This paper presents a new assessment method for alleviating urban heat island (UHI) effects by using an urban land surface moisture (ULSM) index. With the aid of Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS data, the land surface temperature (LST) was retrieved by a mono-window algorithm, and ULSM was extracted by tasselled cap transformation. Polynomial regression and buffer analysis were used to analyze the effects of ULSM on the LST, and the alleviation effect of ULSM was compared with three vegetation indices, GVI, SAVI, and FVC, by using the methods of grey relational analysis and Taylor skill calculation. The results indicate that when the ULSM value is greater than the value of an extreme point, the LST declines with the increasing ULSM value. Areas with a high ULSM value have an obvious reducing effect on the temperature of their surrounding areas within 150 m. Grey relational degrees and Taylor skill scores between ULSM and the LST are 0.8765 and 0.9378, respectively, which are higher than the results for the three vegetation indices GVI, SAVI, and FVC. The reducing effect of the ULSM index on environmental temperatures is significant, and ULSM can be considered to be a new and more effective index to estimate UHI alleviation effects for urban areas.

As an important contributor to pollutant emissions to the atmosphere, land use can degrade environmental quality. In order to assess the impact of land-use planning on the atmosphere, we propose a methodology combining the land-use-based emission inventories of airborne pollutants and the long-term air pollution multi-source dispersion (LAPMD) model in this study. Through a case study of the eastern Chinese city of Lianyungang, we conclude that (1) land-use-based emission inventorying is a more economical way to assess the overall pollutant emissions compared with the industry-based method, and the LAPMD model can map the spatial variability of airborne pollutant concentrations that directly reflects how the implementation of the land-use planning (LUP) scheme impacts on the atmosphere; (2) the environmental friendliness of the LUP scheme can be assessed by an overlay analysis based on the pollution concentration maps and land-use planning maps; (3) decreases in the emissions of SO₂ and PM₁₀ within Lianyungang indicate the overall positive impact of land-use planning implementation, while increases in these emissions from certain land-use types (i.e., urban residential and transportation lands) suggest the aggravation of airborne pollutants from these land parcels; and (4) the city center, where most urban population resides, and areas around key plots would be affected by high pollution concentrations. Our methodology is applicable to study areas for which meteorological data are accessible, and is, therefore, useful for decision making if land-use planning schemes specify the objects of airborne pollutant concentration.

China plays an important role in the global terrestrial carbon cycle. While China is included in global assessments of the carbon cycle, such as the global carbon budget, the performance of dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) over China has rarely been evaluated. This knowledge gap constrains both model applicability and region-specific parameter optimization within China. To address this gap, our study assesses the performance of terrestrial carbon stocks and sinks simulated by 12 DGVMs in China from 1970 to 2018. The results indicate that (1) there is significant variation in the numerical magnitudes of terrestrial carbon stocks as simulated by various models, with mean vegetation carbon at 38.3 PgC and mean soil carbon at 115.3 PgC. Nevertheless, their spatial distribution demonstrates a remarkable degree of congruence. Notably, the simulated carbon stocks are generally in excess of existing estimates. (2) Despite the good consistency in the spatial distribution of terrestrial carbon sinks across different models, there is considerable fluctuation in the numerical values, with a mean carbon sink of 0.02 PgC yr⁻¹, a value lower than pre-existing estimations. (3) The responses of terrestrial carbon stocks and sinks to CO₂ fertilization, climate change, and land use change exhibit pronounced heterogeneity. CO₂ fertilization has a positive effect, whereas land use change has a negative one. The impact of climate change is variable, and the carbon sink effect engendered by CO₂ fertilization is negated by the adverse influence of land use change. This comprehensive evaluation of the simulation performance of DGVMs in China is anticipated to serve as an important reference for the functional analysis and parameter optimization of DGVMs within China.