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An urban heat island is defined as an urban area that experiences warmer temperatures than its surroundings. This study examines how Singapore's planning efforts established after the mid-20th century have affected the thermal environment of the city in association with land transformation, using historical temperature data available from the Meteorological Service of Singapore and some historical studies. Singapore's planners have carefully regulated the growth of its downtown while promoting expansion in other parts of the city-state. These effects of planning have also unconsciously shaped the location and outline of Singapore's urban heat island. As a result, new urban heat peaks were found around the centres of newly constructed large-scale new towns compared to industrial areas. This study provides lessons for land planning in mitigating a city's urban heat island effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The research purpose is to scientifically substantiate an integrated approach to solving the problem of land degradation, based on the idea of land degradation neutrality (LDN), taking into account ecosystem services when planning land use to maximize the conservation of natural capital. The methodological basis of the research is the provisions and principles of the concepts of sustainable development, achieving LDN, and ecosystem services, as well as the research results revealing various aspects of land use, particularly their degradation. Methods: The following research methods are used in the paper: dialectical – to determine the cause-and-effect conditions of land degradation; analysis – to highlight the current state of land use in Ukraine and the factors that have led to land degradation; synthesis – for global trends towards achieving LDN; deduction – to explore the possibility of introducing global experience in achieving LDN in Ukraine; structural-functional analysis – to substantiate the feasibility of introducing an ecosystem approach to land-use planning to achieve LDN. Results: As a result of the research, the current land degradation state in Ukraine has been analyzed, and ways of achieving LDN in land-use planning through the prism of an ecosystem approach have been substantiated. Based on statistical data, the current and potential levels of arability of the territory of Ukraine have been calculated by natural-climatic zones, and the areas of eroded arable lands in Ukraine have been determined by the erodibility factor (low-eroded, mediumeroded,and highly-eroded). Discussion: For the first time, a structural-logical scheme has been developed for organizational-economic support for the effective use of degraded and low-productive agricultural lands in the context of implementing the idea of LDN, which is a tool for rational allocation and use of degraded lands. This scheme can serve as a basis for the development of land-use planning strategies for territorial communities, for institutions, and organizations competent in the field of land management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid pace of urbanization and industrialization has reshaped land use patterns globally, particularly within the interconnected domains of 'production, living, and ecological spaces' (PLES). Understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of these spaces is crucial for guiding sustainable development. Although a number of previous studies have explored aspects of their dynamics and driving factors, further investigation is needed to fully understand their long-term spatiotemporal evolution and the broader influences of socio-economic and environmental forces. This study aims to fill that important gap by leveraging advanced remote sensing techniques to analyze PLES transformations over a 30-year period. Using Henan Province, China, as a testbed, this study applies high-resolution Landsat data, land use transition matrices, dynamic degree analysis, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and multiple linear regressions to uncover trends and underlying drivers. The results reveal a substantial reduction in production spaces by 3394.62 km² steady growth in living spaces by 4459.41 km² and complex, non-linear changes in ecological spaces, which decreased by 1067.43 km². Key driving forces, such as economic growth, urbanization, and fiscal policies are identified and discussed. These insights provide a robust framework for sustainable land use planning, with broader implications for rapidly urbanizing regions worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given global changes and the loss of ecosystem services, it is crucial to assess the effects of landscape characteristics on ecosystem service distribution for sustainable territory management. Italy's diverse landscapes present an opportunity to study this effect. This study identified optimal elevation and landscape heterogeneity ranges that optimize four ecosystem service provisions across Italy. We mapped ecosystem services across Italy using generalized additive models (GAM) to assess their spatial relationships with landscape characteristics, such as elevation and heterogeneity, and specifically, we identified their optimal values concerning elevation and landscape heterogeneity. In Italy, agricultural production is concentrated at low altitudes, like the Po Valley, while the pre-Alps and Apennines regions at intermediate altitudes provide ecosystem services like timber production and carbon storage. However, elevation gradient and landscape heterogeneity significantly influence trade-offs between agricultural production and these services. The optimal altitude for timber production, carbon storage, and habitat quality is around 1500 m above sea level, while agricultural production peaks at the lowest and highest elevations. Our study shows landscape features' significant role in supporting specific ecosystem services. This information is crucial for guiding land use planning and management decisions, especially under global land use and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peri-urban catchment areas are increasingly susceptible to floods due to rapid land use transformations and unplanned urban expansion. This study comprehensively examines flood vulnerability in the rapidly developing peri-urban areas of North Bhubaneswar, focusing on significant changes in Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) and hydrological dynamics from 2004 to 2024, utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) tools. The analysis reveals substantial shifts in land use patterns, with the urban footprint expanding by 71.8%, cropland decreasing by 21.7%, and forest areas by 13.6%. These changes have led to increased impervious surfaces, resulting in higher surface runoff and decreased groundwater recharge, thereby exacerbating flood risks in the region. The GRID-based vulnerability analysis classifies 90 villages within the catchment area based on their vulnerability levels, identifying 20 villages as high-risk areas requiring urgent attention, 44 villages as medium vulnerable, and 26 villages as low vulnerable. These classifications are based on factors such as proximity to drainage networks, slope, geomorphology, and LULC characteristics, with areas near drainage channels and low-lying regions being prone to flooding. The analysis integrates multiple factors to provide a comprehensive assessment of flood risk, highlighting the need for sustainable land use planning, conservation of vegetated areas, and the implementation of advanced flood prevention strategies in the peri-urban areas. Extending this research to other fringe regions could offer further valuable insights, guiding flood prevention and sustainable development strategies for areas undergoing significant land use transformations to effectively mitigate future flood risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to minimize human impact on the environment, it is crucial to determine the best way to utilize land through assessments of its suitability. This research focuses on the Anantnag district in the Kashmir valley, exploring its potential as a suitable area for mulberry agroforestry. Consequently, the selection of suitable sites for mulberry-based agroforestry has become an essential element of sustainable land use planning and agriculture, with the aim of maintaining ecological equilibrium. In the context of a Geographic Information System (GIS), we employ a method called multi-criteria assessment to evaluate the suitability of a specific site for mulberry agroforestry in the study area. This assessment involves considering various factors such as slope, temperature, rainfall, land use and land cover (LULC), as well as the physical and chemical properties of the soil. To assign scores to these criteria, we utilized the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique, conducted interviews with local experts, and referred to existing literature. By applying a weighted overlay analysis, which takes into account the importance of each parameter, we generated a map depicting the suitability of the research area for mulberry agroforestry. The map for mulberry agroforestry suitability in the study area indicates that 16.59% of the land is highly suitable, 28.16% is moderately suitable, 40.29% is marginally suitable, and 14.96% is unsuitable. To ensure the accuracy of the findings, satellite images, Sentinel-2b LULC mapping, and GPS-enabled field surveys were extensively employed to verify the results. These findings can be utilized by farmers, regional developers, and the government to inform their decisions regarding potential mulberry agroforestry areas