Heavy metal pollution in urban soil has become a serious environmental issue in China since the last three decades. Attention has been given to the investigation of soil contamination; however, there is little information available on the variation of heavy metal pollution in soils. To resolve this problem and provide references on similar regions, 18 topsoil (0∼20 cm) samples were collected from identical sites of districts that with different functions in Kaifeng City in 1994 and 2012. Total contents of As, Cd, Hg, and Pb were determined by standard methods.

Urbanization is a global phenomenon with still unknown consequences for vegetation dynamics of urban ecosystems, especially in subtropical areas of developing countries. In this paper we analyze the vegetation productivity trend associated to urban densification and urban expansion during the last decade, in twelve cities of northern Argentina. We used time series analysis of MODIS-NDVI images to reconstruct the phenological patterns to retrieve a productivity trend under three spatial classes of urban dynamics: (1) urban, (2) expansion and (3) periphery.

The increase of global urbanization can have effects on wildlife species, including carnivores such as coyotes (Canis latrans). As coyotes continue to settle in more urban areas, reports of human-coyote conflicts, such as attacks on humans or pets, may also increase. Understanding environmental variables that might influence whether or not coyotes and human-coyote conflicts will occur in certain urban areas may assist wildlife officials in creating management plans for urban wildlife.

The climate warming trend and city growth contribute to the generation of excessive heat in urban areas. This could be reduced by introducing vegetation and open water surfaces in urban design. This study evaluates the cooling efficiency of green and blue infrastructure to reduce urban heat load using a set of idealized case simulations and a real city model application for Vienna. The idealized case simulations show that the cooling effect of green and blue infrastructure is dependent on the building type, time of the day and in case of blue infrastructure, the water temperature.

The urban matrix was recently shown to be a mosaic of heterogeneous dispersal habitats. We conducted a playback experiment of mobbing calls to examine the probabilities of forest birds to cross a distance of 50m over urban matrix with different land-cover types in an urban area. We treated the reciprocal of the crossing probabilities as a movement resistance for forest birds. We drew resistance surfaces based on the land-cover maps of urban XXX.

The proliferation of artificial lighting at night is one of the key anthropogenic changes associated with urbanised areas as well as some non-urban areas. Disruption to natural light/dark regimes can have considerable effects on the timing of different behaviours of birds, particularly during the breeding season. However, the effect of artificial lights on the timing of behaviours during winter has received relatively little attention, despite the fact that time partitioning of foraging can have implications for avian winter survival.

Woodland fragments, in small historical cities, are commonly regarded as temporary voids in an urban matrix, yet to be allocated a land-use, under city planning regulations. However, they could display relevant plant diversity, and contribute to urban ecosystem services. This study combined surveys at 100 m², and at patch level, with the aim to investigate how patch size, stand and urbanization, affected the structure of plant communities in thirty woodland fragments (0.1–2 ha), spontaneously developing in the small, historical city of Padova (Northern Italy).

Previous studies at the scale of a city have shown that surface soil nutrients, pH, and soil organic matter (SOM) can vary by land cover, land use, and management. This study was conducted in Baltimore County, Maryland, to quantify the differences in characteristics of soil in a residential neighborhood and adjacent forest patch sampling at a fine scale. The first objective was to compare soil characteristics in a residential neighborhood among ecotope types of forest, lawn, and planting beds that were underlain by the same parent material and thus only differed in plant cover.

Research increasingly suggests that moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is essential to children's health. However, little is known about the extent to which and when different urban environments influence the extent to which children engage in MVPA. To this end, this study explores the relationship between children's MVPA and urban land use and land cover (LULC) for several temporal subdivisions of children's weekly routines (before school, after school and weekends).

Hollow-bearing trees provide habitat for diverse taxonomic groups and as such they are recognised for their importance globally. There is, however scant reference to this resource relative within urban forest patches. The functional ecology of habitat remnants along an urbanisation gradient plays an important ecological, social and economic role within urban landscapes. Here we quantify the impacts of urbanisation, landscape, environmental, disturbance (past and present) and stand variables on hollow-bearing tree density within urban forest patches.

Based on an extensive survey of woodland visitors in Wallonia, south Belgium, we examined a wide range of individual-, residential- and destination-level variables for their associations with the distance travelled for woodland leisure on foot, by bicycle and by car. For each transport mode, explanatory bivariate analyses were conducted firstly to identify potential correlates of the distances travelled. Then, cross-classified multilevel analysis was performed to build estimation models for the trip distance.

In this study, we have considered the relationship between the spatial configuration of land use and water quality in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. Using land use types, landscape metrics, and long-term water quality data, as well as statistical and spatial analysis, we determined that most water quality parameters were negatively correlated with non-wood forest and urban areas but were strongly positively correlated with the proportion of forest area.