Search Results (240)

Land-use changes around conservation areas may compromise core habitat integrity and ecological network connectivity. However, how core habitat area, patch structure, and modeled structural connectivity respond jointly to land-use change across contrasting landscapes remains poorly understood. Using a consistent cross-regional framework integrating land-use scenario simulation and ecological network assessment, this study compared changes in core habitat source patches, key ecological sources, and corridors across three candidate national park areas in Southwest China under three development scenarios, identifying three response types associated with landscape context. Results showed that core habitat extent and structural connectivity generally remained stable or slightly improved under the ecological protection (EPS) scenario, whereas varying degrees of connectivity decline or structural degradation were projected under the business-as-usual (BAU) and urban development (UDS) scenarios. The dominant responses differed among the three study areas: the Asian Elephant area mainly showed reduced large-patch integrity; Fanjingshan showed source-patch contraction and increased spatial isolation; and Gaoligongshan maintained relatively stable habitat extent but was sensitive to changes in key ecological source patches and corridor structure. Changes in area of core habitat were not always synchronized with connectivity changes, and corridor number alone did not indicate corridor connectivity efficiency. These findings provide scenario-based spatial reference information for differentiated conservation assessment, key-source evaluation, and preliminary corridor restoration screening in candidate national park areas. Full article

The Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal (BHGC) is a globally recognized linear cultural heritage corridor; however, the fine-scale spatiotemporal dynamics of its comprehensive ecosystem services (ESs) remain poorly understood. Using 30 m high-resolution remote sensing-derived products, this study investigated the spatiotemporal trends and latitudinal patterns of net primary productivity (NPP), soil conservation (SC), water yield (WY), and the improved comprehensive ecosystem services index (CESI) along the BHGC corridor from 2000 to 2020. The improved CESI was constructed via a multiplicative method with cube-root transformation to capture the barrel effect and avoid the compensatory bias inherent in traditional additive approaches. Our results revealed that 91.7% of the pixels exhibited a widespread increasing tendency in CESI, accompanied by a pronounced latitudinal upward gradient from north to south. All three individual ESs improved overall during the study period, with WY increasing most extensively (94.7%), followed by SC (76.9%) and NPP (68.3%), respectively. High-CESI zones were concentrated in the Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang sections, while low-value patches were scattered across the northern Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei sections. Overall, this study provides a robust, fine-scale scientific basis for targeted ecological management and sustainable planning of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt. Full article

Conflicts between development and conservation on tourism-driven islands are concentrated in bay-adjacent terrestrial areas, yet land-use evolution and scenario responses are rarely compared among functionally distinct bays on the same island. This study examined Haitan Bay and Tannan Bay on Pingtan Island using 2 m remote-sensing images from 2008, 2016, and 2024, landscape metrics, and a coupled System Dynamics–Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (SD–PLUS) model. Natural Development (ND), Ecological Restoration (ER), and Economic Development (ED) scenarios were simulated for 2035; ER and ED outputs were further compared pixel by pixel with Minimum Mapping Unit (MMU) sensitivity testing. From 2008 to 2024, Construction Land expanded and became more aggregated in both bays, mainly at the expense of Cropland and Grassland. Relative to 2024, Construction Land increased by 1.74% and 3.97% under ER in Haitan Bay and Tannan Bay, versus 12.27% and 10.89% under ED. New Construction Land mainly extended around existing built-up areas in Haitan Bay but clustered along transportation corridors in Tannan Bay. Scenario-consistent Areas accounted for 87.56% and 89.29%, while some patch metrics were MMU-sensitive. These results reveal distinct land-use responses between Haitan Bay and Tannan Bay and support differentiated spatial planning for the two bay-adjacent terrestrial areas. Full article