and develop sustainable agroforestry management strategies for the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Philippines is one of the world's main contributors to global marine plastic pollution. However, field data remains scarce, so model estimates of riverine plastic pollution may be inaccurate. This paper aims to characterize the macrolitter observed along the Tullahan River, with focus on plastics, passing through the barangays of Quezon City and Valenzuela City in Metro Manila. The impact of solid waste management and land use activities on plastic flux were also investigated. For the floating litter, visual counting and float method were used to determine the plastic flux and river velocity, respectively. Riverbank litter was collected manually to characterize it based on plastic product and polymer type. Results show that the macroplastic flux was lowest on the site where residential houses are farthest from the stream. Waste characterization revealed that riverbank litter was primarily plastic - 30%-41% were residuals, and 5%-21% were recyclables. Both methods revealed that wrappers and thin PE plastics are the top contributors to riverine macroplastic pollution. Therefore, the entry of macroplastics into the river may be due to land use activities and weak enforcement of existing solid waste management (SWM) policies. The points discussed in the study can help in improving SWM and land use planning. The results can also increase the accuracy of model estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban expansion poses significant challenges to sustainability and undermines efforts for efficient spatial development. This study examines the relationship between regional planning regulations, interest groups and contextual factors affecting residential land take in Germany. The study employs a multi-level regression approach, analysing 4032 municipalities nested in 91 planning regions and utilizes a nationwide dataset on changes in residential and mixed land use. The overall goal of the study is to examine the effect of regional planning regulations and local interest groups, within varying contextual factors, on residential land take. Results show a dampening effect of regional regulatory intensity on residential land take at the local level. However, the effect becomes non-significant when considering local and regional covariates, revealing that regional planning alone may not be sufficient to reduce residential land take effectively. Findings underscore the complexity of regional planning and the importance of understanding its impacts on the local and regional level. As this study focuses on residential land take, further research is required to analyse the effectiveness of regional planning in managing land uses like trade, industry and infrastructure, concentrating urban development in central places, promoting transit-oriented development and supporting higher residential densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short communication explores the urban geology sub-field, which emerges as a crucial discipline to address the dynamic interaction between human activities, geological processes, and environmental sustainability. It aims to guide land use planning, assess and mitigate the impacts of urbanization on natural resources, evaluate geological hazards, address geoenvironmental problems, and enhance public awareness. The correspondence also touched upon urban geochemistry, a relatively nascent interdisciplinary sub-field, elucidating its role in studying trace element characteristics, human activities' impacts on the environmental quality, and the influence on biogeochemical cycles. Despite its significance, urban geology faces underappreciation and challenges, particularly in African megacities. Inadequate funding, data collection difficulties, and a lack of awareness hinder its promotion. Therefore, we advocate for increasing the collaboration between academic institutions, research centers, and governmental authorities to overcome these barriers and promote multidisciplinary research projects for a holistic understanding of the complexities of the urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We quantified the impact of transit-oriented development (TOD) on consumer expenditures in seven sectors, including retail, healthcare, culture, and education, in Seoul, South Korea, employing propensity score matching, ordinary least square regression, and geographically weighted regression (GWR). Our findings revealed that TOD significantly increases consumer expenditures, with sectoral effects ranging between 20.1 and 21.3%. Crucially, the GWR analysis highlights the spatially dependent nature of TOD impact, uncovering substantial local variations. Districts such as Gangnam, Songpa, Gangdong, and Gangseo-gu exhibit pronounced positive effects, with consumer spending increases exceeding 88.3%, indicating the potential of TOD as a catalyst for economic growth in these strategic areas. Conversely, areas such as Dobong, Seodaemun, and Geumcheon-gu show marginally negative effects, suggesting that TOD benefits are not uniformly distributed and may pose challenges in certain contexts. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the economic impact of TOD across diverse sectors and offering valuable insights for transportation and urban planning, emphasizing the need for context-sensitive approaches to maximize TOD outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The study aims to identify factors affecting land bank creation and propose policy implications to improve land use efficiency in Vinh Long province. Methods: Based on applying institutional theory and land rent theory, the authors develop hypotheses and a research model that determines the relationship between factors affecting land banks, land rent theory and land use efficiency. The quantitative research method used the measurement model and PLS-SEM structure to test the correlation between factors. The survey was conducted with 170 respondents working in the land field. Result: According to research, the land bank is the factor that has the most significant impact on land use efficiency, with legal, planning and financial policy factors comprising in second and third. Based on these results, land policy and lawmakers can apply this research theory to adjust land-related factors according to administrators' wishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland shelterbelts are aimed at farmland protection and productivity improvement, environmental protection and ecological balance, as well as land use planning and management. Farmland shelterbelts play a vital role in determining the structural integrity and overall effectiveness of farmland, and assessing the dynamic changes within these protective forests accurately and swiftly is essential to maintaining their protective functions as well as for policy formulation and effectiveness evaluation in relevant departments. Traditional methods for extracting farmland shelterbelt information have faced significant challenges due to the large workload required and the inconsistencies in the accuracy of existing methods. For example, the existing vegetation index extraction methods often have significant errors, which remain unresolved. Therefore, developing a more efficient extraction method with greater accuracy is imperative. This study focused on Youyi Farm in Heilongjiang Province, China, utilizing satellite data with spatial resolutions ranging from 0.8 m (GF-7) to 30 m (Landsat). By taking into account the growth cycles of farmland shelterbelts and variations in crop types, the optimal temporal window for extraction is identified based on phenological analysis. The study introduced a new index—the Re-Modified Anthocyanin Reflectance Index (RMARI)—which is an improvement on existing vegetation indexes, such as the NDVI and the improved original ARI. Both the accuracy and extraction results showed significant improvements, and the feasibility of the RMARI was confirmed. The study proposed four extraction schemes for farmland shelterbelts: (1) spectral feature extraction, (2) extraction using vegetation indexes, (3) random forest extraction, and (4) RF combined with characteristic index bands. The extraction process was implemented on the GEE platform, and results from different spatial resolutions were compared. Results showed that (1) the bare soil period in May is the optimal time period for extracting farmland shelterbelts; (2) the RF method combined with characteristic index bands produces the best extraction results, effectively distinguishing shelterbelts from other land features; (3) the RMARI reduces background noise more effectively than the NDVI and ARI, resulting in more comprehensive extraction outcomes; and (4) among the satellite images analyzed—GF-7, Planet, Sentinel-2, and Landsat OLI 8—GF-7 achieves the highest extraction accuracy (with a Kappa coefficient of 0.95 and an OA of 0.97), providing the most detailed textural information. However, comprehensive analysis suggests that Sentinel-2 is more suitable for large-scale farmland shelterbelt information extraction. This study provides new approaches and technical support for periodic dynamic forestry surveys, providing valuable reference points for agricultural ecological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Increasing numbers of urban dwellers face housing precarity in cities worldwide. We conceptualize housing precarity as a multidimensional phenomenon, using five different dimensions: 1) housing affordability, 2) tenure security, 3) housing satisfaction, 4) neighborhood quality, and 5) community cohesion. By building on an original survey with 