{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,27]],"date-time":"2026-05-27T13:32:17Z","timestamp":1779888737035,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,9]],"date-time":"2020-07-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1594252800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Shanghai Key lab for urban Ecological processes and Eco-Restoration","award":["SHUES2020A07"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SHUES2020A07"]}]},{"name":"Start-up fund from Hainan University","award":["kyqd1633 and kyqd1840"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["kyqd1633 and kyqd1840"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Understanding the factors that drive green space composition and richness in heterogeneous urban landscapes is critical for maintaining important ecosystem services and biodiversity. Few studies have been conducted on urban greening and plant diversity at the urban functional unit (UFU) level, although a handful of studies have explored the drivers of greening percentage and its relationships with plant richness in tropical cities. In this study, we conducted field surveys, compiled census and remote sensing data, and performed spatial analyses to investigate the interrelationship between greening percentages, plant diversity, and the socioeconomic variables of different primary and secondary UFUs in the cities of Beijing, Zhanjiang, and Haikou in China. We found that these relationships did not differ significantly between primary and secondary UFUs, and that Parks represented the largest areas of forested land, grassland, and water bodies across all three cities. Moreover, the greening percentages of all UFUs across these three cities were positively correlated with both socioeconomic variables and plant species richness. These relationships can be utilized to guide future green space planning within urban ecosystems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12142201","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,9]],"date-time":"2020-07-09T10:45:19Z","timestamp":1594291519000},"page":"2201","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["An Integrated Approach to Study Spatial Patterns and Drivers of Land Cover Within Urban Functional Units: A Multi-City Comparative Study in China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0218-1728","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hua-Feng","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, School of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"},{"name":"Shanghai Key Lab for Urban Ecological Processes and Eco-Restoration, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200041, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xia-Lan","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, School of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8709-9212","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mir Muhammad","family":"Nizamani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, School of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1947-1753","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kelly","family":"Balfour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Algoma University, Sault Sainte Marie, ON P6A 2G4, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liangjun","family":"Da","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanghai Key Lab for Urban Ecological Processes and Eco-Restoration, School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200041, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhi-Xin","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, School of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7955-7490","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Salman","family":"Qureshi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, Humboldt University of Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 16, 12489 Berlin, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Li, F., Wang, R., and Zhao, D. 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