the Global South. The investigation then assesses the predictive relationship between the consistency of household resource access and this more multidimensional index of food insecurity. While the general trend of inconsistent resource access predicting food insecurity is confirmed, there are geographic differences in the strength and quality of this relationship. These findings suggest that the resource access disruptions inflicted by COVID-19 will likely have a heterogeneous impact on urban food security dependent upon the affected resource and the city in which a given household resides. Full article

Due to the striking gap in agricultural labor productivity (ALP) between China and developed countries, improving agricultural labor productivity is critically important. This study investigates the effect of land rental on agricultural labor productivity from two levels including household agricultural labor productivity and aggregated village-level agricultural labor productivity by employing propensity matching methods and instrumental variables method. Mediation analysis is also applied to explore the influencing mechanism and underlying paths for household agricultural labor productivity improvement. The results analyses based on the nation-wide data sets in 2017 reveal that renting-in land has a significant positive impact on promoting household agricultural labor productivity and renting-out land has significant opposite effects. The mediation analysis indicates that renting-in land affects household ALP indirectly through the land-labor ratio, intermediate inputs, and agricultural assets investment. Moreover, from the village perspective, we further found that the development of the land rental market positively affects the improvement of aggregated agricultural labor productivity of the village. Land rental is an effective channel to stimulate land transferred from lower agricultural labor productivity to higher ones and then promote the resource allocation within the village. Full article

Nowadays, cities meet numerous sustainable development challenges in facing growing urban populations and expanding urban areas. The monitoring and simulation of land use and land-cover change have become essential tools for understanding and managing urbanization. This paper interprets and predicts the expansion of seven different land use types in the study area, using the PLUS model, which combines the Land use Expansion Analysis Strategy (LEAS) and the CA model, based on the multi-class random patch seed (CARS) model. By choosing a variety of driving factors, the PLUS model simulates urban expansion in the metropolitan area of Hangzhou. The accuracy of the simulation, manifested as the kappa coefficient of urban land, increased to more than 84%, and the kappa coefficient of other land use types was more than 90%. To a certain extent, the PLUS model used in this study solves the CA model’s deficiencies in conversion rule mining strategy and landscape dynamic change simulation strategy. The results show that various types of land use changes obtained using this method have a high degree of accuracy and can be used to simulate urban expansion, especially over short periods. Full article

Fires can have an anthropogenic or natural origin. The most frequent natural fire cause is lightning. Since anthropogenic and lightning fires have different climatic and socio-economic drivers, it is important to distinguish between these different fire causes. We developed random forest models that predict the fraction of anthropogenic and lightning fire incidences, and their burned area, at the level of the Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques level 3 (NUTS3) for Europe. The models were calibrated using the centered log-ratio of fire incidence and burned area reference data from the European Forest Fire Information System. After a correlation analysis, the population density, fractional human land impact, elevation and burned area coefficient of variation—a measure of interannual variability in burned area—were selected as predictor variables in the models. After parameter tuning and running the models with several train-validate compositions, we found that the vast majority of fires and burned area in Europe has an anthropogenic cause, while lightning plays a significant role in the remote northern regions of Scandinavia. Combining our results with burned area data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, we estimated that 96.5 ± 0.9% of the burned area in Europe has an anthropogenic cause. Our spatially explicit fire cause attribution model demonstrates the spatial variability between anthropogenic and lightning fires and their burned area over Europe and could be used to improve predictive fire models by accounting for fire cause. Full article

The Bakonjo have long practiced an agroforestry system of cultivation on the Ugandan slopes of the Rwenzori Mountain range. All terrain above 1600–2200 m has been strictly protected for many years because it is part of a national park. As a trade-off, the landscapes outside the park have been largely deforested. In the meantime, tourist numbers have increased. In Ruboni, a village of 1200 people, the closest to the eastern gate of the park, we interviewed a random sample of 51 residents aged >14 to understand how they perceived the landscape, park and tourism. Cultivated features were not essential to describe the place of residence, in contrast to natural features and human engineered devices. Cultivated and natural elements were judged as beautiful. Even if the inhabitants did not like human engineered facilities, they welcomed their improvement. The origin of native and non-native plants was not consistently recognized. These results show that the inhabitants feel affection for the agroforestry pattern of the Rwenzori landscape. However, ecological, social and economic pressures are challenging land use sustainability. This would be better addressed by an integrated pattern of land governance than the current two models: strict protection inside the park and relaxed land use outside. Full article

The use of life cycle assessment (LCA) allows work to go beyond the traditional scope of urban nature-based solutions (NBS), in which ecosystem services are provided to citizens, to include environmental impacts generated over the entire life cycle of the NBS, i.e., from raw material extraction, through materials processing, production, distribution, and use stages, to end-of-life management. In this work, we explored how LCA has been applied in the context of NBS through a critical analysis of the literature. Systems under review were not restricted to one typology of NBS or another, but were meant to cover a broad range of NBS, from NBS on the ground, water-related NBS, building NBS, to NBS strategies. In total, 130 LCA studies of NBS were analysed according to several criteria derived from the LCA methodology or from specific challenges associated with NBS. Results show that studies were based on different scopes, resulting in the selection of different functional units and system boundaries. Accordingly, we propose an innovative approach based on the ecosystem services (ES) concept to classify and quantify these functional units. We also identify and discuss two recent and promising approaches to solve multifunctionality that could be adapted for LCA of NBS. Full article

