Land Use and Climate Change Altered the Ecological Quality in the Luanhe River Basin

Yongbin Zhang; Tanglei Song; Jihao Fan; Weidong Man; Mingyue Liu; Yongqiang Zhao; Hao Zheng; Yahui Liu; Chunyu Li; Jingru Song; Xiaowu Yang; Junmin Du

doi:10.3390/ijerph19137719

Land Use and Climate Change Altered the Ecological Quality in the Luanhe River Basin

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 23;19(13):7719. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137719.

Authors

Yongbin Zhang^{1

2}, Tanglei Song¹, Jihao Fan^{2

3}, Weidong Man^{1

2

4

5

6}, Mingyue Liu^{1

2

4

5

6}, Yongqiang Zhao⁷, Hao Zheng¹, Yahui Liu¹, Chunyu Li¹, Jingru Song¹, Xiaowu Yang¹, Junmin Du^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Mining Engineering, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063210, China.
² Hebei Tangshan High Resolution Earth Observation System Data and Application Center, Tangshan 063210, China.
³ Aerospace Wanyuan Cloud Data Hebei Co., Ltd., Tangshan 063300, China.
⁴ Tangshan Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Remote Sensing, Tangshan 063210, China.
⁵ Hebei Industrial Technology Institute of Mine Ecological Remediation, Tangshan 063210, China.
⁶ Hebei Key Laboratory of Mining Development and Security Technology, Tangshan 063210, China.
⁷ Qinhuangdao City Surveying and Mapping Brigade, Qinhuangdao 066000, China.

Abstract

Monitoring and assessing ecological quality (EQ) can help to understand the status and dynamics of the local ecosystem. Moreover, land use and climate change increase uncertainty in the ecosystem. The Luanhe River Basin (LHRB) is critical to the ecological security of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. To support ecosystem protection in the LHRB, we evaluated the EQ from 2001 to 2020 based on the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) with the Google Earth Engine (GEE). Then, we introduced the coefficient of variation, Theil-Sen analysis, and Mann-Kendall test to quantify the variation and trend of the EQ. The results showed that the EQ in LHRB was relatively good, with 61.08% of the basin rated as 'good' or 'excellent'. The spatial distribution of EQ was low in the north and high in the middle, with strong improvement in the north and serious degradation in the south. The average EQ ranged from 0.58 to 0.64, showing a significant increasing trend. Furthermore, we found that the expansion of construction land has caused degradation of the EQ, whereas climate change likely improved the EQ in the upper and middle reaches of the LHRB. The results could help in understanding the state and trend of the eco-environment in the LHRB and support decision-making in land-use management and climate change.

Keywords: Google Earth Engine; climate change; ecological quality; land use; remote sensing ecological index; time series.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Beijing
China
Climate Change*
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Rivers*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.41901375 and 42101393), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (Grant No.D2019209322 and D2019209317), the Funding Project for the Introduction of Returned Over-seas Chinese Scholars of Hebei, China (Grant No. C20200103), Funded by Science and Technology Project of Hebei Education Department (Grant No. BJ2020058), the Key Research and Development Program of Science and Technology Plan of Tangshan, China (Grant No.19150231E), the North China University of Science and Technology Foundation (Grant No. BS201824 and BS201825), the Fostering Project for Science and Technology Research and Development Platform of Tangshan, China (Grant No. 2020TS003b).