Green space plays an important role in sustainable urban development and ecology by virtue of multiple environmental, recreational, and economic benefits. Constructing an effective and harmonious urban ecological network and maintaining a sustainable living environment in response to rapid urbanization are the key issues required to be resolved by landscape planners. In this paper, Nanchang City, China was selected as a study area. Based on a series of landscape metrics, the landscape pattern analysis of the current (in 2005) and planned (in 2020) green space system were, respectively, conducted by using FRAGSTATS 3.3 software. Considering the actual situation of the Nanchang urban area, a “one river and two banks, north and south twin cities” ecological network was constructed by using network analysis. Moreover, the ecological network was assessed by using corridor structure analysis, and the improvement of an ecological network on the urban landscape was quantitatively assessed through a comparison between the ecological network and green space system planning. The results indicated that: (1) compared to the green space system in 2005, the planned green space system in 2020 of the Nanchang urban area will decline in both districts (Changnan and Changbei districts). Meanwhile, an increase in patch density and a decrease in mean patch size of green space patches at the landscape level implies the fragmentation of the urban green space landscape. In other words, the planned green space system does not necessarily improve the present green space system; (2) the ecological network of two districts has high corridor density, while Changnan’s ecological network has higher connectivity, but Changbei’s ecological network is more viable from an economic point of view, since it has relatively higher cost efficiency; (3) decrease in patch density, Euclidean nearest neighbor distance, and an increase in mean patch size and connectivity implied that the ecological network could improve landscape connectivity greatly, as compared with the planned green space system. That is to say, the planned ecological network would reduce landscape fragmentation, and increase the shape complexity of green space patches and landscape connectivity. As a result, the quality of the urban ecological environment would be improved.

Fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) pollution has become one of the greatest urban issues in China. Studies have shown that PM_2.5 pollution is strongly related to the land use pattern at the micro-scale and optimizing the land use pattern has been suggested as an approach to mitigate PM_2.5 pollution. However, there are only a few researches analyzing the effect of land use on PM_2.5 pollution. This paper employed land use regression (LUR) models and statistical analysis to explore the effect of land use on PM_2.5 pollution in urban areas. Nanchang city, China, was taken as the study area. The LUR models were used to simulate the spatial variations of PM_2.5 concentrations. Analysis of variance and multiple comparisons were employed to study the PM_2.5 concentration variances among five different types of urban functional zones. Multiple linear regression was applied to explore the PM_2.5 concentration variances among the same type of urban functional zone. The results indicate that the dominant factor affecting PM_2.5 pollution in the Nanchang urban area was the traffic conditions. Significant variances of PM_2.5 concentrations among different urban functional zones throughout the year suggest that land use types generated a significant impact on PM_2.5 concentrations and the impact did not change as the seasons changed. Land use intensity indexes including the building volume rate, building density, and green coverage rate presented an insignificant or counter-intuitive impact on PM_2.5 concentrations when studied at the spatial scale of urban functional zones. Our study demonstrates that land use can greatly affect the PM_2.5 levels. Additionally, the urban functional zone was an appropriate spatial scale to investigate the impact of land use type on PM_2.5 pollution in urban areas.

Economic growth in China is accompanied by many problems, such as rapid deterioration of the environment and a sharp decline in the area of arable land. China’s current land-use planning system fails to deal with these problems, especially at the regional level. The lack of sustainable spatial allocation at regional level has become a pressing problem. This article aims to: (1) analyze the reason why sustainable land use at the regional level is difficult to achieve under the current Chinese land-use planning system; (2) put forward a regional optimization model for sustainable land use; and (3) explore the usefulness and possibility of the future application of the model in supporting land-use planning. The model has been applied in a case study for the Poyang Lake Region, Jiangxi Province in China. Based on predictions of the demand of land in 2015, three single-objective scenarios were constructed: food production oriented, nature conservation oriented and economic growth oriented. An optimized, multi-objective pattern of sustainable land use was achieved by integrating the three single-objective scenarios. The relevance and applicability of the model were discussed with planning experts and practitioners. The results indicate that the model can contribute to a more sustainable regional land-use planning in China. However, the results also show a need for further research on how to embed wider social and economic aspects in the model.

