The response of ecological security to land use change in east and west subtropical China

PLoS One. 2023 Nov 16;18(11):e0294462. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294462. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Regional land use change and ecological security have received considerable attention in recent years. The rapid economic development of Kunming and Fuzhou has resulted in environmental damage such as water pollution and urban heat island effect. It is thus important to conduct a comparative analysis of the ecological security response to land use/land cover change (LUCC) in different natural zones. Using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, random forest and support vector machine methods were used to classify land cover types in the study area, after which the ArcGIS platform was used to analyze LUCC. The driving force-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) model and entropy weight method were used to construct an ecological security evaluation system, and gray correlation was used to compare the ecological security responses to LUCC in Kunming and Fuzhou. The findings revealed that: (1) The average dynamic degrees of comprehensive land use in Kunming and Fuzhou from 1995 to 2020 were 1.05% and 0.55%, respectively; (2) From 1995 to 2020, the ecological security index values for Kunming and Fuzhou increased from 0.42 to 0.52 and from 0.36 to 0.68, respectively, indicating that Fuzhou's index is rising more rapidly; and (3)There is a strong correlation between LUCC and ecological security, the correlation between the woodland and the ecological security index is very strong in both places. The expansion of construction land may be an important reason for the reduced ecological security level in Fuzhou City, while water resources have a significant impact on the ecological security level of Kunming City.

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Cities
  • Conservation of Natural Resources* / methods
  • Ecosystem
  • Hot Temperature*

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Multigovernment International Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Key Project of the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number 2018YFE0184300); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 41561048 and 41961060). The study was co-funded by RFBR (grant number 19-55-80010\19), MOST (grant number 2018YFE0184300), and NRF (grant number 120456) according to the research project number 19-55-80010\19, the Yunnan Provincial University Science and Technology Innovation Team (IRTSTYN), and Yunnan Normal University Postgraduate Scientific Research Innovation Fund (grant number YJSJJ22-B101).The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.