Author(s): Long Wang; Zhike Zou; Lei Yu; Wei Li; Jingyu Zhang; Jia Wang; Jiu Bian
Linked Author(s): Zhike Zou, Long Wang, Lei Yu
Keywords: Landscape Index; Land Use/Land Cover Change; Geographic Detector; Ecological Risk; Huaibei Plain
Abstract: Ecological risk assessment can help to understand the adverse effects of human activities and natural environment changes on ecosystem, and Landscape index is a robust tool to evaluate the ecological risk in fast urbanization regions. In this paper, the landscape ecological risk index was constructed to analyze the dynamic changes of landscape, spatial-temporal changes of landscape ecological risks and human disturbance activities in Huaibei plain based on landscape data from 1985 to 2021. The results showed that while the whole plain was mainly dominated by low and medium risk areas, such areas accounted for over 90%; the proportion of high-risk areas, mainly distributed in city neighborhoods exhibited an upward trend over the past four decades. 407.8 ha cultivated land was converted into construction land, which was the biggest land cover change, and that accounted for 52.4% of the construction land in 2021. The degrees of landscape fragmentation and diversification were both increasing, and the landscape distribution showed a complicated trend. The low ecological risk was transferred from the cities to the city neighborhoods. Geographic detector indicated the landscape ecological risk was negatively correlated with social and economic factors, and it was more and more affected by human interference. The impact of human factors on landscape ecological risk showed significant differences in different stages of urbanization: With the economic development, the landscape in less developed areas was increasingly fragmented, and the ecological risk increased accordingly. In developed areas, with the further development of economy, the expansion of urbanization made the landscape cluster into patches, and the fragmentation and separation index decreased, the ecological construction was restored, and the landscape ecological risk began to decline with the economic development. Our results provide important guidance for optimizing landscape patterns and water conservation in urbanized regions.
Year: 2024