12,611 respondents from six cities (Berlin [Germany], Chicago [IL], London [United Kingdom], Los Angeles [CA], New York [NY], and Paris [France]), we examined how vulnerable residents—such as older residents, households with children, minorities, and renters—perceived the five dimensions of housing precarity compared with the rest of the population sample. We found first, that being a renter was negatively associated with all five dimensions of housing precarity, rendering renters more precarious than homeowners. Second, older residents did not seem to be more precarious than younger urban dwellers. Third, households with children and minorities had less tenure security and housing satisfaction than households without children or non-minorities. These results were largely robust across all cities. Further research is needed to analyze how local housing markets, planning and policy instruments, or land use conditions affect residents' perceived housing precarity outcomes. Takeaway for practice: This research can help city planners, urban practitioners, and policymakers to better understand the vulnerabilities of urban residents and the multidimensional manifestation of housing precarity. It calls for a resident-centered approach to urban planning that urges land use and planning interventions to be more sensitive to people's differing housing perceptions and needs. Specifically, the findings suggest that renters, households with children, and minorities need comprehensive policies (and the municipal authorities' strategic activation thereof) that stabilize their financial and legal housing situation, whereas older urban residents could benefit from community activation programs to support their neighborhood integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, ecologically sensitive areas in cities in the global south have deteriorated due to weak enforcement of development control regulations. The present study assesses the level of awareness of the buffer regulations and offers a critique of the regulations on ecologically sensitive areas in Ghana. The researchers obtained primary data from respondents whose houses were located within 200 feet of the buffers of River Wiwi, River Sisai and River Daaban in Kumasi. Secondary data was also obtained from documents from regulatory agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency. Overall, the results of the study point to disparities in the buffer regulations among agencies such as the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority and Environmental Planning Agency. The differences in the buffer regulations among these regulatory institutions make the enforcement of the regulations complex and ineffective. The results further show that seven in ten of the residents of the Kumasi city who have located within the buffers of wetlands were unaware of the buffer regulations despite the policy's objective of ensuring public awareness of the policy. The authors suggest the need to consolidate the buffer regulations of the various regulatory agencies within the Ghanaian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] The aims of this study are to explore the response of ecosystem service value to land use change and predicting future trends, and to provide scientific reference for land use pattern planning in the arsenic sandstone area. [Methods] Based on the remote sensing images of the four phases of sandstone area from 2000 to 2020, the change characteristics of LUCC and ESV in the past 20 years were analyzed based on GIS technology and ESV evaluation methods. The response of LUCC induced by ESV was revealed. The development trend of LUCC and ESV was predicted by using Markov model. [Results] (1) In 2000- 2020, the total area of LUCC remained unchanged, and the increase of construction land was the most obvious, with a total increase of 762.73 km² and a growth rate of 4.57%. The grassland decreased by 548.79 km² in total, with a reduction rate of 3.28%. (2) The overall level of ESV showed a downward trend, from 19 949.65 million yuan to 18 997.19 million yuan, a decrease of 4.78%, of which grassland ESV changed the most, decreasing by 746.29 million yuan, accounting for 78.35% of the overall decline rate. (3) ESV was positively correlated with the changes in grassland, woodland, cultivated land, water area and construction land, and negatively correlated with unused land. (4) It is predicted that the area of cultivated land, forest land, grassland and water area will decrease to 96.69%, 98.94%, 94.27% and 99.12% of those in 2020 in the next 10 years. Construction land and unused land will increase to 150.03% and 121.61%, and the overall ESV level in sandstone area will continue to decrease to 92.81%. [Conclusion] The areas of cultivated land, forest land, grassland, and water are decreasing, while the area of construction land and unused land will increase. ESV will continue to decrease, and there is a linear relationship between ESV changes and land use changes. In the future, the area of construction land will increase, and ESV will continue to decrease. Reasonably adjusting the area of construction land is beneficial for ecological construction and vegetation restoration and reconstruction in the sandstone area of the Yellow River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human population growth constantly requires an increase in the production of food and products from the timber industry. To meet this demand, agriculture and planted forests are advancing over natural areas. In view of this, it is necessary to know the effects of land use for different purposes (grain production, pastures, planted forests, fruit production and among other uses) on the genetic diversity of populations of native species. This knowledge can assist in land use planning as well as in the development of conservation strategies for native species. In this study, we evaluated the effect of land use for agriculture (mainly for cereal production) and planted forests on the genetic diversity of Baccharis crispa Spreng. a herb native to South America. To achieve our goals, we compared population genetic data obtained with three molecular markers (microsatellites, inter-simple sequence repeat and isoenzymes) with data on land use for agriculture and planted forests from 15 different locations. Our results showed that regardless of the molecular marker used, the greater the use of land for agriculture and planted forests, the lower was the genetic diversity of B. crispa populations. Baccharis crispa is a semi-perennial species that needs at least one year to reach its reproductive period, which is prevented in agricultural areas due to the land being turned over or dissected with herbicides every 6 months. In the studied regions, the planted forests are of eucalypt and/or pine, which besides being species with a high production of allelopathic substances, produce strong shading and B. crispa is a species that inhabits open grassland that needs a high incidence of sunlight for development. The data obtained in our study can assist in the decision-making to use land in order to reconcile the production of supplies for humanity and for the conservation of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The world, at present, is witnessing a serious scarcity of fresh water resource whereas, sub-optimum utilization and mismanagement of water resources are equally contributing towards worsening of the problem. Currently, access to fresh water resources has become a daunting challenge for meeting the increased demand of water. The criticality level has intensified by several-folds due to flawed industrial demand and uncontrolled population growth, which is not only contributed to the pollution of much needed water resource but also, equally, threatened human health. Therefore, the deliberation of water managers, policy makers, and academicians were shifted from the supply management to demand management after 2000's United Nations ministerial declaration. In the present study, an attempt has been made to fill research gap regarding accounting of water footprint (WFP) at district level in Purvanchal, Uttar Pradesh (U. P.). It offers a comprehensive understanding of WFP including blue, green and grey components. The paper also contributes to extension of calculating sub-components of grey WFP, which has not been reported anywhere in the literature so far. Purvanchal, one of the political regions of U. P. state, was considered for spatial assessment of WFPs in wheat cultivation at field of its 17 districts. The data for this study was collected from statistical abstract—U. P., state agricultural directorate, national bureau of soil survey and land use planning (NBSS & LUP), published reports and the field survey. The WFP for each component was estimated by a set of frameworks proposed by Chapagain and Hoekstra et al. 2003 and, further elaborated by Aldaya and Llamas et al. 2008. The results show that the blue WFP has highest share, which contributes about 92% to WFP, i.e., it presents an average of 1332 cubic meter per ton in wheat cultivation. In contrast, the average grey and green WFPs have been estimated at 26 and 97 cubic meters per ton, respectively, of WFP. However, spatial variability was also been reported from the selected districts. Therefore, a rational approach is being recommended to ensure sustainability and efficiency in wheat cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rembang Regency has little annual rainfall, ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 mm. The Capluk Watershed in Rembang is the only one with a discharge station. The average rainfall of the watershed in 2011 to 2020 is relatively low (1,877 mm/year). Moors are the dominant land use in the watershed, so the watershed is prone to drought. This study aims to assess the water balance and land use planning to reduce water deficits. The FJ Mock modeling method is used to understand hydrological phenomena, where the results can help manage water resources by regulating land use by utilizing the exposed surface parameters in the model. The results show that the demand for water in the watershed for the 2011 to 2020 period reaches an average of 49,151,012 m³/year, while the availability of water is 132,512,172 m³/year. This condition shows that the total water balance experiences an average surplus of 83,361,160 m³/year but experiences a deficit in the dry season, an average of 3,452,278 m³/year. For land use planning, scenario 5 (a combination of regional spatial plan maps, forest area maps, general plan for forest and land rehabilitation maps, and land use in 2020) is the best in reducing the water deficit by 20,383,274 m³ or can lower the water deficit to 4,957,173 m³. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Garhwal and Kumaun regions of the Himalayas of India have experienced rapid urbanisation due to the expansion of the national highway (NH-58) in Uttarakhand, which has a significant impact on the frequency and intensity of landslides. Therefore, this study assesses the impact of road expansion on landslide susceptibility in the Himalayas by examining landscape changes within 1 km, 2 km, and 3 km buffer zones around a major highway. Land use and land cover (LULC) from the years 2000 and 2023 were classified using Random Forest (RF) modelling to assess landslide susceptibility due to landscape change. Twelve key parameters were selected for susceptibility modeling and colinearity was tested by multicollinearity analysis to ensure robustness. The RF models were optimised using particle swarm optimisation (PSO) to model landslide susceptibility with higher precision, and their effectiveness was confirmed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and precision-recall curves. In addition, a polynomial regression analysis was used to investigate the complex relationships between landscape changes and landslide susceptibility. The susceptibility models showed high accuracy with area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.9083 and 0.9068. The results showed significant landscape changes affecting landslide susceptibility: The forest area decreased by 15.74 km² from 2000 to 2023, while the built-up area increased by 15.41 km². In particular, the zone with very low susceptibility to landslides within the 1 km buffer decreased by 5.569 km² and the zone with high susceptibility within the 3 km buffer increased by 4.972 km². The polynomial regression analysis showed that the built-up areas near the motorway decreased the most by 1.260 km², while the forest areas further away from the corridor increased by up to 4.585 km². This analysis illustrates the significant influence of road proximity on landscape dynamics and landslide risk and provides important insights for policy and land use planning in the rapidly developing Himalayan regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avalanches are natural events that can lead to significant risks to both human life and property. The creation of an avalanche susceptibility map is a valuable tool for effectively managing the avalanche prone areas. The primary objective of this paper is to utilize and analyse machine learning models for susceptibility mapping, with the goal of classifying avalanche-prone regions based on terrain parameters extracted from a digital elevation model. In other word, to explore the capability of Tree-based machine learning methods to handle the GIS dataset. Fifteen data layers have been extracted, stacked, and processed to create training and testing data using the avalanche inventory. Three tree-based machine learning models has been trained and tuned using grid search on dataset that has been split into 80:20 for model calibration and validation. Results indicated that both advanced models had an excellent performance in terrain-based avalanche modelling (ROC-AUC > 85%), although true positive and true negative analysis demonstrated the superior performance of Random Forest. Feature importance analysis indicated that elevation and aspect are the top effective and most common feature among all the variables and models, respectively. Building a high-quality and informative database is a crucial part, and avalanches inventory classification before susceptibility assessment is a key step in enhancing the accuracy of the model. The study's findings can offer valuable insights for land use planning, enabling the control of avalanche paths and mitigating potential hazards. Additionally, these results can serve as a valuable reference for future studies focused on snow avalanche hazards modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of current land cover and land use (LCLU) information for monitoring the status of land resources has considerable value in ensuring sustainable land use planning and development. Similarly, the need to provide updated information on the extent of LCLU change in West Africa has become apparent, given the increasing demand for land resources driven by rapid population growth. Over the past decade, multiple projects have been undertaken to produce regional and national land cover maps. However, using different classification systems and legends has made updating and sharing land cover information challenging. This has resulted in the inefficient use of human and financial resources. The development of the Land Cover Meta Language (LCML) based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards offers an opportunity to create a standardized classification system. This system would enable easier integration of regional and national data, efficient management of information, and better resource utilization in West Africa. This article emphasizes the process and the need for multistakeholder collaboration in developing a standardized land cover classification system for West Africa, which is currently nonexistent. It presents the survey data collected to evaluate historical, current, and future land cover mapping projects in the region and provides relevant use cases as examples for operationalizing a standardized land cover classification legend for West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of urban ventilation corridors (UVCs) aims to mitigate the urban heat island effect. While most studies focus on the construction and assessment of the environmental benefit of UVCs, they often overlook the analysis of UVCs' topological features. This research integrates multi-source data including 3D urban buildings, historical meteorological observations, high-resolution remote sensing, and land use planning, combined with multiple models, including geographic information system spatial analysis, circuit theory, and complex networks. Based on an assessment of urban ventilation potential, the circuit model was applied to extract UVCs aligned with the prevailing wind direction for both summer and winter seasons. Complex network modeling was employed to analyze the topological features of the ventilation network. From the analytical results, a multi-level wind corridor system for Chengdu was quantitatively developed. The results indicate that the city's overall ventilation resistance is high, with notable spatial clustering, and the southeastern region faces substantial ventilation obstructions. A total of 143 critical ventilation nodes were identified, with the number of air inlets and outlets in summer being significantly fewer than in winter. However, the cooling effect of ventilation corridors in the prevailing summer wind direction is superior to that in winter. The ventilation network comprises 16 communities with distinct ventilation characteristics, exhibiting moderate connectivity, lacking small-world properties, and showing congestion and instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of urbanization leads to the rapid expansion of construction land and brings a series of ecological and environmental problems. The ecological network, as a linear landscape element, is of great significance to improve the quality of the regional ecological environment. In this study, the Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) and the model of Minimum Cumulative Resistance (MCR) were used to construct the ecological corridors in the central city of Fuzhou, and the land use pattern under the constraints of the ecological network was simulated and quantified by the patch-level land use simulation (PLUS) tool with the results of the identification of ecological corridors. Meanwhile, with the help of InVEST habitat quality model, the regional habitat quality under different development scenarios was compared. The results show that (1) 19 ecological sources and 35 ecological corridors were identified; (2) under the constraints of ecological corridors, the area of forested land in the study area in 2027 was increased by 1.57% and the area of built-up land was reduced by 0.55% compared with that in 2022; (3) and under the constraints of ecological corridors, the mean value of habitat quality in Fuzhou City improved by 0.0055 and 0.0254 compared with 2022 and 2027 natural evolution scenarios, respectively. The study provides decision-making assistance for the construction of ecological corridors from the perspective of land use planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With China's rapid economic development in recent years, enhancing the sense of well-being among citizens has become a critical objective. However, the