A land-cover-based approach to assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of ecosystem health in the Yangtze River Delta region
It is essential to maintain ecosystem health to achieve the sustainable development goal of the society.The ecosystem health assessment has become one of the hot research issues since recent years.However,it remains challenging to develop suitable indicators for measuring ecosystem health.Changes in land use and land cover could have huge impacts on ecosystem structure and function (i.e.,ecosystem health).Therefore,it may be appropriate to develop a land-cover-based approach to assessing ecosystem health and its dynamics in response to land use and cover change in the region.In this study,we developed the land-cover-based indicator system for ecosystem health assessment in the rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region.In the indicator system,the ecosystem resilience was measured with the habitat quality index computed using the InVEST model.The ecosystem organization was measured with eight landscape pattern indices,such as the landscape connectivity index.The ecosystem vitality was measured with the vegetation coverage index.Based on this indicator system and the land cover maps of the YRD region during 1995-2015,we assessed the spatio temporal variations in ecosystem health for the 16 major cities of the YRD region over the past two decades.We found that the ecosystem health index of the YRD region decreased by approximately 17.6％ during 1995-2015.The area of the ecosystem 'healthy'region decreased by 60.6％,while the area of the ecosystem'unhealthy'region increased by 36.5％ over the past two decades.This was primarily caused by the rapid urban expansion and the huge loss of croplands and natural areas.Therefore,it was crucial to protect the forestland and water bodies to maintain ecosystem health in the YRD region.The land-cover-based approach and the indicator system proposed in this study are suitable for ecosystem health assessment in rapidly urbanizing regions.The land-coverbased assessment of ecosystem health also provides useful information for regional land use planning and management.
ecosystem healthland use and cover changespatio-temporal dynamic assessmentYangtze River Delta
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
维普
