•New method for evaluating rooftop PV potential in land-use type.•Decline the difficulty of obtaining urban land-use data.•Capability of analyzing several cities with less time cost.•Three types of ...land use have the highest rooftop solar utilization potential.
To strengthen the synergy between urban photovoltaic development and urban planning, which can help to promote photovoltaic and renewable energy development in cities, a workflow based on a deep-learning method by using neural networks and urban satellite images is constructed, which is applied to study the relationship between urban rooftop photovoltaic potential and urban land use. A Chinese city, Wuhan, has been considered the subject and divided into 5184 units, which is a 1201.2 km2 area in central urban space. The result shows that, three types of urban land use type have the highest rooftop photovoltaic potential, which are Continuous Urban area, Discontinuous Dense Urban area and Industrial, commercial, public and education unit. The annual photovoltaic potential of these three land use types have reached 1818.41 GWh/year, 1957.32 GWh/year and 2022.71 GWh/year, and the average photovoltaic power generation per unit area of these three types have reached 11.23 GWh/km2·year, 9.99 GWh/km2·year and 13.07 GWh/km2·year. In addition, these three land use types contributed 71.4% of the city’s total rooftop photovoltaic potential. When considering the coordination of roof photovoltaic development and urban planning, these three types of land use should be given priority. The method and findings can provide urban planning authorities with tools and data to reference when developing urban master plan and PV development plans.
Soil pollution, influenced by both the natural and anthropogenic factors, significantly reduces environmental quality. In this study, six hazardous elements (Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd and Pb) in 12 ...different land-use urban soils from Bangladesh were assessed. The ranges of Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd and Pb in studied soils were 2.4-1258, 8.3-1044, 9.7-823, 8.7-277, 1.8-80 and 13-842 mg/kg, respectively. More than 70% of soil samples exceeded the Dutch target value for Ni, Cu, As, Cd and Pb concentration in soil, indicating a potential risk to the environment. Certain indices, including the enrichment factor (EF), pollution load index (PLI) and contamination factor (Cf(i)), were used to assess the ecological risk posed by hazardous elements in soils. The mean range of PLI was 1.5-10, indicating progressive deterioration of soil due to metal contamination. However, the Cf(i) values of Cd ranged from 3.7 to 35 revealed that the examined soils were strongly impacted by Cd. Considering the severity of potential ecological risk for single metal (Er(i)), the descending order of contaminants was Cd>As>Cu>Pb>Ni>Cr. In view of the potential ecological risk (PER), soils from all land uses showed considerable to very high potential ecological risk.
Since urban land use efficiency (ULUE) bridges urbanization and economic efficiency while ecological carrying capacity (ECC) is the basic natural endowments support, the coupling coordination degree ...(CCD) between ULUE and ECC represents a combination of resource-intensive and environment-friendly, which can serve as an effective tool to evaluate sustainable development. We first quantified ULUE and ECC by super-efficiency DEA, DPSIR framework, and entropy-TOPSIS from a coupling perspective, attempting to compensate for the lack of clarity regarding urban sustainability constraint factors in the holistic perspective. On this basis, we formulate an integrated coupling coordination analysis framework comprising temporal and spatial characteristics, disorder diagnosis and interaction mechanism to synthesize the current scattered research directions into a logically clear framework and serve as a guide for future research on coupling. Moreover, to extend the macroscopic mechanism to a microscopic level at a theoretical level and facilitate more effective and sustainable urban management practices, this paper highlights a detailed multi-stage coupling mechanism corresponding to different stages of urban development, deriving an urban sustainable development spiral upward model. The results indicated that the CCD between ULUE and ECC exhibits a significant clustering pattern accompanied by a spatial spillover effect, which was closely related to economic development level and natural resource endowment. Besides, the disorder factor in the eastern Jilin province was ULUE while the western was ECC. Furthermore, the ULUE will take precedence over ECC breaking the old balance, in which technological innovation is the internal driving factor. These findings also illustrate the analysis framework and coupling mechanism mentioned in this paper can act as a nexus between interdisciplinary perspectives to enhance our understanding of changing social-ecological systems, thus serving urban sustainable development.
