Search Results (91)

As urbanization accelerates and climate change intensifies, the ecological integrity of urban riparian forests faces growing threats, underscoring the need for a systematic framework to guide their sustainable management. To address this gap, we developed a causal framework by applying text mining and sentence classification to 1001 abstracts from previous studies, structured within the DPSIR (Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response) model. The analysis identified six dominant thematic clusters—water quality, ecosystem services, basin and land use management, climate-related stressors, anthropogenic impacts, and greenhouse gas emissions—which reflect the multifaceted concerns surrounding urban riparian forest research. These themes were synthesized into a structured causal model that illustrates how urbanization, land use, and pollution contribute to ecological degradation, while also suggesting potential restoration pathways. To validate its applicability, the framework was applied to four major urban streams in Seoul, where indicator-based analysis and correlation mapping revealed meaningful linkages among urban drivers, biodiversity, air quality, and civic engagement. Ultimately, by integrating large-scale text mining with causal inference modeling, this study offers a transferable approach to support adaptive planning and evidence-based decision-making under the uncertainties posed by climate change. Full article

Against the background of intensifying human–land contradictions, evaluation of land use benefits and identification of obstacles are crucial for sustainable land management and socioeconomic development. Taking Henan Province as an example, this research employed the entropy weight method and TOPSIS model to assess the land use benefits across its cities from 2011 to 2020, a period of rapid land use transformation, analyzed their spatiotemporal evolution, and identified key obstacles via an obstacle degree model. The results showed the following. (1) The social land use benefits consistently exceeded the ecological and economic benefits, with steady improvements observed in both the individual and comprehensive benefits. Spatially, the benefits showed a “one city dominant” pattern, decreasing gradually from the central region to the south, north, east, and west, with this spatial gradient further intensifying over time. (2) Economic factors were the primary obstacles, with significantly higher obstruction degrees than social or ecological factors. The main obstacles were the general budget revenue of government finance per unit land area, domestic garbage removal volume, and total retail sales of social consumer goods per unit land area. (3) The policy implications focus on strengthening regional differentiated development by leveraging Zhengzhou’s core role to boost the land-based economic benefits, integrating social–ecological strengths with agricultural modernization, and promoting “core–periphery linkage” to narrow gaps through targeted industrial and infrastructure strategies. This study could provide region-specific insights for sustainable land management in agricultural provinces undergoing rapid urbanization. Full article

This study employs system theory and dynamic modeling to investigate how rural homestead rights confirmation influences multidimensional urban–rural integration. Through constructing a system dynamics model incorporating environmental, economic, and social sustainability indicators, an analysis of the structural relationships between land tenure security, resource mobility, and balanced regional development is conducted. The findings reveal that formalized property rights act as a systemic intervention triggering three synergistic effects: (1) enhanced rural resource utilization efficiency, (2) accelerated elements market integration, and (3) improved social equity in development opportunities. Scenario simulations project that, under current policy trajectories, urban–rural integration could achieve intermediate coordination by 2035 through sustainable land management practices. A comparative scenario analysis demonstrates that urban-priority models exacerbate spatial inequality, while rural-optimized and coordinated development pathways accelerate convergence toward comprehensive integration through ecological–economic–social multi-dimensional synergy. This research contributes to sustainability science by quantifying the systemic linkages between institutional innovation and spatial justice, providing evidence-based insights for developing countries pursuing integrated rural revitalization and sustainable urbanization strategies. The methodological framework offers replicable tools for assessing institutional reforms’ long-term impacts on territorial sustainability. Full article

Focusing on the dynamic change process of urban ecology and economy, this paper explores the spatial correlation pattern of cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region for sustainable development from 2012 to 2023 based on the coupled coordination model, gravitational model, and social network analysis (SNA). First, the sustainable development level of the city shows a certain upward trend in the time dimension. In the spatial dimension, there is significant regional differentiation, which roughly shows the development characteristics of gradual increase from the interior to the coast. Second, cities with lower-level sustainable development and higher-level sustainable development always maintain their own stability, but being adjacent to a city with lower-level sustainable development increases the probability of an improvement. Third, cities that play an important role in driving the level of spatial correlation for sustainable development are mainly concentrated in the central and eastern parts of the YRD, with Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hangzhou being the most important radiation centers in the pattern of spatial correlation. Fourth, the affiliation system of sustainable development gradually changes from the double core system of Shanghai–Suzhou to the triple core system of Shanghai–Suzhou–Hangzhou to drive and lead the development of the subordinate cities. Fifth, the spatial network can be categorized into four plates: benefit, overflow, bilateral spillover, and broker, with obvious linkage effects between plates. Full article

