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The theoretical research and practice of sustainable development based on landsenses ecology are carried out through the overall framework mechanism of meliorization and process regulation. This ki...

This paper presents a concept of sustainable development from the perspective of ecosystem services and analyzes some existing problems in ecosystem service assessment. It also proposes the concept...

In recent years, with the development of society, the awareness of environmental protection for people has been increasing. While ports promote the economic development and employment levels of port cities, they also have a negative impact on the environment of port cities. The sustainability of port cities is increasingly valued. Port cities face huge challenges, and their sustainability needs to be better understood. The purpose of this article is to review research on the sustainability of port cities. We used content analysis to classify and analyze the existing relevant literature, to learn about the hotspots and deficiencies of past research, and to propose future research directions. We found that port sustainability has become an increasingly important research topic during the past ten years. From the perspective of geographic research areas, European port cities are the hot spots for sustainability research. Regarding research fields, technologies, methods and measures to promote the sustainability of port cities are popular research topics. In terms of research methods, qualitative research plays an important role in the study of port city sustainability. Finally, guidance for future research on port city sustainability is proposed according to the review results.

Urban ecological risks stemming from urbanization are increasing and limiting the capability of China to effectuate sustainable urban development. Therefore, addressing urban ecological risks is an urgent need. Numerous factors are involved in urban ecological risks, including air, water, and soil. Additionally, risk sources and risk receptors are complex and diverse. In this study, urban ecological risks are defined as adverse effects and possibility of impacts on urban ecosystem services resulting from urbanization. Urbanization is recognized as the risk source, and the urban ecosystem is considered the risk receptor. Based on this understanding, the components of urban ecological risks are defined, and the relationships between the components of urban ecological risks are illuminated by establishing an indicator system. Based on previous studies on urban ecological risks, an explicit framework for identification, assessment, and management of urban ecological risks is proposed. For purposes of ...

The complicated relationship between urban scenes and public perceptions has long been a concern in many disciplines. Previous studies have lacked human-oriented technical paths and high-throughput datasets to quantify physical and psychological perceptions in different land-use scenarios. This paper adopts a novel transfer learning approach to quantify the six types of landsense indices (LSIs) as psychological perception metrics and employs panoptic segmentation to parameterize the view index (VI) and the number of foreground instances (NFIs) as physical perception measures. Then, a quantitative analysis is conducted in Beijing’s six Ring Road areas, and the connections between people’s physical and psychological perceptions of heterogeneous land use are explored. The landsense maps can depict the distribution of LSIs and facilitate the understanding of complex perceptions distributed at a large scale. The regression model shows that natural landscapes (trees, grasses, and mountains) in the Beijing built-up area exhibit an overall positive performance. Moreover, for several block-level land uses, industrial scenery is related to overall negative psychological feelings. Parks and green spaces are positively related to psychological perceptions, because of the greater exposure opportunities to natural landscapes for residents. The framework in this research has potential in assisting urban planning and land-use management, and it enriches the datasets with extensive information, thereby improving the psychological perceptions of urban scenes from residents’ perspectives. The novel approaches in this paper take a step forward in quantifying and understanding the public perceptions of urban landscapes.

Urban ecological risk (UER) caused by rapid urbanization means potential threat to urban ecosystem structure, pattern and services. The scales of ecological risk assessment (ERA) have been expanded from individual organisms to watersheds and regions. The types of stressor range from chemical to physical, biological and natural events. However, the application of ERA in urban ecosystems is relatively new. Here, we summarize the progress of urban ERA and propose an explicit framework to illumine future ERA based on UER identification, analysis, characterization, modeling, projection and early warning and management. The summary includes six urban ERA-relevant methods: weight-of-evidence (WoE), procedure for ecological tiered assessment of risks (PETAR), relative risk model (RRM), multimedia, multi-pathway, multi-receptor risk assessment (3MRA), landscape analysis and ecological models. Furthermore, we review critical cases of urban ERA in landscape ecology, soil, air, water and solid waste. Based on...

This paper proposes the concepts and associated contents of landsenses ecology and mix-marching data, and explains the roles of the meliorization model and Internet of Things (IoT) in the landsenses ecology-based land-use planning, construction and management. It also analyses the importance and application approaches of mix-marching data. In the current situation of rapid social-economic, scientific, and technological development, there exists an urgent need for us to further study landsenses ecology and its applications.

