Spatial heterogeneity and interaction mechanism of human activity intensity and land-use carbon emissions along the urban-rural gradient: A case study of the Yellow River Delta.

Abstract

Advancing our understanding of the spatial heterogeneity and interaction mechanism between human activity intensity (HAI) and land-use carbon emissions (LCE) along the urban-rural gradient holds significant importance for achieving integrated carbon reduction in urban-rural development. Therefore, this study focused on the Yellow River Delta as the study area and introduced the gradient analysis method to establish gradient rings and gradient bands respectively, with the city center as the origin; meanwhile, and applied the improved human footprint modelling and LCE accounting methods, Lorenz curve & Gini coefficient, and cross-wavelet analysis to quantify the gradient differences of HAI and LCE and their equilibrium, directionality and spatial multi-scale correlations. The findings showed that: 1) In the urban-rural gradient rings and gradient bands, the mean levels of HAI and LCE exhibited certain characteristics of the ring structure, with high-value and low-value areas alternating. 2) In the urban-rural gradient, the equilibrium between HAI and LCE gradually decreased; moreover, the positive effect between HAI and LCE was significant, and the characteristic scales of the 4 gradient bands were identified as the most suitable spatial scales for explaining their association. Furthermore, this study provides a new perspective on carbon reduction strategies by proposing a universal urban-rural gradient partitioning scheme.