The effects of brightness and prominent colors on outdoor thermal perception in Chongqing, China.

Outdoor thermal comfort has become an important factor affecting human mental and physical health due to rapid urbanization. This study aimed to investigate the influence of brightness and prominent colors on thermal perception in hot summer and cold winter regions. Meteorological measurements were conducted accompanied by subjective thermal and visual questionnaires (n = 2020) during summer and winter. The physiological equivalent temperature (PET) was applied as thermal indices to evaluate the influence of visual conditions on thermal perception. The results showed that (1) the neutral PET is 20.2 °C with a range of 14.8 ~ 25.7 °C in Chongqing and neutral illumination range is 0 ~ 8663 lx. (2) Thermal sensitivity is most great in neutral brightness than bright and too bright groups. The influence of outdoor prominent colors in winter supports hue-heat hypothesis. However, in summer, result only supports the hypothesis under low thermal stress. Both cool and warm colors can reduce the thermal sensitivity of visitors compared to neutral colors (gray and white). (3) The interactions between colors and brightness are more obvious under low thermal stress levels. (4) Thermal perceptions of females are more greatly affected by brightness and prominent colors compared with males. These results could help landscape designers better understand the correlation between the thermal and visual environments and provide a reference for comprehensive designs of urban open spaces.

Spatial difference of carbon budget and carbon balance zoning based on land use change: a case study of Henan Province, China.

Land use change is one of the key reasons for the rise in global carbon emissions. Incorporating practical methods for carbon governance into the major strategic decisions of countries around the world is important for controlling carbon emissions. This study aims to carry out a regional land use carbon budget assessment and build a carbon balance zoning optimization framework. As a result, China will be better able to implement low-carbon strategies and reach carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. Using the data of land use and energy consumption for Henan Province from 2000 to 2020, a carbon budget assessment system was constructed. According to the analysis of the geographical distribution of carbon budget, an evaluation system was developed and a carbon balance partition was established from the natural, economic, ecological and resource structure. A regionally differentiated development strategy was proposed. The findings revealed that: (1) Land use carbon emissions of Henan Province reflected a significant increasing trend, while the variation in carbon absorption of land use was stable. Carbon emissions increased by 87,120.25×104 t in 2020 compared to 2000, but the carbon absorption remained at approximately 1735×104 t over the years and there was an overall state of carbon deficit. (2) The geographical distribution of carbon emissions in Henan Province was characterized by higher in the central part and lower in the surroundings, and the distribution of carbon absorption was higher in the west and lower in the east. The distribution pattern was closely related to the level of land use and the structure of energy consumption. (3) From the carbon balance analysis, the 158 counties in Henan Province were divided into four carbon balance functional areas, namely the carbon sink functional area, low-carbon development area, carbon intensity control area, and high-carbon optimization area. Different optimized development strategies were proposed for each functional area.

Construction and pattern optimization of ecological network in Zhengzhou metropolitan area.

The rapid urbanization process has led to the increasingly prominent problems of ecological environment protection and optimization. The construction of ecological network system, planning to guide ecological values, and efficiently utilizing landscape effects are of great significance for regional regulation of ecological space and promotion of local sustainable development. Taking Zhengzhou metropolitan area as an example, based on land use data at eight time points from 1980 to 2020, using ArcGIS, Guidos Toolbox, Conefor and other tools, we outlined the ecological network with a high structural integrity in the study area. We used future land use simulation to predict future land pattern, morphological spatial pattern analysis to identify landscape elements, minimum cumulative resistance to construct comprehensive resistance surface, gravity model to calculate ecological gravity, hydrologic analysis to create resistance paths, and network structure evaluation, etc. The results showed that, among the nine source sites in the study area, the ecological sources in the Yellow River Basin connected the large-scale centralized source areas in the east and west of the network. The rest sources were located in the northeast, southeast, and southwest of the study area, which were distributed in a semi-circumferential manner around the main urban area of Zhengzhou. There were a total of 163 minimum cost paths and 58 ecological corridors, of which 10, 19 and 29 were primary, secondary and tertiary corridors, respectively, in the form of "three horizontals and three verticals" and "point-axis" along the Yellow River Basin distribution was dominant. A total of 70 ecological nodes were recored in the study area, which were divided into strategic points (10), natural ecological points (27) and artificial environment points (33). Those ecological nodes were distributed in key nodes such as the core of each source area and the intersection of corridors location. The ecological network included all the landscape elements in the study area and connected the main ecological substrates in a horizontal "C" shape. The overall performance was a semi-enclosed network structure of "one horizontal, two verticals and four groups".

Construction and Optimization of an Ecological Network in Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area, China.

Rapid urbanization aggravates issues related to protection and optimization of the ecological environment. Constructing an ecological network system, including ecological values in planning, and using landscape effects efficiently are important for adjusting regional ecological space and promoting local sustainable development. Land use data from eight time points between 1980 and 2020 in the Zhengzhou Metropolitan Area were used to identify the local ecological sources, corridors and nodes and to identify an ecological network with high structural integrity. The study used the FLUS, MSPA, MCR, and gravity models, hydrological analysis, and network structure evaluation by applying tools such as ArcGIS, Guidos Toolbox and Conefor. The results indicated that: (1) among the nine major ecological sources, those in the Yellow River Basin connected the large-scale sources in the east and west of the network, and the rest were located in the northeast, southeast and southwest of the research area, semi-enclosing the main urban area of Zhengzhou. (2) There were 163 least-cost paths and 58 ecological corridors, mainly distributed along the Yellow River Basin. (3) There were 70 ecological nodes, divided into 10 strategic, 27 natural ecological and 33 artificial environment nodes, distributed in key locations such as the core of each source and the intersection of corridors. (4) The ecological network included all the landscape elements in the research area and connected the main ecological substrates in a semi-enclosing network structure with one horizontal and two vertical corridors and four clusters.