Nanling Mountain region is a typical southern hilly region, which plays an important ecological and environmental protection role in China’s overall land protection pattern. Based on the remote sensing image data of Longnan City in Nanling Mountain region in 2013, 2018 and 2023, this paper interpreted the land use type and analyzed the land use transfer situation by using land use transfer flow, and a land use transfer matrix. At the same time, based on the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) model, the ecological environmental quality of Longnan City from 2013 to 2023 was retrieved. The temporal and spatial response model of the ecological environmental quality to land use transfer in Longnan City from 2013 to 2023 was discussed based on spatial autocorrelation and a geographical detector. The results show that from 2013 to 2023, the decrease of forest land (16.23 km²) and the increase of construction land (13.25 km²) were the main land use transfers in Longnan City. The ecological environment indexes of Longnan City in 2013, 2018 and 2023 were 0.789, 0.917 and 0.872, respectively, showing a trend of “first rising and then decreasing”. The ecological environmental quality in the north of Longnan City was significantly lower than that in the south, and the poor ecological quality area appeared in and around the northern main urban area, showing a trend of “inward contraction”. Forest land, garden land, grassland, cultivated land and water area have a positive impact on ecological environmental quality, while traffic land, construction land and other land have a negative impact on ecological environmental quality. The response of ecological environmental quality to different land use transfer modes is related to the change of the overall ecological environmental quality. The interaction between land use and land cover change (LUCC) and other factors had a great impact on the evolution of ecological environmental quality in Longnan City.

Although some researchers have explored spatiotemporal characteristics of the land surface temperature (LST) and analyzed how the influencing factors impact the LST, the comprehensive influencing factors and specific spatial relationships that explore the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect from long time scale have rarely received widespread attention. Taking Nanchang as an example, this paper first uses Landsat data to retrieve the LST in years 2000, 2010, and 2019. Then, the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model is utilized to investigate the various influencing factors. The results showed as follows: (1) The UHI effect was intensified in the past 20 years in Nanchang City. From 2000 to 2019, the “heat island” increased from 63.06% to 64.07%, while the “green island” decreased from 36.94% to 35.93%. (2) The spatiotemporal anisotropy of the UHI effect was significant. (3) The GWR model could better reveal the spatial heterogeneity of the factors affecting the UHI effects. The relationship between Soil Brightness Index (NDSI), Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), and Night-lighting (NL) and the relative UHI effect intensity had significant spatial non-stationarity. This study can provide some references from reasonable urban planning to alleviate the urban heat island.

Understanding the effects of ecological restoration in abandoned coal mines on soil and plant is important to improve the knowledge of ecosystems evolution and facilitate taking appropriate ecological restoration management practices. This study aims to evaluate the coupling relationship between plant diversity and soil properties after ecological restoration in abandoned coal mine area. The plant diversity such as Margalef index (M), Simpson index (H), Shannon–Wiener index (D), and Pielou index (J), and soil properties such as soil pH, soil water content (SWC), soil bulk density (SBD), soil organic matter (SOM), available nitrogen (AN), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) were investigated in four sites of different ecological restoration patterns, T and study the coupling relationship between them. The results indicated that: (1) the Pinus massoniana and Schima superba gardner and champ restoration (PSR) site had higher Shannon–Wiener index and Simpson index values than Pinus massoniana restoration (PR) site, and in herb layer, the plant diversity was significantly higher than in other layers; (2) in the PSR site, the soil properties were improved more notably than that of PR and nature restoration (NR) sites, and the plant diversity were also higher than PR site; (3) Clay, SOM, and MBC made a great contribution to the plant diversity. It was concluded that ecological restoration patterns had significant effects on soil nutrient content and plant diversity, and there exists evident coupling relationship between plant diversity and soil properties. This study has important effects of ecological restoration and management in abandoned coal mine area.