Assessing Urban Greenness Fragmentation and Analysis of Its Associated Factors: A Case Study in Wuhan Metropolitan Area, China

Bibliographic Details
Title: Assessing Urban Greenness Fragmentation and Analysis of Its Associated Factors: A Case Study in Wuhan Metropolitan Area, China
Authors: Husheng Fang, Moquan Sha, Wenjuan Lin, Dai Qiu, Zongyao Sha
Source: ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, Vol 10, Iss 11, p 760 (2021)
Publisher Information: MDPI AG, 2021.
Publication Year: 2021
Collection: LCC:Geography (General)
Subject Terms: urban landscape, vegetation fragmentation, urbanization, SVM, Geography (General), G1-922
More Details: Green vegetation plays a vital role in urban ecosystem services. Rapid urbanization often tends to induce urban vegetation cover fragmentation (UVCF) in cities and suburbs. Mapping the changes in the structure (aggregation) and abundance of urban vegetation cover helps to make improved policies for sustainable urban development. In this paper, a new distance-based landscape indicator to UVCF, Frag, was proposed first. Unlike many other landscape indicators, Frag measures UVCF by considering simultaneously both the structure and abundance of vegetation cover at local scales, and thus provides a more comprehensive perspective in understanding the spatial distribution patterns in urban greenness cover. As a case study, the urban greenness fragmentation indicated by Frag was demonstrated in Wuhan metropolitan area (WMA), China in 2015 and 2020. Support vector machine (SVM) was then designed to examine the impact on the Frag changes from the associated factors, including urbanization and terrain characteristics (elevation and slope). The Frag changes were mapped at different scales and modeled by SVM from the selected factors, which reasonably explained the Frag changes. Sensitivity analysis for the SVM model revealed that urbanization showed the most dominant factor for the Frag changes, followed by terrain elevation and slope. We conclude that Frag is an effective scale-dependent indicator to UVCF that can reflect changes in the structure and abundance of urban vegetation cover, and that modeling the impact of the associated factors on UVCF via the Frag indicator can provide essential information for urban planners.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 2220-9964
Relation: https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/10/11/760; https://doaj.org/toc/2220-9964
DOI: 10.3390/ijgi10110760
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/9fad5d126e34449091d446bb8b748628
Accession Number: edsdoj.9fad5d126e34449091d446bb8b748628
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:22209964
DOI:10.3390/ijgi10110760
Published in:ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Language:English