Land use and land cover change represent major anthropogenic carbon emission sources, yet most existing studies on landscape patterns and carbon emissions predominantly focus on plain urban agglomerations, with limited empirical evidence from terrain-restricted hilly regions. Taking Xuancheng, a typical hilly city in the Yangtze River Delta, as the study area, this paper utilized seven time-series of Landsat remote-sensing datasets spanning 1990–2020. Integrating the land use dynamic degree, transfer matrix, landscape pattern indexes, calibrated carbon coefficients, Spearman correlation analysis and grey relational analysis, this study explored the associations between land use patterns and carbon emissions. Results show that built-up areas expanded 4.08-fold in the past three decades and emerged as the dominant carbon source, while forests maintained persistent carbon sequestration. The largest patch index of built-up area exhibited the strongest correlation with carbon emissions; cultivated land and forest displayed temporally synchronous fluctuations with emissions rather than exerting independent causal effects. Terrain constraints drive axial urban sprawl along transport corridors, elevating correlations of edge-related indexes and generating carbon response patterns distinct from those observed in plain cities. The two-step correlation analysis framework proved suitable for small-sample long-term datasets. These findings suggest that curbing contiguous built-up area expansion, optimizing urban morphology, and strengthening ecological connectivity should be prioritized in low-carbon spatial planning for hilly cities. Full article

Flood events in agricultural floodplains reflect not only rainfall intensity but the vulnerability of the affected area at the moment of the event. This study examines the January–February 2026 flood in Larache Province, Morocco, through an integrated remote sensing workflow combining Sentinel-1 SAR, CHIRPS precipitation, and Dynamic World land cover in Google Earth Engine, processed via the rgee R package. Flood extent was mapped using SAR backscatter change detection and cross-checked against rainfall dynamics, yielding about 6660 ha of inundation (2.4% of the province), concentrated along the main Loukkos river corridor and adjacent floodplain around Ksar El Kebir, with smaller scattered patches to the south. Land cover was assessed across four temporal windows (spring 2025, pre-event, post-event, and spring 2026) to evaluate how the landscape entered the event and how it recovered. A significant share of normally cultivated land was in a bare-soil state before the flood, a condition that the literature associates with increased runoff. Post-flood analysis across 25 sample areas grouped into three geomorphic zones shows spatially uneven recovery, with cropland still below seasonal norms in spring 2026. These patterns are consistent with structural land-use conditions (wetland loss, intensive seasonal agriculture, drought-degraded soils) that may have amplified an already severe event. The findings support cover cropping, updated flood-hazard zoning, and targeted wetland restoration to reduce vulnerability in the Loukkos floodplain and comparable Mediterranean alluvial floodplains. Full article

The Limushan Area of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park is a biodiversity hotspot where ecological conservation areas are closely interwoven with surrounding human land-use activities. To examine the spatial relationships between landscape configuration and land-use-derived human activity intensity (HAI) in the Limushan Area and its surrounding regions, this study combined landscape pattern metrics, the HAI proxy, a four-quadrant model, and bivariate Local Moran’s I to compare endpoint differences, assess coupling characteristics and local spatial associations, and characterize model-defined human–land relationship types. The results showed that: (1) in both 2000 and 2020, the landscape patterns in the core conservation area of Limushan and the southern high-altitude areas were characterized by low landscape fragmentation, high landscape aggregation, and relatively low HAI, corresponding to more continuous forest landscapes; (2) the northern and eastern surrounding regions generally showed relatively higher landscape fragmentation and HAI, with local differences between 2000 and 2020 concentrated around developed areas and transportation corridors; (3) metric-specific bivariate LISA results showed that relatively high HAI was spatially associated with higher patch density (PD) and landscape shape index (LSI) and lower aggregation index (AI), particularly in developed areas surrounding the Limushan Area. After direction-consistent mapping to the conceptual four-quadrant framework, coordinated relationships were the dominant model-defined type, followed by antagonistic relationships, whereas transitions toward coordination and antagonism accounted for comparatively smaller proportions. Overall, the analysis characterized the spatial distribution of model-defined human–land relationship types and their endpoint changes between 2000 and 2020, highlighting peripheral developed areas and transition zones as locations requiring greater attention in conservation and land-use management. Full article