With the implementation of China’s rural revitalization strategy, the social economy of villages is expected to fully develop; however, their carbon emissions must be controlled within a reasonable range. Realization of this goal is part of the guidance and control of village planning. Clarifying the coupling relationship between village land uses and rural carbon emissions is fundamental for low-carbon village planning. In this study, by exploring the relationships between carbon emissions factors, land-use types, and human activities, the reference range of carbon emissions coefficients for various land-use types in rural areas is obtained. Then, based on the interval values of carbon emissions coefficients, a two-stage optimization model for village carbon emissions analysis is established, which is used to generate the minimal value of village carbon emissions and planning schemes to achieve different carbon emissions target values. First, the smallest carbon emissions value for a certain village is obtained based on a linear programming model. Then, to analyze the planning scheme possibilities under different carbon emissions targets, an objective planning model (including various parameters) is constructed. Through this two-stage optimization model, the optimal planning scheme is set and corresponding planning indicators under different scenarios are obtained through a sensitivity analysis. Combined with a case study in Dongzhuang Village, Shanghai, the results indicate that, with continuous improvement of the basic national carbon emissions database, the range of carbon emissions coefficients for typical local land uses can be determined, and the carbon emissions and land-use types of villages can be co-planned using the two-stage optimization model. With the proposed model, the range of carbon emissions for villages and scenario analysis results considering carbon emissions values associated with various land-use planning schemes can be obtained, contributing greatly to low-carbon village planning. Full article

Land use change is an important reason for changes in carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems. Therefore, analyzing the impact of land use change on carbon storage is important for exploring the sustainable development of cities and improving the value of ecosystem services. Taking Changchun City in the northeast of China as the research area, this paper simulates land use patterns under three scenarios up to 2030 using the FLUS model and assesses carbon storage from 2010 to 2030 using the InVEST model. It estimates the impact of land use change on carbon storage under several scenarios in Changchun. The results show that cultivated land plays an important role in carbon storage in Changchun. The transfer of cultivated land to construction land has been the main land use type conversion over the past decade, which has led to most of the carbon storage loss. In the natural growth scenario, the carbon storage would decline further. In the cultivated land protection scenario, meanwhile, this situation would be greatly improved. In the ecological protection scenario, the carbon storage would be increased due to the protection of ecological land. In the future, we should protect existing resources while simultaneously comprehensively improving the economic, social, and ecological benefits of the land. Full article

Vitality can effectively test the quality of regional space, put forward the concept of urban human settlement vitality, and explore the development status of urban human settlement vitality space, which is of great significance in promoting the high-quality development of urban human settlements. By constructing an evaluation index system of urban human settlement vitality and comprehensively using projection pursuit models, spatial correlation analysis, and spatial measurement models, the spatial pattern and influencing factors of the vitality of urban human settlements in the four districts of Dalian were studied. The results are as follows: (1) The spatial differentiation characteristics of the vitality of urban human settlements in Dalian are remarkable. Overall, it gradually decreased from the city center to the administrative boundary. (2) The spatial dependence of the vitality of urban human settlements among regions is relatively strong, with a more obvious “Matthew effect”. Among them, urban human settlement vitality hot spots were mainly distributed in the southeast of Dalian, showing a concentrated distribution trend, while the cold spots were distributed in the northern fringe area of Dalian, with spatial homogeneity characteristics. (3) Topography, ecological environment, social economy, commercial development, spatial structure, spatial form, regional scale, etc. have different impacts on the vitality of urban human settlements. Full article

Background: The compaction of subsoils in agriculture is a threat to soil functioning. Measures aimed at the prevention, amelioration, and/or impact alleviation of compacted subsoils have been studied for more than a century, but less in smallholder agriculture. Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted to quantitatively examine the effects of the prevention, amelioration, and impact alleviation measures in mechanized and small-holder agriculture countries, using studies published during 2000~2019/2020. Results: Mean effect sizes of crop yields were large for controlled traffic (+34%) and irrigation (+51%), modest for subsoiling, deep ploughing, and residue return (+10%), and negative for no-tillage (−6%). Mean effect sizes of soil bulk density were small (<10%), suggesting bulk density is not a sensitive ‘state’ indicator. Mean effect sizes of penetration resistance were relatively large, with large variations. Controlled traffic had a larger effect in small-holder farming than mechanized agriculture. Conclusion: We found no fundamental differences between mechanized and smallholder agriculture in the mean effect sizes of the prevention, amelioration, and impact alleviation measures. Measures that prevent soil compaction are commonly preferred, but amelioration and alleviation are often equally needed and effective, depending on site-specific conditions. A toolbox of soil compaction prevention, amelioration, and alleviation measures is needed, for both mechanized and smallholder agriculture. Full article

Understanding the resilience of urban forms as a latent force that drives a place’s physical characterization and social cohesion is essential for defining successful adaptive processes of pre-existing urban fabrics. Budapest’s ninth district (Ferencváros) is an outstanding example of transforming a complex historical urban context, which underwent renovation strategies guided by maintaining and enhancing essential morphological elements. Courtyards have great relevance in conditioning the well-being in areas of high occupational density, especially in terms of accessibility to urban green infrastructure. In the case of Ferencváros, they were reframed to add new layers of use and to improve territorial integration by unifying smaller private courtyard unities into more extensive communal areas, creating a comprehensive urban green network, preserving urban heritage, and increasing green coverage. This study assesses how this recent re-urbanization phenomenon is related to political changes in a post-socialist city. The conjuncture found in Ferencváros is unique, yet it can be applied in other similar contexts. The methodology applied to this study is supervised classification for the quantitative analysis of remote-sensing image data with GIS software assistance—a procedure rarely applied in medium-scale urban analysis. However, it was verified to be precise and effective in tracking morphological changes. The preliminary results indicate a significant intensification in greenery in the urban pattern, especially in the core areas of the blocks: the courtyards. After the intervention, green areas became more predominant, cohesive, and articulated. Full article