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Impacts of Urbanization and Land Use on Habitats, Water Quality,...
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Impacts of Urbanization and Land Use on Habitats, Water Quality, and Ecosystem Services in Terrestrial-Aquatic Interfaces

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity and Functionality of Aquatic Ecosystems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 September 2023) | Viewed by 5787

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yixin Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Landscape Architecture, Gold Mantis School of Architecture, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
Interests: stream and riparian ecology; urban ecology; ecosystem restoration and conservation; human-nature interactions and sustainability; urbanization impact on aquatic ecosystems (streams/rivers/lakes/wetlands); environmental and human health
Dr. Qiaoyan Lin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The XIPU Institution, and Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou ‎215123, China
Interests: aquatic ecology; watershed restoration ecology; biodiversity conservation; ecological planning; carbon neutrality; sustainable development
Dr. Noël Juvigny-Khenafou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
iES - Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Koblenz-Landau, 76829 Landau i. d. Pfalz, Germany
Interests: multiple stressors in freshwater systems; biodiversity; spatial ecology; meta-ecosystems; ecological stoichiometry and metabolic theory; stoichiometric and metabolic theories

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the fast rate of urbanization worldwide and the need for a sustainable development, it is crucial to understand the impact of land use changes on habitats, water quality, and ecosystem services in terrestrial–aquatic interfaces. Such knowledge is necessary to researchers and managers to formulate an ecological strategy for mitigating the degradation of watershed processes and working toward the restoration and recovery of rivers, lakes, and wetlands. This issue aims to set up a holistic framework to evaluate the challenges and problems caused by multiple anthropogenic stressors associated with urbanization.

This issue welcomes high-quality research works that focus on the impact assessment of urbanization and land use changes from the perspectives of hydromorphology, ecosystem structure, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services, as well as biodiversity. Moreover, the issue encourages the development and implementation of governance systems, innovative ideas, pathways and solutions, design strategies, new technologies, and countermeasures to mitigate or to address the ecological challenges and environmental threats in stream/river, lake, wetland, and watershed ecosystems. New and innovative approaches and methods to deal with these challenges and threats are welcome. Potential themes of relevance to this issue may include but are not limited to the following:

  • Impacts of urbanization on freshwater ecosystems;
  • Land use changes associated with multiple stressors and ecosystem health;
  • Habitat fragmentation and restoration;
  • Watershed ecological restoration;
  • Natural-based solutions;
  • Biodiversity conservation;
  • Sustainable ecological planning for terrestrial–aquatic interfaces;
  • Ecological corridor protection and construction;
  • Innovative models, methods for the characterization of urban impacts;
  • Innovative technologies, models, methods, and tools for ecological planning;
  • Technologies, pathways, strategies, governance policies for sustainable watershed development.

Prof. Dr. Yixin Zhang
Dr. Qiaoyan Lin
Dr. Noël Juvigny-Khenafou
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. Water 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 2600 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

  • urbanization
  • land-use change
  • habitat quality
  • water quality
  • terrestrial–aquatic interfaces
  • streams and rivers
  • lakes
  • wetlands
  • riparian areas
  • ecosystem services

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2901 KiB  
Article
The Impacts of Land Use and Seasonal Effects on Phytoplankton Taxa and Physical-Chemical Variables in the Tigris River within the City of Mosul
by Majd Muwafaq Yaqoob, Imre Somlyai, Csaba Berta, István Bácsi, Aws N. Al-Tayawi, Kossay K. Al-Ahmady, Ramadhan Hamza Mohammed, Omar Alalami and István Grigorszky
Water 2023, 15(6), 1062; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15061062 - 10 Mar 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2054
Abstract
We investigated the effect of land use based on the dominant phytoplankton and physical-chemical variables in the different areas of the Tigris River, within the city of Mosul. Agricultural and urban activities have a significant impact on the water quality of the river. [...] Read more.
We investigated the effect of land use based on the dominant phytoplankton and physical-chemical variables in the different areas of the Tigris River, within the city of Mosul. Agricultural and urban activities have a significant impact on the water quality of the river. Regardless of physical and chemical variables, phytoplankton act as a bio-indicator of water quality due to their fast and sensitive response to changes in the environment. Our research was conducted in the Tigris River within the city of Mosul by examining the phytoplankton species and the physical-chemical variables at 16 sites during each vegetation period. Point and non-point source pollutants have affected the Tigris River within the city of Mosul, getting into the river from upstream through agricultural activities and by urban activities in the middle section of the city, respectively from both banks. Based on our results, we observed the highest phytoplankton abundance during the October sampling periods, while the lowest occurred during the July sampling period, which was associated with maximum water temperature and absence of rain. According to our study, land use (e.g., agricultural, and urban activities) greatly affected the dominant phytoplankton species and physical-chemical variables of the Tigris River. Oscillatoria sp. dominated all seasons in the agricultural region, while at the same time, we observed an increase in the number of phytoplankton species caused by the nutrient availability upstream on the river. The effects of climate have very significant and characteristic effects in this area, which basically determine the community of organisms and the water quality; the effects resulting from anthropogenic activity significantly modify this. Based on our investigation, in the part of the Tigris River connected to Mosul, we found a clear connection between the pollution caused and the effects of different land uses, through the examination of the algal community and physical-chemical variables in different periods of the year. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Urbanization and Land Use on Habitats, Water Quality, and Ecosystem Services in Terrestrial-Aquatic Interfaces)
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19 pages, 1095 KiB  
Article
Habitat Quality Assessment and Ecological Risks Prediction: An Analysis in the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (Suzhou Section)
by Yixin Zhang, Chenyue Zhang, Xindi Zhang, Xinge Wang, Ting Liu, Zhe Li, Qiaoyan Lin, Zehui Jing, Xinyue Wang, Qiuyue Huang, Wenxin Sun, Jun Zhai, Li Tan, Jieqing Wang, Guoyan Zhou, Yasi Tian, Jianli Hao, Yu Song and Fei Ma
Water 2022, 14(17), 2602; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14172602 - 24 Aug 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3027
Abstract
With the fast pace of global urbanization, anthropogenic disturbances not only lead to frequent disasters, but also cause direct and indirect ecological and economic losses. To reduce the adverse effects of anthropogenic disturbances as part of sustainable ecosystem management, assessments of habitat quality [...] Read more.
With the fast pace of global urbanization, anthropogenic disturbances not only lead to frequent disasters, but also cause direct and indirect ecological and economic losses. To reduce the adverse effects of anthropogenic disturbances as part of sustainable ecosystem management, assessments of habitat quality and ecological risk are necessary. The objectives of this study are to analyze environmental conditions of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (Suzhou section) for evaluating habitat quality and habitat degradation, and to conduct ecological-risk early warning assessment in this section. The Grand Canal is the longest and first canal in the world to be artificially excavated from natural rivers and lakes. By evaluating habitat quality using the InVEST suite of open-source software models for mapping and valuing the ecosystem, it was found that the natural lands with high habitat quality such as wetlands, forests and lakes along the Suzhou section of the Grand Canal have gradually decreased, while construction lands such as roads and buildings have gradually increased; there is a clear trend of decreasing areas with high habitat quality and increasing areas with low habitat quality, which is likely the result of urbanization. It was also found that the region has a high habitat degradation index, meaning that areas located at the junction of different land types are vulnerable to the surrounding environment due to narrow buffer zones that allow areas with high habitat quality to be easily affected by areas with low habitat quality. In terms of ecological risks, it was found that the natural land area with high habitat quality in the downstream locations was declining, thereby increasing the risks of pollution and flooding events while reducing the ecosystem’s resilience. The valuation model used in this study can be used as an effective decision-support tool to prioritize important ecological areas for conservation in the Grand Canal, and can also be adapted for use in the ecosystem management of other regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Urbanization and Land Use on Habitats, Water Quality, and Ecosystem Services in Terrestrial-Aquatic Interfaces)
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