Vegetation Dynamics and Their Response to the Urbanization of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region, China

Yuyang Chang, Geli Zhang, Tianzhu Zhang, Zhen Xie and Jingxia Wang
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Yuyang Chang: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Geli Zhang: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Tianzhu Zhang: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Zhen Xie: College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Jingxia Wang: Planning Metropolitan Landscapes (PLACES) Lab Institute of Geography, Ruhr University Bochum Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-21

Abstract: Rapid global urbanization has caused substantial changes in land cover and vegetation growth. Rapid urban growth in a short time has escalated the conflicts between economic development and ecological conservation, particularly in some metropolitan regions. However, the effects of rapid urbanization on vegetation have not been fully captured, especially accounting for the latest ecological development initiatives. In this study, we chose a typical urban agglomeration, the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration in China, and analyzed the vegetation variation and the impacts of urbanization on the vegetation growth based on transferable methods, using data such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the nighttime light (NTL). The results indicate significantly enhanced vegetation growth in the BTH region, with a strikingly spatial pattern of greening in the northwest, and browning in the southeast from 2001 to 2018. Besides this, the results enclose most of the areas (72%) of built-up land in the BTH, which tended to brown in the process of rapid urban development, while 27% greened with increasing urbanization. This means that the vegetation’s response to urbanization shows apparent differences and geographic heterogeneity along the urbanization gradient at the urban agglomeration scale. Parts of the periphery of the metropolis and the central areas of developing cities may experience a browning trend; however, the core urban areas of urbanized metropolises demonstrate greening, rather than browning. Furthermore, this study provides solid evidence on the remarkable greening impacts of several ecological restoration projects which are currently underway, especially in ecologically fragile areas (e.g., the suburbs). The implications derived from the urban ecological development and the transferable methodology deployed in this paper facilitate the unfolding relationships between urbanization and social-ecological development. Our findings provide new insights into the interactions between vegetation dynamics and urbanization at the regional level.

Keywords: vegetation variation; nighttime light data; urban agglomeration; ecological projects; Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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