Amidst the swift progression of urban expansion, transformations in land utilization have become increasingly pronounced, posing significant threats to ecosystem coherence and continuity. Establishing a well-designed ecological security pattern (ESP) framework proves essential for preserving environmental equilibrium and enhancing species diversity. This investigation centers on the Fuzhou urban agglomeration as its primary study zone, employing the patch-oriented land utilization simulation (PLUS) approach to forecast 2030 land cover modifications under environmentally conscious conditions. By integrating morphological spatial configuration assessment (MSPA) with habitat linkage evaluation, critical ecological hubs were pinpointed. Subsequent application of electrical circuit principles alongside the minimal cumulative resistance (MCR) methodology enabled the identification of vital ecological pathways and junctions, culminating in the development of a comprehensive territorial ESP framework. Key findings reveal the subsequent outcomes: (1) the main land use type in the Fuzhou metropolitan area is woodland, which accounts for over 80% of its area, and under the ecological priority scenario for 2030, woodland fragmentation was significantly improved; (2) ecological sources are mainly distributed in the northwest, northeast, and central regions, with their total area proportion increasing to 40.49% by 2030; (3) we constructed 35 ecological corridors and 42 ecological nodes, including 14 key ecological pinch points, 9 potential ecological pinch points, and 4 ecological barrier points; and (4) the final ESP formed the pattern of “three cores, three areas, multiple corridors, and multiple sources,” providing strong support for ecological protection and regional sustainable development in the Fuzhou metropolitan area. In this research, we explore the coupled methods of land use simulation and ecological network construction, offering insights for optimizing ESPs in other rapidly urbanizing areas. Full article

Understanding the spatial association network structure and carbon balance zoning of land-use carbon emissions (LUCEs) is essential for guiding regional environmental management. This study constructs a LUCE spatial association network for Hubei Province using a modified gravity model to uncover the spatial linkages in carbon emissions. Carbon balance zones are delineated by integrating LUCE network characteristics with economic and ecological indicators. To further examine the network dynamics, link prediction algorithms are employed to anticipate potential emission connections, while quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) regression analyzes how intercity differences in socioeconomic, ecological, and land-use attributes influence LUCE connectivity. The results reveal a pronounced core–periphery structure, with potential carbon spillover pathways extending toward both eastern and western cities. Based on the carbon balance analysis, six functional zones are identified, each aligned with targeted collaborative mitigation strategies. The QAP results indicate that intercity differences in innovation capacity, industrial structure, and economic development are positively associated with the formation of LUCE spatial networks, whereas disparities in urbanization level, government expenditure, and construction land use are negatively associated with LUCE connectivity. This study provides a differentiated governance framework to address the dual challenges of carbon emissions and land-use transformation in agro-urban regions. Full article

As the first marine economic zone, the coastal zone is a complex and active ecosystem, serving as an important resource breeding area. However, during the process of economic development, coastal zone resources have been severely exploited, leading to fragile ecology and frequent natural disasters. Therefore, it is imperative to analyze coastline changes and their correlation with coastal ecological space. Utilizing long-time series high-resolution remote sensing images, Google Earth images, and key sea area unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing monitoring data, this study selected the coastal zone of Ningbo City as the research area. Remote sensing interpretation mark databases for coastline and typical coastal ecological space were established. Coastline extraction was completed based on the visual discrimination method. With the help of the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and maximum likelihood classification, a hierarchical classification discrimination process combined with a visual discrimination method was constructed to extract long-time series coastal ecological space information. The changes and the linkage relationship between the coastlines and coastal ecological spaces were analyzed. The results show that the extraction accuracy of ground objects based on the hierarchical classification process is high, and the verification effect is improved with the help of UAV remote sensing monitoring. Through long-time sequence change monitoring, it was found that the change in coastline traffic and transportation is significant. Changes in ecological spaces, such as industrial zones, urban construction, agricultural flood wetlands and irrigation land, dominated the change in artificial shorelines, while the change in Spartina alterniflora dominated the change in biological coastlines. The change in ecological space far away from the coastline on both the land and sea sides has little influence on the coastline. The research shows that the correlation analysis between coastline and coastal ecological space provides a new perspective for coastal zone research. In the future, it can provide technical support for coastal zone protection, dynamic supervision, administration, and scientific research. Full article

