The Blue Mountains ecoregion of eastern Oregon, encompassing the Malheur, Umatilla, and Wallowa–Whitman National Forests, faces escalating wildfire risk driven by historical fire exclusion and fuel accumulation. This study integrates spatially explicit fuel reduction and restoration treatment planning with mass timber production to simultaneously enhance fire resilience and stimulate rural economic development. Using TreeMap 2022 data and potential operational delineations, we found that 69% of forests exceed fire-resilient desired future conditions, with 31% prioritized as potential treatment units for mechanical thinning across three national forests. The small-diameter wood volume (10–23 cm diameter) for Ponderosa pine and Lodgepole pine, typically unmerchantable in conventional markets, was evaluated for mass timber production under three treatment scheduling scenarios: basecase20 (20 years), accelerated10 (10 years), and extended30 (30 years). Input–output modeling through IMPLAN revealed substantial regional economic impacts, generating 365 total jobs (direct, indirect, and induced) and $105 million in total output under the basecase20 scenario. Ripple effects were concentrated in logging, sawmilling, and transportation sectors along the I-84 corridor, demonstrating that each dollar invested in mass timber processing generates an additional 31 cents in the regional economy. These findings highlight a scalable pathway to offset restoration costs, reduce wildfire hazard, and revitalize rural communities through the utilization of small-diameter wood for value-added forest products.

The vendor economy is an important component of the urban informal economy and serves as a valuable "lubricant" to enhance social inclusivity and stimulate socio-economic activity. However, urban vendor spaces have several negative effects, such as encroaching on public spaces, affecting the city's image, causing traffic congestion, contributing to environmental pollution, and triggering safety issues. Studying the distribution characteristics and formation mechanisms of urban vendor spaces can provide support for the formulation of governance policies related to these areas. Existing research is often limited by data and methods, predominantly relying on case studies, with a lack of comprehensive urban-level investigations. This limitation increases the likelihood of failure in spatial governance policies. This paper utilizes mobile signaling data and constructs a time-space-population screening method to identify vendor spaces across the entire urban area. It employs XGBoost and SHAP to analyze the influencing mechanisms of vendor spaces, and ultimately conducts a clustering analysis based on the SHAP values of various factors to identify sensitivity zones for vendor spaces, thereby proposing site selection and governance recommendations for vendors. The study finds that: (1) In the main urban area of Wuhan, informal street vendor spaces have formed two primary aggregation zones and four secondary aggregation zones, primarily linked to large communities, schools, sports centers, commercial districts, and hospitals. (2) Among the factors affecting vendor aggregation, consumer demand-related elements have the highest average importance, followed by facility density-related elements, and lastly traffic environment-related elements. (3) In high-attraction areas for informal street vendor spaces, the mean RFD (Recreational facilities density) is the highest, while areas along rivers and lakes generally do not attract vendors easily. (4) We have identified some previously unrecognized distributions of vendors, such as the transitional zones in Hongshan District and Jiangxia District, which represent potential development areas for vendor space management. These research findings provide valuable references for vendor space governance in large cities.

To enhance ecological resilience in environmentally fragile restoration zones, this study selects Yanchi County in Ningxia, a representative eco-restoration area in northern China, as a case study. A three-tier analytical framework - comprising ecological function identification, process simulation, and resilience-oriented regulation - is developed. By integrating Multi-scale Patching and Spatial Analysis (MSPA), dynamic resistance surface modeling, and circuit theory, ecological sources and corridors are accurately identified. A dual-dimensional resilience assessment system based on the "source-corridor" structure is constructed to examine the spatiotemporal evolution of the ecological network from 2000 to 2020. The results reveal that: (1) Ecological service functions increased by 22.45% from 2000 to 2020, although growth slowed after 2010. Meanwhile, the Ecological Risk Index (ERI) rose by 12.5%, with high-risk zones expanding from 14% to 16.3% and shifting northward by 12.6 km, indicating a mismatch between functional gains and risk control; (2) The number of ecological sources decreased by 17% between 2000 and 2010 but rebounded by 8.8% from 2010 to 2020. However, fragmentation intensified, as evidenced by a 21.7% decrease in the largest patch index (LPI), leading to disrupted ecological stability and reduced resilience of source areas;(3) An ecological security pattern - "one core, two zones, two belts, and multiple corridors" - is proposed to enhance network connectivity and mitigate regional ecological threats, particularly wind erosion and soil degradation. This study provides a scientific and technical framework for optimizing ecological security patterns from a resilience perspective in arid and semi-arid regions, offering empirical support for landscape-scale ecological restoration and sustainable management.

