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Polygon characteristics, including area, shape, and topology, may be lost during rasterization, leading to inaccurate analyses. Maintaining multiple characteristics remains a challenging multi-objective optimization problem. This study introduces improved strategies for flexibly maintaining multiple characteristics (ISMMC). Errors related to area (A), shape (S), and topology (T) are addressed using six prioritized sequences: AST, ATS, TAS, TSA, STA, and SAT, where the order of the letters denotes the sequence of error correction. The importance (I) of land-use types (LUT) is also considered when developing a strategy based on the TSA (ITSA) that maintains characteristics for important LUTs. The ISMMC achieved a total improved accuracy (IA) of ≥0.05 for 98.67% of 150 tested cases. The STA, SAT, TAS, and TSA yielded the highest area, shape, topological, and total accuracies. The STA achieved a summed AI increase ≥20.36% compared to the existing version. The runtime was ≥85.46 times the scanline runtime, and the threshold cell size (≤50 m) balanced the IA and runtime. The ITSA improved accuracy by 83.33% and 6.67% of solutions when preferentially maintaining one or two important LUTs, outperforming the existing STA. Overall, these developments improve accuracy with flexibility in rasterization results and subsequent raster applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an asynchronous parallel strategy coordinating central processing unit (CPU) and graphic processing unit (GPU) to accelerate neighborhood operation (NO). Specifically, we propose a data partitioning method called multi-anchor task queuing and a task scheduling method called bi-direction task scheduling, which can support CPU and GPU to find the responsible data blocks rapidly and concurrently handle their tasks via a bi-direction merge. Moreover, we optimize the organization of threads distributed among the CPU and GPU. Experimental results show that when a 1.7 GB raster dataset is processed, the speedup ratio achieved by the proposed parallel algorithm reaches 29.63, which is 19% and 18% higher than those of the GPU and standard asynchronous parallel algorithm, respectively. Additionally, the load balance index is below 0.085, which is significantly better than the value achieved by a conventional algorithm. Thus, the strategy achieves a higher speedup ratio and more adaptable load balance, thereby accelerating the NO more efficiently. Further, the impacts of the data volume, computational intensity, organization mode of the GPU threads, and granularity of the GPU stream on the parallel efficiency are evaluated and discussed. We also test the efficiency of four other common NOs with our strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to support sustainable urban and environmental planning by using urban growth simulation models, in which environmental quality is employed as one of the inputs. We proposed an extended SLEUTH urban growth model (UGM) for the regions threatened by environmental quality degradation caused by uncontrolled urban expansion. In this model, habitat quality is assessed by the InVEST model and is used to represent environmental quality, which is utilized in urban growth simulation. The habitat quality map is used to replace the slope layer as input for the SLEUTH model's urban growth simulation for cities where relatively flat topography makes this layer of minimal explanatory value. The extended SLEUTH UGM was calibrated using data for Changzhou city, China in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2014. The best value of the Optimal SLEUTH Metric (OSM) was calculated for both the standard SLEUTH UGM and the extended SLEUTH UGM independently. The OSM value for the latter model was much higher than that of the former model, which indicated that the extended model provided a better explanation of urban growth in the study area. The calibrated extended SLEUTH UGM was applied to predict growth in Changzhou city from 2014 to 2030. The result showed that the urban area is expected to expand about 626 km2 by 2030. Comparison with the prediction result by using standard SLEUTH UGM showed that the area with high habitat quality could be reserved and the urban expansion could be limited by using our model. The findings demonstrate that the extended SLEUTH UGM could be a valuable tool for sustainable urban and environmental planning and management in developing regions where environmental protection should be considered as one of the major land-use objectives in their rapid urbanization process.

Human activities and regional land development have considerably contributed to the degradation of ecosystems and the growing contradiction between the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ESs) in Jiangsu Province, China. However, few studies have applied a comprehensive approach to elucidate the patterns and evolutionary characteristics of ESs over long periods. This study investigated the spatial–temporal evolution of the supply, demand, and supply–demand relationships of six individual ESs and comprehensive ESs in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2020. It revealed the key drivers of the changes in comprehensive ecosystem services supply–demand relationship (CESSD) using a geo‐detector model and a geographically and temporally weighted regression model to address the shortcomings of previous studies. The results showed that at the provincial level, the CESSD presented a surplus while the supply–demand state tended to be imbalanced. At the 1‐km2 grid scale, the spatial heterogeneity of CESSD was obvious, with surplus supply–demand zones primarily distributed in the Taihu Lake watershed, hilly areas, riverside zones, the watershed from Hongze Lake to Gaoyou Lake, and the eastern coastal zone, while deficit supply–demand zones were mainly clustered in areas with concentrated and contiguous construction land. From 2000 to 2020, the area of deficit in CESSD increased from 626 to 3257 km2 and the degree of deficit gradually deepened, with socioeconomic factors having the greatest influence on changes in CESSD. Our findings reveal the balance/imbalance between human society and natural ecology in Jiangsu Province and highlight the need for effective management of regional ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of ecotourism suitability is crucial for sustainable regional development and is seen as an effective strategy to achieve both environmental protection and economic growth. One of the key challenges in land research is effectively identifying potential ecotourism resources while balancing regional protection and development. This study mapped the suitability of ecotourism in Zhangjiajie, China, using a combination of various geospatial data sources and four machine-learning techniques. Additionally, an indicator system was developed, covering the ecological environment, geological geomorphology, socioeconomics, and resource availability. The prediction results for suitability classified the area into four categories: highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable, and unsuitable; based on the ensemble results generated by the four algorithms, these categories accounted for 19.34%, 28.78%, 23.87%, and 28.01% of the total area, respectively. This study's findings illustrate the spatial distribution of ecotourism suitability in Zhangjiajie, providing valuable insights for identifying potential ecotourism resources as well as informing regional planning and policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]