In the context of high-quality economic development, the empowering effect of regional integration policies on urban green and low-carbon development has significantly strengthened, playing a crucial strategic role in achieving the coordinated development of the economy and ecology. This study uses the expansion of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as a quasi-natural experimental scenario, analyzing the pathways and mechanisms through which regional integration policies influence urban green and low-carbon development based on panel data from Chinese cities between 2004 and 2022, using a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) model. The empirical results show the following: ① Regional integration policies significantly enhance the efficiency of urban green and low-carbon development, a conclusion that remains robust after a series of robustness tests, including PSM-DID estimation, placebo tests, instrumental variable methods, indicator reconstruction, and policy interference exclusion. ② Mechanism tests reveal that regional integration policies mainly drive the green and low-carbon transformation through three channels: innovation investment, industrial upgrading, and talent aggregation. ③ Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive impact of regional integration policies on the green and low-carbon development of cities is more significant in eastern regions, resource-based cities, small and medium-sized cities, and old industrial cities. Spatial effect tests show that regional integration development has a significant spatial spillover effect on urban green and low-carbon transformation. Based on these findings, it is recommended that, in the future, in global efforts should be made to continuously improve the regional collaborative governance system, strengthen multi-dimensional linkage mechanisms in urban agglomerations, and build a policy support framework that drives innovation and optimizes the allocation of factors. This study not only provides empirical support for the green efficiency enhancement mechanisms of regional integration policies but also offers decision-making references for promoting regional coordinated development and achieving green economic growth in the digital economy era. Full article

The construction of ecological networks and the optimization of ecological spatial layouts are essential for maintaining regional ecological security and promoting sustainable development, especially in high-population-density urban agglomerations. This study employs the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration (CPUA) as a case study to establish an ecological network through a quantitative assessments of land use/cover change (LUCC) and ecosystem service value (ESV), utilizing the morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) methods and tools such as Linkage Mapper to further optimize ecological spatial layouts. The findings reveal the following: (1) The land use structure within the CPUA experienced notable shifts. The magnitude of land use changes ranked as follows: construction land > cultivated land > grassland > waterbody > forest > bare land. (2) The southwestern mountainous and hilly regions, designated as high ESV areas, primarily rely on water conservation and soil retention functions. In contrast, the central and western regions, characterized by low ESVs, are dominated by construction land and cultivated land, and are significantly influenced by urbanization and agricultural activities. (3) An ecological network system was developed based on the region’s natural geographic features, incorporating 20 ecological sources covering approximately 21,434.70 km², and 36 ecological corridors with a combined length of around 2795.19 km. This network extends in a north–south direction through the central and western parts of the CPUA. (4) Considering the spatial changes in land use/cover and ESVs, an optimized ecological spatial layout of “five belts, six zones, multiple clusters, and corridors” was proposed, along with differentiated restoration strategies tailored to address specific ecological issues in different regions. This study aims to harmonize regional ecological protection with economic development, providing a scientific foundation and valuable reference for ecological conservation and sustainable spatial planning policies. Full article

Under conditions of increasing anthropogenic load, aquatic ecosystems all over the world are undergoing a transformation, expressed in the growth of eutrophication, the overgrowing of water bodies with higher vegetation of macrophytes, cyanobacterial bloom, and the increased concentrations of different pollutants in these objects. In the region of Eastern Siberia that we studied, located in the middle reaches of the Lena River basin, there is the city of Yakutsk—the largest city in the world built in a permafrost region. Within the city and its surroundings, there are many small lakes (less than 1 km² in area) which over the past decades have been subject to varying degrees of pressure associated with human activity (nutrients and organic matter loads, urban landscape transformation). This study is the first to combine the metabolomic profiling of Potamogeton perfoliatus with microalgal bioindication to assess anthropogenic impacts in permafrost urban lakes, providing a novel framework for monitoring ecological resilience in extreme environments. We studied four lakes with varying degrees of anthropogenic pressure. Using a comprehensive assessment of the bioindicator properties of planktonic microalgae and the chemical parameters of water using statistical methods and principal component analysis (PCA), the lakes most susceptible to anthropogenic pressure were identified. Concentrations of pollutant elements in the tissues of the submerged macrophyte aquatic plant Potamogeton perfoliatus L., which inhabits all the lakes we studied, were estimated. Data on the content of pollutant elements in aquatic vegetation and the results of metabolomic analysis made it possible to identify the main sources of anthropogenic impact in the urbanized permafrost area. The pollution of water bodies with some key pollutants leads to Potamogeton perfoliatus’s metabolites decreasing, such as sucrose, monosaccharides (arabinose, mannose, fructose, glucose, galactose), organic acids (glyceric acid, malic acid, erythronic acid, fumaric acid, succinic acid, citric acid), fatty acids (linoleic and linolenic acids), myo-inositol, 4-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid, shikimic acid, and catechollactate, caused by pollution which may decrease the photosynthetic activity and worsen the sustainability of water ecosystems. Linkage was established between the accumulation of pollutants in plant tissues, the trophic status of the lake, and the percentage of eutrophic microalgae, which can be used in monitoring the anthropogenic load in the permafrost zone. Knowledge of the composition and concentration of secondary metabolites produced by macrophytes in permafrost lakes can be useful in organizing water resource management in terms of reducing the level of cyanobacterial blooms due to allelochemical compounds secreted by macrophytes. This new work makes possible the evaluation of the permafrost-zone small-lake anthropogenic load in the frame of a changing climate and the growing attention of the industry to Arctic resources. Full article

