Rapid urbanization has occurred in northwestern China, threatening the sustainability of its fragile dryland ecosystems. A lack of precise urban land-cover information has limited our understanding on the urbanization in the dryland. Here, we examined urban land-cover changes from 2000 to 2014 in 21 major cities that comprise over 50% of the developed land in arid China, using Landsat Enhanced ...

Land carrying capacity (LCC) explains whether the local land resources are effectively used to support economic activities and/or human population. LCC can be evaluated commonly with two approaches, namely ecological footprint analysis (EFA) and the index system method (ISM). EFA is helpful to investigate the effects of different land categories whereas ISM can be used to evaluate the contribut...

Urbanization replaces the extant natural resource base (e.g., forests, wetlands) with an infrastructure that is capable of supporting humans. One ecological consequence of urbanization is higher concentrations of nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) in streams, lakes, and estuaries. When received in excess, N and P are considered pollutants. Continuing urbanization will change the relative distribu...

We use data from two satellites and a terrestrial carbon model to quantify the impact of urbanization on the carbon cycle and food production in the US as a result of reduced net primary productivity (NPP). Our results show that urbanization is taking place on the most fertile lands and hence has a disproportionately large overall negative impact on NPP. Urban land transformation in the US has ...

This paper pretends to make some reflections about the urban sprawl process in the metropolitan areas in Spain 2 and Mexico 3 . The use of technologies related to satellite imagery (remote sensing) allows the characterization of the phenomenon of consumption, pathological or not, of land. And this analysis suggests some hypothesis about the plurality of contemporary of urbanization processes. R...

The urbanization effects on land surface phenology (LSP) have been investigated by many studies, but few studies focused on the temporal variations of urbanization effects on LSP. In this study, we used the MODIS EVI, MODIS LST data and China’s Land Use/Cover Datasets (CLUDs) to investigate the temporal variations of urban heat island intensity and urbanization effects on LSP in Northeast China...

The rapid development of urbanization requires land management business should change the former single systematic pattern, and advance to integration of functions and data sharing. In order to meets the requirement, this paper presents a new thinking for land management pattern, and management tools of data center for integration of urban and rural areas. The tools were based on MapGIS, which ...

In recent decades, urbanization has become a significant urban environmental and ecological concern, especially in most developing countries. In China, rapid urban sprawl has had a profound influence on runoff and results in larger and more frequent incidents of flooding in many urban areas. Therefore, evaluating the impacts of urbanization on runoff is of great important for urban planning pol...

Urbanisation and associated growth patterns (urban sprawl) are characteristic of spatial temporal land use changes taking place at regional levels. Unplanned urbanization and consequent impacts on natural resources including basic amenities has necessitated the investigation and understanding of mechanisms and dynamics of land use and land-use change on a range of spatial scales and evaluate th...

Urbanization will place significant pressures on biodiversity across the world. However, there are large uncertainties in the amount and location of future urbanization, particularly urban land expansion. Here, we present a global analysis of urban extent circa 2000 and probabilistic forecasts of urban expansion for 2030 near protected areas and in biodiversity hotspots. We estimate that the am...