| Lingang New City is a new urbanization project in Shanghai, China. It is planned and designed artistically with emphasis on water protection given lake view is the highlight of the landscape. However, water quality degrades soon after the urban development. Non-point source pollution (NPSP) is suspected to be among the causes of water pollution. Missing the subtle land use and land cover characteristics and specialties could have misled planning to address the water quality issue. An innovative method for LULC classification---Multi-Attribute Land Object---is proposed to embrace spatial complexity by incorporating all relevant elements from the natural, built-up, and socioeconomic subsectors of urban ecosystem. A case study is done to testify whether spatial complexity is strong explanatory factor for urban ecosystem dynamics by comparing the concentration of pollutants in storm water from surfaces with different and special attributes in Lingang. Results indicate that NPSP is a significant source of water pollution in Lingang. Factors like motor vehicle use, industrial activities, unmanaged commercial behaviors, and urban forest have strong relationship with NPSP, while well managed commercial behaviors, mild human activities in residential and business areas, and urban landscaping vegetation have relatively low impacts. It is an unfortunate truth that these high-impact factors are inherent in the urbanization due to the superior pursuit of economic growth, protocols of urban planning, codes of implementation, and daily management, which are unlikely to be solved merely by ecological practices. More collaborative efforts including further investigating the high-impact factors, reviewing and revising current protocols and codes of urban planning and management, and regulating human behaviors are appealed in order to improve the situation. |
