Analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in China

Timely monitoring of greenness dynamics in urban agglomerations and analyzing their driving factors are important for sustainable development. However, current research on vegetation greenness at the scale of urban agglomerations remains limited. This study examines the greenness dynamics and its dr...

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Main Authors: Shaoyu Wang, Dongmei Yan, Yayang Lu, Wanrong Wu, Ying Sun, Zhe Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-05-01
Series:Ecological Indicators
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X25004029
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author Shaoyu Wang
Dongmei Yan
Yayang Lu
Wanrong Wu
Ying Sun
Zhe Zhang
author_facet Shaoyu Wang
Dongmei Yan
Yayang Lu
Wanrong Wu
Ying Sun
Zhe Zhang
author_sort Shaoyu Wang
collection DOAJ
description Timely monitoring of greenness dynamics in urban agglomerations and analyzing their driving factors are important for sustainable development. However, current research on vegetation greenness at the scale of urban agglomerations remains limited. This study examines the greenness dynamics and its driving factors in China’s four major urban agglomerations Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), Chengdu–Chongqing (CC) at a 30-meter spatial resolution over a long period (2000–2023). The use of an innovative integrated approach, combining the Gap Filling and Savitzky–Golay filtering (GF-SG) method, pixel dichotomy model, spatiotemporal dynamic analysis and geographical detector, provides a more comprehensive understanding of greenness dynamics in urban agglomerations. The results indicate several key points: 1.The proportion of areas where vegetation greenness increased (27.69 %, 14.10 %, 31.56 %, 23.09 %) is consistently larger than the proportion of areas where greenness decreased (4.3 %, 6.78 %, 5.11 %, 1.62 %) within BTH, YRD, PRD, CC. Greenness is dramatically increasing in all urban centers, but significantly decreasing at the edges of urban expansion; 2. Land cover conversions emerged as the dominant driver of greenness changes (the highest Q-value is 0.5743), which indicates that land cover conversions play a greater role than natural factors. 3. The expansion of urban land and ecological land restoration explain the main reasons for the decrease and increase in greenness. Meanwhile, there are differences in the primary land cover conversions corresponding to the greenness changes among the four urban agglomerations. These findings not only contribute to understanding urban greenness dynamics but also offer a new perspective on the role of land cover conversions in shaping vegetation patterns.
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spelling doaj-art-e481b0a0ce324ec497ec2dc2fcea74b22025-08-20T02:20:15ZengElsevierEcological Indicators1470-160X2025-05-0117411347210.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113472Analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in ChinaShaoyu Wang0Dongmei Yan1Yayang Lu2Wanrong Wu3Ying Sun4Zhe Zhang5Aerospace Information Research Institute, CAS, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, ChinaAerospace Information Research Institute, CAS, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Corresponding author at: International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, China.Aerospace Information Research Institute, CAS, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, ChinaAerospace Information Research Institute, CAS, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, ChinaAerospace Information Research Institute, CAS, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, ChinaAerospace Information Research Institute, CAS, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, ChinaTimely monitoring of greenness dynamics in urban agglomerations and analyzing their driving factors are important for sustainable development. However, current research on vegetation greenness at the scale of urban agglomerations remains limited. This study examines the greenness dynamics and its driving factors in China’s four major urban agglomerations Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), Chengdu–Chongqing (CC) at a 30-meter spatial resolution over a long period (2000–2023). The use of an innovative integrated approach, combining the Gap Filling and Savitzky–Golay filtering (GF-SG) method, pixel dichotomy model, spatiotemporal dynamic analysis and geographical detector, provides a more comprehensive understanding of greenness dynamics in urban agglomerations. The results indicate several key points: 1.The proportion of areas where vegetation greenness increased (27.69 %, 14.10 %, 31.56 %, 23.09 %) is consistently larger than the proportion of areas where greenness decreased (4.3 %, 6.78 %, 5.11 %, 1.62 %) within BTH, YRD, PRD, CC. Greenness is dramatically increasing in all urban centers, but significantly decreasing at the edges of urban expansion; 2. Land cover conversions emerged as the dominant driver of greenness changes (the highest Q-value is 0.5743), which indicates that land cover conversions play a greater role than natural factors. 3. The expansion of urban land and ecological land restoration explain the main reasons for the decrease and increase in greenness. Meanwhile, there are differences in the primary land cover conversions corresponding to the greenness changes among the four urban agglomerations. These findings not only contribute to understanding urban greenness dynamics but also offer a new perspective on the role of land cover conversions in shaping vegetation patterns.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X25004029Mega urban agglomerationsUrban agglomeration greennessSpatio-temporal dynamicsDriving factors
spellingShingle Shaoyu Wang
Dongmei Yan
Yayang Lu
Wanrong Wu
Ying Sun
Zhe Zhang
Analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in China
Ecological Indicators
Mega urban agglomerations
Urban agglomeration greenness
Spatio-temporal dynamics
Driving factors
title Analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in China
title_full Analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in China
title_fullStr Analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in China
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in China
title_short Analysis of the spatio-temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in China
title_sort analysis of the spatio temporal characteristics and driving forces of greenness in mega urban agglomerations in china
topic Mega urban agglomerations
Urban agglomeration greenness
Spatio-temporal dynamics
Driving factors
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X25004029
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