interests of various stakeholder groups are often overlooked in decision-making surrounding land use. In this study, Yongsheng County, Yunnan Province serves as a case study for land use scenario simulations. The equivalent factor method is combined with Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to investigate the relationship between ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) and the equity index of multiple stakeholder groups in various land use scenarios. We also explore whether an optimal combination of land use types exists. The results indicate that (1) The current ecosystem service value in Yongsheng County is primarily driven by climate regulation and biodiversity conservation, with a relatively high functional value index but a comparatively low equity index; (2) Different stakeholder groups mainly prioritize food production and ecosystem services impacting food production, such as water resource provision and climate regulation; (3) A land use allocation pattern of 20% farmland, 4% water bodies, 21% mixed forest, 20% coniferous forest, and 35% grassland appears to provide the optimal EMF index while simultaneously achieving the optimal equity index across stakeholder groups. This research may offer valuable insights for optimizing land use planning while taking into account the well-being of diverse stakeholder groups. It also may have practical implications for the formulation of innovative land use management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use regulations have played a critical role in the siting and operation of renewable energy technologies. While there is a growing literature on the siting of wind and solar technologies, less is known about the relationship between local codes and planning decisions and the development of wood-based bioenergy technologies, particularly in rural places. This research examines the relationship between local land use policies and the siting and operation of different types of wood-based bioenergy technologies in northern Michigan, USA. Land use codes including zoning laws and ordinances related to wood-burning devices from 506 cities, townships, and villages within 36 counties in northern Michigan were combined with US Census data in a GIS database. ArcGIS was used to examine geographical differences between communities and socioeconomic factors related to different regulatory approaches. We found that areas with greater population densities and higher income and education levels tended to have more nuanced land use codes related to all scales of wood-burning, including residential wood heating, commercial-scale heating, and power generation. This paper emphasizes the importance of local decision-making and land use policies in shaping the development of wood-based energy technologies, and suggests the need for greater attention to rural community dynamics in planning the shift to a lower-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a decision-making tool that is often used in the area of urban planning. At the same time, many other data sources with great utility potential, such as Big Data, can be identified. The aim of the paper is to present the possibility of using mobile Big Data collections with data from Polish SDI, for the purposes of local spatial planning on the example of the tourist town, Mikolajki in Poland. The publication also focuses on assessing the quality of data, as well as the decision-making process supported by these sources. The draft of the local spatial development plan was verified based on integrated data sources. The results showed that the visualization of Big Data as a heat map may be used in urban tasks and as the thematic layer integrated with vector and raster data sets from the SDI in the geographic information system software. The contribution is the practical example how information about users of mobile devices and some information from behavioral profiles may be analyzed for the purposes of verifying planned land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To implement the requirements of "Building a Strong Transportation Nation" and the "Dual-Carbon Goals", and guided by the "Action Plan for Green Urban Rail Transit Development in Chinese Cities", this study explores green and low-carbon analysis and evaluation methods in the rail network planning stage from three aspects: urban space, integrated transportation, and rail transit. A comprehensive theoretical framework was systematically constructed, covering macro to micro levels. The analysis process employed various methods, including model building, spatial econometrics, geographic analysis, and passenger flow prediction, to establish a theoretical structure for the green and low-carbon effects of rail transit through both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study proposed a tripartite green development framework integrating "City-Transportation-Railway", forming a primarily quantitative evaluation index system that effectively promotes green travel. This system aligned with higher-level planning while considering the unique characteristics of rail transit, guiding the next phase of green urban rail implementation and related research. The research results demonstrated that combining elements of rail network planning with urban and integrated transportation could effectively and quantitatively reflect green development goals. The calculation methods for evaluation indicators were feasible, operational, and comparable. This framework not only meets the requirements and goals of national land spatial planning and integrated transportation planning but also provides valuable guidance for subsequent stages of construction planning, feasibility studies, and preliminary designs in green development. Furthermore, it aligns well with the entire planning and design process of rail transit. The conclusions and recommendations from this study can be effectively incorporated into national land spatial planning and integrated transportation planning to ensure a unified planning blueprint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remote and iconic Kimberley region, in northern Western Australia, is a contested landscape with growing pressure for different types of land use and development. The region has high biodiversity values and impressive scenery that provide attractive recreation experiences for visitors. We estimate the value of domestic recreation to the region using a travel cost model. Analysis includes two approaches for accounting for multi‐destination trips (MDTs) given travel to remote sites are more likely to include these than shorter trips, and four specifications for the value of travel time. We estimate a total consumer surplus of A$110.34 million annually and find that adjusting travel costs for MDTs using stated survey information produces a better fitting model than using revealed travel information. These findings highlight both the importance of estimating recreation values for use in land use planning in the Kimberley and for improving the travel cost method for remote sites where per‐trip travel costs are high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of flood-damaged zones in a watershed is prominent in guiding a framework for developing sustainable strategies. For these purposes, several flood conditioning factor values at flooded and non-flooded points are extracted, and those points are analyzed using decision tree algorithms and eight novel information fusion techniques to get more reliable flood susceptibility mapping. The belief function values of flood susceptibility values at leaf nodes of the tree are fused by several techniques named Dempster-Shafer (DS), Fuzzy Gamma Overlay (FGO), Hesitant Fuzzy Weighted Averaging (HFWA), Hesitant Fuzzy Weighted Geometric (HFWG), Hesitant Fuzzy Weighted Ordered Averaging (HFWOA), HFWOG, Closeness coefficient (Cc) using Euclidean and Manhattan distances. The flood susceptibility values are extracted from the generated maps and are validated by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve parameters, and the seed cell area index (SCAI) of classified flood levels. The area under ROC (AUROC) values of training process are 0.997 for DS, HFWA, HFWOA, and Cc-Euclidean, 0.996 for Cc-Manhattan, 0.995 for FGO and 0.994 for HFWG and HFWOG. The AUROC values of the testing process are 0.951 for DS, HFWA, HFWOA, Cc-Euclidean, and Cc-Manhattan, 0.945 for FGO, 0.943 for HFWG, and 0.941 for HFWOG. True Skill Statistics values are 0.962 and 0.870 for training and testing processes. Although these techniques present excellent performance, the SCAI values versus flood susceptibility classes are fitted to assess the prediction capabilities of the techniques further. HFWA and HFWOG have the first- and second-best performances on the estimations. Hence, information fusion paradigm can be employed to combine flood conditioning factors based on a robust classification method to get reliable predictions of flood potential levels and utilize them for land use and construction planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of sustainability has been widely recognized as a pivotal objective for future growth. Therefore, it is imperative to incorporate the principles of sustainability into policies and plans, particularly in land use and agri-food production, sectors often associated with negative environmental impacts. Addressing all three pillars of sustainability—environmental, economic, and social—is essential, within the contexts of agri-food production and land use. Consequently, sustainable rural development is also critical. This study utilizes Iceland as a case to examine whether and how sustainability goals are translated