Open AccessEstimating urban suitable ecological land based on the minimum cumulative resistance model: A case study in Nanjing, China
Author(s) -
Y P Ye,
S N Wang
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.179
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/344/1/012059
Subject(s) - china , sustainable development , geography , land use , yangtze river , resistance (ecology) , environmental resource management , ecology , environmental science , archaeology , biology
Intense transformation and conflicts between different land use types has occurred in the past decades and will still exist in the coming decades in China. Ascertaining the quantity and pattern optimization of urban ecological land is critical to guaranteeing urban ecological security and realizing urban sustainable development. In this study, Nanjing, a very famous city in the Yangtze River Delta in China, was selected as the case study to explore the land use changes from 1995 to 2017 and calculate the suitable amount of ecological land to meet the needs of its socioeconomic development. From 1995 to 2015, the proportion of ecological land in Nanjing dropped from 84.41% to 59.15%. Based on the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCRM), we designed four alternate scenarios to explore the optimal quantity and pattern of ecological land in Nanjing. By comparing the current land use status with the model simulation results, we proposed the suitable ecological land area for Nanjing should be no less than 3963km 2 , which is 56% of the total area of Nanjing. The land use strategies and the measures to protect ecological land in this study can provide a reliable reference for sustainable development of other highly urbanized regions in China.