RETRACTED: Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Urban Forest Basal Area under China’s Rapid Urban Expansion and Greening: Implications for Urban Green Infrastructure Management

Abstract

Urban forest (UF) basal area is an important parameter of UF structures, which can influence the functions of the UF ecosystem. However, the spatio-temporal pattern of the basal area in a given UF in regions under rapid urbanization and greening is still not well documented. Our study explores the potential of estimating spatio-temporal UF basal area by using Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery. In our study, the predicting model was established to produce spatiotemporal maps of the urban forest basal area index in Changchun, China for the years 1984, 1995, 2005, and 2014. Our results showed that urban forests became more and more fragmented due to rapid urbanization from 1984 to 1995. Along with rapid urban greening after 1995, urban forest patches became larger and larger, creating a more homogeneous landscape. Urban forest and its basal area in the whole study area increased gradually from 1984 to 2014, especially in the outer belts of the city with urban sprawl. UF basal area was 27.3 × 10 3 m 2 , 41.3 × 10 3 m 2 , 45.8 × 10 3 m 2 , and 65.1 × 10 3 m 2 of the entire study area for the year 1984, 1995, 2005, and 2014, respectively. The class distribution of the UF basal area index was skewed toward low values across all four years. In contrast, the frequency of a higher UF basal area index increased gradually from 1984 to 2014. Besides, the UF basal area index showed a decreasing trend along the gradient from suburban areas to urban center areas. Our results demonstrate the capability of TM remote sensing for understanding spatio-temporal changing patterns of UF basal area under China's rapid urban expansion and greening.

Quantitative Influence of Land-Use Changes and Urban Expansion Intensity on Landscape Pattern in Qingdao, China: Implications for Urban Sustainability

“…Amidst land-use types, changes in built-up land is indicative of urbanization [22][23][24][25][26][27]. Urban expansion intensity, the growth rate of built-up land in an unit time interval, has been used to investigate urbanization's impact on agricultural landscape patterns [28] and landscape patterns in land utilization [15].…”

On Landscape Patterns in Typical Mountainous Counties Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River in China

“…Land use types are defined by their anthropogenic use, such as forests, cropland, built-up land, etc. [ 6 , 7 ]. When land use types change, the structure and function of landscapes also change.…”

RETRACTED: Ren et al. Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Urban Forest Basal Area under China’s Rapid Urban Expansion and Greening: Implications for Urban Green Infrastructure Management. Forests 2018, 9, 272

“…The Forests Editorial Office has been made aware that Table 2, Figure 2, Figure 7, and Figure 8 listed in the paper [1] were published without the permission of the PI of the research work. Therefore, the Forests Editorial Office has made the decision to retract the published paper [1]. We apologize to the readers of Forests and to the authors of the previous work.…”

“…We apologize to the readers of Forests and to the authors of the previous work. The decision to retract has been made in cooperation with the authors of the article [1].…”

“…MDPI is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics and takes seriously the responsibility to enforce strict ethical policies and standards. To respect and reserve the copyright of the PI, the published article [1] is retracted and shall be marked accordingly.…”