This study focuses on the effect of financial development, natural resource rent, human development, and technological innovation on the ecological and carbon footprints of the G-10 countries between 1990 and 2022. This study also considers the impact of globalization, trade openness, urbanization, and renewable energy on environmental degradation. The study uses Kao and Westerlund DH cointegration tests, FMOLS and DOLS estimators, and panel Fisher and Hatemi-J asymmetric causality tests to provide reliable results. Long-run estimates confirm an inverted U-shaped linkage between financial development and ecological and carbon footprints. Natural resource rent and technological innovation increase ecological and carbon footprints, while human development decreases them. Furthermore, globalization, trade openness, and renewable energy contribute to environmental quality, while urbanization increases environmental degradation. The Fisher test findings reveal that financial development, natural resource rent, human development, and technological innovation have a causal link with the ecological and carbon footprint. The results of the Hatemi-J test show that the negative shocks observed in the ecological and carbon footprint are affected by both negative and positive shocks in financial development, natural resource rent, and technological innovation. Moreover, positive and negative shocks in human development are the main drivers of negative shocks in the carbon footprint, while positive shocks in human development lead to negative shocks in the ecological footprint. Full article

The study of ecological security patterns is of great significance to the balance between regional economic development and environmental protection. By optimizing the regional ecological security pattern through reasonable land-use planning and resource management strategies, the purpose of maintaining ecosystem stability and improving ecosystem service capacity can be achieved, and ultimately regional ecological security can be achieved. As a typical ecological civilization city in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Yichang City is also facing the dual challenges of urban expansion and environmental pressure. The construction and optimization of its ecological security pattern is the key to achieving the harmonious coexistence of economic development and environmental protection and ensuring regional sustainable development. Based on the ecological environment characteristics and land-use data of Yichang City, this paper uses morphological spatial pattern analysis and landscape connectivity analysis to identify core ecological sources, constructs a comprehensive ecological resistance surface based on the sensitivity–pressure–resilience (SPR) model, and combines circuit theory and Linkage Mapper tools to extract ecological corridors, ecological pinch points, and ecological barrier points and construct the ecological security pattern of Yichang City with ecological elements of points, lines, and surfaces. Finally, the community mining method was introduced and combined with habitat quality to analyze the spatial topological structure of the ecological network in Yichang City and conduct ecological security zoning management. The following conclusions were drawn: Yichang City has a good ecological background value. A total of 64 core ecological sources were screened out with a total area of 3239.5 km². In total, 157 ecological corridors in Yichang City were identified. These corridors were divided into 104 general corridors, 42 important corridors, and 11 key corridors according to the flow centrality score. In addition, 49 key ecological pinch points and 36 ecological barrier points were identified. The combination of these points, lines, and surfaces formed the ecological security pattern of Yichang City. Based on the community mining algorithm in complex networks and the principle of Thiessen polygons, Yichang City was divided into five ecological functional zones. Among them, Community No. 2 has the highest ecological security level, high vegetation coverage, close distribution of ecological sources, a large number of corridors, and high connectivity. Community No. 5 has the largest area, but it contains most of the human activity space and construction and development zones, with low habitat quality and severely squeezed ecological space. In this regard, large-scale ecological restoration projects should be implemented, such as artificial wetland construction and ecological island establishment, to supplement ecological activity space and mobility and enhance ecosystem service functions. This study aims to construct a multi-scale ecological security pattern in Yichang City, propose a dynamic zoning management strategy based on complex network analysis, and provide a scientific basis for ecological protection and restoration in rapidly urbanizing areas. Full article