from national policies to municipal plans, which represent the governance level closest to implementation. The research employs content analysis of national policies and municipal plans, utilizing grounded theory to code the content. The findings indicate that while the concept of sustainability is embedded in Icelandic policies and goals, there is a tendency to overlook the economic and social dimensions. Additionally, the study reveals a limited application of sustainability principles in rural development and agri-food production. Recognizing the "wicked" nature of sustainability, which complicates its implementation, is crucial for advancing from goal setting to effective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Engineering (17264073) is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How to simultaneously reduce environmental pollution and CO2 emissions is a challenging issue for various countries, particularly in China. Unlike traditional urbanization process that inevitably deteriorates environment, China initiated a New-Type Urbanization (NTU) strategy in 2014 following four principles: people-centeredness, optimal layout, ecological civilization, and cultural inheritance. Previous studies conduct research on NTU's influencing pollution and carbon reduction (PCR), respectively, while ignoring synergistic governance. The research objectives of this study are to investigate the potential mechanisms of NTU's influencing PCR and co-benefits for PCR. By leveraging 30 provincial-level data from China spanning 2005 to 2019, we comprehensively construct an index and assess NTU from six domains: population, economic, environmental, spatial, equitable, and social urbanizations and combine a coupling coordination model with a 2-way fixed effects model for empirical analysis. Our findings demonstrate that (1) NTU tends to significantly suppress pollution and carbon emissions, and this finding is reliable after several robustness tests and solving endogeneity with relief degree of land surface as an instrumental variable (IV). (2) The reducing effects seem to be achieved by promoting talent agglomeration, facilitating economic agglomeration and strengthening environmental regulations. (3) NTU tends to have both current and time-lag effects on pollution and carbon reduction, and their co-benefits are mainly influenced by the time-lag effect. Accordingly, policy recommendations are recommended: governments need to plan urbanization rationally, including strengthening public infrastructure and social welfare, pursuing the strategy of introducing talents, planning land and resource use rationally and efficiently, and strengthening environmental regulations. In addition, a mechanism should be developed to reduce pollution and carbon in an integrated manner for the long term. Our study broadens the horizons for international scholars engaged in sustainable urbanization research, enriching the array of research methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing a decision-making scheme for multiple land use types in a shrinking society is an urgent and persistent task. In particular, residents and governments face the complexity of cross-sectoral visions over concerned landscapes. This study examined the preference of residents for future visions and the effects of group deliberation in a Japanese rural community to enhance the current understanding of decision and learning processes on cross-sectoral land use types (i.e., agricultural land, forest land, and boundary areas) across ages and groups. This study posed the following questions: (i) what types of interactions do residents find among options on cross-sectoral land uses? and (ii) how do group deliberation influence the individual preferences of residents for land use? In the survey, the residents disclosed their preferences for the prepared visions over three land use types. The survey also enabled the comparison of choices before and after group deliberation. Regarding question (i), the residents' choice prior to the deliberation demonstrated thematic coherence through land use categories. Smart technology and potential productivity improvement were selected across agriculture and forests. However, regarding question (ii), thematic coherence decreased after the group deliberation. The residents could communicate disagreements during group deliberation and consider the issues relatively independently over land use types, which separately views agriculture lands and forests. The choice after group discussions became increasingly embedded and influenced by residential areas and land ownership of residents. These findings provide unique insights into the group discussion on how individual decisions are affected. In summary, the preferences of cross-sectoral land use types did not converge but tended to diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Newmark models estimate earthquake-induced landslide hazards by calculating permanent displacements exceeding the critical acceleration, which is determined from static factors of safety and hillslope geometries. However, these studies typically predict the potential landslide mass only for the source area, rather than the entire landslide zone, which includes both the source and sliding/depositional areas. In this study, we present a modified Newmark Runout model that incorporates sliding and depositional areas to improve the estimation of landslide chain risks. This model defines the landslide runout as the direction from the source area to the nearest river channel within the same slope unit, simulating natural landslide behavior under gravitational effects, which enables the prediction of the entire landslide zone. We applied the model to a subset of the Minjiang Catchment affected by the 1933 MW 7.3 Diexi Earthquake in China to assess long-term landslide chain risks. The results indicate that the predicted total landslide zone closely matches that of the Xinmo Landslide that occurred on 24 June 2017, despite some uncertainties in the sliding direction caused by the old landslide along the sliding path. Distance-weighted kernel density analysis was used to reduce the prediction uncertainties. The hazard levels of the buildings and roads were determined by the distance to the nearest entire landslide zone, thereby assessing the landslide risk. The landslide dam risks were estimated using the kernel density module for channels blocked by the predicted landslides, modeling intersections of the total landslide zone and the channels. High-risk landslide dam zones spatially correspond to the locations of the knickpoints primarily induced by landslide dams, validating the model's accuracy. These analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented model for Newmark-based landslide risk estimations, with implications for geohazard chain risk assessments, risk mitigation, and land use planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arab Journal for Scientific Publishing is the property of Research & Development of Human Recourses Center (REMAH) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban flooding problem has been exacerbated in recent times, especially in developing nations, due to haphazard changes in land use and land cover (LULC) resulting from rapid urban expansion, coupled with river encroachments and inadequately engineered river management structures. Kathmandu Valley Watershed (KVW), encompassing Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitur districts, the fastest growing cities in South Asia, is constantly growing, with a significant increase in urban areas. Due to urbanization, the watershed's water storage capacity is diminishing, while surface runoff volume and rate are accelerating. We evaluated the isolated as well as the integrated impact of multiple scenarios of LULC change and river encroachment on flood inundation characteristics in KVW. LULC prediction revealed an increase in built-up areas by 113% between 1990 and 2020, which are further projected to increase by 29% by 2050. Inundation modeling using Rainfall-Runoff Inundation (RRI) model showed that rather than the increase in inundation extent, the depth of inundation is projected to increase in future as a result of increasing urban areas. Furthermore, our research highlighted that the impact of river width encroachment had a more substantial effect on flooding compared to changes in LULC alone. Similarly, integrated impact of LULC change and river encroachment was more pronounced than the impact of change in LULC alone. The aggregate of observations leads to the conclusion that the encroachment of rivers is the predominant factor contributing to the flooding issue within the KVW. The findings of the study is anticipated to assist policymakers in effective land use planning and in proposing appropriate development initiatives concerning the river environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buried bedrock valleys in North America are often filled with coarse-grained deposits that form productive buried-valley aquifers, providing a valuable water source for human use. However, the role of buried-valley aquifers in the hydrology of watersheds, including baseflow generation and supporting ecosystems, is not widely recognized. This study demonstrates that the presence of a buried-valley aquifer influences near-surface hydrology, specifically the interaction of a creek coaligned with the bedrock valley thalweg. We combine synoptic sampling of environmental tracers and geochemistry of the creek during low flow conditions and regional groundwater data to determine downstream variation in groundwater interaction. Modelled downstream variation suggests that the greatest amount