Wetland is a kind of the most productive ecosystems, which are critical to habitats of species including human beings. The heterogeneous spatiotemporal patterns of wetlands are the output of a variety of factors like urban development and human activities and others. The revealing of wetlands' heterogeneous spatiotemporal patterns and effects from factors is very important open question in ecological research. This paper introduces an approach of revealing heterogeneous spatiotemporal patterns of wetlands through time-series remote sensing images, and analyzing their change patterns and effects from drivers within the study area of Hubei, China over the past 25 years (2000-2024). The experiment results showed that (1) The urban wetland pattern in Hubei Province is undergoing a profound transformation from artificial development to a model characterized by the coexistence of ecological agriculture and natural restoration. (2) Wetland landscape diversity increases, but the trend of fragmentation intensifies, the aggregation of patches weakens, and the spatial structure of the wetland landscape becomes more dispersed and complex over the past 25 years. (3) Socioeconomic factors, particularly population size and GDP level, are key driving forces influencing the evolution of wetland landscape patterns. In areas with high population density and intense economic activity, wetland patches tend to be more complex and landscape diversity is higher; however, these areas also face greater ecological pressure and an increased risk of landscape fragmentation.

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In contrast to the existing literature focusing on post-disaster regional impacts, we illustrate how the perception of disaster exposure affects regional population flows through household location decisions using a quantitative spatial economics model. More importantly, the quantitative spatial economics model helps identify critical drivers for regional migration that motivate the subsequent empirical analyses. A generalized additive model is applied to US county-level data to capture the nonlinear impact of disaster exposure on migration. The regional migration is not responsive to small and moderate disaster exposures. However, counties subject to severe disaster exposure experience significantly slower net inmigration.

High-efficiency land use facilitates the maximization of land utilization, lowers urban construction costs, and optimizes urban functional patterns. The Sustainable Development Goal 11.3.1 (SDG 11.3.1) can be used to assess land use efficiency (LUE), understand the current state of land use, and identify the potential for optimization. This study combines SDG 11.3.1 with other supplementary indicators to establish a land use efficiency evaluation system. This system provides a more precise understanding of internal city changes and enables a scientific assessment of urban LUE in Mainland China. The results showed that: (1) A significant number of cities were growing cities, particularly in the eastern region, with the population of built-up areas increased by 2.92 times from 2000 to 2020; (2) From 2000 to 2020, cities in China underwent rapid urban expansion, with the most significant urban expansion index in 2015-2020; (3) The coordination between population growth rate (PGR) and land consumption rate (LCR) worsened in the western region, while the central and eastern regions showed better coordination. (4) As the urban expansion index increased, the compactness index of the cities in the above three regions decreased and were at lower levels. This study establishes an evaluation system to assess the LUE and reveals the spatial and temporal characteristics of urban and population change. It holds paramount significance in enhancing LUE and encouraging sustainable development in Mainland China and serves as a valuable reference for global urban management.

In this paper, we investigate the spatial variations in the operational expenditures of US county governments using a novel method: the bivariate penalized spline estimation over triangulation (BPST) method. We find that the costs of providing population- and health-related services are spatially non-stationary and are affected by local characteristics, like governance structure, natural amenities, and rural-urban status. In general, county operational expenditures are higher in rural counties with more governance autonomy. The marginal administrative cost for providing population-related services is lower for counties with more elected officials. In amenity-rich counties, the administrative costs are less responsive to wage and population increases but more responsive to health-related services.

