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Integrate Landscape Ecology and Landscape Architecture to Approach Urban Resilience and Sustainability

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 25541

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhaowu Yu

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Guest Editor

Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Songhu Road 2005, Shanghai 200438, China
Interests: exposure ecology; nature-based solutions; urban climate
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Xin Fu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Landscape Architecture and Arts, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: urban resilience; green infrastructure; stormwater management; planning support system

Assoc. Prof. Dr. (Tenured) Bin Jiang

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Interests: built environment and public health and well-being; environmental justice; sustainable urban landscapes

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yan Zhou

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Guest Editor

School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Interests: green infrastructure; systems-based design; sustainable urban landscapes; stormwater management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

More than half of the world’s population reside in cities, and urban resilience and sustainability have become the focus of widespread attention from all walks of life. Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable has been selected as one of goals in the UN Sustainable Development Goals Report for three consecutive years (2016–2018). Landscape ecology is ready to contribute to this challenge in an interdisciplinary model, in which theoretical research is integrated with planning, design, and applications. In order to systematically discuss related research progress and thinking, this Special Issue is dedicated to integrating knowledge or methodology in landscape ecology and landscape architecture to recognize and explore factors, mechanisms or pathways better promoting and implementing sustainable development and resilience.

The Special Issue will include but not be limited to:

Integrated frameworks or methods to address sustainability or resilience;
Factors, mechanisms or pathways in landscape ecology or landscape architecture contributing to sustainable development;
Mitigation and adaption to climate changes, disturbances or uncertainties in the future through resilience lenses;
The differences of strategies and policies forming in urban and rural areas to achieve sustainable development or resilience;
Real-world applications or cases for implementation of sustainability and resilience strategies or policies;
Theoretical and practical research based on the framework of nature-based solutions.

Studies focusing on urban resilience and sustainability integrated the landscape ecology and landscape architecture are welcome.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zhaowu Yu
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Xin Fu
Assoc. Prof. Dr. (Tenured) Bin Jiang
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yan Zhou
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

integration
sustainable development
urban resilience
blue-green infrastructure
ecosystem services
landscape ecology
urban ecology
nature-based solution

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

14 pages, 2278 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Importance of Soil Organic Matter and the Species Pool for Local Species Richness in Montane Ecosystems

by Xiang Li, Wenhao Hu and Zhenrong Yu

Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10634; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su131910634 - 24 Sep 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1447

Abstract

Understanding the response of plant species richness to environmental filters is critical for conservation management as there is an increasing emphasis on plant restoration in urban/rural planning. However, empirical studies on the effects that the regional species pool has on plant species richness often overlook small spatial scales, therefore requiring more comprehensive approaches. As mountains can act as barriers to plant dispersal, the impact on the species pool, particularly, should be a priority. This study aimed to investigate how the regional species pool affects the local plant species richness in a multivariate context. We sampled vascular plant communities along three transects located in three valleys across the Chongli District, China, where four common habitat types were selected for sampling: grassland, shrubbery, pure forest, and mixed forest. We compared the differences in the multi-scale species richness and species composition between habitats and regions and used piecewise structural equation modeling to analyze the relative importance of the regional species pool, habitat species pool, soil resource availability, and exposure for local plant richness. The β-diversity had the highest contribution to the total species richness between valleys and habitats. The species composition between regions and habitats showed a significant difference and the local species richness was most strongly affected by the soil characteristics, but effects from the regional species pool still played an important role. Conservation efforts and urban/rural planning should use a multi-level and multi-scale approach based on a detailed structural investigation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrate Landscape Ecology and Landscape Architecture to Approach Urban Resilience and Sustainability)

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16 pages, 11867 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Land-Use/Cover Changes and Its Ecological Effect in Rapidly Urbanized Areas—Taking Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration as a Case

by Panpan Hu, Feng Li, Xiao Sun, Yali Liu, Xinchuang Chen and Dan Hu

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5075; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13095075 - 30 Apr 2021

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2373

Abstract

Based on the land-use data of 2000 and 2015, this study makes a quantitative analysis of the ecological environment effect in Pearl River Delta using the ecological environment quality index and the ecological contribution rate of land-use change types. The results showed the following: (1) During 2000–2015, the land-use changes in Pearl River Delta mainly manifested in the reduction of cultivated land, forest land, water area, and unused land, while the area of construction land and grassland showed an increasing trend. The quality of ecological environment in the Pearl River Delta was largely stable but slightly declined overall; (2) Over the past 15 years, the comprehensive ecological environment index of the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration has decreased by 0.02. With an average annual decrease of 0.11%. The spatial expansion caused by urbanization had the most profound impact on the decline of the ecological environment quality in the Pearl River Delta; (3) The eco-environmental quality indices of various cities in the Pearl River Delta declined to varying degrees. The city with the largest decline was Dongguan, followed by Shenzhen and Zhongshan. The spatial differentiation characteristics of the eco-environmental quality index indicate that the ecological quality preferences of cities distributed around the study area and close to the inland areas, while the ecological quality of the central coastal cities are biased. The quality of the ecological environment is related to the basis of the regional ecological environment. The research results have important practical significance for maintaining regional ecological balance and promoting the sustainable use of land resources, and they provide a reference for the study of the ecological and environmental effects of land-use changes in key cities in economically developed areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrate Landscape Ecology and Landscape Architecture to Approach Urban Resilience and Sustainability)

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17 pages, 4342 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Landscape Design toward Urban Resilience: Bridging Science and Physical Design Coupling Sociohydrological Modeling and Design Process

by Yoonshin Kwak, Brian Deal and Grant Mosey

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4666; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13094666 - 22 Apr 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3747

Abstract

Given that evolving urban systems require ever more sophisticated and creative solutions to deal with uncertainty, designing for resilience in contemporary landscape architecture represents a cross-disciplinary endeavor. While there is a breadth of research on landscape resilience within the academy, the findings of this research are seldom making their way into physical practice. There are existent gaps between the objective, scientific method of scientists and the more intuitive qualitative language of designers and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to help bridge these gaps and ultimately support an endemic process for more resilient landscape design creation. This paper proposes a framework that integrates analytic research (i.e., modeling and examination) and design creation (i.e., place-making) using processes that incorporate feedback to help adaptively achieve resilient design solutions. Concepts of Geodesign and Planning Support Systems (PSSs) are adapted as part of the framework to emphasize the importance of modeling, assessment, and quantification as part of processes for generating information useful to designers. This paper tests the suggested framework by conducting a pilot study using a coupled sociohydrological model. The relationships between runoff and associated design factors are examined. Questions on how analytic outcomes can be translated into information for landscape design are addressed along with some ideas on how key variables in the model can be translated into useful design information. The framework and pilot study support the notion that the creation of resilient communities would be greatly enhanced by having a navigable bridge between science and practice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrate Landscape Ecology and Landscape Architecture to Approach Urban Resilience and Sustainability)

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15 pages, 3788 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Trade-Offs and Synergies of Multiple Ecosystem Services for Different Land Use Scenarios in the Yili River Valley, China

by Mingjie Shi, Hongqi Wu, Xin Fan, Hongtao Jia, Tong Dong, Panxing He, Muhammad Fahad Baqa and Pingan Jiang

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1577; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13031577 - 02 Feb 2021

Cited by 65 | Viewed by 7260

Abstract

Environmental managers and policymakers increasingly discuss trade-offs between ecosystem services (ESs). However, few studies have used nonlinear models to provide scenario-specific land-use planning. This study determined the effects of different future land use/land cover (LULC) scenarios on ESs in the Yili River Valley, China, and analyzed the trade-offs and synergistic response characteristics. We simulated land-use changes in the Yili River Valley during 2020–2030 under three different scenarios using a patch-generating land-use simulation (PLUS) model—business as usual (BAU), economic development (ED), and ecological conservation (EC). Subsequently, we evaluated the water yield (WY), carbon storage (CS), soil retention (SR), and nutrient export (NE) ESs by combining the PLUS and integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) models, thus exploring multiple trade-offs among these four ESs at a regional scale. For the BAU scenario, there are some synergistic effects between WY and SR in the Yili River Valley, in addition to significant trade-off effects between CS and NE. For the ED scenario, the rapid expansion of cropland and constructed land is at the expense of forested grassland, leading to a significant decline in ESs. For the EC scenario, the model predicted that the cumulative regional net future carbon storage, cumulative water retention, and cumulative soil conservation would all increase due to ecological engineering and the revegetation of riparian zones and that formerly steep agricultural land can be effective in improving ESs. Meanwhile, the trade-off effect would be significantly weakened between CS and NE. These results can inform decision makers on specific sites where ecological engineering is implemented. Our findings can enhance stakeholders’ understanding of the interactions between ESs indicators in different scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrate Landscape Ecology and Landscape Architecture to Approach Urban Resilience and Sustainability)

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14 pages, 19473 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Toward Cultural Heritage Sustainability through Participatory Planning Based on Investigation of the Value Perceptions and Preservation Attitudes: Qing Mu Chuan, China

by Huan Yang, Ling Qiu and Xin Fu

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1171; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13031171 - 22 Jan 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3364

Abstract

Conservation efforts and cooperation from major stakeholders are critical factors for cultural heritage (e.g., historical landmarks) sustainability. Although landscape planners provide professional knowledge and intended designs for sustainable management of cultural heritage sites, the active effort and participation of local residents or communities are the decisive facts of whether relevant preservation actions can be successfully implemented. Traditional village landscapes in Qing Mu Chuan, China, were selected as the study area. We used photo questionnaires to explore the preferences, value perceptions, and preservation attitudes toward traditional village landscapes of landscape professionals and local residents. The results revealed large differences in the perceptions and preservation attitudes toward traditional village landscapes between the two groups. The most unexpected finding was that the local residents showed much stronger preferences and preservation willingness toward traditional village landscapes with cultural elements than the professionals. In addition, the local residents’ preservation attitudes were mainly affected by their perception of economic benefits and daily utility values, rather than cultural values. Meanwhile, the preservation of professionals’ attitudes was significantly related to recreational and cultural value perceptions. These findings will direct the participatory planning process to provide appropriate incentives for developing the preservation attitudes of local residents. They will also support the implementation of participatory planning to promote the positive collaboration of local residents and landscape planners toward cultural heritage sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrate Landscape Ecology and Landscape Architecture to Approach Urban Resilience and Sustainability)

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Review

Jump to: Research

16 pages, 567 KiB

Open AccessReview

Progress and Gaps in Research on Urban Green Space Morphology: A Review

by Hao Zou and Xiaojun Wang

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1202; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13031202 - 24 Jan 2021

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5908

Abstract

Examining urban green space from the perspective of morphology is an important way to perform the current practice of urban green space planning, preserve and restore the function of urban natural habitats, and maintain good spatial patterns of urban ecological environment. Based on the investigation and analysis of relevant scientific literature on urban green space morphology, we discussed the regional and temporal context and the knowledge frame of the relevant research on urban green space morphology. The frontier methods and technologies within the research category were summarized, including studies on urban green space planning, studies on urban green space pattern and urban landscape pattern, and studies on strategies, planning management, and solutions for sustainable development of urban green space. Finally, the existing problems in urban green space morphology research were discussed, and the future research directions and objectives were proposed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrate Landscape Ecology and Landscape Architecture to Approach Urban Resilience and Sustainability)

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