Species distribution models (SDMs) estimate how climate change may alter habitat suitability. Connectivity models quantify how landscape structure facilitates or constrains species movement among habitat patches. However, links between the two approaches are uncertain. This study assessed their integration and the use of SDM outputs in connectivity analyses. Records from 2010 to 2025 were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science. The records were grouped into three corpora: SDM-only, connectivity-only, and integrated. Publication trends were compared with negative-binomial models. Concept dictionaries identified main themes, and pathway classification distinguished forms of methodological integration. Of 5715 records, only 244 integrated both approaches (5.3% of the SDM literature; 17.9% of the connectivity literature). The integrated corpus increased by 21.7% per year, faster than connectivity-only (13.9%; p = 0.001) but comparable to SDM-only (19.1%; p = 0.266). Integrated records formed a larger share of the connectivity literature than of the SDM literature in all 16 years (median difference: 11.2 percentage points; p < 0.001); because the two shares have a common numerator and unequal denominators, this contrast describes the relative weight of integrated work in each literature and does not by itself establish the direction of methodological transfer. Metadata consistent with the use of projected habitat-suitability surfaces as a connectivity input were identified in 38.1% of integrated records. The strongest keyword link paired SDMs with landscape connectivity (n = 61), but this pair is imposed by the search vocabulary; among pairs not required by the query, SDM concepts linked most often to habitat fragmentation and to dispersal or range shifts (n = 29 each). Despite the rapid expansion of the literature, methodological integration is still limited. Stronger links require explicit and transparent transfer of SDM outputs into corridor, resistance, and network models. Full article

Accidents between vehicles and wildlife (WVCs) represent a complex management challenge, requiring integrated strategies that balance biodiversity conservation with public security and socio-ecological resilience. However, existing GIS hotspot analyses often identify spatial patterns without quantifying the structural landscape drivers that compel animal–road interactions. This study aims to identify “ecological traps” through an integrated landscape diagnostic framework combining Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) for statistical hotspot identification and landscape metrics (FRAGSTATS) for structural diagnosis, using the wild boar (Sus scrofa) as a focal species. An exploratory case analysis of high-collision locations was conducted, utilizing a high-quality dataset of 161 precisely georeferenced incidents recorded between 2015 and 2020 within the most critical municipalities of the Province of Avellino (Southern Italy). Results highlight two primary hotspots: the Guardia Lombardi-Conza corridor and the Avellino Nord-Pratola Serra axis. Quantitative analysis reveals that 39.1% of incidents occurred in non-irrigated arable lands and 19.9% in broad-leaved forests, with 52.8% of events situated within 500 m of river systems, which function as primary ecological movement corridors. Furthermore, fragmentation indices (Patch Density, Edge Density) were significantly higher in these focus areas, confirming that habitat isolation and the loss of core patches force animals to traverse infrastructure. These findings underscore the urgency of evidence-based spatial planning, offering a methodological framework with potential applicability for prioritizing mitigation actions, such as ecological corridors and intelligent signaling, to enhance the resilience of socio-ecological systems. This framework provides a scalable model for sustainable land management, ensuring that biodiversity conservation is integrated into long-term infrastructure governance. Full article

Rapid and unplanned urbanization in Dhaka is reshaping land use, intensifying peripheral expansion, and increasing pressure on urban and ecological resources. Understanding these growth dynamics is essential for effective urban growth boundary delineation and sustainable planning, yet integrated assessments of historical and future urban growth remain limited. The current study evaluates spatiotemporal urban expansion from 2010 to 2025, delineates the urban growth boundary using a morphological framework, and simulates future growth for 2030 through a coupled cellular automaton-neural network model. Multi-temporal Landsat imagery (2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025) was classified in Google Earth Engine using supervised Maximum Likelihood Classification. Urban growth patterns were quantified using the urban expansion intensity index (UEII), annual urban expansion rate (AUER), and landscape expansion index (LEI). The urban largest continuous patch index (ULCPI) approach was applied to extract functional urban boundaries. Model performance was validated using the Chi-square (χ²) goodness-of-fit test. Results show a substantial increase in built-up land from 115.85 km² to 171.42 km² between 2010 and 2025, accompanied by a decline of approximately 60 km² in urban green spaces. LEI results demonstrate a transition from compact infilling growth (2010–2015) to dominant edge and outlying expansion (2015–2020), indicating progressive peri-urbanization. The urban largest continuous patch (ULCP) nearly doubled from 78.58 km² to 152.13 km² over the same period, accentuating rapid spatial consolidation. The 2030 projection anticipates continued corridor-oriented expansion, particularly toward the northern and eastern peripheries, with predictive agreement from the CA–ANN model (χ² = 0.03 < 7.8). The study identifies a clear transition from monocentric compactness to polycentric expansion, emphasizing the necessity for enforceable growth containment, transit-oriented development, and ecologically responsive planning strategies to ensure long-term urban sustainability. Full article

