Multi-Scale Remote Sensing Assessment of Ecological Environment Quality and Its Driving Factors in Watersheds: A Case Study of Huashan Creek Watershed in China

Abstract

The Huashan Creek watershed is the largest water source and the main production area of honeydew in Pinghe County, whose extensive cultivation of honeydew has exacerbated soil and water pollution. However, the spatial application of remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) in this watershed and key driving factors are not clear considering the applicability of data quality and the diversity of methodological scales. To explore the RSEI and driving factors at distinct scales in Huashan Creek watershed, this study constructed the RSEI based on the environmental balance matrix at seven scales in 2020, revealed its spatial response characteristics at different scales, and analyzed the key drivers. The results show that the 240 m grid as well as rural and watershed scale convergence analyses satisfy the assessment of RSEI, whose Moran indexes are 0.558, 0.595, and 0.146, respectively. The RSEIs at different scales have significant spatial aggregation characteristics, but the overall status is moderate. The central town–riparian area with poor RSEI contrasts with the western mountainous area, which has comparatively better quality. Population has a major influence on RSEI at multiple scales (0.8), with elevation and patch index acting significantly at the village and grid scales, respectively. These findings help to identify the spatial distribution of quality and control mechanisms of RSEI in the Huashan Creek watershed and provide new insights into key scales and drivers of ecological restoration practices in the watershed.

Study on the Spatial and Temporal Trends of Ecological Environment Quality and Influencing Factors in Xinjiang Oasis

“…The quality of the ecological environment is classified into five levels, and the corresponding values are as follows: poor (0−0.2), poor (0.2−0.4), moderate (0.4−0.6), good (0.6−0.8), and excellent (0.8−1). The above RSEI calculations were performed on the GEE platform [36].…”

Remote Sensing Ecological Quality and Its Response to the Rocky Desertification in the World Heritage Karst Sites

“…Multi-factor changes couples multiple environmental change elements for analysis, and compared with singlefactor targeting, multi-factor change results are more comprehensive and have stronger generalizations. To this end, scholars have proposed various evaluation index systems, such as Liao et al, who constructed an evaluation index system based on an environmental balance matrix consisting of seven factors, including elevation, population, and land use, in order to reveal the spatial response characteristics of the environment at different scales in the Huashan River Basin [16]. Chen Fuyan et al selected seven indicators, including land use status, vegetation coverage, and soil erosion, as evaluation indicators, which were used in a comprehensive index evaluation method to evaluate the ecological environment quality of the Yanghuopan mining area [17].…”