Heavy metal(loid)s (HMs) in soils near mining sites often cause serious environmental and health issues. Accurately assessing soil HM risks and identifying priority pollutants are crucial for improving risk control efficiency with limited management costs and resources. Traditional deterministic assessments may yield biased results due to the imprecision and ambiguity of environmental data and assessment processes. To compensate for the deficiencies of deterministic assessment, a comprehensive probabilistic-fuzzy model was developed based on fuzzy theory, probability methods, the soil contamination risk (SCR) index, and a human health risk (HR) assessment framework. According to this model, the soil HM risk status in a typical mining area in China was evaluated. The results indicated that Cd and Cu significantly violated the relevant environmental guidelines and were considered priority metals for environmental risk (ER). Notably, Cd’s hazard predominantly manifested in a solid potential ecological risk (PER), whereas Cu’s environmental impact primarily manifested as a soil contamination risk (SCR). From the perspective of HR, soil HMs already pose a considerable threat to human health, with children facing greater HRs than adults. As was identified as a priority element for HRs, with carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks reaching unacceptable levels. Regarding general risk (GR), Cd and Cu ranked in the first gradient and As in the second gradient. Overall, the accumulation of soil HMs—especially Cd, Cu, and As—in the study area has posed a significant threat to the ecosystem and human health. The risks of other HMs (Pb, Zn, Cr, and Ni) are relatively low, but the superimposed risks of multiple HMs should not be ignored. The probabilistic–fuzzy model reduces the uncertainty of risk assessment, and the model integrates the environmental and health risks of HMs, providing more comprehensive risk information. The assessment results can serve as a reference for managers to develop targeted control strategies.

The frequent occurrence of floods in urban areas caused by climate change challenges urban resilience. This research aims to construct an ecological security pattern (ESP) that is adaptive to floods to enhance urban resilience in the hope that it will help cities cope with floods better. In this research, the main urban area of Wuhan (WUH) represents the study area. The lakes were selected as the ecological sources and the Soil Conservation Service-Curve Number (SCS-CN) model was used to calculate the runoff volume corresponding to each land type and, based on this, assign resistance values to the land types; as such, the land type surface is referred to as the runoff resistance surface, and the runoff resistance surface is then modified by ecosystem service capabilities. The Minimum Cumulative Resistance (MCR) model was used to extract the connecting corridors between the sources. This research plan includes 18 ecological sources, 10 key ecological corridors, and 22 potential ecological corridors, with a total length of about 344.21 km. Finally, it provides a two-axis and three-core urban ecological resilience optimization strategy for decision makers and a new approach for controlling floods in urban areas from the perspective of ecological resilience.

Industry in ancient mining areas caused significant heavy metal pollution (HMP) in agricultural soils. This study measured the hazards of specific sources of heavy metals (HMs) in an ancient mining areas agricultural soil. Firstly, we identified the major pollution sources based on the PMF model. Then, the proposed single-factor pollution load index (SPLIzone) and ecological load index (SELIzone) analyzed the integrated pollution and ecological risks of various elements. Finally, the source-specific soil contamination levels and ecological risks were quantified by combining the source assignment and single-factor assessment processes. SPLIzone and SELIzone showed that Cu and Cd were the most contaminated elements. Five factors were determined as the major sources of HMs, including mining, natural, smelting industry, agricultural and traffic sources. The mining sources contributed the most soil contamination (33.73%). However, the largest contributor to ecological risk was the smelting industrial (42.18%). Lower soil contamination may contain higher ecological risk. Smelting industrial and traffic are the most critical sources that need to be controlled at present. This study proposes a quantitative method for assessing the hazards of HM sources, which provides a beneficial reference for the study and management of HMP.

Urban construction land (UCL) change is a significant cause of changes in urban carbon emissions. However, as the extent of this effect is currently unclear, cities cannot easily formulate reasonable carbon reduction policies in terms of land use. Taking the city of Wuhan, China, as an example, this paper combines data on land use and carbon emissions from 1995 to 2019 and uses spatial analysis, curve estimation, and correlation evaluation to explore the direct and indirect effects of the UCL changes on carbon emissions. The results show that: (1) Between 1995 and 2019, the UCL area in Wuhan increased by 193.44%, and carbon emissions increased by 78.63%; moreover, both changes showed a gradually increasing spatial correlation, and the quantitative relationship could be better fitted with a composite function model; (2) The UCL change had mainly an indirect impact on carbon emissions via factors such as population and energy use intensity per unit of carbon emissions; (3) The maximum value of carbon emissions inside a unit area decreased during the study period, with an average annual decrease of about 2.02%. Therefore, the city of Wuhan can promote the achievement of its carbon emissions reduction targets by improving the existing land use policies, for example, by dividing the city into multiple functional zones.