National parks in densely populated regions face growing pressure to shift from boundary-based protection toward cross-boundary landscape governance, yet connectivity between wildlands within and outside the national park remains understudied. China’s large population and marked spatial variation in anthropogenic pressure make it a particularly informative setting for investigating this issue. We developed a rewilding-oriented framework for wildland network modeling, applied to Baishanzu National Park and its surrounding counties in China. By integrating Boolean overlay, wilderness continuum analysis, and circuit theory, we systematically delineated wilderness patches, corridors, and pinch points. We identified 143 wilderness patches covering 1102.79 km² (14.06% of the study area), dominated by small fragments indicative of severe landscape fragmentation. High current-density zones are concentrated along continuous montane forest belts, valley-ridge transition zones, and narrow inter-patch passages. Twenty-six pinch points were identified, primarily within Baishanzu National Park, southeastern Jingning County, and the northern Yunhe–Longquan interface, alongside 15 internal corridors within the park. Rewilding strategies for montane national parks in human-dominated landscapes may benefit from extending beyond boundaries. Cross-boundary wildland network modeling offers a methodological reference for corridor planning and rewilding practice globally. Full article

Rapid urbanization along transportation corridors is a key driver of land transformation and landscape homogenization in developing mega-cities. This study analyzes land use and land cover (LULC) change within a 5 km buffer, from Gulberg to T-Chowk, along the Islamabad Expressway, Pakistan, from 2010 to 2024, using multi-temporal Landsat imagery (2010, 2015, 2020, 2024) and landscape metrics. Built-up area increased by 190.8% (51.02 to 148.34 km²) between 2010 and 2024. The expansion is accompanied by sharp declines in vegetation (−36.0%; 89.17 to 57.06 km²), barren land (−93.8%; 63.88 to 3.94 km²), and water bodies (−64.2%; 8.20 to 2.93 km²). All class-area estimates were derived from the R landscapemetricspipeline and independently verified against visual inspection of the classified rasters, confirming correct class labelling throughout. Landscape structure shifted towards homogenization, with Shannon’s Diversity Index decreasing from 1.19 to 0.74, Patch Density from 74.39 to 21.08 patches per 100 ha, and Edge Density from 219.65 to 99.78 m/ha. LULC maps achieved an accuracy greater than 96% ($\kappa >0.96$) for each classification year, and metric estimates showed cross-platform agreement between R and FRAGSTATS within ±5%. A distance-zone analysis across four successive 1.25 km bands from the Expressway showed that this expansion was pervasive rather than confined to the roadside, with the urban share of classified land rising by 43.6–47.7 percentage points in every band. A complementary 300 m × 300 m fishnet-grid multivariable logistic regression ($n=2162$ cells classified as non-urban in 2010) identified proximity to existing 2010 built-up land and location within a formal housing scheme as the strongest independent correlates of conversion to urban land (AOR = 1.88 for housing-scheme proximity; 95% CI: 1.38–2.56), with acceptable model discrimination (AUC = 0.739). These findings indicate rapid corridor-scale consolidation associated with infrastructure-led growth, reducing landscape heterogeneity and potentially weakening ecological resilience. Unlike previous city-scale studies in the Islamabad–Rawalpindi region, this study adopts a transportation-corridor perspective, combining descriptive landscape ecology with spatially explicit statistical modelling to quantify both the pattern and the spatial drivers of infrastructure-led land transformation. The study underscores the necessity for integrated, corridor-scale land-use governance—including transit-oriented development and landscape-metric-based ecological zoning—to balance urban expansion with ecosystem sustainability. Full article

