Monitoring Multi-Scale Ecological Change and Its Potential Drivers in the Economic Zone of the Tianshan Mountains' Northern Slopes, Xinjiang, China

Lina Tang; Alimujiang Kasimu; Haitao Ma; Mamattursun Eziz

doi:10.3390/ijerph20042844

Monitoring Multi-Scale Ecological Change and Its Potential Drivers in the Economic Zone of the Tianshan Mountains' Northern Slopes, Xinjiang, China

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 6;20(4):2844. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20042844.

Authors

Lina Tang¹, Alimujiang Kasimu^{1

2

3}, Haitao Ma⁴, Mamattursun Eziz^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Geography and Tourism, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830054, China.
² Research Centre for Urban Development of Silk Road Economic Belt, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830054, China.
³ Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Lake Environment and Resources in Arid Zone, Urumqi 830054, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modelling, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.

Abstract

Accurately capturing the changing patterns of ecological quality in the urban agglomeration on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains (UANSTM) and researching its significant impacts responds to the requirements of high-quality sustainable urban development. In this study, the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) were obtained by normalization and PCA transformation of four basic indicators based on Landsat images. It then employed geographic detectors to analyze the factors that influence ecological change. The result demonstrates that: (1) In the distribution of land use conversions and degrees of human disturbance, built-up land, principally urban land, and agricultural land, represented by dry land, are rising, while the shrinkage of grassland is the most substantial. The degree of human disturbance is increasing overall for glaciers. (2) The overall ecological environment of the northern slopes of Tianshan is relatively poor. Temporally, the ecological quality changes and fluctuates, with an overall rising trend. Spatially, ecological quality is low in the north and south and high in the center, with high values concentrated in the mountains and agriculture and low values in the Gobi and desert. However, on a large scale, the ecological quality of the Urumqi-Changji-Shihezi metropolitan area has worsened dramatically compared to other regions. (3) Driving factor detection showed that LST and NDVI were the most critical influencing factors, with an upward trend in the influence of WET. Typically, LST has the biggest influence on RSEI when interacting with NDVI. In terms of the broader region, the influence of social factors is smaller, but the role of human interference in the built-up area of the oasis city can be found to be more significant at large scales. The study shows that it is necessary to strengthen ecological conservation efforts in the UANSTM region, focusing on the impact of urban and agricultural land expansion on surface temperature and vegetation.

Keywords: GEE; geodetector; remote sensing ecological index; urban agglomeration on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

China
Cities
Ecosystem
Environment*
Environmental Monitoring*
Humans
Remote Sensing Technology

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Special Project for the Construction of Innovation Environment in the Autonomous Region, grant number NO. 2022D04007, and supported by the Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition Program, grant number NO. 2021xjkk0905.