PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2018, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (10): 1340-1351.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2018.10.004

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Spatiotemporal responses of habitat quality to urban sprawl in the Changsha metropolitan area

Yunzhe DAI1,2(), Jiangfeng LI1,2,*(), Jianxin YANG1   

  1. 1. School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
    2. The Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Land and Resources for Legal Evaluation Engineering, Wuhan 430074, China
  • Received:2017-12-21 Revised:2018-05-18 Online:2018-10-28 Published:2018-10-28
  • Contact: Jiangfeng LI E-mail:efflorescence@foxmail.com;jfli0524@163.com
  • Supported by:
    Special Fund for Public Welfare Research of Ministry of Land and Resources in China, No.201511004

Abstract:

Observing the spatiotemporal responses of habitat quality—an important indicator for ecological environment assessment—to urban sprawl will help improve the quality of urban planning and ecological control. This study respectively analyzed habitat quality of the Changsha metropolitan area from 1995 to 2015 using the InVEST Habitat Quality Model, and revealed the characteristics of the spatiotemporal evolution based on the buffers created by the third ring road. The results show that: (1) The area of construction land in the Changsha metropolitan area increased from 170.26 km2 to 487.19 km2, which expanded rapidly within the third ring road and gradually slowed outside. (2) Areal proportion of average or above habitat quality levels decreased from 43.49% in 1995 to 27.22% in 2015, and the average level of habitat quality accordingly dropped from 0.46 to 0.31. The most seriously degraded area has shifted from the outer core area (buffer No.5 to No.10) to areas near the third ring road (buffer No.10 to No.15). (3) There is a significant negative spatial correlationship between urban sprawl intensity and habitat quality change across all buffers. The strongest response to urban sprawl in habitat quality change remains in the outer core area. (4) The degradation of habitat quality was exacerbated by the increasing degree of scattered layout pattern and irregular geometrical morphology of construction land and the areas near the third ring road (buffer No.10 to No.15) showed the most significant change. These areas should become the focus area of urban planning and ecological control in the future.

Key words: habitat quality, InVEST model, urban sprawl, Changsha metropolitan area