The global phenomenon of urbanization increases the importance of compact-city development. China’s rapid urban development has resulted in unprecedented urban population growth and built-up area expansion, but its effects on urban morphology and mobility are only partly understood. City compactness can be measured simply using urban spatial form or morphology: the more concentrated the built-up area, the more compact the city is. Here we show that 35 major cities in China are not compact in spatial form and that their compactness is not improving over time. Our results reveal close correlations between changes in urbanization rate and changes in city compactness as well as between city compactness and commuting time (CT), indicating that the high rate of urbanization without adequate planning has contributed to the poor compactness of Chinese cities, which has further increased CT. We suggest that continuing urban sprawl with low land use efficiency and low urban form compactness will make cities in Chin...

China has the largest population and the longest urban development history in the world, with primitive cities first occurring along the Yellow River in northern China more than 4000 years ago. After a long period of stagnation during recent centuries, urbanization has revived again in China since the economic reform in 1978. Strongly influenced by national land use policy and the history of urbanization after 1949, China's urban ecology has gone through three development periods: the emergent period (1983–1989), the early growth period (1990–1999), and the rapid development period (2000–present). In this paper, we first provide a historical review of urbanization and urban ecology in China; based on this retrospective analysis, we further identify the main characteristics of, and missing links in, China's urban ecological research; and finally we suggest future research directions. The amount and scope of research in urban ecology and environment conducted in China since the 1980s are impressive. Not only did Chinese scholars import Western ideas to develop urban ecological science, but also they have promoted a holistic, use-inspired, transdisciplinary philosophy for studying and managing urban systems – which has unique Chinese characteristics. After more than 5000 years of being predominantly agrarian, China is now urban, and will become only more urban in the future. This continued fast urbanization makes China a living laboratory for studying urbanization, and China's urban ecology seems poised to make strides in the coming decades.

Consumption accounting of urban greenhouse gas emissions is preferable to production accounting, because cities are open systems which depend on the import of large quantities of externally produced goods. In this paper we use environmental input–output analysis to construct CO 2 production and consumption accounting inventories for Xiamen, a rapidly developing coastal city in southeast China. We found that, in 2007, total emissions embodied in production were 21.8 Mt CO 2 , of which 17.1 Mt CO 2 were embodied in exports and 4.7 Mt CO 2 resulted from local demand on local production. If the large amounts of emissions embodied in the Xiamen reprocessing trade are excluded from the analysis, total imported emissions were 12.2 Mt CO 2 , consumption emissions were 16.9 Mt CO 2 , and Xiamen was a net exporter of 4.9 Mt CO 2 . Although Xiamen's rapid economic growth is dependent on large-scale flows of embodied emissions, most of these emissions are not produced or consumed within the city system.

China's rapid urbanization and its success in developing the Internet of Things (IoT) will decide its future development direction. The construction of sustainable cities is crucial to China because China has such a large population. The Xiamen Long-term Urban Ecosystem Observation and Research Station (Xiamen LUEORS) was started in 2006, together with the research related to the Environmental Internet of Things (EIoT) for Xiamen LUEORS. This paper explains the purpose, general framework, and main features of EIoT, and outlines the results of performing EIoT experiments in some areas, including a town village', a peculiar phenomenon of China's urbanization. It also discusses the development trends of IoT and proposes the concept of ZeroSpace Interconnection of Things (ZeroIoT, or ZeroSIT).

Lijiang City has undergone rapid economic development, and it is important to evaluate factors that will contribute to future development and how to make that development more sustainable. In this paper, we used ecological footprint (EF) and ecological carrying capacity (ECC) to assess economic development in Lijiang City from 1995 to 2007. The results show that there was a sharp increase in EF and a minor decrease in ECC. The large increase in EF might be caused by rapid economic development, which consumed energy and other resources but did not cause serious observable damage to ECC. In the final analysis, this is because the tourism industry plays a prominent role in economic growth in Lijiang City, and is far more important than the two sectors that have a more severe environmental impact: agriculture and general industry. The economic development of Lijiang City depends mainly on comprehensive development of tourism; cultural resources and ethnic cultures are the critical drivers of tourism developme...

In the current information age, digital technology has become an essential part of urban civilisation. The digital city has been transformed from a novel concept to a practical and effective means of supporting urban planning and management. However, there are various definitions of a digital city and each has a unique significance. By comparing these digital city concepts, we examined common aspects of digital city definitions and propose an urban digital operating system (Urban DOS) that will be useful to improve life quality, socioeconomic functions and sustainable development in a city and its surrounding areas. The technical basis for the Urban DOS is the intersection between technology-oriented products (TOPs) and customised application products (CAPs). We then develop a procedure for designing a framework for a digital city based on Urban DOS with TOPs and CAPs. To explain such digital city concepts and applications, we demonstrate the initial development of Urban DOS for Lijiang City.

