Evolution of ecological patterns of land use changes in European metropolitan areas

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the evolution of land-use patterns and the Eco-Environmental Quality Index (EQI) in major European metropolitan areas. To this end, nighttime remote sensing images will be used to delineate ten major European metropolitan areas with more than 1 million inhabitants and CLC land cover data will be used to reclassify European land occupation types from 2000 to 2018. Based on MODIS satellite remote sensing imagery, the evolution of EQI was studied for the EQI evaluation systems applicable to different periods and different regions. The results show that in Europe, cultivated cover and discontinuous built-up cover occupy the largest part of the land, but the former is shrinking and the latter is expanding. Other land areas are much smaller than the previous two. Among them, grassland has always shown a growing trend, and the fastest growing area is industrial land, while the slow-expanding land includes transportation land, leisure land and water bodies. The overall result of the EQI was estimated to be around 0.59. The average result in 2000 was the highest, with a decrease in 2006, but a small increase since then. The ecological environment of each metropolitan area has experienced both improvement and deterioration. Overall conditions improved in Barcelona, the English central agglomeration, Rome and the diffuse landscape of Northern Italy, London and Naples. But The Belgian/Dutch agglomeration, the lands of Paris and the Rhine-Ruhr, the vast majority of the ecological quality is deteriorating. Madrid's EQI worsened the most.

Ecological pattern evolution of land use change in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei capital urban agglomeration, China

“…In addition, the continuity of our urban land use is also one of the important factors affecting the quality of the urban ecological environment [4]. Since there is no clear distinction between urban land in band-IGBP, we classify built-up areas according to the criteria defined by the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) for contiguous and discontinuous urban land Figure 3.…”

“…In 2022, the authors tried to find and build a more scientific and reasonable index system to evaluate the ecological environment quality of metropolises. This system can be applied to changes in land use types in different periods and regions [4].…”

“…As the largest developing country in the world, China is also experiencing an unprecedented rapid urbanization process [2]. Rapid urban expansion is greatly changing the urban land use pattern [3] and urban ecological environment [4] worldwide. A good ecological environment is the basis for sustainable social development and human survival, while the degradation of the ecological environment has seriously affected the development of human society and people's health.…”

“…In 2022, Xu et al established a relatively reasonable dynamic urban ecological environment assessment index based on the land use classification of Corine Land Cover, combined with NDVI and NDBI indexes. They assessed the ecological environment quality of a metropolitan area in Europe for four periods, and analyzed their land use evolution process [4]. Their research results have guiding and reference significance for European urban planning management decisions and urban sustainable development strategies.…”