Neighboring Effects on Ecological Functions: A New Approach and Application in Urbanizing China

Rongxi Peng, Guangzhong Cao and Tao Liu
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Rongxi Peng: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Guangzhong Cao: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Tao Liu: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-21

Abstract: Rapid urbanization has widely induced fragmented landscapes and further negatively affected ecological functions. The edge effect is an approach commonly used to investigate these negative impacts. However, edge effect research tends to focus on the impacts that a certain landscape receives from its adjacent lands rather than to assess all the influences of the landscape edges in a region, even though the latter is critical for regional ecological planning. To fill in this gap, the concept of neighboring effect is raised and analyzed in this paper with a case study of Xintai City in Northern China. Results show that the neighboring effects are generally negative for ecological functions, especially in regions that experience rapid urbanization or heavy human activities. The U-shaped relationship between the neighboring effect of a patch and its distance to the nearest township center indicates that the border region of urban and built-up areas suffers the most negative influences due to the intense interactions between different land uses. The heterogeneous effects of influencing factors in urban and rural areas were revealed by the regression results. Socioeconomic development has more important influence on neighboring effects on ecological functions in rural areas than in urban areas, and local cadres’ support of environmental protection matters only in rural areas for a less ecological functional loss. This study quantitatively examined the negative ecological effects of landscape fragmentation during rapid urbanization and calls for more attention to ecological planning at the local scale.

Keywords: neighboring effect; land use; urbanization; landscape fragmentation; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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