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Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technique/Methods to Address Current Urbanization Issues

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A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (3 November 2023) | Viewed by 17381

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zutao Yang

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Guest Editor

Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Interests: remote sensing; GIS; urban ecology; climate change; greenhouse gas emissions

Dr. Chenghao Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

1. School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73072, USA
2. Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA
Interests: urban meteorology; urban climate; urban sustainability; urban remote sensing; building energy consumption

Prof. Dr. Peilei Fan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Planning, Design and Construction, and Center for Global Change & Earth Observations, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
Interests: urban landscape ecology; sustainability; urbanization environment and planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The journal Remote Sensing (IF: 5.349, ISSN 2072-4292) is currently running a Special Issue entitled “Using Remote Sensing and GIS Methods to Study Current Urbanization Issues”. Dr. Zutao Yang, Dr. Chenghao Wang, and Dr. Peilei Fan are serving as the Guest Editors for this issue. We believe you could make an excellent contribution based on your expertise in this particular field.

The increase in the number of people living in urban areas, the proliferation of megacities, and the pervasive expansion of per-urban areas are some of the most challenging transformations in the 21st century. The complexity of urbanization imposes intertwined social, economic, and environmental impacts. While urbanization can achieve social and economic benefits, such as improved education, job opportunities, and healthcare, it also brings numerous negative ecological and social consequences, such as increasing the cost of living and social and economic inequality, deforestation, loss of natural habitat and biodiversity, soil, air, and water pollution, increased emission of greenhouse gases, heat island effect, and increased risk of disease. Therefore, it is imperative to create a sustainable urban environment that reconciles the conflicts between human and natural systems and reduces the negative impacts of the urbanization process. Remote sensing techniques could provide a “unique view” of the urban landscape. When combined with GIS-based spatial analysis, it can serve as a powerful tool to study processes and patterns of urbanization, drivers and impacts of urbanization, and the coupled human and natural systems embedded in urban ecosystems.

The main objective of this Special Issue shall be to provide a scientific forum for advancing the successful implementation of remote sensing (RS) technologies and geographic information system (GIS)-based methods towards urbanization issues and the peri-urban environment and to foster informed debates among scientists and stakeholders on the environmental issues prevalent therein, relating these to city growth dynamics.

This Special Issue will provide readers in the fields of GIS, remote sensing, Earth science, environmental science, and computer science with theoretical and practical advances in urbanization-related research. Topics of research articles, or reviews, submitted to this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

Integration of remote sensing data for urban environmental analysis.
Novel remote sensing applications (new sensors, new methodology, etc.) in urban ecology and sustainability.
Tracking urban growth and land use change with remote sensing technologies and GIS tools.
Remote sensing and GIS analysis informing/supporting urban and peri-urban governance and planning.
Landscape ecological analysis.
Urban growth and fringe development.
Water, river, and lake monitoring in and surrounding urban areas.
Relations between urban growth and climate change.
Social and environmental justice issues relevant to urban residents.
Impacts and mitigation of urban heat.

Given your expertise in this domain, we invite you to contribute a paper on the above or any related issues.

Dr. Zutao Yang
Dr. Chenghao Wang
Prof. Dr. Peilei Fan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

urban ecology
urban sprawl and dynamics
GHGs emissions
environmental impacts of urbanization
social impacts of urbanization
urban environmental justice
urban heat island
urban planning and design

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 4947 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding Road Traffic Evolution in an Urbanizing Context through Statistical and Geospatial Analysis

by Wencang Shen, Lu Niu and Yingzi Liang

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(18), 4436; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15184436 - 09 Sep 2023

Viewed by 805

Abstract

Urbanization, an accelerated process, is inherently coupled with complex issues, including the evolution of road traffic systems. This diversity in urbanization and transport infrastructure largely hinges on economic status and geographic positioning across cities. Leveraging the capabilities of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in processing geospatial big data, this paper evaluates the urbanization level (UL) and road traffic level (RTL) in 212 prefecture-level cities using statistical and geospatial grid data. We aim to dissect the impact of UL on RTL, thus highlighting the specific challenges and opportunities across regions and pinpointing optimal urban development models. Our findings demonstrate (1) rapid development in UL across all cities, juxtaposed with a surge and then stagnation in RTL; (2) a positive correlation between UL and RTL that grows over time but weakens in later stages; (3) differentiated development models in different city tiers and regions; and (4) region-specific development models and optimization policies aimed at enhancing the symbiosis of urbanization and road traffic. This study underscores the pivotal role of the integration of statistical and geospatial data in understanding the dynamic intersection of urbanization and road traffic systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technique/Methods to Address Current Urbanization Issues)

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19 pages, 16563 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Urban Agglomeration and Its Impact on Landscape Patterns in the Pearl River Delta, China

by Jiong Wu, Caiyan Wu, Qi Zhang, Minghao Zhuang, Huirong Xiao, Hui Wu, Linke Ouyang, Yuhan Liu, Chen Meng, Conghe Song, Dagmar Haase and Junxiang Li

