GIS-Based Modeling of Human Settlement Suitability for the Belt and Road Regions

Comprehensive Evaluation and Analysis of Human Settlements' Suitability in the Yangtze River Delta Based on Multi-Source Data

The suitability of human settlements is critical for quality of life and regional development. As comprehensive evaluations and research on the suitability of human settlements are lacking, a comprehensive evaluation of human settlements in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) was carried out in 2020 by combining natural and human environmental elements based on multi-source data such as digital elevation models, Landsat remote sensing images, meteorological station data, and points of interest, other multi-source data, and constructions of the human settlements' suitability indexes. The results showed the following: (1) The spatial suitability of the natural environment in the YRD is significantly affected by the topographic conditions and distance from the sea, showing an increasing spatial differentiation from southwest to northeast, with Shanghai and Yancheng having the best natural environment suitability. (2) The suitability of the human environment in urban areas is better than that in non-urban areas and shows a decreasing trend from the south to the north circle. Shanghai, Zhoushan, and Huaibei have the best human environment suitability. (3) The comprehensive suitability of human settlements includes both the spatial differentiation characteristics of the suitability of natural and human environments. Shanghai and Zhoushan have the mosy comprehensive suitability for human settlements, while Huaibei and Xuzhou have the worst. (4) Land with a comprehensive suitability for human settlements of greater than 0.580 accounts for 23.60% of the total and contains 30.08% of the population and 32.31% of the economy, indicating that areas with a high suitability index have been fully utilized, and the populations and economies with human settlements suitability have a high degree of matching.

Temporal-spatial assessment of the vulnerability of human settlements in urban agglomerations in China

Although many studies have focused on the livability and satisfaction of the human settlement environment in Chinese cities, few have paid attention to the vulnerability of human settlements in urban agglomerations in China (VHSUAC). The analytic hierarchy process and the entropy method are combined in this paper to comprehensively weight the constructed four-dimensional evaluation index system. Then, we identified the key factors influencing VHSUAC. Finally, we use the environmental vulnerability index (EVI) to calculate the vulnerability value from 2008 to 2017 and display the vulnerability changes over time and space using ArcGIS software. The results show that (1) from the perspective of temporal pattern, VHSUAC showed a downward trend from 2008 to 2017, but the degree of decline in each urban agglomeration was not equal. There is a certain difference in the vulnerability value of the human settlement environment between the urban agglomeration and its inner cities, and their direction of change is not always the same. (2) From the perspective of spatial pattern, VHSUAC has obvious regional heterogeneity, presenting a spatial pattern of "low coastal areas and high inland areas." Coastal urban agglomerations pay more attention to the optimization of the human settlement environment. (3) In terms of influencing factors, the vulnerability values of the four system indicators are listed in the following order: economic support environment>urban ecological environment>public service environment>urban living environment. We found that domestic waste and sewage treatment have a more obvious impact on VHSUAC.