Rapid growth of the Chinese urban population and the expansion of urban areas have led to changes in urban forest structure and composition, and consequently changes in vegetation carbon storage. The purpose of this study is to quantify the effects of urbanization on vegetation carbon storage in Xiamen, a city located in southern China. Data used for this study were collected from 39,723 sample plots managed according to the forest management planning inventory program. Data from these plots were collected in 4 non-consecutive years: 1972, 1988, 1996 and 2006. The study area was divided into three zones, which were defined according to their level of urbanization: the urban core, the suburban zone, and the exurban zone. Total vegetation carbon storage and the vegetation carbon density for each study period were calculated for each zone. Our results show that urban vegetation carbon storage has increased by 865,589.71 t during the period from 1972 to 2006 (34 years) in Xiamen, with a rapid increase between 1972 and 1996, then relatively little change between 1996 and 2006. The increase in vegetation carbon storage is mainly due to the large percentages of the suburban and exurban areas which exist in Xiamen city, and the implementation of reforestation programs in these two zones. The percentage of total regional carbon storage in the city center (urban core), suburbs and exurbs was 5%, 23% and 72%, respectively. This demonstrates that the exurbs store the majority of vegetation carbon, and thus play a critical role in the vegetation carbon storage of the study area. The intensification of urbanization in the future will likely expand the urban core and reduce the area of the suburbs and exurbs, and thus potentially decrease total vegetation carbon storage. This article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for vegetation carbon management and urban landscape planning.

Under the multiple interactions between increasing population, built-up area expansion and industrialisation, areas undergoing rapid urbanisation are highly dynamic. The mixture of activities and fragmented land use can result in chaotic development, which might lead to agreement on land suitability evaluation is a basis for making land-use decisions. In this paper, an evaluation model of multi-criteria residential site suitability was developed to analyse suitable areas for habitation using a GIS platform. The health of residents, convenience of travel and amenity living standards were all considered in a health, convenience and amenity sub-model system. Evaluation of patches adjacent to existing built-up areas is considered reliable and construction in these areas is more economical due to the sharing of public facilities. The model evaluation result in Jimei District showed that areas adjacent to Xinglinwan Bay, near to built-up areas and far from industrial estates, were most suitable sites for future...

Maintaining an optimum population is crucial for urban sustainable development. A happiness degree model was constructed to estimate the optimum population of Xiamen, southern China. Happiness degree was defined as the total satisfaction of households working and living in Xiamen in terms of possessing and/or consuming certain resources. The optimum city size was considered for a city in which the population has maximised the happiness degree. The resources considered in the assessment were those possessed or consumed by citizens: GDP, investment in education and in science and technology, water, electricity, housing, green land, transportation. The results show that the optimum population of Xiamen in 2007 would be about 1.66 million, i.e. the actual population of nearly 2.43 million is obviously too large. Insufficient electricity supply was the most significant constraint for Xiamen as a sustainable city.

Coastal urban areas (CUAs) comprise large population centres where many social and economic activities take place. Development of CUAs in the Bohai Sea region has had great impacts on the marine and coastal ecosystems, resulting in ecosystem degradation and a decline in ecosystem resources, thus undermining the basis for sustainable CUA development in the region. The current management system, with problems such as jurisdictional fragmentation and poor coordination among different sectors, has failed to coordinate CUA development with ecosystem conservation. To overcome these problems, we suggest an ecosystem approach for management of the Bohai Sea region. Some critical issues involved in applying an ecosystem approach in the region are addressed: (1) promoting cross-sectoral cooperation; (2) creating a master plan for sustainable development of the region; (3) improving marine environmental monitoring; and (4) strengthening public ocean awareness.

This study of the Lugu Lake region was based on remote sensing imagery. An ecological landscape classification of the area is presented, as well as a suite of landscape metrics for landscape pattern changes from 1990 to 2005. The remarkable influence of human activities on the landscape of Lugu Lake is discussed. Economic development and human activities are the major driving forces in rapid landscape pattern change. Policies affecting such changes include returning cultivated lands to forest or prairie and fast development of tourism. Based on the characteristics of each landscape type and causes of changes, this study proposes management measures for sustainable development in Lugu Lake area.

Lugu Lake region, containing a plateau lake, and the unique matrichal society of the Mosuo, has become one of the most important areas for ecosystem conservation and cultural heritage protection in China. It is essential to pursue sustainable development in Lugu Lake region. However, rapid increases in the tourism industry have had negative influences on society, the economy and the environment of Lugu Lake region. Extensive concerns have been raised by numerous ecologists, economists and social scientists over recent years. Using systems analysis of major societal, economic and environmental problems, this paper advocates goals for realising sustainable development. A double-layer management model has been developed of regional ecosystem services, composed of natural ecosystem management and macro-control of society and the economy, and has been used to analyse the importance and feasibility of ecotourism development in Lugu Lake region. Constructive management measures and development strategies are the...

