Differentiated landscape pattern transformation strategies drive territorial space carbon neutrality: A path exploration based on mixed land use units

Abstract

Revealing the mechanism of landscape pattern on carbon emissions under the mixed land use units provides important insights for implementing dual carbon goals and territorial space planning. This study takes Jiangyin as the study area to develop a refined territorial carbon budget accounting system. Based on the data of land use proportion and intensity, the self-organizing map network model was applied to classify the mixed land use units. The interpretable machine learning model was used to analyze the impact of multidimensional landscape pattern on carbon emissions. The results show that: (1) There is a significant gap between carbon source emissions and carbon sink capacity in Jiangyin. The total amount of carbon source was 2349.938×10⁴ tC, with an average carbon source intensity was 2.986×10⁴ tC/km², while the total carbon sink was only 24983.809 tC. Industrial land is the major contributor to carbon emissions, whereas forestland and cropland serve as the primary carbon sinks. (2) High-carbon regions are mainly concentrated in the northern industrial development zone along the Yangtze River and the industrial parks in the central eastern area. Low-carbon regions are mainly located in forest covered hilly and mountainous areas at higher elevations, as well as in crop cultivation areas in the southern part. (3) Thirteen zones of mixed land use units were identified, among which the carbon emission intensity of green ecological protection zone was the lowest, and the carbon emission intensity of agricultural production transition zone was 7.58 times that of agricultural production core zone. (4) The relationship between landscape patterns and carbon emissions varies significantly across different mixed land use units, exhibiting complex nonlinear relationships. This study recommends establishing differentiated landscape pattern transformation strategies based on mixed land use units and advancing the territorial space carbon neutrality by regulating land spatial configuration and enhancing ecological connectivity.