Assessing the ecological vulnerability of the upper reaches of the Minjiang River

Impacts of land use/land cover and climate change on landscape sensitivity in Tunca River sub-basin: Use in spatial planning and sectoral decision processes

Managing landscape change is increasingly challenging due to rapid anthropogenic shifts. A delicate balance must be struck between the environment and change to ensure landscapes can withstand these impacts. This study conducted in the Tunca River sub-basin of Edirne province, aims to assess landscape sensitivity by examining the influence of land use/land cover (LULC) and climate change on landscape function processes. For this purpose, a methodology was developed based on ecosystem services to determine landscape sensitivity. The results revealed a LULC transformation that could lead to a 60% reduction in forest areas and a 5% and 20% increase in urban and irrigated agricultural areas, respectively. Water and erosion emerged as the most affected landscape function processes. Future scenarios from 2050 to 2070 indicate noteworthy changes in landscape sensitivity, showing an increase in sensitivity in the upper regions of the basin. The study identified high sensitivity in forested areas, moderate sensitivity in agricultural zones, and low sensitivity in micro-basins near residential areas. Protection and improvement strategies are recommended for areas with high and moderate sensitivity, while use-oriented strategies are suggested for those with low sensitivity. This study also establishes a scientific foundation for guiding the protection and management of ecologically sensitive basin areas, offering insights into the effects of landscape change processes at the micro-basin level in connection with climate change models.

Examining the complex relationship between Urbanization and ecological environment in ecologically fragile areas: a case study in Southwest China

The sustainable development of ecologically fragile areas and the implementation of regional coordinated development strategies cannot be separated from the coordinated development and common progress of urbanization and the ecological environment, and this is particularly the case in Southwest China. This study examines the interplay between urbanization and the ecological environment across 26 cities in Southwest China from 2009 to 2019, utilizing 30 statistical indicators to analyze their coupling coordination relationship and its spatiotemporal evolution. The Entropy TOPSIS method, the coupling coordination degree model, and the obstacle factors model were used to calculate the subsystem score, coupling coordination degree, and obstacle factors, respectively. Our findings reveal an upward trajectory in urbanization scores across the 26 cities, juxtaposed with a fluctuating downward trend in ecological environment scores. The coupling coordination degree of urbanization and ecological environment in most cities maintained a rapid upward trend and showed spatial distribution characteristics of "strong core, weak middle, and edge." Moreover, our analysis identified public transport facilities, aggregate purchasing power, and cultural supply service services as primary obstacle factors impeding the development of coupling coordination degrees. These research results offer valuable insights for informing future endeavors in achieving high-quality development and fostering ecological civilization.

The vulnerability assessment and obstacle factor analysis of urban agglomeration along the Yellow River in China from the perspective of production-living-ecological space

Urban agglomerations are sophisticated territorial systems at the mature stage of city development that are concentrated areas of production and economic activity. Therefore, the study of vulnerability from the perspective of production-living-ecological space is crucial for the sustainable development of the Yellow River Basin and global urban agglomerations. The relationship between productivity, living conditions, and ecological spatial quality is fully considered in this research. By constructing a vulnerability evaluation index system based on the perspectives of production, ecology, and living space, and adopting the entropy value method, comprehensive vulnerability index model, and obstacle factor diagnostic model, the study comprehensively assesses the vulnerability of the urban agglomerations along the Yellow River from 2001 to 2020. The results reveal that the spatial differentiation characteristics of urban agglomeration vulnerability are significant. A clear three-level gradient distribution of high, medium, and low degrees is seen in the overall vulnerability; these correspond to the lower, middle, and upper reaches of the Yellow River Basin, respectively. The percentage of cities with higher and moderate levels of vulnerability did not vary from 2001 to 2020, while the percentage of cities with high levels of vulnerability did. The four dimensions of economic development, leisure and tourism, resource availability, and ecological pressure are the primary determinants of the urban agglomeration's vulnerability along the Yellow River. And the vulnerability factors of various urban agglomerations showed a significant evolutionary trend; the obstacle degree values have declined, and the importance of tourism and leisure functions has gradually increased. Based on the above conclusions, we propose several suggestions to enhance the quality of urban development along the Yellow River urban agglomeration. Including formulating a three-level development strategy, paying attention to ecological and environmental protection, developing domestic and foreign trade, and properly planning and managing the tourism industry.

Research Advancement in Grassland Ecosystem Vulnerability and Ecological Resilience and Its Inspiration for Improving Grassland Ecosystem Services in the Karst Desertification Control

Karst desertification control of grasslands balances the ecological and economic benefits of ecological restoration and rural ecological animal husbandry development. In the context of global changes and intensified human activities, the fragility of grassland ecosystems under karst desertification control is becoming increasingly evident, and enhancing the ecological resilience and ecosystem services of grasslands is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed. In this paper, the CNKI literature, WOS core databases and Goolgle scholar were used as search sources, identifying 179 articles related to the study of grassland ecosystem vulnerability and ecological resilience. This research systematically reviewed the progress of grassland ecosystem vulnerability research and analyzed the relationship between grassland ecosystem services (GESs) and grassland ecosystem vulnerability and resilience. The direction of enhancing GESs in karst areas is indicated in terms of the reciprocal feedback, synergistic relationship, and mechanism of action of GESs, vulnerability, and resilience. It is also emphasized that the karst desertification area should provide an ecological foundation for the sustainable development of the regional environment around the supply-and-demand relationship of GESs, the trade-off synergy of service flow, and the enhancement of ecological resilience, thereby consolidating the effectiveness of karst desertification control, enhancing GESs, and helping rural revitalization.

