Hierarchical Urban Land Mappings and Their Distribution with Physical Medium Environments Using Time Series of Land Resource Images in Beijing, China (1981–2021)

Abstract

Rapid urban expansion and structural changes are taking place in China’s capital city, Beijing, but without an update of urban land features in a timely manner our understanding of the new urban heterogeneity is restricted, as land-background data is indispensable for bio-geophysical and bio-geochemical processes. In this plain region, the investigations of multi-scale urban land mappings and physical medium environmental elements such as slope, aspect, and water resource services are still lacking, although Beijing can provide an exemplary case for urban development and natural environments in plains considering the strategic function of China’s capital city. To elucidate these issues, a remote-sensing methodology of hierarchical urban land mapping was established to obtain the urban land, covering structure and its sub-pixel component with an overall accuracy of over 90.60%. During 1981–2021, intense and sustained urban land expansion increased from 467.13 km2 to 2581.05 km2 in Beijing, along with a total growth rate of 452.53%. For intra-urban land structures, a sharp growth rate of over 650.00% (i.e., +1649.54 km2) occurred in terms of impervious surface area (ISA), but a greening city was still evidently observed, with a vegetation-coverage rate of 8.43% and 28.42% in old and newly expanded urban regions, respectively, with a more integrative urban ecological landscape (Shannon’s Diversity Index (SHDI) = −0.164, Patch Density (PD) = −8.305). We also observed a lower rate of ISA (0.637 vs. 0.659) and a higher rate of vegetation cover (0.284 vs. 0.211) in new compared to old urban regions, displaying a higher quality of life during urban expansion. Furthermore, the dominant aspect of low, medium, and high density ISA was captured with the north–south orientation, considering the sunlight conditions and traditional house construction customs in North China, Over 92.00% of the ISA was distributed in flat environment regions with a slope of less than 15°. When the water-resource service radius shifted from 0.5 km to 0.5–1 km and 1–2 km, high density vegetation displayed a dependence on water resources. Our results provide a new survey of the evolution of hierarchical urban land mapping during 1981–2021 and reveals the relationship with physical medium environments, providing an important reference for relevant research.

Keywords

• hierarchical urban land mappings
• living environment
• physical medium conditions
• the capital of China