IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v14y2025i6p1310-d1682902.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spatial Gradient Effects of Landscape Pattern on Ecological Quality Along the Grand Canal

Author

Listed:
  • Yonggeng Xiong

    (College of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China)

  • Aibo Jin

    (School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China)

Abstract

The Grand Canal serves as a vital water transportation route, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, and an ecological corridor. It is currently undergoing coordinated transformation through infrastructure development, heritage preservation, and ecological restoration. However, existing research has primarily focused on either cultural heritage conservation or localized ecological issues, with limited attention to the spatial relationship between landscape patterns and ecological quality along the entire corridor. To address this gap, this study examines eight sections of the Grand Canal and develops a gradient analysis framework based on equidistant buffer zones. The framework integrates the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) with landscape pattern indices to assess ecological responses across spatial gradients. A Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) model is applied to reveal the spatially heterogeneous effects of landscape patterns on ecological quality. From 2013 to 2023, landscape patterns showed a trend toward increasing agglomeration and regularity. This is indicated by a rise in the Aggregation Index (AI) from 91.24 to 91.38 and declines in both patch density (PD) from 8.45 to 8.20 and Landscape Shape Index (LSI) from 199.74 to 196.72. During the same period, ecological quality slightly declined, with RSEI decreasing from 0.66 to 0.57. The effects of PD and Shannon’s Diversity Index (SHDI) on ecological quality varied across canal sections. In highly urbanized areas such as the Tonghui River, these indices were positively correlated with ecological quality, whereas in less urbanized areas like the Huitong River, negative correlations were observed. Overall, the strength of these correlations tended to weaken with increasing buffer distance. This study provides a scientific foundation for the integrated development of ecological protection and spatial planning along the Grand Canal and offers theoretical insights for the refined management of other major inland waterways.