Negative air ions (NAIs) have the effect of improving environmental quality and human health. This study for the first time constructed an evaluation system for forest release of NAIs employing five capacity indicators: release contribution rate (L), release coefficient (n), release rate (s), instantaneous standing stock (v), and total release amount (Z). These were applied to evaluate the forest’s ability to release NAIs in the suburban urban green space of Beijing—Xishan National Forest Park. The results showed that: (1) during the growing season of the forest, the value ranges of these indicators were as follows: L: 6.04~9.71%, n: 6.63~11.05%, s: 4.53 × 10³~7.49 × 10³/cm²/min, v: 4.48 × 10⁴~7.34 × 10⁴/cm², Z: 2.70 × 10⁵~4.40 × 10⁵/cm², with the spring and autumn “noon and evening” and summer “morning and evening” forests having the strongest effect and the highest release capacity of NAIs; (2) the daily changes of L, n, s, v, and Z are generally in a “bimodal” pattern, and the overall trend of “rise and fall, rise and fall” among various indicators is consistent, showing a “linkage”; (3) weather characteristics affect release capacity in the order of sunny > rainy > cloudy, with the strongest NAI release ability from forests at 6:00 on cloudy days (0.53%, 1.7%, 877.19/cm²/min, 3.56 × 10⁴/cm², 9.67 × 10⁴/cm²) and at 18:00 on rainy days (4.58%, 4.83%, 3.16 × 10³/cm²/min, 3.16 × 10⁴/cm², 1.90 × 10⁵/cm²), with poorer NAI release ability in the afternoon on cloudy and rainy days; (4) forests can produce over 100 million levels of NAIs throughout the year, with an average daily production of over one million levels of NAIs. From 2019 to 2021, NAI production showed an increasing trend year by year, and the increase rate increased year by year to 19.6% and 56.5%.; and (5) the five indicators are significantly positively correlated with solar radiation and temperature in the range of 0–200 w/m² and 5–20 °C, respectively. This study provides a new method to reveal the ability of forests to release NAIs, providing strong evidence for creating a livable ecological environment. Full article

This systematic review evaluates China’s Rural Revitalization Policy, focusing on sustainable agriculture, food security, and poverty alleviation initiatives from 2010 to 2024. The study addresses critical gaps in understanding how these combined efforts impact long-term food security and ecological sustainability in impoverished areas, moving beyond the short-term outcomes often emphasized in existing literature. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we reviewed 33 peer-reviewed publications from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, employing bibliometric analyses in RStudio to assess citation patterns, collaboration networks, and thematic evolution. Our analysis reveals significant progress across three interconnected domains. First, poverty alleviation initiatives achieved a 12.3% reduction in rural poverty through integrated agricultural modernization and targeted support programs. Second, agricultural productivity increased by 9.8% through technological integration and sustainable farming practices, strengthening food security outcomes. Third, environmental sustainability improved notably, with a 15.7% increase in clean water access, demonstrating a successful balance between economic growth and ecological protection. China emerged as the largest contributor (15.2%) to research in this field, with substantial international collaboration (42.4% of publications involving cross-border co-authorship). Despite these achievements, significant regional disparities persist, particularly between eastern and western regions, where targeted interventions are needed. The findings highlight the need for regionally tailored approaches: eastern regions require focus on sustainable intensification, western regions need fundamental infrastructure development, and central regions would benefit from strengthened urban–rural linkages. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers and researchers working on rural development initiatives while identifying areas requiring further research, particularly in long-term sustainability assessments and climate resilience strategies. Full article

Urbanization, driven by socio-economic development, has significantly impacted river ecosystems, particularly in plain city regions, leading to disruptions in river network structure and function. These changes have exacerbated hydrological fluctuations and ecological degradation. This study focuses on the central urban area of Changzhou using a MIKE11 model to assess the effects of four hydrological connectivity strategies—water diversion scheduling, river connectivity, river dredging, and sluice connectivity—across 13 different scenarios. The results show that water diversion, river dredging, and sluice connectivity scenarios provide the greatest improvements in water environmental capacity, with maximum increases of 54.76%, 41.97%, and 25.62%, respectively. The spatial distribution of improvements reveals significant regional variation, with some areas, particularly in Tianning and Zhonglou districts, experiencing declines in environmental capacity under sluice diversion and river-connectivity scenarios. In addition, the Lao Zaogang River is identified as crucial for improving the overall water quality in the network. Based on a multi-objective evaluation, combining environmental and economic factors, the study recommends optimizing water diversion scheduling at sluices (Weicun, Zaogang, and Xiaohe) with flow rates between 20–40 m³/s, enhancing connectivity at key river hubs, and focusing management efforts on the Lao Zaogang and Xinmeng rivers to strengthen hydrological and water quality linkages within the network. Full article