By converting rural land into urban land, urbanization impacts on surface water quality, because cities produce more pollutants than farmlands, especially heavy metals. Ways to reduce urbanization impacts on water quality are now being highlighted worldwide. Considering that land use can be a source or sink in pollution runoff, an understanding of the relationship between urbanization and surface water quality, as well as effects of specific land uses on water quality, is crucial. Corresponding management and controlling steps can then be put forward towards non-point source (NPS) pollution control and urban sustainable development. China has experienced rapid urbanization, especially since the 1980s. However, the environmental impacts of this process are not fully investigated. Hanyang, Hubei Province was selected as a typical city to study the impacts of urbanization on lake water quality. Pearson's correlation analysis was performed to elucidate the correlation between different land uses and water qua...

In recent years, China's cultivated land has been shrinking, a change which has become one of the potential challenges to national sustainable development and global food security. In our research, we have predicted China's cultivated land resources for the next 50 years, based on scrutiny of systematic data and analyses of the loss of cultivated land. We have also designed an indicator of cultivated land equivalent per capita (CLEPC) to assess the capacity of cultivated land to support our population. The results show that China's cultivated land will decline to a minimum of 113.31 million ha between 2001–2010, while cultivated land per capita will decline from 0.101 ha to 0.083 ha. After 2010, the area of cultivated land will begin to increase slowly to 118.98 million ha in 2050. However, cultivated land per capita will still decline to 0.079 ha between 2010–2030; after 2030, it will start to increase and reach 0.085 ha in 2050. In contrast to the total area and per capita area of cultivated land, the C...

Assessing the benefits of China's South-North Water Transfer project (SNWT) requires successful integration of an analysis of economic and eco-environmental benefits (EEB). To attain such integration, it is necessary to assess the EEB in detail, after the economic benefits have also been thoroughly assessed. The shadow engineering and market value methods are the major EEB assessment methods used in this study. We have assessed the EEB of the forest and grassland ecosystems in the recipient regions of the Western Route Project (WRP) for 2020, 2030 and 2050. Finally, some proposals are also made for efficient and sustainable management of the WRP.

SUMMARY Since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, sustainable development has been embraced as an important goal. In order to measure sustainable development, many scientists and researchers have made efforts to establish measurement systems such as the Driving Force State Response (DSR) framework (Hens 1995), the Human Development Index (HDI) (Goeteyn 1996) devised by the United Nations Development Programme, the Sustainable National Income (SNI) developed by Hueting et al. (1992) and the Ecological Footprint proposed by Wackernagel and Rees (1996). The environmental sustainability index (ESI) is a composite index, which was created by the World Economic Forum, Yale and Columbia Universities, aggregating data at the national level to measure a country's performance in sustaining a healthy, livable environment. 142 countries have been measured with ESI by 2002. However, it has not yet been documented if it can be applied at a regional level. In this study, we have tried to apply ESI to measure the sustainable deve...

SUMMARY The study focused on the so-called dark coniferous forest belt on the northern slope of Changbai Mountain, at an altitude of 1100 to 1700 m. Forty tree species, 50 shrub species and 165 herb species were recorded in a series of transects. The main impact factors on forest diversity and proposals for sustainable management of this diversity were studied using an altitude and area gradient pattern method. The results showed that the diversity of dark coniferous forest gradually decreased from lower to upper altitude; while the importance value of key species increased. The methodology used to assess attributes for conservation of dark coniferous forest diversity involved measurement of individual trees, number of species, age structure, stand structure, diameter at breast height (DBH), and cumulative wood storage. Different conservation strategies have been developed and are discussed for different parts of the forest.

SUMMARY During the past half century, China has experienced increasingly severe land degradation, soil erosion, and desert expansion. Desertification is affecting one third of China's total territory and the annual accelerating rate of desertification spread is as high as 2460 km2 in China. In 1996, China developed a National Action Programme to Combat Desertification (NAP), which is aimed to apply new legal measures and technical approaches to slow down desertification processes and achieve a long-term goal — control desertification and alleviate poverty through continuous efforts to fight against desertification, stabilize mobile dunes, revegetate degraded rangeland and control soil erosion in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. The long-term and integrated strategies of China's NAP result in encouragement of social participation, legal institutional guarantees, policy making, and establishment of demonstrations/pilot projects to combat desertification at both national and provincial level.

The year 2008 marked one of the most important stages in mankind's development. For the first time in history, more than half of the world's human population lives in urban areas (UNPF 2008), which...

(2008). The native Mosuo people, matriarchal culture, and development processes in the Lugu Lake region: Introduction. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-2.