Analysis of urban carbon metabolism from the land use perspective: a case study of Nanchang, China

This study took Nanchang as a research object and established an urban carbon metabolism process model based on carbon flow and an urban carbon metabolism analogy model based on Kleiber's law. The ecological relationship between land types and their changes caused by carbon flow in the process of land use change was studied by applying the ecological network analysis (ENA), and whether the relationship between urban carbon metabolism and the scale of construction land was consistent with the biometabolic law by using the panel data model. The results showed that the net carbon flow in Nanchang continued to show negative values from 2000 to 2020, and the mean value of the mutualism index ( \(M\) $M$ ) was less than 1, both factors indicating a negative impact of land use change. Exploitation and control relationships were the most major ecological relationships, dominated by urban land. The β values of the carbon metabolism models for rural settlements and other construction land were less than 1, implying an analogous relationship between carbon metabolism and biometabolism for both. The study provides a scientific foundation for national and local governments to formulate carbon emission reduction policies and plan low-carbon land use patterns.