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•A multi-stage coupling mechanism corresponding to the urban development stage is revealed.•A multi-dimensional coupling analysis framework is constructed.•Coupling coordination degree is commonly related to economy and natural endowments.•ULUE will develop ahead of ECC, breaking the old coupling balance.
Active Learning techniques, designed to make the students active and collaborative participants in the learning process, are gaining popularity as a supplement and alternative to traditional ...lectures. The purpose of this paper is to assess and evaluate the use of TPS as an active learning technique in the urban land use planning class of the surveying engineering department. Quantitative research was deployed. The class has a 50-sample size. The results of students’ average result of the pretest (without TPS) and posttest using the Think Pair Share (TPS) method has increased from 8.975(44.98%) to 11.43(58.23%) out of 20(100%). The normalized gain for each student is 0.24(i.e. low and better than the pretest), but the value denotes a positive gain in the performance of the student’s result. The witnessed level of satisfaction of students with this teaching intervention showed that the students have positively perceived that the use of the lecture method is not enough to learn urban land use planning courses effectively. On the other hand, the result of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient data analysis of the witnessed level of satisfaction of students with TPS teaching intervention for the ten items is 0.797, suggesting that the items have relatively high internal consistency. So the majority of the respondents' students perceived the use of TPS as active learning is more essential than the traditional lecture.
Rapid urbanization and industrial development have prompted potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in urban soil in Bangladesh, which is a great concern for ecological and public health matters. The ...present study explored the receptor-based sources, probable human health and ecological risks of PTEs (As, Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, and Cu) in the urban soil of the Jashore district, Bangladesh. The USEPA modified method 3050B and atomic absorption spectrophotometers were used to digest and evaluate the PTEs concentration in 71 soil samples collected from eleven different land use areas, respectively. The concentration ranges of As, Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, and Cu in the studied soils were 1.8—18.09, 0.1—3.58, 0.4—113.26, 0.9—72.09, 2.1—68.23, and 3.82—212.57 mg/kg, respectively. The contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), and enrichment factor (EF) were applied to evaluate the ecological risk posed by PTEs in soils. Soil quality evaluation indices showed that Cd was a great contributor to soil pollution. The PLI values range was 0.48–2.82, indicating base levels to continuous soil degradation. The positive matrix factorization (PMF) model showed that As (50.3 %), Cd (38.8 %), Cu (64.7 %), Pb (81.8 %) and Ni (47.2 %) were derived from industrial sources and mixed anthropogenic sources, while Cr (78.1 %) from natural sources. The highest contamination was found in the metal workshop, followed by the industrial area, and brick filed site. Soil from all land use types revealed moderate to high ecological risk after evaluating probable ecological risks, and the descending order of single metal potential ecological risk was Cd > As > Pb > Cu > Ni > Cr. Ingestion was the primary route of exposure to potentially toxic elements for both adults and children from the study area soil. The overall non-cancer risk to human health is caused by PTEs for children (HI=0.65 ± 0.1) and adults (HI=0.09 ± 0.03) under USEPA safe limit (HI>1), while the cancer risks from exclusively ingesting As through soil were 2.10E-03 and 2.74E-04 for children and adults, respectively, exceeding the USEPA acceptable standard (>1E-04).
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ABSTRACTThis study underlines the critical function of efficient urban land use planning, recommending mixed land use for improved city sustainability. The research, which is rooted in the historical ...context of urban renewal, attempts to harmonize theoretical frameworks with actual implementation, giving critical insights for policymakers and urban planners in constructing sustainable urban areas. The study identifies a deficit in empirical research on the spatial distribution of urban mixed land use, as well as a gap between theory and real application. Using a mixed-methods approach, it explores mixed land use planning concerns by including stakeholder input and temporal dynamics. Using theoretical frameworks, the study explores land use trends in four Addis Ababa sub-cities. When the null hypothesis of Complete Spatial Randomness is rejected, there is a significant relationship between location and land use functions (statistical chi-square value of 47.763). Finally, the study makes crucial recommendations for purposeful land use distribution in a dynamic urban setting, shedding light on the constraints of mixed land use planning in African urban growth.
