Impact of Land Use/Land Cover Change on Ecological Quality during Urbanization in the Lower Yellow River Basin: A Case Study of Jinan City

Abstract

Rapid urbanization in the lower Yellow River basin has greatly contributed to the socio-economic development of Northern China, but it has also exacerbated land use/land cover change, with significant impacts on ecology. Ecological quality is a comprehensive spatial and temporal measure of an ecosystem’s elements, structure and function, reflecting the ecological state under external pressures. However, how land use/land cover change affects the ecological quality during urbanization has rarely been explored. In this study, Jinan, a megacity in the lower Yellow River basin, was taken as a typical region, and the response of ecological quality to the land use/land cover change in 2000, 2010 and 2020 was retrieved using the remote sensing ecological index. For the mixed land use/land cover change types, a type-decomposition and spatial heterogeneity quantification method based on the abundance index was proposed, and the impact mechanisms of the land use/land cover change on the ecological quality were revealed by coupling with GeoDetector. The results show that: (1) Farmland and built-up areas, as the dominant land use/land cover types, were the primary factors controlling the spatial pattern of ecological quality. (2) Urban expansion and farmland protection policies resulted in the transfer of farmland and woodland to built-up areas as well as the transfer of woodland and grassland to farmland, which intensified the degradation of ecological quality. (3) Ecological protection policies prompted the transfer of farmland and grassland to woodland and the transfer of farmland to grassland as the main cause for the improvement of ecological quality. (4) Although ecological protection and urban development were implemented in parallel, uneven land use/land cover changes resulted in a 1.4 times expanded area of poorer ecological quality with increasingly serious spatial agglomeration effects. This study can provide scientific references for the ecological conservation and high-quality, sustainable development of cities in the lower Yellow River basin.

Construction of an Ecological Security Pattern in Rapidly Urbanizing Areas Based on Ecosystem Sustainability, Stability, and Integrity

“…Landuse dynamics refers to the extent of dynamic changes occurring among various landuse types and finds widespread application in land monitoring and management [3]. Due to the impact of human activities, landuse types are subject to significant transformations across various regions and periods.…”

“…In addition, it is essential to strengthen field testing and refine the evaluation model accordingly. (3) This study primarily focused on constructing an ESP within the study area. Future work would adopt a more comprehensive approach, considering ecological security from local and cross-regional perspectives.…”

“…Since the 21st century, the ecological problems stemming from rapid urbanization and ongoing development processes have become a global challenge that requires collective efforts to resolve [1,2]. The unregulated development processes and unregulated human activities have also caused irreparable harm to the ecological environment [3]. These harms can directly or indirectly affect the patterns of landuse, the structure of "ecology-livingproduction", and the systematic of the ecological environment, leading to a constant decline in ecosystem services' functionality and disrupting social-development sustainability [4,5].…”

Study on the Spatiotemporal Evolution of Urban Land Use Efficiency in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region

“…Chen [11] and Gao [12] pinpoint urban expansion and land transfer as key influencers. Yu et al found that urban expansion, along with farmland protection policies, can harm ecological quality [13], while Chen et al identified the critical role of forests and hydrological systems in ecosystem services [14]. Different urban agglomerations exhibit varying impacts.…”

Analyzing the Land Use and Cover Change Inside and Outside China’s Ecological Function Area

“…As the social economy, urbanization, and industrialization rapidly progress, human land use practices are undergoing consequential evolution [5,6]. However, the overexploitation and wastage of land resources are prevalent in today's world, exacerbating conflicts between humans and land and giving rise to severe ecological and environmental issues, such as vegetation destruction [5], soil erosion [7], land desertification, and soil pollution [8]. Numerous studies have demonstrated that land use and cover change play a crucial role in influencing ecological and environmental transformations [9][10][11].…”