Assessment and influencing factors analysis of economic system vulnerability of the Belt and Road Initiative countries

Economic vulnerability is an important indicator to measure regional coordination, health and stability. Despite the importance of vulnerabilities, this is the first study that presents 26 indicators selected from the dimensions of the domestic economic system, external economic system and financial system in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. A quantitative analysis is conducted to analyze the characteristics of spatial heterogeneity of vulnerability of the economic subsystems and the comprehensive economic system of the BRI countries and the main influencing factors of the comprehensive economic system vulnerability (CESV) are identified based on obstacle degree model. The results show that the CESV of the East Asia, South Asia and ASEAN countries are lower than that of the Middle Eastern Europe, Central Asia and West Asia countries. The CESV of the BRI countries are generally in the middle level and the average vulnerability index of highly vulnerable countries is twice as much as that of lowly vulnerable countries. In addition, in terms of the vulnerability of the three subsystems, the spatial distribution of vulnerability of the domestic economic system (DESV) and financial system (FSV) is basically consistent with the spatial distribution pattern of CESV, both of which are low in East Asia and South Asia and high in West Asia and Central Asia. While, the vulnerability of external economic system (EESV) shows a different spatial pattern, with vulnerability of West Asia, Central Asia and ASEAN higher than that of East Asia and South Asia. The main obstacle factors influencing the CESV of BRI countries include GDP growth rate, saving ratio, ratio of bank capital to assets, service industry level, industrialization level and loan rate. Therefore, the key way to maintain the stability and mitigate the vulnerability of the economic system of BRI countries is to focus on the macroeconomic development and operation, stimulate the economy and market vitality, promote the development of industries, especially the service and secondary industries, and optimize the economic structure, banking system and financial system.

Spatio-temporal distribution and classification of utilization of urban bare lots in low-slope hilly regions

Urban bare lots are persistent phenomena in urban landscapes in the course of urbanization. In the present study, we examined the spatio-temporal distribution of urban bare lots in low-slope hilly areas, and to assess the major pathways by which they are generated and later re-transformed for exploitation. We extracted land use and land cover (LULC) change information and analyzed spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of urban bare lots using Landsat TM/OLI series remote sensing images. Subsequently, we proposed an index system for their evaluation and classification, and identified five types of urban bare lots. Urban bare lot quantity and distribution are closely correlated with human activity intensity. Stakeholders should consider the multiple effects of location, topography, landscape index, transportation, service facilities, and urban planning in urban bare lot classification activities for renovation and re-transformation.

Modelling Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) in response to climate change scenarios for the SAARC nations

Agriculture and forestry are the two major land use classes providing sustenance to the human population. With the pace of development, these two land use classes continue to change over time. Land use change is a dynamic process under the influence of multiple drivers including climate change. Therefore, tracing the trajectory of the changes is challenging. The artificial neural network (ANN) has successfully been applied for tracing such a dynamic process to capture nonlinear responses. We test the application of the multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP-NN) to project the future Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) for the year 2050 for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations which is a geopolitical union of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) use much frequently the term 'AFOLU' in their policy documents. Hence, we restricted our land use classification scheme as AFOLU for assessing the influence of climate change scenarios of the IPCC fifth assessment report (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5). Agricultural land would increase in all the SAARC nations, with the highest increase in Pakistan and Maldives; moderate increase in Afghanistan, India and Nepal; and the least increase in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. The forestry land use will witness a decreasing trend under all scenarios in all of the SAARC nations with varying levels of changes. The study is expected to assist planners and policymakers to develop nations' specific strategy to proportionate land use classes to meet various needs on a sustainable basis.

The aridity index governs the variation of vegetation characteristics in alpine grassland, Northern Tibet Plateau

The vegetation dynamic (e.g., community productivity) is an important index used to evaluate the ecosystem function of grassland ecosystem. However, the critical factors that affect vegetation biomass are disputed continuously, and most of the debates focus on mean annual precipitation (MAP) or temperature (MAT). This article integrated these two factors, used the aridity index (AI) to describe the dynamics of MAP and MAT, and tested the hypothesis that vegetation traits are influenced primarily by the AI. We sampled 275 plots at 55 sites (five plots at each site, including alpine steppe and meadow) across an alpine grassland of the northern Tibet Plateau, used correlation analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA) to explore which key factors determine the biomass dynamic, and explained the mechanism by which they affect the vegetation biomass in different vegetation types via structural equation modelling (SEM). The results supported our hypothesis, in all of the environmental factors collected, the AI made the greatest contribution to biomass variations in RDA , and the correlation between the AI and biomass was the largest (R = 0.85, p < 0.05). The final SEM also validated our hypothesis that the AI explained 79.3% and 84.4% of the biomass variations in the alpine steppe and the meadow, respectively. Furthermore, we found that the soils with higher carbon to nitrogen ratio and soil total nitrogen had larger biomass, whereas soil organic carbon had a negative effect on biomass in alpine steppe; however, opposite effects of soil factors on biomass were observed in an alpine meadow. The findings demonstrated that the AI was the most critical factor affecting biomass in the alpine grasslands, and different reaction mechanisms of biomass response to the AI existed in the alpine steppe and alpine meadow.