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This paper investigates the impact of land use/cover type changes in the Haideigou open-pit coal mine on the evolution of the landscape patterns and ecological and environmental quality in the mine area, based on medium- and high-resolution remote sensing images in 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021 using ArcGIS 10.5, Fragstats 4.2, and the Google Earth Engine platform. The results show that: (1) From 2006 to 2021, the area of cropland and waste dumps in the Heidaigou mining area changed significantly, the land use shifted in a single direction, and the overall land use change was unbalanced. (2) Through the analysis of landscape indicators, it was shown that the diversity of the landscape patches in the study area increased, connectivity decreased, and the patches became more fragmented. (3) Based on the changes in the mean value of the RSEI over the past 15 years, the ecological environment quality of the mining area deteriorated first and then improved. The quality of the ecological environment in the mining area was significantly affected by human activities. This study provides an important basis for achieving the sustainability and stability of ecological environmental development in mining areas.

Intense human activities have led to profound changes in landscape patterns and ecological processes, generating certain ecological risks that seriously threaten human wellbeing. Ecological risk assessment from a landscape perspective has become an important tool for macroecosystem landscape management. This research improves the framework and indices of the ecological risk assessment from a landscape perspective, evaluates the land use pattern and landscape ecological risk dynamics in the Yellow River Ecological Economic Belt (YREEB), analyzes the spatiotemporal variation, and identifies key areas for ecological risk management. The results indicate the following: The main land use types in the region are grassland and cropland, but the area of cropland and grassland decreased during the study period, and with the accelerated urbanization, urban land is the only land use type that continued to increase over the 20-year period. The ecological risk in the YREEB tended to decrease, the area of low ecological risk zones increased, while the area of high ecological risk zones gradually decreased. Most areas are at medium risk level, but the risk in central Qinghai and Gansu is obviously higher, and there is a dispersed distribution of local high- and low-risk zones. A total of 37.7% of the study area is identified as critical area for future risk management, and the potential for increased risk in these areas is high. These results can provide a basis for sustainable development and planning of the landscape and the construction of ecological civilization in ecologically fragile areas.

This study of Hainan Island, based on three periods of land use/cover data from 2008, 2013, and 2017, uses the intensity analysis model and landscape pattern index to portray the dynamic changes of land use on the island and a quantitative analysis of the spatial and temporal evolutionary characteristics of ecosystem service values (ESV) based on the equivalent factor method. At the same time, the response of ESV to landscape pattern changes is explored. The results indicate: (1) From 2008 to 2017, the cultivated land in the coastal areas around Hainan Island continued to expand, which squeezed out forest land and reduced its area. The growth of built-up areas in Haikou City and Sanya City was more dramatic. (2) A weakening trend in the intensity of land use on Hainan Island during the study period. There were significant changes in cultivated land, grassland, and bare land, with forest land, grassland, and water bodies transformed into cultivated land. Built-up areas increased mainly through the occupation of cultivated land, grassland, and water bodies. (3) The fragmentation of landscape patches and the diversity of landscapes on Hainan Island increased, with the distribution of landscape types tending to be balanced. (4) From 2008 to 2017, the overall ESV of the island showed an initial decrease before increasing; the main spatial distribution characteristic of the ESV was "high in the central and low in the surroundings". (5) The mean patch area, the Shannon diversity index, and the largest patch index showed clear positive correlations to ESV.

Habitat quality (HQ) is widely considered to be a proxy indicator for biodiversity. Assessing the dynamic changes in HQ induced by land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes could provide a scientific perspective for regional sustainable development, especially in the ecologically fragile karst plateau mountainous areas. We selected nine landscape metrics to examine LULC dynamics in the Key Biodiversity Conservation Project Area of Wuling Mountains in Guizhou province, China, based on the land-use data for the 1990-2018 period. HQ was evaluated using the InVEST model and the topographic gradient effect on HQ was analyzed using the topographic position index. The results showed that the dominant land categories in the study area were arable land, grassland, and forestland. Land transformation was mainly characterized by a shift from cultivated land to construction land and forestland, and a mutual conversion between grassland and forestland. The changes improved landscape heterogeneity and the degree of fragmentation. The HQ of the study area was high, although exhibited a declining trend from 1990 to 2018. The eastern and western parts had relatively high HQ, whereas the southern and northern parts had low HQ. The topographic gradient had a significant effect on spatial patterns of HQ. High HQ distribution was consistent with that of forestland and was dominant along the topographic gradient, while low HQ distribution was consistent with that of construction land and cultivated land and was dominant along the topographic gradient.

In recent years, a changing global climate and the continuous expansion of the intensity and scope of human activities have led to regional differentiation in the surface landscape. This has caused numerous ecological risks under multiple pressure sources, gradually becoming an important factor restricting the sustainable development of economic and social health. With the continuous development of the social economy, land use and associated ecological risks will inevitably change. According to the forest transformation theory and the environmental Kuznets curve, we put forward the theoretical framework of ecological risk transformation of land-use change and took Zhangjiachuan County (China) as an example to verify it. Therefore, on the basis of Landsat satellite data, this paper used landscape structures to calculate an ecological risk index, and evaluated the ecological risk of land-use changes through pattern index analyses. The results show that, from 2000 to 2020, the ecological risk index of land-use change in Zhangjiachuan County exhibited an increasing and then decreasing trend, showing an overall "inverted U-shaped" trend of change consistent with the transformation theoretical framework of ecological risks of land use change. Secondly, in terms of patterns, the ecological risk of land-use change in Zhangjiachuan County showed a distribution feature of high in the west and low in the east. In 2000, high-risk areas were mainly concentrated in the central and northern areas, while low-risk areas were mainly concentrated in the eastern areas. From 2000 to 2015, the medium-risk areas expanded to the west and midwest, and the geographic centers of the risk areas were slightly offset. From 2015 to 2020, the overall pattern of ecological risk areas was basically the same as that of the previous stage, but the medium-risk areas were slightly reduced. In terms of quantity, from 2000 to 2015, the areas of the lowest risk level and low risk level decreased, while the areas of medium risk level, high risk level, and the highest risk level increased; from 2015 to 2020, the areas of the lowest risk level and low risk level increased, and the areas of medium risk level, high risk level, and highest risk level decreased. Lastly, the spatial aggregation of ecological risks in Zhangjiachuan County weakened slightly from 2000 to 2005, gradually increased from 2005 to 2015, and then slightly weakened from 2015 to 2020.

An in-depth study of the influence mechanism of oasis land surface temperature (LST) in arid regions is essential to promote the stable development of the ecological environment in dry areas. Based on MODIS, MYD11A2 long time series data from 2003 to 2020, the Mann-Kendall nonparametric test, the Sen slope, combined with the Hurst index, were used to analyze and predict the trend of LST changes in the urban agglomeration on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains. This paper selected nine influencing factors of the slope, aspect, air temperature, normalized vegetation index (NDVI), precipitation (P), nighttime light index (NTL), patch density (PD), mean patch area (AREA_MN), and aggregation index (AI) to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of LST from global and local perspectives using the geodetector (GD) model and multi-scale geo-weighted regression (MGWR) model. The results showed that the average LSTs of the urban agglomeration on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains in spring, summer, autumn, and winter were 31.53 °C, 47.29 °C, 22.38 °C, and -5.20 °C in the four seasons from 2003 to 2020, respectively. Except for autumn, the LST of all seasons showed an increasing trend, bare soil and grass land had a warming effect, and agricultural land had a cooling effect. The results of factor detection showed that air temperature, P, and NDVI were the dominant factors affecting the spatial variation of LST. The interaction detection results showed that the interaction between air temperature and NDVI was the most significant, and the two-factor interaction was more effective than the single-factor effect on LST. The MGWR model results showed that the effects of PD on LST were positively correlated, and the impact of AREA_MN and AI on LST were negatively correlated, indicating that the dense landscape of patches has a cooling effect on LST. Overall, this study provides information for managers to carry out more targeted ecological stability regulations in arid zone oases and facilitates the development of regulatory measures to maintain the cold island effect and improve the environment., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The extent to which landscape spatial patterns can impact the dynamics and distribution of biodiversity is a key geography and ecology issue. However, few previous studies have quantitatively analyzed the spatial relationship between the landscape pattern and habitat quality from a simulation perspective. In this study, the landscape pattern in 2031 was simulated using a patch-generating simulation (PLUS) model for the Yellow River Basin. Then, the landscape pattern index and habitat quality from 2005 to 2031 were evaluated using the Fragstats 4.2 and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. Furthermore, we analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics and spatial spillover effects of habitat quality using spatial autocorrelation analysis. Finally, the spatial association between the landscape pattern index and habitat quality was quantitatively revealed based on a spatial lag model. The simulation results showed that: (1) from 2005 to 2031, the landscape of the Yellow River Basin would be dominated by grassland and unused land, and the areas of construction land and water body will increase significantly, while the area of grassland will decrease; (2) patch density (PD) and Shannon's diversity index (SHDI) show significant increases, while edge density (ED), landscape shape index (LSI), mean patch area (AREA_MN), and contagion index (CONTAG) decrease; (3) from 2005 to 2031, habitat quality would decrease. The high-value areas of habitat quality are mainly distributed in the upper reaches of the Yellow River Basin, and the low-value areas are distributed in the lower reaches. Meanwhile, both habitat quality and its change rate present positive spatial autocorrelation; and (4) the spatial relationships of habitat quality with PD and COHESION are negative, while ED and LSI have positive impacts on habitat quality. Specifically, landscape fragmentation caused by high PD has a dominant negative influence on habitat quality. Therefore, this study can help decision makers manage future landscape patterns and develop ecological conservation policy in the Yellow River Basin.

China's rapid urbanization and industrialization process has triggered serious air pollution. As a main air pollutant, PM 2.5 is affected not only by meteorological conditions, but also by land use in urban area. The impacts of urban landscape on PM 2.5 become more complicated from a three-dimensional (3D) and land function zone point of view. Taking the urban area of Nanchang city, China, as a case and, on the basis of the identification of urban land function zones, this study firstly constructed a three-dimensional landscape index system to express the characteristics of 3D landscape pattern. Then, the land-use regression (LUR) model was applied to simulate PM 2.5 distribution with high precision, and a geographically weighted regression model was established. The results are as follows: (1) the constructed 3D landscape indices could reflect the 3D characteristics of urban landscape, and the overall 3D landscape indices of different urban land function zones were significantly different; (2) the effects of 3D landscape spatial pattern on PM 2.5 varied significantly with land function zone type; (3) the effects of 3D characteristics of landscapes on PM 2.5 in different land function zones are expressed in different ways and exhibit a significant spatial heterogeneity. This study provides a new idea for reducing air pollution by optimizing the urban landscape pattern.

The key to optimizing ecological management is to study the spatial configuration of the landscape and the dynamic changes and their driving mechanisms at the landscape scale. The ecological red line area in the hilly area of the upper reaches of the Ganjiang River was chosen as the research area in this study. Based on the theory of landscape ecology and the evolution of biological communities, a multiscale coupling model was adopted and combined with remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) technologies to systematically study the evolution of key landscape ecosystems such as forests, patch characteristics, and changes in diversity. The study revealed that: (1) forests represented the largest proportion in the study area, followed by croplands and grasslands; (2) the biological community tended to progress toward climax between 1986 and 1995, but then it moved toward regressive successions between 1995 and 2005 before recovering; (3) the study area was characterized by a high proportion of dominant ecosystems, most of which were at their climax with stable ecological species groups, and which were connected by ecological corridors; and (4) during the period from 1995 to 2010, most landscapes showed a trend of fragmentation. However, during the period from 2010 to 2018, the forest patches were gradually connected. The proportion of dominant landscapes increased, and the landscape uniformity was reduced. Based on the findings, we proposed an ecosystem management strategy that includes strengthening crop management, focusing on the natural restoration of the ecosystems and the cultivation of large patches, exploring disturbances due to mining activities, and applying methods to mitigate damage to and optimize the ecosystem., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Due to the progress in global warming, the frequency, duration and intensity of climate extremes are increasing. As one of these extremes, heat waves influence the well-being of human beings and increase societies' energy consumption. The Water-Cooling Island (WCI) effect of urban water bodies (UWBs) is important in urban heat wave mitigation. In this paper, the impact of WCI, especially the landscape pattern of the surrounding area, was explored. The results indicate that water bodies with a larger total area and simpler shape have a longer cooling effect. In the areas surrounding UWBs, a lower percentage or discrete distribution of impervious surfaces or green land provide a longer cooling effect. The amplitude of WCI is mainly decided by the impervious surface in the surrounding areas. A lower percentage or discrete distribution of impervious surfaces or green land leads to a smaller-amplitude WCI. The gradient is impacted by the shape of the UWB and surrounding green land. A complex shape and discrete distribution of green land lead to a higher gradient of WCI. The linear regress model was significant in terms of WCI range and gradient, while the model of WCI amplitude was not significant. This indicates that WCI is directly decided by impact factors through gradient and range. The conclusions provide a methodology for WCI prediction and optimization, which is important when mitigating summer heat waves.

Land use and landscape pattern highly affect water quality. Their relationship can assist in land-use management and improve land-use efficiency. In this study, a water quality survey of rivers and lakes was performed in 2020 to analyze the effects of land use and the landscape pattern on the water quality of the rivers and lakes in the Baoan Lake basin and is expected to provide a reference for land use planning. The results demonstrated that the effects of land use on water quality were generally higher during the dry season than during the wet season; however, the opposite was demonstrated for the landscape pattern index. Cropland and urban land were closely correlated with deteriorating water quality, with contributions to total nitrogen, total phosphorous, and ammonia nitrogen in the basin. The impact of the landscape pattern of the basin on water quality was controlled by the original land-use type. In addition, the landscape configuration formed different land-use types to produce different effects on water quality. The basin scale better explained the changes in water quality, especially for construction land, followed by the 250 m and 500 m scales in the buffer zone.

Due to ecological environmental fragility and soil erosion in Guangxi, studies of landscape patterns and associated ecological risks are needed to guide sustainable land development and ecologically sensitive land management. This study assesses dynamic spatial and temporal change patterns in land use and ecological risks based on 30 m land-use data, analyzes spatial correlations with ecological risks, and explores natural and socio-economic factor impacts on ecological risks. The results reveal: (1) A rapid and sizeable construction land increase in Guangxi from 2000 to 2018 associated mainly with loss of woodland and grassland. (2) Guangxi had the highest number of arable land patches from 2000 to 2018, and the distribution tended to be fragmented; moreover, the construction land gradually expanded outward from concentrated areas to form larger aggregates with increasing internal stability each year. (3) Guangxi ecological risk levels were low, low-medium, and medium, with significantly different spatial distributions observed for areas possessing different ecological risk levels. Regional ecological risk gradually decreased from the middle Guangxi regions to the surrounding areas and was positively correlated with spatial distribution. (4) Socio-economic factor impacts on ecological risk exceeded natural factor impacts. These results provide guidance toward achieving ecologically sensitive regional land-use management and ecological risk reduction and control, it can also provide a reference for ecological risk research in other similar regions in the world.

Accelerated land use and land cover changes affect regional landscape patterns and change the ecological environment, including soil conservation capabilities. This is not conducive to the sustainable development of human society. In this research, we explored the land use change pattern and landscape change pattern in western Hubei from 2000 to 2020. Using the Chinese soil loss equation and stepwise regression, we measure how landscape patterns affect soil erosion under land use and cover changes in western Hubei Province. The results show that average soil erosion in the mountainous areas of western Hubei tended to increase from 2000 to 2010 and decrease from 2010 to 2020; soil erosion was higher in the western than in the eastern part of the study area. The land in areas with high-intensity and low-intensity soil erosion was mainly waterfront/grassland and cropland/forestland, respectively, and the area of moderate to severe soil erosion was greatest when the slope was 10-20°. When the slope exceeded 20°, the soil erosion area of each grade tended to decrease; thus, 20° is the critical slope for soil erosion in the study area. The landscape pattern in mountainous areas changed dramatically from 2000 to 2020. At the landscape level, landscape fragmentation increased and connectivity decreased, but the area of landscape diversity was stable. Soil erosion in western Hubei was positively correlated with the contiguity index, aggregation index and largest patch index but negatively correlated with the Shannon evenness index. The higher the landscape fragmentation and the greater the accumulation of single land-use types, the more severe the soil erosion is, while the higher the landscape connectivity and the richer the landscape diversity, the less severe the soil erosion is. The results can inform regional landscape management and soil conservation research.

Assessing the health of the ecosystem based on the landscape pattern of national parks can facilitate policy makers in formulating more targeted conservation policies to better manage national park ecosystems. To analyze the landscape patterns and characteristics of the national park, the ecosystem health evaluation index system of the national park was constructed using the vigor-organization-resilience (VOR) model to evaluate the health status. In this study, the Shennongjia National Park in China was selected as a case study area to be assessed using the index system. The results revealed that the patches of construction land and farmland are the largest in number and the most complex in shape, reflecting the obvious fragmentation of construction land and farmland patches. All patch types in this national park were evenly distributed. The results of the analysis showed that the comprehensive index of national park heath, according to the VOR model, is 0.74, indicating that the ecosystems in this study area were in a good state of health. Ecosystems in strictly protected areas of this park had the highest ecosystem health index levels, while the traditional utilization areas had the lowest. Ecosystem health levels were characterized by significant spatial agglomeration characteristics, with high-high aggregation distribution areas, mainly clustered in strictly protected areas, and low-low aggregation distribution, mainly clustered in traditional utilization areas and marginal areas. This study provided a set of ecosystem health assessment systems and their practical use in China's newly established national parks.

Since the 1950s, human activities have been driving economic development and land changes, hindering the conservation of biological habitats and landscape connectivity. Constructing ecological networks is an effective means to avoid habitat destruction and fragmentation. Mountain areas are hotspots of biological habitats and biodiversity; however, the pace of urbanization in mountain areas is also accelerating. To protect an ecosystem more effectively, it is necessary to identify ecological corridors and ecological networks. Therefore, based on the Minimal Cumulative Resistance model and taking Chongqing in China as an example, the identification of potential ecological corridors and the construction of an ecological network in Chongqing were realized using the Linkage Mapper software. The results were as follows: (1) From 2005 to 2015, the patch area of cultivated land and grassland in Chongqing decreased by 0.08% and 1.46%, respectively, while that of built-up areas increased by 1.5%. The fragmentation degree of cultivated land was higher, and the internal connectivity of forestry areas was worse. (2) In total, 24 ecological sources were selected, and 87 potential ecological corridors and 35 ecological nodes were generated using the Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis and the Conefor2.6 software. The total length of the ecological network in Chongqing is 2524.34 km, with an average corridor length of 29.02 km. (3) The overall complexity and network efficiency are high, but the spatial distribution of ecological corridors is uneven, especially in the southwest of Chongqing.

Wetland landscape patterns are the result of various ecological and hydrological processes. Based on the land use landscape types from 1980 to 2017, a transfer matrix, landscape pattern analysis index, and principal component analysis were used to analyze the landscape pattern evolution in the Xiong'an New Area of China, which has a large area with a lake and river wetlands. The results showed that the wetland area has changed greatly since 2000 and the beach land has decreased greatly, while the area of the lake and river wetlands has increased slightly. Beach land was the dominant landscape type of the wetland. The dominant degree of the wetland landscape showed a slightly decreasing trend, and the patches tended to be scattered. The shape complexity of the ponds was the lowest, while that of rivers was the highest. The fragmentation degree of the wetland patches increased, the proportion of landscape types tended to be equalized, and the landscape heterogeneity increased. The leading factors of the wetland landscape change can be summarized as socioeconomic, meteorological, and hydrological processes, with a cumulative contribution rate of 85.3%, among which socioeconomic development was the most important factor. The results have important guiding significance for the ecological restoration and management of wetlands in the Xiong'an New Area and other wetland ecosystems with rivers and lakes.

The ecological system is the basis of human survival and global environmental protection. In the process of development, countries will pay close attention to the changing state of the ecosystem. Taking the ecosystem pattern as the research object, a three-layer analysis method was proposed. The transfer matrix and landscape index were used as the first layer to analyze the basic changes. Grey correlation, range-coupling coordination and relative priority were used as the second layer to analyze the reasons of the change. The interval-entropy weight, TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution), was used as the third layer to evaluate the quality of the change. The ten counties in the worst-hit areas of the Wenchuan earthquake were analyzed from different angles, with county region, intensity zone and ecosystem as the objects, and the following results were obtained: (1) Taking Mianzhu City as an example, from 2000 to 2010 and 2018, the conversion ratio of forest, grassland and farmland is 54.24, 59.19, 17.21, 20.06, 37.39 and 52.86%, which were distributed in the north, central and southern parts, respectively. (2) Taking the ninth intensity zone as an example, the forest landscape fragmentation increased, disturbance decreased, and species diversity increased. There is a high influence and restriction relationship between ecosystem and landscape pattern in the total landscape area change. Additionally, the relationship between them tends to develop in a benign way. As of 2018, it is in the change state of moderate imbalance-ecosystem lag. (3) Taking the county ecosystem change as an example, urban type is the best in the counties of ecosystem change, of which Shifang is the best and Pingwu is the worst. The results show that this method can effectively compare and analyze the changes in the multi-regional ecosystem pattern, which has the characteristics of universality and can also be applied to the research of ecosystem pattern change in special regions.

Land use/land cover change is a frontier issue in the field of geography research. Taking Suzhou City in Anhui Province as the research case, based on thematic mapper /enhanced thematic mapper+ (TM/ETM+) remote sensing data from 1998 to 2018, through the transfer matrix model and modified conversion of land use and its effects at small region extent (CLUE-S) model, the simulation of the land use landscape pattern evolution was studied from a multi-scenario perspective. The results showed that in the past 20 years, landscape patterns have undergone spatial-temporal conversion, which was mainly manifested as the evolution from a cultivated land landscape and other agricultural land to construction land, and there was some transformation between other landscape types, but the transformation degree was not significant. The spatial autocorrelation factor was introduced to correct the CLUE-S model, and the Kappa index reached 0.83, indicating that the modified CLUE-S model had a good simulation accuracy. (I) In the cultivated land protection scenario, limiting the conversion of basic farmland use, and by 2028, the proportion of cultivated land increased by 5.23%, distributed in eastern Suzhou City; (II) in the economic development scenario, by 2028, the construction land area increased by 14.58%, and was distributed in the surrounding regions of the built-up areas; and (III) in the ecological protection scenario, by 2028, wood land, water, and other ecological protection land area increased, and were distributed in the central and eastern part of Suzhou City. Research can provide useful decision-making support for land use optimization and remediation.

Comprehending the dynamic change characteristics of land use/cover and the driving factors causing the change are prerequisites for protecting land resources. This paper analyzes changes in cultivated land, the driving factors that cause them, and their tremendous impact on landscape pattern changes in the Dongting Lake Basin. For this purpose, we used mathematical statistics, buffer analysis, trend analysis, landscape pattern index, and logistic regression model to analyze the land use data of the study area from 1980 to 2018. The results show that the cultivated land showed a decreasing trend, with the total area decreased by 4.76% (or 716.13 km 2 ) from 1980 to 2018, and the activity of mutual transformation with other land use types decreased. The spatial distribution pattern of cultivated land and landscape shows the change characteristics gradually from Dongting Lake to the surroundings. Among the driving factors of cultivated land changes, the influence of human activities was gradually increasing, while the natural factors were decreasing. The cultivated land landscape pattern index and the overall landscape pattern index have a significant positive correlation, showing relatively consistent change trend and spatial distribution characteristics. We believe that the decrease of cultivated land area has a certain relationship with the increase of landscape fragmentation in the Dongting Lake Basin. Our research is expected to provide a reference for strengthening regional cultivated land management and rational development and utilization of regional land resources.

Fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 µm (PM 2.5 ) is highly variable in space and time. In this study, the dynamics of PM 2.5 concentrations were mapped at high spatio-temporal resolutions using bicycle-based, mobile measures on a university campus. Significant diurnal and daily variations were revealed over the two-week survey, with the PM 2.5 concentration peaking during the evening rush hours. A range of predictor variables that have been proven useful in estimating the pollution level was derived from Geographic Information System, high-resolution airborne images, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) datasets. Considering the complex interplay among landscape, wind, and air pollution, variables influencing the PM 2.5 dynamics were quantified under a new wind wedge-based system that incorporates wind effects. Panel data analysis models identified eight natural and built environment variables as the most significant determinants of local-scale air quality (including four meteorological factors, distance to major roads, vegetation footprint, and building and vegetation height). The higher significance level of variables calculated using the wind wedge system as compared to the conventional circular buffer highlights the importance of incorporating the relative position of emission sources and receptors in modeling.

Understanding the influence of landscape pattern changes on water yield (WYLD) and nutrient yield is a key topic for water resource management and nonpoint source (NPS) pollution reduction. The annual WYLD and NPS pollution were estimated in 2004 and 2015 with the calibrated and validated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in the Hun-Taizi River watershed. The impact of land use and landscape pattern changes on the annual WYLD and NPS loading changes were analyzed with a boosted regression tree (BRT) and redundancy analysis (RDA). The results showed that WYLD had a positive correlation with dry farmland and built-up area; however, a negative correlation with paddy field and water area, with the relative contribution of 42.03%, 23.79%, 17.06%, and 13.55%, respectively. The change in nutrient yield was positively correlated with changes in dry farmland, built-up area, and water area but negatively with forestland, according to the BRT model. Landscape patterns had an important influence on WYLD and NPS pollution. A large unfragmented forestland may improve water quality, while a large concentrated dry farmland results in water quality deterioration due to NPS pollution. Water quality is more likely degraded when land uses are complex and scattered with many small patches in a forestland dominated watershed.

Based on satellite remote sensing image, GIS and Fragstats, this study modeled and calculated the dynamic changes of land use, land cover and landscape patterns in Guizhou Province, China, and calculated the changes of ecosystem service values (ESVs). The impacts of the evolution of landscape patterns on the ESVs were analyzed, and reasonable policy recommendations were made. The findings are as follows: (1) In the past two decades, the area of cropland and grassland has decreased; the area of water bodies, urban and rural, industrial and mining, and residential areas has increased; the area of forestland has increased first and then decreased. (2) The two major types of landscapes, cropland and grassland, are clearly being replaced by two land types, forest land and water bodies. (3) Overall, the degree of landscape aggregation and adjacency has decreased, and the landscape heterogeneity has increased. (4) The total amount of ESV in 2000, 2008, 2013 and 2017 was 2574 × 10 8 Yuan RMB, 2605 × 10 8 Yuan RMB, 2618 × 10 8 Yuan RMB and 2612 × 10 8 Yuan RMB, respectively. The changes of landscape patterns had important impacts on the ESVs. In order to solve the problems caused by the increasingly prominent changes in the landscape patterns and improve the ESVs, it is necessary to rationally plan and allocate land resources, optimize the industrial structures, and develop effective regulatory policies., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The landscape grain effect reflects the spatial heterogeneity of a landscape and it is used as a research core of landscape ecology. The landscape grain effect can be used to not only explore spatiotemporal variation characteristics of a landscape pattern, but also to disclose variation laws of ecological structures and functions of landscapes. In this study, the sensitivity of landscape pattern indexes to grain sizes 50-1000 m was studied based on landscape data in Yancheng Coastal Wetland acquired in 1991, 2000, 2008, and 2017. Response of the grain effect to landscape changes was analyzed and an optimal grain size for analysis in the study area was determined. Results indicated that: (1) among 27 indexes (12 in a class level and 15 in a landscape level), eight indexes were highly sensitive to grains, ten indexes presented moderate sensitivity, eight indexes presented low sensitivity, and one was unresponsive. It was shown that the area-margin index and the shape index were more sensitive to the different grain sizes. The aggregation index had some differences in the grain size change, and the diversity index had a low response degree to the grain size. (2) Landscape indexes showed six different responses to different grains, including slow reduced response, fast reduced and then slow reduced response, monotonically increased response, fluctuating reduced response, up-down responses, and stable response, which indicated that the landscape index was closely related to the spatial grain. (3) From 1991 to 2017, variation curves of the landscape grain size of different landscape types could be divided into four types: fluctuation rising type, fluctuation type, monotonous decreasing type, and monotonous rising type. Different grain size curves had different interpretations of landscape changes, but in general, Yancheng Coastal Wetland's landscape tended to be fragmented and complicated, internal connectivity was weakened, and dominant landscape area was reduced. Natural wetlands were more sensitive to grain size effects than artificial wetlands. (4) The landscape index at the 50 m grain size had a strong response to different grain size changes, and the loss of landscape information was the smallest. Therefore, it was determined that the optimal landscape grain size in the study area was 50 m.