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(10), 2520; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15102520 - 11 May 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1826

Abstract

An urban agglomeration is the engine of regional and national economic growth, but also causes many ecological and environmental issues that emerge from massive land changes. In this study, the spatiotemporal evolution of an urban agglomeration was quantified and its impacts on the urban and regional landscape patterns were evaluated. It showed that the urbanized land area of the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration (PRDUA) in China nearly quadrupled, having linearly increased from 1819.8 km² to 7092.2 km² between 1985 and 2015. The average annual growth rate presented a bimodal wave-like pattern through time, indicating that the PRDUA has witnessed two rounds of the urbanization process. The growth modes (e.g., leapfrog, edge-expansion, infilling) were detected and they exhibited co-existing but alternating dominating patterns during urbanization, demonstrating that the spatiotemporal evolution of the urban development of the PRDUA follows the “spiral diffusion-coalescence” hypothesis. The morphology of the PRDUA presented an alternating dispersal-compact pattern over time. The city-level and regional-level landscape patterns changed synchronously with the spatiotemporal evolution of the PRDUA over time. The urbanization of the PRDUA increased both the complexity and aggregation of the landscape, but also resulted in an increasing fragmentation and decreasing connectivity of the natural landscape in the Pearl River Delta region. These findings are helpful for better understanding how urban agglomerations evolve and in providing insights for regional urban planning and sustainable land management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technique/Methods to Address Current Urbanization Issues)

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24 pages, 9571 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Monitoring of Urban Sprawl in a Coastal City Using GIS-Based Markov Chain and Artificial Neural Network (ANN)

by Shawky Mansour, Eman Ghoneim, Asmaa El-Kersh, Sayed Said and Shimaa Abdelnaby

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(3), 601; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15030601 - 19 Jan 2023

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3589

Abstract

Over the last two decades, globally coastal areas have urbanized rapidly due to various socioeconomic and demographic driving forces. However, urban expansion in towns and cities of the developing world has been characterized by entangled structures and trends exacerbating numerous negative consequences such as pollution, ecological degradation, loss of agricultural land and green areas, and deprived settlements. Substantially, spatial simulation of urban growth and their consequences on coastal areas particularly in Egypt is still very rare. Geospatial modelling coastal urban growth is crucial and has enormous potential for coastal land use transformation and urban sustainability. The key aim of this study was to analyze spatiotemporal changes (2010–2020) and simulate future dynamics (2030 to 2050) of land use/land cover (LULC) in Alexandria Governorate, Egypt. Artificial Neural Network–Multiple Layer Perceptron (ANN-MLP) and Markov Chain techniques were employed within the GIS platform to assess processes of land transitions and predict urban growth trends, patterns and dimensions. The forecasting process was based on three maps of LULC derived from classified Landsat images of 2000, 2010 and 2020. In addition, topographical, demographic, accessibility, proximity factors were generated and developed in the form of raster spatial parameters of urbanization driving forces. The findings revealed that the observed expansion of the built-up area during one decade (2010–2020) was 12,477.51 ha, with a decline in agricultural area (7440.39 ha) and bare land (4904.91 ha). The projected change was forecasted to be 71,544 ha by 2030 and 81,983 ha in 2040 with a total of 35,998 ha increase in the built-up area and residential expansion by 2050. Despite this expected pattern of rapid changes, urban growth will be shaped by the key drivers of proximity to coastline and agricultural land transformation. The analysis indicates that the vertical urban growth will be most likely dominant along the coastal zone due to the lack of vacant lands, whereas the horizontal urban expansion will primarily take place towards the east-northeastern and south-southeastern directions of the city. The present work provides a holistic framework for establishing initial coastal land use plans not only for planners and urban administrators in Alexandria but also for policymakers and coastal municipalities in developing nations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technique/Methods to Address Current Urbanization Issues)

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29 pages, 14095 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Transmission Effect and Influencing Factors of Land Pressure in the Yangtze River Delta Region from 1995–2020

by Ziqi Yu, Longqian Chen, Ting Zhang, Long Li, Lina Yuan, Sai Hu, Liang Cheng, Shuai Shi and Jianying Xiao

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(1), 250; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15010250 - 01 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1536

Abstract

Human societal growth has greatly pressured available land resources. The key to reducing land pressure and fostering regional synergistic development is revealing the transmission effect of land pressure. We used a modified gravity model to construct a spatial correlation network (SCN) of the land pressure in the Yangtze River Delta region (YRDR) for the years 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020. To examine how the land pressure is transmitted throughout the cities in the YRDR, we used a social network analysis to examine the overall network structure, individual network characteristics and spatial clustering characteristics. Finally, the center of gravity-GTWR model that coupled the inter-city interactions and the temporal non-smoothness further revealed the spatiotemporal evolution and the different patterns of the influencing factors. The results revealed that (1) the spatial correlation structure of the land pressure in the YRDR was relatively stable. Nanjing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Changzhou played a significant role as linkages. (2) The YRDR was beyond the geographical limit for the land pressure transmission effect and each block had a considerable and mostly steady transmission impact. (3) The center of gravity-GTWR model that coupled the inter-city interactions and the temporal non-stationarity was a viable method for analyzing the factors that influence the land pressure. (4) There were significant regional and temporal variations in the factors influencing land pressure. The influencing factors differed in intensity and direction from city to city. Our results can provide a new perspective on relieving land pressure from the perspective of urban agglomerations and help accomplish the sustainable development of regional land resources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technique/Methods to Address Current Urbanization Issues)

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21 pages, 3842 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Fairness of Urban Park Green Space Based on an Improved Supply Model of Green Space: A Case Study of Beijing Central City

by Xinke Wang, Qingyan Meng, Xingzhao Liu, Mona Allam, Linlin Zhang, Xinli Hu, Yaxin Bi and Tamás Jancsó

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(1), 244; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15010244 - 31 Dec 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3102

Abstract

Urban park green space (UPGS) plays an important role in providing ecological and social benefits. However, in many large cities with rapid economic development, the supply of UPGS is unfairly distributed, and there is a severe mismatch between its supply and residents’ demand. Taking the Beijing central city as an example, this study aims to develop a fairness assessment model to quantify the fairness of UPGS distribution and the matching relationships between supply and demand for UPGS. To achieve the aims of the study, we improved the supply model of UPGS by integrating three factors: the number of UPGS, the service capacity of UPGS, and the quality of UPGS in the Beijing central city. Subsequently, we evaluated the spatial fairness and social fairness of the supply of UPGS using the Gini coefficient. Then, we used the number of residents in the sub-district to characterize the intensity of residents’ needs and quantitatively analyzed the spatial matching relationship between the supply of UPGS and residents’ demand. The results show that: (a) The improved supply model of UPGS can measure the supply of UPGS of different types in a more detailed way. (b) The per capita supply of UPGS is unevenly distributed among the six urban districts of Beijing, which may lead to a sense of unfairness among residents. While residents in Haidian District (Gini = 0.649) may have the highest sense of unfairness, followed by those in Fengtai (Gini = 0.505), Dongcheng (Gini = 0.410), Xicheng (Gini = 0.392), and Chaoyang District (Gini = 0.225). (c) The matching relationship between the supply of UPGS and the needs of different social groups is not ideal, especially the spatial matching relationship between the needs of the elderly and the supply of UPGS. This study can be used as a reference for supporting decision making in optimizing UPGS and providing a reference for fine urban management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technique/Methods to Address Current Urbanization Issues)

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Review

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37 pages, 4827 KiB

Open AccessReview

UAV Implementations in Urban Planning and Related Sectors of Rapidly Developing Nations: A Review and Future Perspectives for Malaysia

by Aisyah Marliza Muhmad Kamarulzaman, Wan Shafrina Wan Mohd Jaafar, Mohd Nizam Mohd Said, Siti Nor Maizah Saad and Midhun Mohan

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(11), 2845; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15112845 - 30 May 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4705

Abstract

The rapid growth of urban populations and the need for sustainable urban planning and development has made Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) a valuable tool for data collection, mapping, and monitoring. This article reviews the applications of UAV technology in sustainable urban development, particularly in Malaysia. It explores the potential of UAVs to transform infrastructure projects and enhance urban systems, underscoring the importance of advanced applications in Southeast Asia and developing nations worldwide. Following the PRISMA 2020 statement, this article adopts a systematic review process and identifies 98 relevant studies out of 591 records, specifically examining the use of UAVs in urban planning. The emergence of the UAV-as-a-service sector has led to specialized companies offering UAV operations for site inspections, 3D modeling of structures and terrain, boundary assessment, area estimation, master plan formulation, green space analysis, environmental monitoring, and archaeological monument mapping. UAVs have proven to be versatile tools with applications across multiple fields, including precision agriculture, forestry, construction, surveying, disaster response, security, and education. They offer advantages such as high-resolution imagery, accessibility, and operational safety. Varying policies and regulations concerning UAV usage across countries present challenges for commercial and research UAVs. In Malaysia, UAVs have become essential in addressing challenges associated with urbanization, including traffic congestion, urban sprawl, pollution, and inadequate social facilities. However, several obstacles need to be overcome before UAVs can be effectively deployed, including regulatory barriers, limited flight time and range, restricted awareness, lack of skilled personnel, and concerns regarding security and privacy. Successful implementation requires coordination among public bodies, industry stakeholders, and the public. Future research in Malaysia should prioritize 3D modeling and building identification, using the results of this study to propel advancements in other ASEAN countries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Using Remote Sensing and GIS Technique/Methods to Address Current Urbanization Issues)

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