Heavy metal pollution (HMP) from mining operations severely threatens soil ecosystems and human health. Identifying the sources of soil heavy metals (HMs) and assessing source-specific risks are critical for developing effective risk mitigation strategies. In this study, a combination of methodologies including PMF, Monte Carlo analysis, soil pollution risk index, and a human health risk assessment model were utilized to investigate soil HM risks in a typical ancient mining area in Daye City, China, considering both environmental pollution and human health impacts. Cu emerged as the most significant soil pollution risk, whereas As posing the highest health risk. About 48.44 % of the multi-element integrated soil pollution risk has escalated to the heavy level. Furthermore, around 22.42 % of the non-carcinogenic risk (NCR) and 9.53 % of the carcinogenic risk (CR) exceeded unacceptable thresholds (THI > 1 for NCR and TCR > 1E-4 for CR). The PMF model identified four distinct sources: the smelting industry, traffic emissions, a combination of agricultural and natural factors, and mining activities. The mixed agricultural and natural source significantly impacted health risks, contributing 42.17 % to NCR and 53.88 % to CR, followed by the mining source, contributing 31.67 % to NCR and 24.07 % to CR. Interestingly, the mining source contributed the highest soil pollution risk at 42.45 %, while the mixed agricultural and natural source exhibited the lowest at 16.33 %. Furthermore, the study explored source-specific risk components by evaluating the contributions of different sources to specific elements. The mining source was identified as the focus for soil HMP control, followed by the mixed agricultural and natural source. Overall, this study provided an in-depth analysis of soil heavy metal risks in mining areas from the source apportionment perspective, which broadened the research framework of soil heavy metal source analysis and risk assessment, potentially providing scientific guidance for managing regional soil HMP.

Heavy metal pollution in cultivated land poses a serious threat to environmental health and farmers' livelihoods. As the direct user of cultivated land, understanding farmers' adaptive behavior to heavy metal pollution, and its influencing factors, can provide insight and information relevant for decision-making, so as to better manage the hazards and risks of heavy metal pollution. We proposed a conceptual framework of "farmers' characteristics-perceptions-adaptive behaviors". Factor analysis and mediation effect analysis were used to explore the influence of characteristics and perceptions on adaptive behaviors. The data of 278 farmers in a typical mining area in Daye, China, show that local farmers perceive the hazards of heavy metal pollution, but their adaptive behaviors are hindered to a certain extent. The results of the mediation effect analysis show that perceptions of health impact, self-efficacy, and adaptive cost play a partial mediating role in the impact of characteristics on adaptive behaviors. In addition, the influence of the "factor of dependence on farmland" and the "factor of obstacles to action" on adaptive behavior have no significant relationship with perception levels. By comparing the influencing factors, we found that although farmers' perceptions have mediating effects between characteristics and adaptive behaviors, characteristics still play a decisive role in adaptive behaviors.

Heavy metal pollution (HMP) from mining has caused serious threats to farmland, such as land degradation and contamination of produce. Current research on HMP in farmland mainly focuses on the technical aspects while ignoring the social impacts. Farmers are the executors of farming strategies, and their adaptation behaviors are the key to solving HMPs. However, there is little insight into farmers’ adaptation process and the mechanism. Here, we propose a theoretical framework to explain the relationship between farmers’ perceptions, knowledge, characteristics, and adaptation behaviors. Based on survey data of 278 mining farmers in Daye City, Hubei Province, we tested the theoretical framework using a structural equation modeling and logistic regression. The results demonstrate that knowledge and information have significant positive effects on perceptions. We divided farmers’ perceptions into adaptation perception and risk perception. Adaptation perception plays a mediating role between risk perception and adaptation behavior. A low level of adaptation perception, for which technology is the most important limiting factor followed by money, limits the adaptation behaviors of farmers. In addition, farmers’ characteristics have significant effects on adaptation behaviors. Farmers tend to engage in adaptation behaviors according to the actual situation of their family such as income and obligations. Our results reveal the process and mechanism of farmers adapting to HMP in farmland, which can not only provide a scientific basis for managers to formulate control strategies for HMP but also enrich the literature on HMP in farmland.

A clear understanding of the impacts of urban land expansion on ecosystem services is crucial for sustainable urban planning. Although various studies have shown that urban land expansion caused a degradation of ecosystem services, the relationship between the spatial variation of urban land expansion and ecosystem services still remains unclear. This study quantified the ecosystem services and urban land expansion indicators of Wuhan for 1990–2015 and analyzed the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of ecosystem service values (ESVs) and urban land expansion indicators. Using spatial autocorrelation analysis and linear regression, the quantitative and qualitative correlations between ecosystem services and urban land expansion indicators were explored. The total ESV of Wuhan decreased by 16.47%, representing a loss of 1636.19 million yuan. Areas with extremely low ESVs continuously expanded outward from the urban center. During 2010–2015, the urban land expansion area, intensity, damage weight, and distance peaked, which caused an enormous decrease of the total ESV. Negative correlations were found between urban land expansion and all ecosystem services; the correlation with food production was most significant, indicating that urban land expansion had the strongest impact on food production. The expansion area is the main factor causing the decline of each ecosystem service among urban land expansion indicators. This study presents the impact characteristics of urban land expansion on ecosystem services, and the results provide a reference for reasonable decision making in urban planning.

