Natural and Political Determinants of Ecological Vulnerability in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: A Case Study of Shannan, China

Jiang, Yunxiao; Li, Rong; Shi, Yu; Guo, Luo

doi:10.3390/ijgi10050327

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…With the expansion of urbanization, there is also a risk of spillover of ecological and environmental stresses, especially the trend of expansion to agricultural and pastoral development areas. In the environmental evaluation results, the peripheral areas of these urban agglomerations show different degrees of pollution, and this finding is consistent with many previous studies [62][63][64].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Evolution and Ecological Implications of Land Development and Conservation Patterns on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Wang

Liao

et al. 2022

Land

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The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau serves as an important ecological security shelter in China and across Asia. During the past two decades, the patterns of land development and conservation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have undergone significant changes under the impacts of global climate change and human expansion. This paper analyzes the evolution of land development and conservation patterns and potential ecological implications on the Tibetan Plateau from 2000 to 2020 based on urbanization, agricultural and pastoral patterns with multi-source data, such as long-term time series land use data, ecological indices, environmental pollution, and population and economics. It was found that: (1) Coinciding with the agglomeration of population and economy, the urban development pattern on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has spatial-temporal differentiation. Urban development in the 2010s was more significant than that in the 2000s, with the intensity increased by 63.31%, and the development pattern varies spatially, which can be seen from the finding that central Tibet (the Yarlung Tsangpo, Lhasa river, and Nyangchu basins) and Huangshui River Basin in Qinghai Province were developed in a planar pattern, while other node cities and border towns in a dotted pattern. (2) The agricultural production pattern is relatively stable, the grain yields have increased by 34.68% in the past 20 years, but the total amount of arable land is shrinking, and the degree of fragmentation has increased. The pattern of pastoralism has changed greatly, showing a migration trend from west to east spatially, and there is a serious problem of pasture overload, with an increase of 18.4% in livestock products. Regardless of the pattern of urbanization or agricultural and livestock development, the intensity of human activities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has shown an intensified trend in the past. (3) It shows that Lhasa City area and the middle and lower reaches of Huangshui show a trend of diffusion of atmospheric and water environmental pollution. The western part of the Ali region and the northern foothills of the Himalayas and other regions, under the combined impact of climate change and human activities, have undergone significant ecological degradation. Accordingly, this paper proposes policy recommendations for optimizing production and living space, advancing the establishment of national park clusters and nature reserve systems, and the integrated recovery of mountain, water, forest, lake, grass, sand, and ice with ecological value achievement.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Evolution and Ecological Implications of Land Development and Conservation Patterns on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Wang

Liao

et al. 2022

Land

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“…Remarkably, this pattern did not fit every prefecture. In Shannan, the correlation between urbanization and EVI was negative during 1990-2015 [82], which meant that though EVI in Tibet overall was influenced by urbanization, the situation was spatially heterogeneous.…”

Section: Driving Factors Of Ecological Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Long-Term Ecological Vulnerability Analysis of the Tibetan Region of Natural Conditions and Ecological Protection Programs

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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The combined impacts of drastic natural environment change and increasing human interference are making the uncertainty of the Tibetan Plateau’s ecological vulnerability the world’s largest. In this study, an ecological vulnerability index (EVI) of Tibet in the core area of the Tibetan Plateau was assessed using a selected set of ecological, social, and economic indicators and using a spatial principal component analysis (SPCA) to calculate their weights. The data included Landsat images and socio-economic data from 1990 to 2015 in five-year intervals. The results showed that the total EVI remained at a high vulnerability level, with drastic fluctuation from 1990 to 2000 (a peak in 1995, when there was a sudden increase in light vulnerability, which moved to extreme vulnerability in the next period), and minor fluctuations after 2000, gradually increasing from southeast to northwest. In addition, the spatial analysis showed a distinct positive correlation between the EVI and grassland area (0.33), land use degree (0.15), NDVI (0.14), livestock husbandry output, and a negative correlation in terms of desertification area. The artificial afforestation program (AAP) had a positive significant correlation with NDVI (R2 = 0.88), preventing the environment from becoming more vulnerable. The results provide practical information and suggestions for planners to improve the land use degree in urban areas and the vegetation coverage in pastoral regions of the Tibetan Plateau based on the spatial–temporal heterogeneity patterns of the EVI of Tibet.

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“…Built-up land is mainly distributed at the second and third TGs, which is more suitable for human living with enough water along a river and increases with time. According to previous studies, ecological protection policy such as an artificial afforestation program and a sloping land conversion program in Shannan has achieved certain results [ 30 , 57 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some researchers initially revealed that rapid urbanization causes a continuous decline in regional ESV [ 28 , 29 ]. Different from the developed, urbanized areas, the impacts of urbanization on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau with suffering serious environmental deterioration from both climate change and human interventions, attract less attention [ 30 , 31 ]. There are obvious differences in the distribution of land vegetation patterns and the responses of ESV to urbanization in different terrain conditions [ 32 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Response of Ecosystem Service Value to Urbanization in Fragile Vegetation Areas Based on Terrain Gradient

Zhang

Liu

Shi

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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The contradiction between urban expansion and ecological protection in fragile vegetation areas has become increasingly prominent with regional development. Revealing the relationship between urbanization and ecosystem services will help to provide solutions to this problem. In order to clarify the impact of urbanization on typical mountain areas with fragile vegetation on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, we built an ecosystem service value (ESV) evaluation index system. We also evaluated the ESV and its spatial response to the urbanization of Shannan Prefecture in Tibet from 1990 to 2015 based on different terrain gradients (TGs) using vegetation biophysical data obtained from remote sensing platforms. The results show that ESV in Shannan increased first and then declined as the TG increased, reaching a maximum value at the third TG. ESV showed a decreased trend during the study period, with a significant decline at the second and third TGs, which were the main distribution areas of vegetation in Shannan. Through spatial correlation analysis, we observed that urbanization and ESV showed a significant spatial aggregation effect. Among them, the high–low type accounted for the largest proportion in the grid with the agglomeration effect, mainly concentrated at the lower TG in the southern of Shannan, where ESV decreases with the increasing urbanization. We highlight the need for targeted, sustainable development policies to rationally organize the urbanization process in the different-gradient plateau regions with fragile vegetation. These results can provide a reference for applying ESV to vegetation restoration and ecological protection in ecologically fragile mountain areas.

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Natural and Political Determinants of Ecological Vulnerability in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: A Case Study of Shannan, China

Cited by 10 publications

References 37 publications

Evolution and Ecological Implications of Land Development and Conservation Patterns on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Evolution and Ecological Implications of Land Development and Conservation Patterns on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

A Long-Term Ecological Vulnerability Analysis of the Tibetan Region of Natural Conditions and Ecological Protection Programs

Spatial Response of Ecosystem Service Value to Urbanization in Fragile Vegetation Areas Based on Terrain Gradient

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