•The main aim of this study is to assess urban land use efficiency in Ethiopia from urban land use sustainability perspectives.•Spatiotemporal changes in Addis Ababa have been analyzed using ...satellite imagery.•The results revealed that there are pervasive practices of urban land use inefficiency in Addis Ababa.•Gaps in the lease policy implementation might be responsible for the prevalence of urban land use inefficiencies.•The findings of the study are imperative for improving urban land use efficiency through institutional reforms in Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, since 1993, urban land lease policy has been in place to facilitate land transfer for residential, commercial and industrial purposes. As a result, many cities, including Addis Ababa, have witnessed enormous boundary expansion mainly through farmland conversion. Over the past two decades, though Addis Ababa experienced rapid spatial boundary expansion, very little is known about urban land use efficiency (ULUE) of the city. This paper analysed ULUE using remote sensing data. Emphasis was given to the assessment of spatiotemporal land use changes since 2004. Satellite imagery analysis was done using ArcGIS software. Besides, quantitative and qualitative data from secondary sources were studied. Moreover, field observation was conducted. Research findings showed that in almost all expansion frontiers (Bole and Akaki-Kaliti sub-cities) there is a prevalence of urban land use inefficiencies, i.e. pervasive practices of land hoarding and land use fragmentation. Urban sprawl is rampant with a significant part of the land transferred being left vacant or underutilised for years. The problem of ULUE in the country could be mainly attributed to institutional weaknesses, i.e. urban land lease policy gaps, particularly, in areas of lease policy implementation. To improve land productivity, limit eviction and ensure sustainable urban growth, the city should emphasise on improving ULUE. This study highlighted that a mere policy formulation is not enough to ensure efficient urban land use. To achieve land lease policy goals, strengthening institutions, working towards improving institutional functionality, is what policymakers should focus on.
•A stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) is used to evaluate urban land use efficiency (ULUE).•The spatial and temporal characteristics of ULUE are analyzed.•Undesirable outputs cause a loss of ...ULUE.•The improvement potential of ULUE is revealed.•Targeted policy suggestions for ULUE improvement are further proposed.
With economic growth facing increasing constraints of resource and environment, intensive land use becomes one of the effective ways to promote urban sustainable development. This paper aims to reveal the spatial and temporal differences in urban land use efficiency (ULUE) in provincial China, and examine the impact of undesirable output (e.g., industrial pollutant emissions) on ULUE using a one-stage stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Furthermore, we analyze the improvement potential of ULUE. Results show that 1) ULUE in China is relatively low, and it shows a trend of slow growth at an annual growth rate of 0.34 %. 2) Undesirable output causes a loss of ULUE. The loss ratio in the western region is the highest (9.61 %), followed by the central region (8.41 %) and the eastern region (3.93 %). Estimation results of the technical inefficiency function also show that pollution intensity has a negative effect on ULUE. 3) ULUE varies significantly across the country. The mean efficiency values in the eastern, central, and western regions are 0.733, 0.535, and 0.507, respectively. ULUE levels in different provinces present a greater gap when undesirable output is considered. 4) The improvement potential analysis indicates a mismatch between the ULUE and the improvement potential. Areas with low efficiency does not necessarily have relatively high improvement potential (e.g., Ningxia and Xinjiang), or areas with relatively high efficiency may also have high improvement potential (e.g., Fujian and Shandong). Based on the difference in ULUE level and its improvement potential, targeted policy suggestions for ULUE improvement are further proposed.