Tropical riparian ecosystems are among the most threatened biomes on Earth, yet decade-scale, spatially explicit documentation of vegetation loss and landscape fragmentation in community-based ecotourism corridors remains scarce. This study investigates whether agricultural intensification associated with ecotourism development has driven measurable vegetation decline and landscape fragmentation in the Ledok Amprong riparian corridor (Poncokusumo District, Malang Regency, East Java; 8.21 ha, 800–900 m a.s.l.), a mixed-canopy riparian system dominated by Ficus benjamina, Albizia chinensis, and bamboo (Phyllostachys spp.) interspersed with smallholder coffee (Coffea canephora) agroforestry, over the period 2015–2024. We applied multi-temporal Sentinel-2 (10 m) imagery, NDVI analysis, supervised Maximum-Likelihood classification (Overall Accuracy: 89.75%, Kappa: 0.86), and FRAGSTATS-derived landscape metrics to quantify vegetation dynamics and land cover transition. Results show that agricultural land expanded by 157.51% (1.14 to 2.93 ha), while vegetation cover declined by 28.45% (6.27 to 4.49 ha). A strong negative correlation between agricultural expansion and vegetation loss (r = −0.96, p < 0.001) confirmed agriculture as the primary driver of ecosystem degradation. Landscape fragmentation intensified markedly: patch density increased by 49.6%, the connectivity index declined by 23.5%, and the fragmentation index increased by 54.3%. These findings establish the first quantitative, decade-scale spatiotemporal baseline for this ecotourism corridor and demonstrate that community-based ecotourism development, without adequate spatial governance, accelerates rather than mitigates riparian degradation—a paradox with broad implications for tropical riparian conservation governance worldwide. Evidence-based management recommendations include 10–30 m dynamic buffer zones, a 2.5 ha targeted restoration programme, and a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) mechanism, offering a transferable framework for sustainable riparian ecotourism management across rapidly urbanizing tropical watersheds. Full article

Urban grey infrastructure, including transport corridors, flood-control systems, drainage facilities, railway margins, and industrial brownfields, is often treated in conventional planning as functionally vacant or ecologically marginal space. In this study, grey infrastructure is defined as engineered or infrastructure-dominated urban spaces and their residual or edge landscapes, rather than as green infrastructure. Yet such spaces may still contain spontaneous vegetation, water edges, soil patches, and sheltered microhabitats that can support birds, insects, small mammals, and other urban species in highly urbanized environments. From a multispecies justice perspective, this study examines spatial mismatches between PPGIS-derived public recognition and habitat quality modeled using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model in urban grey infrastructure. Using Zhanggong District, Ganzhou, China, as a case study, we developed an integrated framework that combines public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS), grid-based public recognition mapping, and the InVEST Habitat Quality model. Based on 260 valid questionnaires, participants identified locations associated with aesthetic preference and perceived habitat potential. These mapped perception points were converted into a grid-based public recognition indicator and compared with modeled habitat quality. The results indicate a marked perception-habitat mismatch. High public recognition was frequently associated with visually ordered, accessible, and highly managed urban spaces, whereas high modeled habitat quality was more strongly related to vegetated, riverine, peripheral, and semi-natural spaces. The spatial classification shows that aesthetic mismatch areas, where public recognition was high but modeled habitat quality was low, covered 43.20 km², accounting for 7.16% of the study area, whereas hidden ecological value areas, where modeled habitat quality was high but public recognition was low, covered 118.21 km², accounting for 19.59%. This study provides a replicable framework for identifying perception–habitat mismatches and supports more ecologically informed and inclusive strategies for regenerating urban grey infrastructure. More specifically, the study extends an established perception-ecology debate to grey infrastructure and residual urban spaces and demonstrates how PPGIS-derived public recognition and InVEST-modeled habitat quality can be compared within the same grid framework to locate spatially explicit alignment and mismatch. Full article

