Study on Spatiotemporal Characteristic and Mechanism of Forest Loss in Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River

Abstract

Under the backdrop of achieving carbon neutrality and accelerating urbanization, China’s forests face unprecedented pressures. This study explored the spatiotemporal characteristics of forest loss in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR). The dynamic mechanism of forest loss caused by fire, logging, construction, and pollution was also analyzed using spatial database development, polygon superposition analysis, grid system construction, and coordinate system calculation. The results show that the forest loss in the UAMRYR experienced three stages: continuous acceleration (1990–2010), peak (2010–2015), and slight decline (2015–2020). Rapid urban expansion is the primary cause of forest loss, and the three metropolitan areas had the fastest urban expansion and the most severe forest loss. Due to the success of afforestation efforts, the forest loss caused by fire, logging, and pollution was restored by 80%, while most of the forest losses caused by construction are permanent. Given the current forest loss trends, large expanses of forests in the UAMRYR are at risk of being destroyed and causing serious damage to the region’s ecological environment. Forest losses can be significantly reduced by guiding the rational expansion of cities, supporting afforestation for urban construction projects, strengthening forest fire risk investigation, and implementing ecological reconstruction of polluted areas.

Impacts of different levels of urban expansion on habitats at the regional scale and their critical distance thresholds

“…Previous studies have shown that the impact of urban expansion on habitats is reflected by the area, quantity, quality, and degree of biodiversity of habitat patches [18,19]. For example, Zhu et al [20] found that forests in urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River decreased by 0.9% (1290.9 km 2 ) due to urban expansion between 1990 and 2020. From 1980 to 2020, land use changes in Guangdong Province, China, contributed to average habitat quality decreasing by 0.0351 or 4.83% per year [21].…”

Study on the Impact of Collaborative Agglomeration of Manufacturing and Producer Services on PM2.5 Pollution: Evidence from Urban Agglomerations in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River in China

“…Urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River plays an important role in China’s regional development pattern. Recent years have seen remarkable economic and social development in the urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, but environmental problems have become increasingly prominent [ 43 , 44 ]. The natural conditions and economic and social differences between the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and that in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta are mainly reflected in four aspects: (1) The urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is the largest urban agglomeration in China.…”

Research on the evolution characteristics and its driving mechanism of central urban area in Hunan Province

“…Existing studies on the coupling relationship between urban spatial morphology and driving factors often utilize indicators such as landscape index [24] , landscape expansion index [25] , compaction index [26] , and fractal dimension [27] . These studies quantify the characteristics of morphological changes based on factors like land parcel quantity, area, density, and perimeter.…”