Mixed pixel problem is omnipresent in remote sensing images for urban land use interpretation due to the hardware limitations. Subpixel mapping (SPM) is a usual way to solve this problem by improving ...the observation scale and realizing a finer spatial resolution land cover mapping. Recently, deep learning-based subpixel mapping network (DLSMNet) was proposed, benefited from its strong representation and learning ability, to restore a visually pleasing finer mapping. However, the spatial context features of artifacts are usually aggregated and progressively lost during the forward pass of the network without sufficient representation, which make it difficult to be learned and restored. In this article, a semantic information modulated (SIM) deep subpixel mapping network (SIMNet) is proposed, which uses low-resolution semantic images as prior, to reinforce the representation of spatial context features. In SIMNet, SIM module is proposed to parametrically incorporate the semantic prior into the state-of-the-art (SOTA) feed forward network architecture in an end-to-end training fashion. Furthermore, stacked SIM module with residual blocks (SIM_ResBlock) is adopted to pass the representation of spatial context feature to the deep layers, to get it fully learned during backpropagation. Experiments have been implemented on three public urban scenario data sets, and the SIMNet generates a clearer outline of artificial facilities with sufficient spatial context, and is distinctive for even individual building, which is challenging for other SOTA DLSMNet. The results demonstrate that the proposed SIMNet is a promising way for high-resolution urban land use mapping from easily available lower resolution remote sensing images.Mixed pixel problem is omnipresent in remote sensing images for urban land use interpretation due to the hardware limitations. Subpixel mapping (SPM) is a usual way to solve this problem by improving the observation scale and realizing a finer spatial resolution land cover mapping. Recently, deep learning-based subpixel mapping network (DLSMNet) was proposed, benefited from its strong representation and learning ability, to restore a visually pleasing finer mapping. However, the spatial context features of artifacts are usually aggregated and progressively lost during the forward pass of the network without sufficient representation, which make it difficult to be learned and restored. In this article, a semantic information modulated (SIM) deep subpixel mapping network (SIMNet) is proposed, which uses low-resolution semantic images as prior, to reinforce the representation of spatial context features. In SIMNet, SIM module is proposed to parametrically incorporate the semantic prior into the state-of-the-art (SOTA) feed forward network architecture in an end-to-end training fashion. Furthermore, stacked SIM module with residual blocks (SIM_ResBlock) is adopted to pass the representation of spatial context feature to the deep layers, to get it fully learned during backpropagation. Experiments have been implemented on three public urban scenario data sets, and the SIMNet generates a clearer outline of artificial facilities with sufficient spatial context, and is distinctive for even individual building, which is challenging for other SOTA DLSMNet. The results demonstrate that the proposed SIMNet is a promising way for high-resolution urban land use mapping from easily available lower resolution remote sensing images.
In limited geographical space, improving urban land use efficiency (ULUE) can help cities achieve goals related to sustainable land use. In the era of regional economic integration, the interaction ...between cities has increased, affecting the urban land use within regions. In this way, regional economic integration has a significant impact on ULUE. However, previous works have overlooked the fact that economies with different urban scales have different levels of attractiveness to factors, which renders regional factor flow unidirectional. By strengthening the one-way flow of regional factors, regional economic integration has different impacts on different cities' ULUEs. In order to bridge these gaps, we divided the 29 cities in the Yangtze River Delta into two types by urban scale, and discussed the impact of government integration strategies with the help of the two-stage least squares method (2SLS). Empirical results show that regional economic integration can significantly increase ULUE. The ULUE in large cities has been improved considering scale and technology, while those in small cities have only been improved with respect to technology. It was also found that governments' strategies can promote economic integration. This shows that the government should treat regional integration as a strategic goal, guide cities at all levels to actively participate in it and make efforts to achieve high-quality coordinated development.
•Examine the impact of regional economic integration on urban land use efficiency.•Exploit the relative price variance method, the Data Envelopment Analysis model, and the two-stage least squares method.•Assess the effect of regional economic integration has significantly increased urban land use efficiency.•Explore the heterogeneity of the impact in different cities across scale efficiency and technical efficiency.
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