The Effect of Urban-Suburban Interaction on Urbanization and Suburban Ecological Security: A Case Study of Suburban Wuhan, Central China

Abstract

In developing countries like China, urbanization is still occurring at a rapid pace. During urbanization, the urban land expands drastically, which makes suburbs the most affected area facing urban expansion. The land transition has proven to threaten the function and security of ecosystems, and therefore the topics of suburban land transition and ecological security have raised much attention. However, the urban-suburban interaction, which is one of the basic characteristics of suburbs, has been insufficiently considered. The urban-suburban interaction is developed based on the flows of people, materials, and information between urban and suburban areas, and it essentially reveals the relationship between human activities and land-use optimization. To fill the research gap, this study adopts a case study of Wuhan city, and first quantifies the urban-suburban interactions from a symbiotic perspective, and investigates rural residents and public buses to verify the estimated interactions. The results show that there is obvious heterogeneity in urban-suburban interactions in different suburban towns. Correlation analysis and geographic weight regression are then applied to demonstrate the relationship between the urban-suburban interaction and urbanization in the suburbs. Additionally, urbanization potential in the suburbs is estimated. Then, a suburban ecological security assessment is conducted by a "pressure-status-response" (PSR) model, and the urbanization potential that is estimated based on urban-suburban interaction is integrated as a "pressure" indicator. The comparison between the suburban ecological security assessment results based on considering and not considering urban-suburban interaction demonstrates the importance of considering urban-suburban interaction. This study contributes to the understanding of the complicated relationships of urban-suburban socio-economic, spatial, and ecological environments, and offers suggestions for suburban planning and ecological protection.Sustainability 2020, 12, 1600 2 of 22 and ecological threat [2][3][4][5]. Hence, studies on urban-suburban interaction have caught much attention in recent years.Despite the existing studies on urban-suburban interaction analysis, the effects of such interactions on land transition and the eco-environment are insufficiently discussed. Land transition is one of the biggest challenges that the suburbs face in both developing and developed countries. In developing countries, urbanization is occurring at a rapid pace and is accompanied by fast urban land expansion. During this process, a large amount of ecological land transits into the urban area, including natural land and cropland [6][7][8]. Developed countries also confront similar problems. For example, Salvati, et al. [9] concluded that the urban expansion in discontinuous and low-density Mediterranean regions threatens soil quality and vulnerable ecologies. Ustaoglu and Williams [10] pointed out that there is a significant land conversion from agricultural land to urban land i...

Suburban sprawl measurement and landscape analysis of cropland and ecological land: A case study of Jiangsu Province, China

“…This can be attributed to the low-density construction land, incomplete transportation network, and scattered idled lands. (2) From a socio-economic perspective, due to the people, material, and information flow between the urban and suburban areas, there is a close but unbalanced socio-economic relationship between them (Tian & Wang, 2020). In this context, studies analyzed the coordinated relationship of urban-suburban areas and estimated the socio-economic effects of suburban development.…”

“…In contrast, human activities such as short-trip of urban residents to the nearby suburbs, daily commuting of suburban residents to the central city, and migration of rural residents to the suburbs increase land-use demand for tourist facilities, transportation infrastructure, and in situ urbanization. In this case, the boundaries of the suburbs indicate the affected areas of the central city (Tian & Wang, 2020). The people, material, and information flows among urban, suburban, and rural areas yield development opportunities and increase the potential ecological risks for suburbs.…”

Analysis for the Interaction Relationship between Urbanization and Ecological Security: A Case Study in Wuhan City Circle of China

“…Some scholars have also carried out studies on the relationship of urbanization and ecological environment. In the evaluation of ecological security, most of the existing studies regarded ecological security as a whole and used the PSR model to analyze the pressure on ecological security caused by changes of urbanization subsystems, the state of the ecological security system, and the measures taken to maintain ecological security [ 21 , 22 ]. Although such a theoretical analysis framework can well reflect the process of urbanization affecting ecological security, it cannot clearly reveal the changes within the ecological security subsystems.…”

“…and Wang J. explored the ecological risk effect caused by population urbanization, economic urbanization, and spatial urbanization [ 20 ]. As to ecological security, some scholars used Pressure-State-Response framework to build ecological security evaluation index system [ 21 , 22 ]. Although Pressure-State-Response framework can reflect the process of urbanization affecting the eco-environment, it cannot clearly reveal the impact mechanism between urbanization and ecological security subsystems.…”

Research on Spatial Delineation Method of Urban-Rural Fringe Combining POI and Nighttime Light Data—Taking Wuhan City as an Example

“…The development of urbanization space in Wuhan is unbalanced. The urbanization rates of the seven central urban areas are all over 90%, while the urbanization rates of the surrounding built areas is low, such as Caidian District and Huangpi District, with urbanization rates of 40.63% and 49.21%, respectively [34].…”