A clear insight into the response mechanism of Ecosystem Services (ESs) to urban land expansion can provide references for balancing the relationship between urbanization and ecosystem. Some qualitative studies have looked at the relationship between ESs and urban land expansion, but they can hardly reveal the response mechanism. Thus, we adopted the dynamic equivalent factor method to quantitatively assess each of the Ecosystem Service Values (ESVs) and the total ESVs, then explored the response mechanism through the correlation analysis in Wuhan. The results showed that: (1) During 1990-2015, various ESVs in Wuhan decreased continuously, with the largest decline in the food production, the smallest in hydrology regulation; the ESVs of the whole region showed a downward trend, particularly, in the central region where construction land was concentrated, the ESVs dropped sharply. (2) The demand pressure of ESs brought by population growth was much larger than the direct damage of urban land expansion to ESs. (3) The urban land expansion had the greatest damage to raw material production. This research could deepen the understanding of the relationship between urban land expansion and the decrease of ESVs, but also provide theoretical references for the reasonable expansion of urban land in Wuhan.

Recent research finds evidence that improvements in rural natural amenities can increase median household income in communities close to the amenities. In this paper, a simple theoretical model is sketched out as an explanation of a hypothesized underlying mechanism: improvement in natural amenities can induce skill sorting across rural communities. Using community-level data in the state of Oregon before and after a large federal land conservation program was implemented, we test this hypothesis along with several competing mechanisms. Our empirical results support the hypothesized mechanism of amenity-induced skill sorting. Other mechanisms like the out-migration of the low-income population and the in-migration of the elderly population are not supported. The findings are important for policy discussions about land conservation, development and their distributional impacts.

In order to solve the problem that the compensation and environment in the ecological compensation are separated from each other and the theoretical compensation amount is excessively high, it is of great significance to study the establishment of a reasonable and feasible ecological compensation mechanism. From the perspective of ecosystem service value, this paper substitutes and replaces the sustainable ecological profit and loss index calculated by the "consumption-output" ecological footprint model and compensation correction coefficient on the calculation idea based on the unit area value equivalent factor. The new ecological compensation standard and the accounting method of compensation priority are obtained, and the empirical analysis is carried out in Linxiang City as an example. Results are as follows: (1) The total value of ecosystem services in Linxiang City is higher, but the regional distribution is different, and the supply and demand are not balanced in space. (2) The regional ecological compensation standard model of Linxiang City has certain rationality. The ecological compensation standards of all regions are smaller than the upper limit of ecosystem service value. (3) Chengfeng Township first obtained ecological compensation, Chang'an town paid compensation first, and Taolin Town finally received compensation. The ecological compensation standard revised by the "consumption-output" model is economically reasonable within the regional GDP tolerance. The compensation is based on the "high non-market value output and low GPD output" area as the priority to obtain compensation logic. And the logic is in line with the concept of reality.

针对城市用地扩张对生态系统服务影响研究缺乏空间影响因素(坡度、高程、梯次)的分析,而导致无法以改变城市用地扩张的空间分布来减少ES损失的问题,以武汉市为例,定量计算区域各生态系统服务功能价值及城市用地扩张的时空变化特征,探究了城市用地扩张对生态系统服务的时空影响特征.结果表明:武汉市ESV高值和极低值区域在武汉市中部交错分布,受城市用地扩张影响最高,ES V极低值区域不断扩大,逐渐扩散至西部和东部区域;近25年来,城市用地扩张面积不断增加,在1990—2005年扩张速度较为稳定,在2005—2015年扩张速度迅速增加.研究认为武汉市城市用地扩张面积对各生态系统服务功能均起主要影响作用,城市扩张侵占地类变化起次要影响作用,扩张高程影响程度较大,扩张距离影响程度较低,扩张坡度仅影响食物生产和保持土壤.武汉市在未来的城市用地扩张中,应控制中心城区的范围,在距市中心较远的地区建立新的卫星城.