of groundwater discharge occurs where the buried-valley aquifer is present beneath, but not necessarily in direct contact with the creek. Further, a shift in baseflow source to the creek occurs depending on the depth to bedrock, indicated by a change in water isotopic and chemical composition similar to that of groundwater located in the sediments above bedrock to a signature similar to groundwater in the underlying bedrock formations. This study demonstrates that buried-valley aquifers can focus groundwater flow to a modern-day creek valley, providing a unique source of baseflow in the Canadian Prairies and midwestern United States. The interaction between buried-valley aquifers and streams has implications for water allocation and land use planning, whereby a critical baseflow source may also be a target aquifer to develop with good quality water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Determination the scale of hazard caused by episodic water runoff in rural areas will allow better management of the land and limit its negative effects. There has been an increase in the frequency of hazards associated with meteorological and hydrological phenomena. One of them is flash floods occurring episodically in areas of concentrated runoff—valleys without permanent drainage. In the opinion of residents and local authorities, these are potentially safe areas—they are not threatened by floods and are therefore often occupied by buildings. The importance of addressing flash floods in land use planning is essential for sustainable development and disaster risk reduction. The objective of this research was to assess the level of the hazard and to evaluate its presence in land use planning activities. This manuscript fills a research gap, as to date flash flood threats have not been analyzed for individual buildings located in catchments of dry valleys in temperate climates. More than 12,000 first-order catchments were analyzed. The study covered an upland area located in East Poland, which is characterized by high population density and dispersed rural settlement. Within the 10 municipalities, buildings located on potential episodic runoff lines were identified. Qualitative assessment was applied to ascertain the susceptibility of catchments to flash floods. Such criteria as slopes, size, shape of the catchment area, and land cover, among others, were used. Between 10 and 20% of the buildings were located on episodic runoff lines, and about 900 sub-catchments were highly or very highly susceptible to flash floods. The way to reduce the negative effects of these phenomena is to undertake proper land use planning based on knowledge of geohazards, including flash floods. However, an analysis of available planning documents shows that phenomena of this type are not completely taken into account in spatial management processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of ecosystem service values (ESVs) is an important basis for the coordinated development of the regional nature, economy, and society and the optimization of the ecological environment. The ecological zone is an important component of the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal cultural belt. Ecosystem services are a concrete manifestation of land use structure and function. A thorough study of the value of ecosystem services in areas along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal is important for promoting the long-term and stable sustainable development of the regional economy. Based on a revised equivalent factor table, this study selected land use data from 1991, 2006, and 2021 to analyze the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of ESVs along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal. The results show that (1) the ESVs along the Grand Canal first increased and then decreased from 1991 to 2021. The reason for this is the change in land use along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal. Specifically, the conversion of land use types from farmland to water areas contributed to the increase in the value of ecosystem services, while the conversion of farmland and grassland into construction land led to a decrease in the service value of the region. (2) the value of individual ecosystem services along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal from 1991 to 2021 varied greatly. The ESV provided by hydrological regulation was the largest and the ESV provided by maintenance nutrients was the smallest. (3) the areas along the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal exhibited a specific pattern in terms of the value of ecosystem services, with the regions centered in Beijing and Tianjin showing relatively low values, while the middle section of the Grand Canal demonstrated relatively high ESV. According to the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and the leading factor for the changes in ESVs, appropriate policies can be formulated in respective regions to implement ecological protection and land use planning, thereby providing a reference for the adaptation and restoration strategies of the ecosystem along the Grand Canal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kashmir Himalayas, a region of immense ecological importance, have experienced profound degradation due to land use changes, raising concerns about sustainability. This degradation has significant global implications, including carbon loss, soil quality deterioration, habitat destruction, and loss of biodiversity. This study investigates various key land uses, including economically vital cash crops such as apples and saffron, the socially significant staple food crop rice, as well as forest and pasture systems. The findings reveal that forests and pastures maintain significantly better physical, chemical, microbial, and enzymes activities, and exhibit greater soil nutrient reserves and soil organic carbon (SOC) pools. Specifically, forest soils contain 20.21%, 28.22%, and 34.49% higher total organic carbon (TOC) stocks compared to apple, saffron, and paddy-oilseed soils, respectively. A soil quality index (SQI) was computed using principal component analysis (PCA) based on over 30 soil indicators, including soil nutrients, carbon pools, and various physical, chemical, and biological properties. The SQI ranking is as follows: forest (1) > pasture (0.87) > apple (0.80) > saffron (0.67) > paddyoilseed (0.53). This ranking suggests that the conversion of natural ecosystems to cultivation negatively impacts soil nutrient reserves, microbiome diversity, SOC stocks, and overall soil quality. The land use changes in the Kashmir Himalayas result from a complex interplay of natural forces, demographic shifts, and economic pressures. This research provides valuable insights into comparative soil quality under economically and socially relevant crops based on diverse soil properties. The findings can guide land use planning in Kashmir Himalayas and similar regions beyond geographical boundaries, aiming to preserve the ecologically fragile environment, ensure food security, bolster the economy, and promote long-term sustainability in the face of a changing climate. The significance of this study lies in its relevance to similar regions grappling with land use changes, making its findings pertinent to the global scientific community and holding promise for the development of sustainable practices and policies worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides in the state of Mizoram result in damage to life and properties annually. The study focuses on landslide susceptibility zones by frequency ratio (FR), evidential belief function (EBF) and index of entropy (IOE) models. A total of 1,486 landslide points were used to build a relationship between 16 factors and landslide occurrences. The results reveal 14.44%, 19.64% and 3.55% of the area as very high susceptible zones in FR, EBF and IOE models, respectively. The AUC results support the adoption of the EBF model in land use planning and decision-making processes to enhance natural resource management and mitigate landslide risks in Mizoram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most high-mountain regions worldwide are susceptible to snow avalanches during the winter or all year round. In this study, a Universal Snow Avalanche Modeling Index is developed, suitable for determining avalanche hazard in mountain regions. The first step in the research is the collection of data in the field and their processing in geographic information systems and remote sensing. In the period 2023–2024, avalanches were mapped in the field, and later, avalanches as points in geographic information systems (GIS) were overlapped with the dominant natural conditions in the study area. The second step involves determining the main criteria (snow cover, terrain slope, and land use) and evaluating the values to obtain the Snow Avalanche Formation Index (SAFI). Thresholds obtained through field research and the formation of avalanche inventory were used to develop the SAFI index. The index is applied with the aim of identifying locations susceptible to avalanche formation (source areas). The values used for the calculation include Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI > 0.6), terrain slope (20–60°) and land use (pastures, meadows). The third step presents the analysis of SAFI locations with meteorological conditions (winter precipitation and winter air temperature). The fourth step is the modeling of the propagation (simulation) of other parts of the snow avalanche in the Flow-R software 2.0. The results show that 282.9 km2 of the study area (Šar Mountains, Serbia) is susceptible to snow avalanches, with the thickness of