Spatial-Temporal Changes and Driving Force Analysis of Green Space in Coastal Cities of Southeast China over the Past 20 Years

The purpose of this study is to reveal the spatial-temporal change and driving factors of green space in coastal cities of southeast China over the past 20 years. A supervised classification method combining support vector machines (SVMs) and visual interpretation was used to extract the green space from Landsat TM/OLI imageries from 2000-2020. The landscape pattern index was used to calculate geospatial information of green space and analyze their spatial-temporal changes. The hierarchical partitioning analysis was then used to determine the influences of anthropogenic and geographic environmental factors on the spatial-temporal changes in green space. The results indicated that the total area of green space remained constant over the past 20 years in coastal cities of southeast China (1% reduction). The spatial change of green space mainly occurred in the area near the ocean and the southern region. 41.37% of forest land was transferred from cultivated land, while 44.56%, 41.83%, 43.20%, 46.31%, 41.98% and 40.20% of shrub land, sparse woodland, other woodland, high-coverage grassland, moderate-coverage grassland and low-coverage grassland were transferred from forest land. The number of patches, patch density, edge density, landscape shape index and Shannon's diversity index increased from 2000-2015, and then decreased to the minimum in 2020, while largest patch index continued to decline from 2000-2020. The contribution of anthropogenic factors (0.53-0.61) on the spatial-temporal changes of green space continually increased over the past 20 years, which was also higher than geographical environment factors (0.39-0.41). Our study provides a new perspective to distinguish the impact of anthropogenic activities and geographical environmental factors on the change of green space area, thereby providing a theoretical support for the construction and ecological management of green space.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the spatial-temporal changes and driving factors of green space in coastal cities of southeast China over the past 20 years. The results showed that anthropogenic factors have played a significant role in the changes of green space, with their contribution continually increasing compared to geographical environmental factors.