J Environ Manage. 2025 May 6;385:125651. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.125651. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Coastal areas are one of the most concentrated and fastest urbanizing areas for human activities. Land use carbon emissions (LUCE) related to human activities are recognized as an essential contributor of climate change. Nevertheless, carbon emissions linked to changes in land use in coastal areas remain unclear. While nighttime light images can effectively indicate the human activity intensity in different geographic spaces and monitor the spatio-temporal dynamics of human social activities. Here, we investigated the spatio-temporal changes in LUCE using nighttime light images during 1991-2020 in Shandong Province. The influential drivers of LUCE were detected by employing GeoDetector. The results demonstrated that (1) Carbon emissions from construction land at the city scale can be modeled with nighttime lighting data. (2) Cities with highest carbon emissions were Weifang (27.9 MtCO2e) and Qingdao (31.63 MtCO2e) in the study area. Average annual growth rate for LUCE was the highest during 2000-2010 (315.42%), and reached an inflection point in 2013 during the study period. (3) The mean center of LUCE has been in Weifang for most of the last 30 years. (4) GDP had the largest q statistic of 0.781, and was the main factor affecting LUCE. (5) Low-carbon development in coastal areas needs to increase carbon sinks in addition to reducing carbon sources. The results provide a theoretical basis for improving the ecological environment in Shandong Province and a scientific reference for the development of low-carbon in coastal areas.
PMID:40334405 | DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.125651
