Direct and indirect loss of natural habitat due to built-up area expansion: A model-based analysis for the city of Wuhan, China

Abstract

Urbanization has been responsible for the loss of cropland worldwide, especially in China. To guarantee national food security, China has implemented a series of policies to protect cropland. One of these policies requires that one-hectare cropland should be reclaimed when urban expansion occupies one-hectare cropland. Since most cropland reclamation leads to a conversion of natural habitat, such as wetland and grassland, urban expansion may lead to (indirect) natural habitat loss in addition to direct loss from conversion of into urban area. While several studies assessed the direct habitat loss resulted from built-up area expansion, few studies investigated the indirect losses caused by cropland displacement. In this paper, a model-based approach is applied to explore both direct and indirect impacts of built-up area expansion on natural habitat loss for the city of Wuhan, China, between 2010 and 2020 using different scenarios. Our scenarios differ in the implementation of strict cropland protection policies and ecosystem conservation strategies. Results show that the indirect loss of natural habitat due to cropland displacement under strict cropland protection policies far outweighs the direct loss due to builtup area expansion alone. Moreover, we found that ecosystem conservation strategies mainly influence the type of natural habitat that is affected, while the total amount of natural habitat loss remains relatively constant.

Dynamics of Tradeoffs between Economic Benefits and Ecosystem Services due to Urban Expansion

“…It covers a total area of 8494 km 2 , and has a total population of 10.6 million in the end of 2015. In the last twenty years, Wuhan experienced rapid urbanization with a large area of urban expansion and large scale population migration, making its urban areas expand from 378 km 2 to 789 km 2 in a span Sustainability 2018, 10, 2306 3 of 13 of ten years between 2000 and 2010 [39]. Wuhan is not only the biggest city in central China, but also an important transportation hub; it is the economic center of Hubei Province as well as highway, railway and airline network heart radiating the whole country.…”

“…Furthermore, this model can also be used to evaluate the impact of land use policy or ecological protection strategy on land use change. Ke et al set four scenarios using the LANDSCAPE model to analyze direct and indirect impacts of built-up area expansion on the natural habitat, and the results are of great significance to the improvement of farmland protection [39]. At the same time, we studied the application of the model.…”

Global projections of future urban land expansion under shared socioeconomic pathways

“…Urban areas contribute to 70% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions 6 . Urban expansion has resulted in more than 80% of natural habitat loss in local areas 7 . Therefore, a proper understanding of how future urban land change will affect other land covers is important to alleviate the social and environmental problems that challenge the sustainable developments of human societies.…”

“…Other global spatial projections typically have coarse spatial resolutions between 5 arc minutes and 0.5°2 5,26 . In the latest CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) Land Use Harmonization dataset (LUH2), urban land is represented fractionally, with a resolution of only 0.25°2 7 .…”

Trade-Offs between Economic Benefits and Ecosystem Services Value under Three Cropland Protection Scenarios for Wuhan City in China

“…where TP m,n is the probability for pixel m to be converted to its objective n; S m,n is the suitability of pixel m for its objective n; R m,j is the resistance of the pixel m to be transformed from its land use type j. In this study, the resistance of each land use type, shown in Table 1, is based on Ke et al [37]. The suitability S m,n is calculated based on the following equation:…”