the potentially triggered layer being 50 cm. With a 5 m thick snowpack, 299.9 km2 would be susceptible. The validation using the ROC-AUC method confirms a very high predictive power (0.94). The SAFI–Flow-R approach offers snow avalanche modeling for which no avalanche inventory is available, representing an advance for all mountain areas where historical data do not exist. The results of the study can be used for land use planning, zoning vulnerable areas, and adopting adequate environmental protection measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent anthropogenic activities have escalated human exploitation of riparian zones of river ecosystems, consequently diminishing aquatic biodiversity. This intensification of land use is also causing water quality degradation and changes in water environmental factors, evidenced by increased nutrient levels and adversely impacting the community structure and diversity of aquatic organisms. Notably, the Weihe River Basin, the largest tributary of the Yellow River, has demonstrated signs of significant anthropogenic pressure. Despite this, comprehensive investigations examining the effects of land-use intensity on aquatic organism diversity in this watershed remain limited. In this study, the environmental impacts and macroinvertebrate diversity under high-intensity and low-intensity land-use scenarios within the Weihe River Basin were investigated through field surveys conducted during the spring and autumn seasons. Our results demonstrated that areas under high-intensity land use exhibited elevated nutrient concentrations (e.g., total nitrogen) compared to those under low-intensity land use. These environmental changes significantly influenced the macroinvertebrate community structure, reducing functional and phylogenetic diversities in high-intensity land-use watersheds. Hydrological factors (water depth, river width, and discharge) have a significant impact on macroinvertebrate taxonomic diversity. Thus, understanding the effects of land-use intensity on aquatic biodiversity is essential for ecological assessments of impacted watersheds and developing management strategies for the sustainable use and planning of riparian lands in the Weihe River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different types of rural settlement agglomerations have been formed and mixed in space during the rural revitalization strategy implementation in China. Discriminating them from remote sensing images is of great significance for rural land planning and living environment improvement. Currently, there is a lack of automatic methods for obtaining information on rural settlement differentiation. In this paper, an improved encoder–decoder network structure, ASCEND-UNet, was designed based on the original UNet. It was implemented to segment and classify dispersed and clustered rural settlement buildings from high-resolution satellite images. The ASCEND-UNet model incorporated three components: firstly, the atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) multi-scale feature fusion module was added into the encoder, then the spatial and channel squeeze and excitation (scSE) block was embedded at the skip connection; thirdly, the hybrid dilated convolution (HDC) block was utilized in the decoder. In our proposed framework, the ASPP and HDC were used as multiple dilated convolution blocks to expand the receptive field by introducing a series of dilated rate convolutions. The scSE is an attention mechanism block focusing on features both in the spatial and channel dimension. A series of model comparisons and accuracy assessments with the original UNet, PSPNet, DeepLabV3+, and SegNet verified the effectiveness of our proposed model. Compared with the original UNet model, ASCEND-UNet achieved improvements of 4.67%, 2.80%, 3.73%, and 6.28% in precision, recall, F1-score and MIoU, respectively. The contributions of HDC, ASPP, and scSE modules were discussed in ablation experiments. Our proposed model obtained more accurate and stable results by integrating multiple dilated convolution blocks with an attention mechanism. This novel model enriches the automatic methods for semantic segmentation of different rural settlements from remote sensing images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic segmentation is primarily employed to generate accurate prediction labels for each pixel of the input image, and then classify the images according to the generated labels. Semantic segmentation of building and water in remote sensing images helps us to conduct reasonable land planning for a city. However, many current mature networks face challenges in simultaneously attending to both contextual and spatial information when performing semantic segmentation on remote sensing imagery. This often leads to misclassifications and omissions. Therefore, this paper proposes a Dual-Branch Network with Spatial Supplementary Information (SPNet) to address the aforementioned issues. We introduce a Context-aware Spatial Feature-Extractor Unit (CSF) to extract contextual and spatial information, followed by the Feature-Interaction Module (FIM) to supplement contextual semantic information with spatial details. Additionally, incorporating the Goal-Oriented Attention Mechanism helps in handling noise. Finally, to obtain more detailed branches, a Multichannel Deep Feature-Extraction Module (MFM) is introduced to extract features from shallow-level network layers. This branch guides the fusion of low-level semantic information with high-level semantic information. Experiments were conducted on building and water datasets, respectively. The results indicate that the segmentation accuracy of the model proposed in this paper surpasses that of other existing mature models. On the building dataset, the mIoU reaches 87.57, while on the water dataset, the mIoU achieves 96.8, which means that the model introduced in this paper demonstrates strong generalization capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial planning includes various decisions that guide the formulation of land policies, such as planned urbanisation, environment-nature-culture protection, and safe agriculture. Land Administration Systems (LASs) should also include spatial planning decisions as they play a role in facilitating the implementation of land policies. In this study, the Turkish spatial planning system's role in the land administration is discussed. The paper presents the necessity of designing and standardising the spatial planning system as data model. This data model design includes not only spatial plan decisions but also documents that guide spatial planning and land development decisions caused by planning. Therefore, this study aims to present a standardised model of the Turkish spatial planning system and the land use rights, restrictions and responsibilities established by spatial plans. Designing spatial planning system information as a conceptual data model within the Land Administration Domain Model is expected to support land administration system-based improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development patterns and climate change are contributing to increasing flood risk across the United States. Limiting development in floodplains mitigates risk by reducing the assets and population exposed to flooding. Here, we develop two indexes measuring floodplain development for 18,548 communities across the continental United States. We combine land use, impervious surface, and housing data with regulatory flood maps to determine what proportion of new development has taken place in the floodplain. Nationwide from 2001 to 2019, 2.1 million acres of floodplain land were developed, and 844,000 residential properties were built in the floodplain. However, contrary to conventional perceptions of rampant floodplain development, just 26% of communities nationwide have developed in floodplains more than would be expected given the hazard they face. The indexes and the analyses they enable can help guide targeted interventions to improve flood risk management, to explore underlying drivers of flood exposure, and to inform how local‐to‐federal policy choices can be leveraged to limit hazardous development. Plain Language Summary: Development in areas prone to flooding increases flood risk by increasing the exposure of people and infrastructure. Reducing or limiting development in hazardous areas can be a critical way for communities to manage flood risk. In this study, we use national flood hazard, impervious surface, and housing data sets to create two indexes measuring the extent of floodplain development across the United States from 2001 to 2019. Surprisingly, we find that despite seemingly large aggregate numbers, most communities have actually limited hazardous development when we account for how much of their developable land is in the floodplain. We show that floodplain development outcomes vary across key influences, including geography, wealth, and flood risk management efforts. Our indexes enable comparisons across community contexts, potentially unlocking important lessons for effective floodplain management. Proactive, climate‐smart land use planning will be key to ensuring resilient growth for communities moving forward. Key Points: Substantial development took place in floodplains across the US from 2001 to 2019 but less than expected given the extent of flood hazardsFloodplain development outcomes vary across a number of key factors, including geography, socioeconomics, and flood risk managementNationwide indexes capturing local outcomes enable evaluation of floodplain management policies and drivers of floodplain development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]