New technology has provided new tools for effective spatial planning. Through the example of locating suitable sites for urban development in Ulaanbaatar, this paper illustrates how multicriteria decision analysis and geographical information systems can be used for more effective urban planning. Several constraint and factor criteria were identified, transformed into map layers, and weighted together using the analytic hierarchy process. Besides localization results, this study shows the effect of using poor elevation data and how a sensitivity analysis can be applied to yield further information, spot weighting weaknesses, and assess the quality of the criteria.

Abstract:This research summarizes land use and city expansion, as well as the dynamics of urbanization, over recent years in Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia. The study applies fractal geometry to describe land uses in Ulaanbaatar city using a mathematical procedure and geographic information system (GIS) urban analysis, and measures urban sprawl using an index relation of area and perimeter. Land-use parcels' shape, area perimeter relations, sprawl statement and geometry of city structure are considered. The research presents the growth of Ulaanbaatar city in two time series, 2000 and 2010. The main findings stated here are that Ulaanbaatar is growing in an unsystematic and fractal way, even though the geometrical growth has not been strictly planned and has a most irregular shape of urban sprawl.

This study investigated the effects of different grazing systems on plant communities, and examined the causes of Mongolian grassland desertification. The typical steppes near the Chinese-Mongolian border were studied using quadrat sampling and remote sensing methods. Aboveground biomass in the steppe areas differed significantly among the three grazing systems (p < 0.05): Biomass in the grazing-prohibited areas (455.9 g) was greater than that in the rotational-grazing areas (268.4 g) and the continuous grazing areas (122.2 g). Aboveground biomass was well correlated with the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI; y = 5600x 2 + 260x + 110; R 2 = 0.67; p < 0.05). The relative mean deviation between the aboveground biomass was calculated using this regression and the measured biomass was 29.1%. The Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) values for nomadic-grazing areas were greater than those for continuous-grazing areas in 1989, 2005, 2011, and 2016, and were significantly greater in 2011 and 2016. The SAVI values for the continuous-grazing areas were slightly, but not significantly greater, than those for the nomadic-grazing areas in 1993. Plant species that dominated in moderately degraded areas were most dominant in nomadic-grazing areas, followed by continuous-grazing areas and grazing-prohibited areas. Plant species that dominated in lightly and heavily degraded areas were most dominant in continuous-grazing areas, followed by nomadic-grazing areas and grazing-prohibited areas. Generally, continuous grazing caused more serious grassland degradation than did nomadic grazing, and nomadic-grazing areas tolerated more intense grazing than did continuous-grazing areas.

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