Next Article in Journal
Heritage Conservation and Sustainable Tourism Through Community Participation: Insights from Mt. Rtanj, Serbia
Previous Article in Journal
Study on the Relationship Between Landscape Features and Water Eutrophication in the Liangzi Lake Basin Based on the XGBoost Machine Learning Algorithm and the SHAP Interpretability Method
 
 
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Morphology-Adaptive Spatial Analysis of Urban Green Spaces: A Homogeneous Unit of Building Morphology (HUBM)-Based Framework for Ecosystem Service and Resilience Assessment in High-Density Cities

1
Institute of Urban and Sustainable Development, City University of Macau, Macau SAR, China
2
Grand Thought Think Tank, Macau SAR, China
3
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
4
Department of Landscape Architecture, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Submission received: 17 October 2025 / Revised: 24 November 2025 / Accepted: 5 December 2025 / Published: 19 December 2025

Abstract

Environmental assessment in high-density urban areas faces significant challenges due to complex building morphology and the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). This study proposes a morphology-adaptive computational framework that integrates the Homogeneous Unit of Building Morphology (HUBM) with geospatial modeling to enhance environmental assessment processes. Using Macao as a case study, the framework quantifies local and accessibility-based ecosystem service flows and evaluates ecological resilience via ecological security patterns and spatial elasticity indices. The results demonstrate that HUBM substantially reduces MAUP-induced biases compared to traditional grid-based approaches, maintaining statistical significance in spatial clustering analyses across all scales. Functionally, ecosystem service value (ESV) analysis reveals that natural green spaces provide more than three times the total ESV, predominantly offering regulating services, while artificial green spaces primarily deliver localized services. Accessibility analysis highlights considerable spatial inequities, with natural green spaces exhibiting a significantly higher recreational accessibility index. In terms of ecological security patterns (ESPs), natural green spaces function as core ecological patches, while artificial green spaces dominate connectivity, accounting for 75% of corridor length and 86% of node density. Natural green spaces exhibit significantly greater ecological resilience. These findings highlight the complementary roles of natural and artificial green spaces in dense urban environments and underscore the need for adaptive spatial analysis in urban planning.
Keywords: urban systems; ecosystem services; resilience; geospatial modeling; environmental assessment urban systems; ecosystem services; resilience; geospatial modeling; environmental assessment
Graphical Abstract

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Zhu, H.; Cheng, J.; Zhou, L.; Shen, G.; Loon, L. Morphology-Adaptive Spatial Analysis of Urban Green Spaces: A Homogeneous Unit of Building Morphology (HUBM)-Based Framework for Ecosystem Service and Resilience Assessment in High-Density Cities. Land 2026, 15, 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/land15010006

AMA Style

Zhu H, Cheng J, Zhou L, Shen G, Loon L. Morphology-Adaptive Spatial Analysis of Urban Green Spaces: A Homogeneous Unit of Building Morphology (HUBM)-Based Framework for Ecosystem Service and Resilience Assessment in High-Density Cities. Land. 2026; 15(1):6. https://doi.org/10.3390/land15010006

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhu, Huiyu, Jialin Cheng, Long Zhou, Guoqiang Shen, and Leehu Loon. 2026. "Morphology-Adaptive Spatial Analysis of Urban Green Spaces: A Homogeneous Unit of Building Morphology (HUBM)-Based Framework for Ecosystem Service and Resilience Assessment in High-Density Cities" Land 15, no. 1: 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/land15010006

APA Style

Zhu, H., Cheng, J., Zhou, L., Shen, G., & Loon, L. (2026). Morphology-Adaptive Spatial Analysis of Urban Green Spaces: A Homogeneous Unit of Building Morphology (HUBM)-Based Framework for Ecosystem Service and Resilience Assessment in High-Density Cities. Land, 15(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/land15010006

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop