Search

This paper uses an urbanized high-resolution land data assimilation system (u-HRLDAS) to parameterize the urban land surface characteristics. The u-HRLDAS model is localized and developed in order to satisfy the need of the weather forecast in Beijing, China. The remote sensing data used to localize and drive u-HRLDAS include the soil type data and MODIS retrieved leaf area index (LAI) data. The evaporation and water depth for impervious surface in urban area are developed to improve the simulation of u-HRLDAS. The result of the urban weather forecast is used for the comparison based on the rapid update cycle system at Beijing Meteorological Bureau (BJ-RUC) without coupled with u-HRLDAS. The land surface temperature, land surface fluxes, and first layer soil moisture in several single sites and urban Beijing region by BJ-RUC are compared with u-HRLDAS after localization and development. The off-line simulation results indicate that compared with BJ-RUC, after the localization and development, u-HRLDAS can improve the simulation of land surface parameters and fluxes definitely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland protection and delimitation in the urban fringe considers not only natural factors but also the spatial characters and site factors. Taking Daxing District, Beijing in China as a case study, this paper used landscape ecology and power-law methods to analyze and evaluate farmland loss during the period of 2004-2007 based on the interpretation results of SPOT5 remote sensing images in 2004 and 2007. At the patch level, we selected four landscape indices, namely patch size, shape index, the nearest neighbor distance between farmland and construction land (including residential land and other construction land), and cropping type, to evaluate the risk of farmland loss and establish a farmland site analysis indicator system. The results showed that patch size and shape index have a significant positive correlation with farmland loss, whereas the distance to construction land has a clear negative correlation with farmland loss. As regards cropping type, fallow farmland is much easier for non-agricultural use than cultivated farmland. The relative transition ratio among vegetable land, fallow farmland and cultivated farmland is 1:5.6:1. The patch size of lost farmland follows a power-law distribution, indicating that not only small parcels but also large parcels can be lost. Patch size less than 4 ha or more than 15 ha is in high loss risk, between 4 ha and 10 ha in medium loss risk, and larger than 10 ha and less than 15 ha in low risk. Farmland with a more regular shape has a higher likelihood of loss. Patch shape index less than 2.0 is in high loss risk, between 2.0 and 3.0 in medium loss risk, and larger than 3.0 in low risk. Construction land has a varying impact on farmland loss, the residential land effected distance is 1000 m, and that of the other construction land is 2000 m. This analysis showed the relationships between site factors and farmland loss, and the analysis framework can provide support and reference for farmland protection and delimitation of prime farmland in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanism and modeling of the land subsidence are complex because of the complicate geological background in Beijing, China. This paper analyzed the spatial relationship between land subsidence and three factors, including the change of groundwater level, the thickness of compressible sediments and the building area by using remote sensing and GIS tools in the upper-middle part of alluvial-proluvial plain fan of the Chaobai River in Beijing. Based on the spatial analysis of the land subsidence and three factors, there exist significant non-linear relationship between the vertical displacement and three factors. The Back Propagation Neural Network (BPN) model combined with Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to simulate regional distribution of the land subsidence. Results showed that at field scale, the groundwater level and land subsidence showed a significant linear relationship. However, at regional scale, the spatial distribution of groundwater depletion funnel did not overlap with the land subsidence funnel. As to the factor of compressible strata, the places with the biggest compressible strata thickness did not have the largest vertical displacement. The distributions of building area and land subsidence have no obvious spatial relationships. The BPN-GA model simulation results illustrated that the accuracy of the trained model during fifty years is acceptable with an error of 51% of verification data less than 20 mm and the average of the absolute error about 32 mm. The BPN model could be utilized to simulate the general distribution of land subsidence in the study area. Overall, this work contributes to better understand the complex relationship between the land subsidence and three influencing factors. And the distribution of the land subsidence can be simulated by the trained BPN-GA model with the limited available dada and acceptable accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantitative relationship between the groundwater level (GWL) and land subsidence is essential to understand, prevent and control subsidence. This study compares the subsidence due to GWL variation at different locations and aquifer layers during the operation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Central Route (SNWDP-CR) in China. Sixty-nine synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images in Beijing from 2012 to 2017 are obtained to calculate the displacement using the interferometry technique. The results indicate that the subsidence with uplift or mitigation is consistent with groundwater rise or drawdown deceleration. The dynamic time warping (DTW) method is applied to compare the similarity between subsidence and GWL time series waveforms. We find that the similarity between these two activities tends to increase after the SNWDP-CR. The similarity between the subsidence and confined GWL is controlled by the hydrogeological setting. In general, it tends to increase from the upper part to the lower part of the alluvial fan. However, the similarity between the subsidence and unconfined GWL shows irregular pattern due to rainfall interference. The average similarity between the subsidence and GWL at depths of 100–180 m and that at over 250 m is 75% and 64%, respectively, prior to the SNWDP-CR. In contrast, these two values increase to 83% and 81%, respectively, after the SNWDP-CR. This indicates that the impact of deeper aquifers to the subsidence increases after the SNWDP-CR, and the depth of the contributing aquifer is 100–180 m and locally exceeds 250 m. This study provides technical support for strategic decisions on water resource management and subsidence prevention within the context of the SNWDP-CR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization has induced profound landscape changes. While the spatiotemporal patterns of urban landscapes have been extensively studied, the manner by which the internal structures of already urbanized areas change remains little understood. Characteristic scales are an important measure of landscape structure, and they represent the typical spatial extents of landscape elements in hierarchies. In this study, we quantified temporal variations of the characteristic scales in the central urban landscapes of Beijing and Shanghai over an 18 year period. Using transect data from Landsat images, characteristic scales were identified through wavelet analysis and then classified into several discrete domains using the k-means clustering method. These characteristic scale domains appeared to correspond with the typical extents of the blocks and block clusters in the study areas. Results showed that the number of the characteristic scale domains changed within a small range of 3-5 while the mean values of the characteristic scales within the domains showed substantial temporal variation. Larger characteristic scales were more variable than smaller ones in both cities. Distinguishing relative change rates of building forms, land use and street layout of urban landscapes allowed us to interpret these differences. The street layout of urban landscapes usually reacts slowly to the force of change, acting as the skeleton of the urban landscape. As a result, block sizes can remain relatively stable and corresponding characteristic scales present inheritance features. Land use and building forms are more susceptible to changes. Block clusters with flexible extents could result in significant variation of characteristic scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After Beijing wins the bit to host the 29th Olympic Games, in order to manifest the technical support advantages and capabilities of the autonomously-developed RS and GIS based change detection techniques in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and from the standpoints of executing new city planning, relieving the traffic congestion as well as maintaining the historic features, an automatic satellite monitoring system has been studied and established to accomplish the mission of unauthorized construction inspection within the Sixth Ring Road of Beijing city quarterly, by adopting the CBERS-2 satellite images and combining technologies of GIS, GPS, etc. This article discusses the applicable procedures and key issues when utilizing such Chinese satellite images and relevant techniques to discover the illegal constructions, and introduces the monitoring system from both the design and implementation aspects; additionally, some typical application cases in the practice of the system are also illustrated. The monitoring system can timely supply abundant information to facilitate the policy-making of relevant planning departments, thus providing consolidate technical support to eliminate the illegal constructing behaviors in the blossom. During the five years' excellent performance, it has helped China save large amounts of expenditures for processing of unauthorized constructed buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]