Fig. 1: Systematic framework of urbanization impacts on mangroves based on the UCM model.
From: Coastal urbanization may indirectly positively impact growth of mangrove forests
Several representative variables for urban (impervious surface, population, GDP), climate (sea level, winter air temperature, precipitation), and mangrove (mangrove area, mangrove carbon stock) were employed for quantifying three latent variables: urbanization, climate, and mangrove. The framework enables the direct, indirect, and total effects of urbanization on mangroves to be measured by means of different pathways and equations that are listed in the figures. In this model, the direct impacts of urbanization and climate change on mangroves are EUM and ECM; the indirect impacts of urbanization on mangroves are (EUC × ECM). The total urbanization impacts on mangroves were measured by (1) direct urbanization effects (EUM) and (2) indirect urbanization effects via the climate-mediated pathway (EUC × ECM). These effects are standardized within the range of (−1,1), whereby the positive and negative effects are represented by plus and minus signs, respectively. Icons made by Freepik, Icon Pond, Sittipat Tojarean, cah nggunung, Nualnoi Kinkaeo from www.flaticon.com.