Non-grain production of cultivated land has increasingly affected regional food security and the stability of agricultural ecosystems. In traditional rice-producing regions, changes associated with non-rice cultivation, fallow land, rice-fishery integrated farming, and intensive agricultural management are reshaping the spatial structure of paddy landscapes. To identify the long-term spatiotemporal evolution of paddy systems, this study investigated Northern Jiangxi, China, using Landsat surface reflectance imagery from 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) were used to construct a phenology-based Flooding Frequency (FF) indicator. Based on the annual frequency with which pixels satisfied the condition LSWI > EVI, cultivated land was classified into three categories: non-flooded cropland, standard rice paddy, and high-frequency flooded cropland. In this study, non-flooded cropland was used as an indicator of potential non-rice cultivation rather than as direct evidence of confirmed non-grain production. Landscape metrics, transition matrices, gravity center migration, standard deviation ellipses, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were then used to examine paddy landscape dynamics, fragmentation patterns, and county-level spatial associations with socioeconomic factors. The results suggest that the paddy system in Northern Jiangxi experienced marked stage-based fluctuations between 2000 and 2020. Standard rice paddy recovered during 2005–2010, whereas non-flooded cropland expanded considerably during 2010–2015, accompanied by intensified paddy landscape fragmentation. Non-flooded cropland was mainly distributed around urban fringes, transport corridors, and some hilly margins. Standard rice paddy was concentrated in traditional grain-producing areas, including the Poyang Lake Plain and the Gan-Fu Plain. High-frequency flooded cropland was primarily located in low-lying lake areas, where its dynamics were likely associated with rice-fishery integrated farming, continuous irrigation, and hydrological fluctuations. Landscape metrics showed that the largest patch index and mean patch size of standard rice paddy declined after 2010, indicating reduced spatial continuity of core paddy fields. The GWR analysis provided auxiliary evidence that total population, per capita gross domestic product (GDP), and urbanization rate were spatially associated with changes in non-flooded cropland at the county level; however, the results should be interpreted as exploratory associations rather than causal mechanisms. Overall, paddy landscape change in Northern Jiangxi was expressed not only through changes in cultivated land area, but also through the reorganization of paddy function, spatial continuity, and land-use intensity. Future cropland protection should therefore move beyond area-based control toward integrated management of quantity, quality, function, and spatial configuration. Future research should further verify these findings using dynamic cropland boundaries, higher-resolution imagery, and more detailed socioeconomic data. Full article

Anthropogenic pressures increasingly threaten ecological connectivity and basin-scale ecological sustainability in peri-urban landscapes. This study proposes a Hybrid Ecological Typology framework for the Büyükçekmece Lake Basin (Istanbul, Türkiye), integrating Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and Minimum Cumulative Resistance (MCR) analysis within a unified spatial decision-support system. The framework is applied to a 67,627.06 ha basin area, including a 25,976.99 ha terrestrial focus area. The results indicate a structurally heterogeneous landscape dominated by interior habitat zones (85.94%) distributed across 93 core patches. Despite this dominance, ecological connectivity is maintained through a highly fragmented network of 484 landscape elements, where limited bridge (0.08%) and branch (0.62%) structures highlight structural vulnerability. Edge-dominated zones (12.87%) further reflect strong anthropogenic fragmentation pressures. Connectivity analysis identifies 10 key habitat patches with dPC (Probability of Connectivity index) values exceeding 5% and 12 strategic ecological corridors supporting basin-scale ecological flows. The proposed hybrid typology delineates five functional planning categories: conservation areas (22.72%), ecological corridors (1.91%), restoration areas (1.63%), sustainable use areas (0.51%), and controlled development areas (8.11%). Although high-quality habitat cores dominate the basin, ecological connectivity remains spatially constrained, with bottleneck zones (0.89%) concentrated along transportation corridors that significantly reduce landscape permeability. Overall, the findings demonstrate that basin-scale ecological sustainability in peri-urban environments is governed not only by habitat quantity but also by the interaction between spatial configuration and resistance structures. The framework provides a transferable decision-support tool that bridges landscape ecology theory with spatial planning practice for basin management and ecological network design. Full article