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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 17419

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Dr. Wei Wu

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Guest Editor

College of Land Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: land use utility and management; spatial planning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The urban area is the pivotal place for human socio-economic activities, occupying less than 2.4% of the world's area but inhabiting more than half of the world's population. While the rapid urbanization process promotes economic development and improves the quality of human life, it also brings a series of environmental problems (such as landscape fragmentation, biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, extreme climate, greenhouse effect and environmental pollution, etc.), objectively exacerbating ecological risks. Urban sustainable development and public health are therefore facing severe challenges. Urban spatial planning is an effective tool to deal with environment and public health crises in the process of urbanization. A comprehensive understanding of the process mechanism, driving force and evolution trend of the above problems and their relationship with urbanization is a necessary prerequisite for scientific and rational urban spatial planning to ensure sustainable development. Since 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic has continued to hit public health and socioeconomic development around the world. It reflects the vulnerability of human society in coping with sudden disasters. In the context of the normalization of the epidemic, the layout and optimization of urban space through planning are urgently needed to ensure regional as well as global sustainable development in the post-epidemic era. This Special Issue focuses on the latest research progress related to urban spatial planning and sustainable development, such as new theories, new methods and new models, etc. Both original papers and review papers are encouraged for submission. Potential research topics include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) Urbanization process and global environmental change; (2) Evolution of ecosystem structure, functions and services during urban expansion; (3) Urban spatial planning under the carbon neutrality goals; (4) Prevention and control of urban environmental pollution (including water, air, soil pollution and degradation, etc.); (5) Land use land cover change (including urban expansion, urban sprawl) processes and the driving mechanism; (6) Regional ecological risk prevention and control and reconstruction of ecological security pattern; (7) Urban spatial planning in the post-epidemic era (including emergency shelters, spatial allocation of medical resources and services, etc.).

Dr. Wei Wu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

urbanization
cities
rural areas
peri-urban fringe
region
spatial planning
global change
environmental research
sustainable development
land use land cover change
public health
COVID-19 epidemic

Published Papers (9 papers)

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15 pages, 5947 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial Distribution and Pollution Level of Heavy Metals in Street Dust of the City of Suwałki (Poland)

by Mirosław Skorbiłowicz, Łukasz Trybułowski and Elżbieta Skorbiłowicz

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(6), 4687; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064687 - 7 Mar 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1357

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the content and spatial distribution of heavy metals (HM) in street dust in Suwałki, a city located in northeastern Poland. The HM content of street dust was also evaluated using the geochemical index (Igeo), enrichment factor (EF), and contamination factor (CF), and local HM sources were identified using chemometric methods. The arithmetic averages of HM contents in dust arranged in the following order: Fe > Zn > Mn > Cu > Cr > Ni > Pb, were 11,692.80, 215.97, 194.78, 142.84, 63.59, 17.50, 17.04 mg∙kg⁻¹, respectively. Higher values than the local background occurred for Cr, Cu, Ni, Zn and Pb. The values of Igeo, CF, and EF indicate that the highest pollution in dust is due to Zn and Cu. The spatial distribution of metals was evaluated using maps of HM content in road dust samples from Suwałki. The spatial distribution of HM showed areas with high contents of Cr, Cu, Ni, Zn and Pb located mainly in the central and eastern parts of the city. In these areas, high traffic volume, the presence of shopping centers, administrative buildings and bus stops dominate. Statistical models of multivariate analysis (FA) and cluster analysis (CA) identified two sources of HM. The first source of pollution was associated with local industrial activity and motor vehicle travel, and the second with natural sources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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20 pages, 807 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Land Reclamation Suitability of Beam Fabrication and Storage Yard in Railway Construction: An AHP-MEA Method

by Baoquan Cheng, Jianchang Li, Jingfang Tao, Jianling Huang and Huihua Chen

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(5), 3805; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053805 - 21 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1471

Abstract

Railway construction contributes to socio-economic development but causes the occupation and destruction of land resources. How to effectively restore the temporary land and achieve efficient and rational reuse therefore becomes particularly important. The beam fabrication and storage yard (BFSY), as a large temporary facility during railway construction, occupies a large area of land. However, BFSYs damage the land in the way of pressing and may harden the ground to a high degree due to the use of high-density pile foundations, adversely affecting the soil properties. Therefore, this research aims to develop a model for evaluating the land reclamation suitability (LRS) of BFSY. The LRS evaluation indicator system of BFSY was firstly constructed based on the literature review and expert interviews. Then, an indicator-based model for assessing the LRS of BFSY was developed by integrating the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model and the matter-element analysis (MEA) model. A case project in China was chosen to demonstrate and validate the developed model, and results show that the proposed model can rationally evaluate the LRS of BFSY in railway construction. The findings of this research enrich the knowledge system of sustainable railway construction and guide construction managers to conduct practical suitability assessments of land reclamation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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16 pages, 6318 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial Layout Planning of Urban Emergency Shelter Based on Sustainable Disaster Reduction

by Wenlong Zhu, Houlong Xing and Wenlu Kang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 2127; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032127 - 24 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1838

Abstract

An urban emergency shelter provides a place of temporary life and shelter for victims after a disaster. As a very important public service facility, its spatial layout is greatly related to the security of lives and the property of the urban residents. Upholding the concept of sustainable disaster reduction, this study took the central urban area of Xuzhou as an example. Based on the analysis of ArcGIS software, this study analyzed and planned the spatial layout of emergency shelters in Xuzhou and visualized the service area ratio, service population ratio, service capacity ratio, and service overlap rate of each administrative district. Finally, 73 fixed emergency shelters were determined, among which eight were classified as central shelters. At the same time, through consulting the relevant data, it was found that similar problems such as potential safety hazard, blind areas, service overlapping, and mismatch of shelter layout and actual needs also exist in other cities. Finally, in light of the existing problems, relevant suggestions are provided for the adjustment and optimization of the layout of emergency shelters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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20 pages, 4527 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Carbon Emissions According to Major Function-Oriented Zones: A Case Study of Guangdong Province, China

by Jiang Zhu, Xiang Li, Huiming Huang, Xiangdong Yin, Jiangchun Yao, Tao Liu, Jiexuan Wu and Zhangcheng Chen

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 2075; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032075 - 23 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1928

Abstract

Studying the spatiotemporal evolution of carbon emissions from the perspective of major function-oriented zones (MFOZs) is crucial for making a carbon reduction policy. However, most previous research has ignored the spatial characteristics and MFOZ influence. Using statistical and spatial analysis tools, we explored the spatiotemporal characteristics of carbon emissions in Guangdong Province from 2001 to 2021. The following results were obtained: (1) Carbon emissions fluctuated from 2020 to 2021 because of COVID-19. (2) Over the last 20 years, the proportion of carbon emissions from urbanization development zones (UDZs) has gradually decreased, whereas those of the main agricultural production zones (MAPZs) and key ecological function zones (KEFZs) have increased. (3) Carbon emissions efficiency differed significantly among the three MFOZs. (4) Carbon emissions from coastal UDZs were increasingly apparent; however, the directional characteristics of MAPZ and KEFZ emissions were not remarkable. (5) Carbon transfer existed among the three kinds of MFOZs, resulting in the economy and carbon emissions being considerably misaligned across Guangdong Province. These results indicated that the MFOZ is noteworthy in revealing how carbon emissions evolved. Furthermore, spatiotemporal characteristics, especially spatial characteristics, can help formulate carbon reduction policies for realizing carbon peak and neutrality goals in Guangdong Province. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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29 pages, 29704 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Scenario Simulation of Land Use and Landscape Ecological Risk Response Based on Planning Control

by Nan Wang, Peijuan Zhu, Guohua Zhou, Xudong Xing and Yong Zhang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(21), 14289; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114289 - 1 Nov 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1645

Abstract

This study applied territorial spatial planning control to a land use multi-scenario simulation in Changde, China, and measured the landscape ecological risk response. It embedded five planning control schemes, respectively, involving inertial development, urban expansion size quantity control, ecological spatial structure control, land use zoning control, and comprehensive control. Findings show that: (1) Woodland and arable land in Changde occupy 31.10% and 43.35% of land use, respectively, and constitute the main functional space of the research area. The scale of construction land in Changde has enlarged continuously, with ecological space represented by woodland and water constantly squeezed and occupied. (2) Comprehensive control has the most remarkable restraining effect on the disordered spread of construction land, while ecological space structure control is the most effective way to control ecological land shrinkage. (3) The overall landscape ecological risk index expanded over 2009–2018, presenting an S-type time evolution curve of “sharp increase–mitigation”. Landscape ecological risk presents a single-core, double-layer circle structure with the north and east regions as the core, attenuating to the periphery. (4) Landscape ecological risk under land use zoning control increased significantly more than in other scenarios. Comprehensive control best prevented landscape ecological risk and restrained the disorderly expansion of construction land. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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18 pages, 4598 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Approach to Monitoring Urban Built-Up Areas in Kunming and Yuxi from 2012 to 2021: Promoting Healthy Urban Development and Efficient Governance

by Jun Zhang, Xue Zhang, Xueping Tan and Xiaodie Yuan

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12198; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912198 - 26 Sep 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1896

Abstract

With the rapid expansion of urban built-up areas in recent years, accurate and long time series monitoring of urban built-up areas is of great significance for healthy urban development and efficient governance. As the basic carrier of urban activities, the accurate monitoring of urban built-up areas can also assist in the formulation of urban planning. Previous studies on urban built-up areas mainly focus on the analysis of a single time section, which makes the extraction results exist with a certain degree of contingency. In this study, a U-net is used to extract and monitor urban built-up areas in the Kunming and Yuxi area from 2012 to 2021 based on nighttime light data and POI_NTL (Point of Interest_Nighttime light) data. The results show that the highest accuracy of single nighttime light (NTL) data extraction was 89.31%, and that of POI_NTL data extraction was 95.31%, which indicates that data fusion effectively improves the accuracy of built-up area extraction. Additionally, the comparative analysis of the results of built-up areas and the actual development of the city shows that NTL data is more susceptible to urban emergencies in the extraction of urban built-up areas, and POI (Point of interest) data is subject to the level of technology and service available in the region, while the combination of the two can avoid the occasional impact of single data as much as possible. This study deeply analyzes the results of extracting urban built-up areas from different data in different periods and obtains the feasible method for the long time sequence monitoring of urban built-up areas, which has important theoretical and practical significance for the formulation of long-term urban planning and the current high-quality urban development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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23 pages, 2277 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Coupling Coordination and Interactive Response Analysis of Ecological Environment and Urban Resilience in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

by Mei Yang, Mengyun Jiao and Jinyu Zhang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 11988; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191911988 - 22 Sep 2022

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 1832

Abstract

There is a complex dynamic coupling interaction process between the ecological environment and urban resilience. It is important to clarify the coordination relationship and interactive response mechanism between them for sustainable development construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The coupling coordination degree model and the panel vector autoregressive model (PVAR) were adopted to quantitatively examine the dynamic coordination and interactive response of the ecological environment and urban resilience in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2000 to 2019. Our study’s results are the following: (1) The ecological environment index and urban resilience index have a generally positive trend of fluctuation and increase during the study period but show significant regional differentiation. (2) The coupling coordination degree of ecological environment and urban resilience in the Yangtze River Economic Belt increased steadily, forming a spatial distribution pattern of “strong in the east and weak in the west”, with cities in the region mainly at the basic coordination level and generally lagging behind in development. (3) Both the ecological environment and urban resilience systems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt have significant self-reinforcing mechanisms, but the reinforcing effect is gradually decreasing, and the two positively promote each other, with urban resilience showing a more obvious promoting effect on the ecological environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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14 pages, 2898 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Visualizing and Understanding Shrinking Cities and Towns (SCT) Research: A Network Analysis

by Zezhou Wu, Danting Zhang, Shenghan Li, Jianbo Fei, Changhong Chen, Bin Tian and Maxwell Fordjour Antwi-Afari

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(18), 11475; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811475 - 12 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2165

Abstract

The world is undergoing an unprecedented trend of fast urbanization, which causes a range of socio-environmental consequences, one of which is shrinking cities and towns (SCT). SCT refer to the cities or towns that are experiencing population decline and economic downturn. In the existing literature, there have been numerous studies on SCT; however, there is a lack of study which investigates its knowledge domains. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct a scientometric analysis to achieve an outline of the SCT research status. Through the procedures of literature search and screening, a total of 716 SCT-related studies were extracted from the Scopus. The VOSviewer software system program was then utilized to visualize the present SCT-related studies. The visualization results revealed that the journal of Sustainability made significant contributions to the SCT research in terms of relevant publications. In addition, Haase, Annegret received the most co-citations, and was also the most productive author in this field. Furthermore, it was identified that current SCT research is mainly conducted in developed countries. Through the analysis of keywords, the emerging research topics were revealed. Discussions were further made from the perspectives of prevailing research methods, evaluation criteria, and solutions for SCT problems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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23 pages, 5591 KiB

Open AccessCase Report

A Systematic Government-Driven Green Development Transformation Strategy with Chinese Characteristics: The Case Study of the Xining Metropolitan Area

by Jing Xu, Yongchun Yang, Zhuo Jia, Genying Chang, Yongjiao Zhang, Maoyuan Zhao and Wenrui Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(2), 1321; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021321 - 11 Jan 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1940

Abstract

In the 21st century, the tension between economic growth, resources and the environment in countries around the world is increasing, and the sustainable development of the economy and society is under great pressure. Green development has become the only way for countries to promote sustainable development. Generally, capitalist countries achieve their green development goals through increasingly strict environmental protection regulations, technological upgrading, industrial upgrading and global transfer based on market mechanisms and legal environments. Evidently, this green development strategy relies on the core position of Western countries in the global technological leadership and the global division of labor. However, limited in terms of their economic strength and by technical barriers, how can developing countries, led by China, in the marginal position in the global market competition, carry out green development transformation? In line with the “high-quality development” strategy, governments at all levels in China are actively exploring green development strategies with their own characteristics. Based on the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research and the face-to-face interview method, this paper summarizes a new strategy of systematic government-driven green development combining internal and external factors in the underdeveloped areas of inland China, which has gradually formed in the Xining metropolitan area (XMA) in the past 20 years. This strategy has the following characteristics: Firstly, during the period of rapid growth, the XMA areas have promoted each other through new urbanization and new industrialization and jointly promoted the formation of a green development turn in the new era. Secondly, the government is the core actor and driving force of China’s regional green development and has gradually formulated and implemented a series of policy systems during this development. Restricted by local economic backwardness and low industrial profits, the implementation of green government policies tends to be mandatory. The majority of urban residents and rural people support this transformation because they have benefited from the transformation process. Thirdly, this green development strategy is reflected in many aspects, such as industry, ecology, the environment, space and transportation, and is part of a systematic, green-oriented transformation. Fourthly, the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics are the guarantee of the green development strategy. It is noteworthy that this kind of green development transformation requires a large amount of “additional” investment and the “rapid” upgrade of the industry. Therefore, it requires more time and the understanding and assistance of all sectors of society. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Urban Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development)

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