Landscape architecture with urban green space as the main research object is an evidence-based science. It is an important issue to optimize green space systems from the point of view of ecosystem services. In this paper, high-resolution (1.5 m resolution) remote sensing images are combined with data-processing software, such as ENVI, ArcGIS, and Fragstats, to evaluate ecosystem service quality and compute the landscape pattern in the Haidian District (Beijing, China), so that the relationship between the ecosystem service quality and landscape pattern can be quantitatively studied and a strategy can be provided for green space optimization in cities. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) for the evaluated quality of 14 ecosystem services in Haidian District (refer to Section Analysis of the Association of the Percentage of Patches (PLAND) Index of Forest Land and Quality of Ecosystem Service in Haidian District). Forest land is the main provider of the ecosystem service in Haidian District, while construction land only provides cultural services; (2) on the whole, the spatial distribution of the ecosystem services in Haidian District gradually decreases from the west to the east, which basically matches with the spatial distribution of the forest land. The regulating service and supporting service are matched with the distribution of the urban green space. The cultural service is closely associated with history resource points; and (3) the analysis results of the association between landscape pattern and ecosystem service quality show that the percentage of patches (PLAND) index for forest land has a significant logarithmic relationship with the regulating service and supporting service. The critical value of the PLAND index is 30. Besides the Xishan area with the most coverage of forest land, the landscape shape index (LSI) of the brushwood has a logarithmic relationship with the ecosystem service quality. The critical value of the LSI value is 50. Finally, this paper proposes an area optimization strategy of green space in Haidian District from the view of the ecosystem system service. The Xishan area is classified into the ecosystem red line to control city expansion. The regulating and supporting services can be enhanced in the north flat area by improving the patch shape index. The ecosystem service capabilities can be improved by adding the forest land in the existing green space for the southeast urban areas.

Analyzing the spatiotemporal characteristics of source-sink landscape pattern change in river basins is crucial for managing and controlling nonpoint source pollution. This study investigated the landscape pattern changes in Jiulong River basin from 1990 to 2015. A random forest classifier combined with texture and spectral information was applied to interpret the multi-temporal Landsat images. Landscape metrics were calculated to quantify the landscape at the patch level. Transition matrixes were derived for analyzing the conversion among different landscape types. It is notable that the largest values of the number of patches and patch density of residential land appeared in 2005, indicating the highest degree of fragmentation over this time period. The percentage of landscape for forestland was always higher than 71%, and the percentage of residential land increased from 7.42% to 14.55% during the last three decades, while unused land decreased from 5.3% to 2.8%. The downward trend of DO and the upward trend of NH₃-N and TP indicate the deterioration of water quality during 2005⁻2015. The quantitative monitoring data of water quality indicators in Hua'an and Xiamen sites in Jiulong River basin are shown. The percentage of landscape of cultivated land increased during 2005⁻2010, which was consistent with the change tendency of NH₃-N. Transition matrixes showed that the main changes occurred when forestland and unused land were transformed to residential land and cultivated land over the last three decades. Analysis results demonstrated a higher extent of landscape fragmentation and an unsustainable transition among source-sink landscapes.

Changes in landscape patterns in a river basin play a crucial role in the change on load of non-point source pollution. The spatial distribution of various land use types affects the transmission of non-point source pollutants on the basis of source-sink theory in landscape ecology. Jiulong River basin in southeast of China was selected as the study area in this paper. Aiming to analyze the correlation between changing landscape patterns and load of non-point source pollution in this area, traditional landscape metrics and the improved location-weighted landscape contrast index based on the minimum hydrological response unit (HRULCI) were applied in this study, in combination with remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technique. The results of the landscape metrics showed the enhanced fragmentation extent and the decreasing polymerization degree of the overall landscape in the watershed. High values of HRULCI were concentrated in cultivated land, while low HRULCI values mostly appeared in forestland, indicating that cultivated land substantially enhanced non-point source pollution, while forestland inhibited the pollution process.