Variability of urban fractional vegetation cover and its driving factors in 328 cities in China

Abstract

Urban green space promotes the health of urban residents, enhances urban ecosystem biodiversity, mitigates environmental pollution, and attenuates urban heat island effect. However, urban vegetation cover is highly heterogeneous and difficult to quantify. In this study, the variation of urban fractional vegetation cover (FVC) in 328 cities in China from 1990 to 2022 was quantified based on Landsat satellite data at a 30-m resolution. It was found that from 1990 to 2005, due to increases in building density and impervious surfaces in cities, the national mean urban vegetation cover decreased from 0.38 to 0.35. After 2005, urban vegetation cover began to reverse, reaching 0.45 in 2022. This increasing trend was most pronounced in newly built urban districts. The decrease in average urban vegetation cover before 2005 was mainly due to the expansion of low vegetation cover areas, while the increase in urban vegetation cover after 2005 manifested as the expansion of high vegetation cover areas. The reversal in the trend of urban vegetation cover change after 2004 is related to the gradual implementation of national policies requiring increased urban green space coverage. The urban gross domestic product (GDP) showed the highest correlation with changes in urban vegetation cover. For large and medium-sized cities, the top three factors influencing vegetation cover were GDP, urban population, and temperature. However, for cities in arid/semi-arid regions, changes in vegetation cover were more sensitive to climatic factors (such as precipitation). Although the urban vegetation cover in China has substantially increased in recent years, the urban green space in small-sized cities and in the old urban districts of large-sized cities still have room to improve.