Suggested Citation

  • Yonggeng Xiong & Aibo Jin, 2025. "Spatial Gradient Effects of Landscape Pattern on Ecological Quality Along the Grand Canal," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:6:p:1310-:d:1682902
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/6/1310/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/6/1310/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anoraga Jatayu & Ernan Rustiadi & Bambang Juanda & Didit Okta Pribadi, 2023. "Metric-Based Approach for Quantifying Urban Expansion Impact on Urban Form Changes in the JBMUR South Conurbation Corridor," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Ruiying Yang & Zhicheng Liu & Wenxin Kang & Junyi Su & Renfei Zhang & Xiaoming Xu, 2023. "Historical Spatial Radiation Range of the Yongding River Corridor in Beijing Plain Section: Implications for Landscape Patterns and Ecological Restoration," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Yu Zhang & Qing Tian & Jun Wu, 2024. "Coupling coordination degree and obstacle factors between the tourism industry and ecological environment in the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Basin, China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 2589-2613, January.
    4. Chizhou Xu & Yande Jing & Yiwen Zhang & Yingchun Liu & Wenyang Yin & Shiping Zhao, 2025. "Identification of Ecological Security Pattern and Ecological Restoration Zoning Strategy in the Shandong Section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Feng Tang & Xu Zhou & Li Wang & Yangjian Zhang & Meichen Fu & Pengtao Zhang, 2021. "Linking Ecosystem Service and MSPA to Construct Landscape Ecological Network of the Huaiyang Section of the Grand Canal," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-23, August.
    6. Ruth Mevianna Aurora & Katsunori Furuya, 2023. "Spatiotemporal Analysis of Urban Sprawl and Ecological Quality Study Case: Chiba Prefecture, Japan," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-21, November.
    7. Yan Zhao & Guangmeng Bian & Tianyi Sun & Jianwei Yan, 2023. "The In-Situ Spatial-Temporal Evolution of the Settlement Space along the Grand Canal Tianjin Section from the Perspective of Cultural Heritage," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-35, May.
    8. Guangmeng Bian & Yan Zhao & Jianwei Yan, 2024. "Exploring Characteristics and Patterns of In Situ Space Morphology: Perspective of the Historical and Cultural Canal Settlement," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-27, July.
    9. Tang, Feng & Wang, Li & Guo, Yiqiang & Fu, Meichen & Huang, Ni & Duan, Wensheng & Luo, Ming & Zhang, Jianjun & Li, Wang & Song, Wei, 2022. "Spatio-temporal variation and coupling coordination relationship between urbanisation and habitat quality in the Grand Canal, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    10. Changzheng Gao & Qisen Dang & Chu Li & Yongming Fan, 2025. "Analysis of Landscape Fragmentation Evolution Characteristics and Driving Factors in the Wei River Basin, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-21, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xi Lu & Hao Yuan & Mingjun Huang & Rui Ke & Hui Wang, 2025. "What Makes a Pocket Park Thrive? Efficiency of Pocket Park Usage in Main Urban Area of Nanjing, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wendi Chen & Junsan Zhao & Guoping Chen & Yilin Lin & Haibo Yang & Qiaoxiong Chen, 2025. "Ecological Network Optimization and Security Pattern Development for Kunming’s Main Urban Area Using the MSPA-MCR Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-26, April.
    2. Qiaoyan Lin & Yu Song & Yixin Zhang & Jian Li Hao & Zhijie Wu, 2022. "Strategies for Restoring and Managing Ecological Corridors of Freshwater Ecosystem," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-19, November.
    3. Yu Liu & Zhengjia Liu & Wenfeng Chi & Bowen Jin & Xun Zhang & Yu Wang, 2025. "A New Perspective on Functional Zoning by Integrating Coupling Coordination Analysis of Ecological Environment and Urbanization Level: A Case Study of Inner Mongolia," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-18, August.
    4. Qian Zuo & Yong Zhou & Jingyi Liu, 2022. "Construction and Optimization Strategy of an Ecological Network in Mountainous Areas: A Case Study in Southwestern Hubei Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-27, August.
    5. Jinxin Sun & Mei Han & Fanbiao Kong & Fan Wei & Xianglun Kong, 2023. "Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Coupling Relationship between Habitat Quality and Urbanization in the Lower Yellow River," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-16, March.
    6. Qu, Hongjiao & You, Chang & Wang, Weiyin & Guo, Luo, 2024. "Spatio-temporal interplay between ecosystem services and urbanization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt: A new perspective for considering the scarcity effect," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    7. Sha, Anmeng & Zhang, Jianjun & Pan, Yujie & Zhang, Shouguo, 2025. "How to recognize and measure the impact of phasing urbanization on eco-environment quality: An empirical case study of 19 urban agglomerations in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    8. Yaobin Wang & Ruitao Zhao & Ying Li & Rong Yao & Ruoxue Wu & Wenlin Li, 2023. "Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity of Rural Habitat Level Evolution and Its Influencing Factors—A Case Study of Rural Villages in Nature a Reserve of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-25, March.
    9. Lihua Chen & Yuan Ma, 2023. "How Do Ecological and Recreational Features of Waterfront Space Affect Its Vitality? Developing Coupling Coordination and Enhancing Waterfront Vitality," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-18, January.
    10. Wusheng Zhao & Peiji Shi & Ya Wan & Yan Yao, 2023. "Coupling and Coordination Relationship between Urbanization Quality and Ecosystem Services in the Upper Yellow River: A Case Study of the Lanzhou–Xining Urban Agglomeration, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-20, May.
    11. Tan, Yanan & Jiang, Guoliang & Merajuddin, Shaheem Sayed & Zhao, Fang, 2025. "Urbanization and tourism economic development," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    12. Tianyi Cai & Qie Shi & Tianle Luo & Yuechun Zheng & Xiaoming Shen & Yuting Xie, 2025. "Separate Versus Unified Ecological Networks: Validating a Dual Framework for Biodiversity Conservation in Anthropogenically Disturbed Freshwater–Terrestrial Ecosystems," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-22, July.
    13. Liang Lv & Shihao Zhang & Jie Zhu & Ziming Wang & Zhe Wang & Guoqing Li & Chen Yang, 2022. "Ecological Restoration Strategies for Mountainous Cities Based on Ecological Security Patterns and Circuit Theory: A Case of Central Urban Areas in Chongqing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-21, December.
    14. Yong Han & Ruixing Ni & Yating Deng & Yuanyuan Zhu, 2023. "Supply and demand of higher vocational education in China: Comprehensive evaluation and geographical representation from the perspective of educational equality," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-19, October.
    15. Ye Tian & Lizhi Meng & Zijie Sang & Yuxiu Chen & Feiyang Yan & Ge Zhang, 2025. "Defining the Range of Water Withdrawals That Are Forbidden and Regulated for Geothermal Energy Development and Use Projects: A Case Study of Lindian County, Northeast China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-26, May.
    16. Cheng Zhong & Yiming Bei & Hongliang Gu & Pengfei Zhang, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Evolution of Ecosystem Services in the Wanhe Watershed Based on Cellular Automata (CA)-Markov and InVEST Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-18, October.
    17. Xinyi Wang & Fenzhen Su & Fengqin Yan & Xinjia Zhang & Xuege Wang, 2022. "Effects of Coastal Urbanization on Habitat Quality: A Case Study in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-24, December.
    18. Hairuo Wang & Baozhu Xie & Ying Zeng & Ankang Liu & Baozhong Liu & Lijuan Qin, 2025. "Intergenerational Transmission of Collective Memory in Public Spaces: A Case Study of Menghe, a Historic and Cultural Town," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-33, September.
    19. Chen, Xiaolu & Guo, Ying & Ma, Qingtao & Shen, Yilin & Zhang, Xiaolong & Yu, Shui & Shen, Yanjun, 2025. "Bundling regions to explore synergies and trade-offs among water-wetland-food nexus in Black Soil Granary, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    20. Chen, Fangxin & Li, Yurui & Liu, Yansui, 2025. "Spatial-temporal evolution and coupling coordination of land use functions across China by fusing multiple-source heterogeneous data," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:6:p:1310-:d:1682902. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.