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Vegetation growth enhancement modulated by urban development status
Shuyi Zhang1, Wenxiao Jia2, Hongkai Zhu1
1Shanghai Key Lab for Urban Ecological Processes and Eco-restoration, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, PR China.
The Science of the Total Environment
|April 26, 2023
Summary
Urbanization significantly impacts vegetation growth, with most areas showing greening. Highly urbanized cities experience enhanced vegetation growth, but this effect is modulated by development status and land use changes.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Urban Ecology
- Remote Sensing
Background:
- Cities serve as natural laboratories for studying global change impacts on vegetation.
- The net effect of urbanization on vegetation growth remains uncertain, necessitating detailed investigation.
- The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) provides a crucial case study due to its rapid economic development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the direct and indirect impacts of urbanization on vegetation growth across different scales.
- To analyze the trends of urbanization's influence on vegetation in the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2020.
- To determine how urbanization level modulates vegetation response to urban environments.
Main Methods:
- Utilized satellite observations of vegetation growth from 2000-2020 in the Yangtze River Delta.
- Quantified direct impacts via land use change intensity (impervious surfaces).
- Assessed indirect impacts, including climatic and environmental factors, across urban, suburban, and rural gradients.
Main Results:
- Significant greening observed in 43.18% of pixels, while 3.60% showed significant browning.
- Urban areas exhibited faster greening trends compared to suburban areas.
- Indirect urbanization impacts enhanced vegetation growth in 31.71% to 43.90% of cities, particularly in highly urbanized areas (94.12% in 2020).
Conclusions:
- Urbanization's direct impact on vegetation growth is positively correlated with land use change intensity.
- Vegetation growth enhancement is strongly modulated by the degree of urban development, with significant positive indirect impacts in highly urbanized cities.
- Growth offset effects were most pronounced in high urbanization cities, saturating at approximately 50% urbanization intensity.
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