Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Landscape Ecological Risks in the Ecological Functional Zone of the Upper Yellow River, China

The Ecological Functional Zone of the Upper Yellow River (EFZUYR) is a critical water-catching area in the Yellow River Basin, the ecological security of which affects the sound development of the ecosystem in the entire basin. Recently, significant land use changes have aggravated regional ecological risks and seriously affected the sustainable development of EFZUYR. In this context, this paper provides an in-depth study of the ecological risks caused by land use landscape changes. With the help of land use data and dynamic degree analysis, the land use transfer matrix, and the landscape pattern index, this paper quantifies the distribution trends of land use landscape patterns in EFZUYR from 1990 to 2018. In addition, this research explores the temporal and spatial dynamic distribution characteristics of landscape ecological risks in this functional zone. The research results show the following: (1) The transfer of land use in EFZUYR from 1990 to 2018 mainly occurred among cultivated land, grassland, and woodland, with the transferred area accounting for 87.16% of the total changed area. (2) The fragmentation degree of built-up areas is 0.1097, 0.1053, 0.0811 and 0.0762 in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2018, respectively, with a decreasing trend. The dominance degree of grassland has been maintained at the highest level for a long time, with all values above 0.59. The separation degree and the interference degree of built-up areas were the highest and the values of the four periods were above 1.2 and 0.44, respectively. The loss degree of water was the highest, with a value above 0.67, while the value of other land use was mostly below 0.4. (3) The landscape ecological risk of EFZUYR presented a fluctuating rising, falling, and then rising trend. The spatial distribution characteristic of EFZUYR presented “high in the north and south, low in the middle.”, which has been maintained for a long time. The proportion of low-risk areas is as high as 70%, and the overall ecological risk of the region was low. However, the ecological risk of some areas, such as Linxia City and Magu County, increased. These findings can provide theoretical support for land use planning and achieving sustainable development of EFZUYR.

Functional Classification of Urban Parks Based on Urban Functional Zone and Crowd-Sourced Geographical Data

Urban parks have important impacts on urban ecosystems and in disaster prevention. They also have diverse social functions that are important to the living conditions and spatial structures of cities. Identifying and classifying the different types of urban parks are important for analyzing the sustainable development and the greening progress in cities. Existing studies have predominantly focused on the data extraction of urban green spaces as a whole, while there have been relatively few studies that have considered different categories of urban parks and their impact, which makes it difficult to characterize or predict the spatial distribution and structures of urban parks and limits further refinement of urban research. At present, the classification of urban parks relies on the physical features observed in remote sensing images, but these methods are limited when mapping the diverse functions and attributes of urban parks. Crowd-sourced geographic data may more accurately express the social functions of points of interest (POIs) in cities, and, therefore, employing open data sources may assist in data extraction and the classification of different types of urban parks. This paper proposed a multi-source data fusion approach for urban park classification including POI and urban functional zone (UFZ) data. First, the POI data were automatically reclassified using improved natural language processing (NLP) (i.e., text similarity measurements and topic modeling) to establish the links between urban park green-space types and POIs. The reclassified POI data as well as the UFZ data were then subjected to scene-based data fusion, and various types of urban parks were extracted using data attribute analysis and social attribute recognition for urban park mapping. Experimental analysis was conducted across Beijing and Hangzhou to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, which had an overall classification accuracy of 82.8%. Finally, the urban park types of the two cities were compared and analyzed to obtain the characteristics of urban park types and structures in the two cities, which have different climates and urban structures.

Urban Functional Zone Recognition Integrating Multisource Geographic Data

As the basic spatial unit of urban planning and management, it is necessary to understand the real development trend of urban functional zones in time and carry out reasonable planning adjustment. Because of the complexity of urban functional zones, the automatic recognition of urban functional zones has become a significant scientific problem in urban research. Urban functional zones contain natural and socioeconomic characteristics, but the existing identification methods fail to comprehensively consider these features. This paper proposes a framework that integrates multisource geographic data to recognize urban functional zone. We used high-resolution remote sensing imagery, point-of-interest (POI) data and high-spatial-resolution nighttime light imagery to extract both natural and socioeconomic features for urban functional zone accurate interpretation. Various features provide more accurate and comprehensive description for complex urban functional zone, so as to improve the recognition accuracy of urban functional zone. At present, there are few studies on urban functional zone recognition based on the combination of high-resolution remote sensing image, POI and high-resolution nighttime light imagery. The application potential of the combination of these three geographical data sources in urban function zone recognition needs to be explored. The experimental results show that the accuracy of urban functional zone recognition was obviously improved by the three data sources combination, the overall accuracy reached 80.30% and a comprehensive evaluation index reached 68.26%. This illustrate that the combination of the three data sources is beneficial to the urban functional zone recognition.

LINEAR ZONING IN THE STUDY OF FUNCTIONAL STREET`S POTENTIAL (THE CASE OF ACADEMICIAN VERNADSKY BOULEVARD, KYIV)

The article considers the linear zoning on the example of one of the Kyiv boulevards on the basis of the new methodological approaches adapted to the capital of Ukraine. The research makes it possible to determine the functional content, development peculiarities and transport infrastructure of the street as an urban area. The article provides recommendations for improving the functional zone of the territory and its detailed planning.

Organic matter of soils and technogenic surface formations of residential areas of the city of Perm

On the territory of the left-bank part of Perm, the urban pedocomplexes (UPC) were distinguished as a combination of soil and technogenic surface formations on the same soil-forming rocks within a certain functional zone. Within the UPC, formed on eluvial-deluvial loams and clays in the zone of multi-storey buildings, the surface horizons of soils and TSF (technogenic surface formations) were studied. A change in the zonal trend of humus formation in reclaimed soils was observed as an increase in the content of organic matter, as well as in a change in the type of humus to the humate side. The conservation of zonal features of humus formation in non-purposefully recultivated urban soils and TSF was noted. It manifests in a low or medium content of organic carbon, the formation of a humate-fulvate type of humus. Keywords: URBAN ECOLOGY, URBAN SOILS, URBAN PEDOCOMPLEX, HUMUS, HUMUS TYPE, SOIL PROPERTIES

Scientific approaches to the formation of the classification of regime-forming objects and restrictions (on the example of territories of water objects)

Scientific approaches to the role of regime-forming objects in the formation of restrictions on land use, which have been studied by scientists in land management, economic and legal areas, are considered. The approaches to the formation of the classifier of regime-forming objects by certain relevant groups in relation to the zones with the limited regime of land use and the territories that are formed around them are analyzed. A group of territories with limited land use regime by functional zone is considered on the example of the territory of water bodies. An analysis of the legislative provision on the list of restrictions on land use and the list of territorial zones of water bodies. The comparison of the existing list of restrictions on land use (land plots) and the formed division of regime-forming objects in accordance with the legislation of levels on the example of the territory of water bodies is given. It is established that the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine №1051 "On approval of the Procedure for maintaining the State Land Cadastre" lacks a classification of regime-forming objects that form restrictions on land use, a list of restrictions on land use and land, as well as a list of territorial zones of the State Land Cadastre) do not contain the entire list of possible regime-forming objects in land use and needs to be clarified and supplemented.

Classification Schemes and Identification Methods for Urban Functional Zone: A Review of Recent Papers

Urbanization is accelerating due to economic and societal development. The accurate identification of urban functional zones is significant for urban structure optimization, urban planning, and resource allocation. This paper reviews the scholarly literature on urban functional zone identification. Based on the retrieval results of databases, we analyzed the overview and current status. The identification methods and classification schemes are summarized from the existing research. The following results were obtained: (1) point of interest (POI) data are widely used for functional zone identification; (2) the block is the most common unit for functional zone identification; (3) cluster analysis is the main approach for urban functional zone identification; (4) most of the classification schemes are based on the dominant land use and characteristics of data sources. We predict future trends of urban functional zone identification based on the reviewed literature. Our findings are expected to be valuable for urban studies.

Some peculiarities of functional zoning in specially protected natural territories: case study of the Tunkinsky National Park, Russia

As the global ecosystem protection agenda continuous to unfold, the topic of functional zoning of protected areas’ remains the subject of intensive discussions. The paper discusses the essence, specific features, key factors and actions taken to improve the functional zoning of national parks in Russia. On the example of the national park “Tunkinsky” it is shown how the functional zoning has changed since its creation and what factors influenced this process. The paper presents analysis of natural, historical, cultural, socio-economic, tourist-recreational and organizational conditions for functional zone allocation in the Tunkinsky National Park, as well as changes in the composition, naming, and area of the functional zones in the national park. Using the data from geolocation services, such as photos with a given geolocation posted by tourists in social networks, and GPS tracks of tourist routes, the authors prove the validity of changes in the functional zoning of the National Park, with an increase in the recreational zone, providing an optimal combination of nature conservation, tourist and recreational and economic functions was proved.

Correlation Analysis of Landscape Structure and Water Quality in Suzhou National Wetland Park, China

The newly issued “Guideline of General Planning of Wetland Parks”, China, reclassified the functional zoning of national wetland parks into three categories: conservation areas, restoration and reconstruction areas, and rational utilization areas. Therefore, the country is facing a new round of revision and compilation of the general planning of national wetland parks. The purpose of this paper was to provide information to guide wetland park functional zoning and to formulate the water pollution prevention and control strategy. In this study, 53 sampling points of 6 national wetland parks in Suzhou City were selected. Pearson’s correlation analysis, multiple stepwise regression analysis, redundancy analysis, single factor, and comprehensive water quality identification index methods were used to analyze the effects of wetland landscape types and landscape configuration on water quality. (1) Lakes and rivers in the wetland park had positive ecological effects and should be distributed in each functional zone. (2) Grassland ecology is fragile. Grasslands should be distributed in conservation areas and in restoration and reconstruction areas. (3) Woodland and cultivated land have both ecological and economic benefits. They can be used as ecological buffer and entertainment zones, which are respectively distributed in the restoration and reconstruction areas and in the reasonable utilization areas. (4) Built-up land is highly disturbed by humans. It should only occur in the rational utilization areas and far away from the conservation areas.