Spatial Suitability Evaluation of an Arid City Based on the Perspective of Major Function Oriented Zoning: A Case Study of Urumqi City in Xinjiang, China
Abstract:The realization of regional sustainable development has been a popular research topic during the process of urbanization. To explore the coordination relationships between urban development and ecological security-taking Urumqi city, a representative arid city in Xinjiang, China, as a study area-this study has constructed a framework of spatial suitability evaluation based on the characteristics of a Mountain-Oasis-Desert System (MODS) in an arid area under the framework of major function oriented zoning (MFOZ… Show more
“…This method presented an apparent advantage compared with other studies and can be applied to assess vulnerability, particularly in arid lands. In TRB, ecological vulnerability showed a distribution pattern which not only corresponded with the actual situation, a typical mountain-oasis-desert pattern in an arid area, but was also consistent with the development requirements of the region [44]. Adequate and rational desert construction in arid areas expanded the living space of human beings and improved the quality of the local ecological environment [67,68].…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 59%
“…In 2017, the population and gross national product accounted for 11.83% and 28.51% of Xinjiang, respectively, while the land area accounted for 1.39% of Xinjiang. However, because of the typical temperate continental arid climate and increasing development intensity in the middle oasis, urban expansion [43], lack of water resources [44], environment pollution [45], soil erosion [46], desertification [47], and the fragile ecological environment have already negatively influenced the local development and posed great challenges to the sustainable development of the basin, making the TRB appropriate for assessing ecological vulnerability. Establishing a quantitative ecological vulnerability assessment framework in a raster scale is important for a more detailed understanding of the ecosystem in TRB.…”
Ecological vulnerability assessment increases the knowledge of ecological status and contributes to formulating local plans of sustainable development. A methodology based on remote sensing data and spatial principal component analysis was introduced to discuss ecological vulnerability in the Toutun River Basin (TRB). Exploratory spatial data analysis and a geo-detector were employed to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of ecological vulnerability and detect the driving factors. Four results were presented: (1) During 2003 and 2017, the average values of humidity, greenness, and heat in TRB increased by 49.71%, 11.63%, and 6.51% respectively, and the average values of dryness decreased by 165.24%. However, the extreme differences in greenness, dryness, and heat tended to be obvious. (2) The study area was mainly dominated by a high and extreme vulnerability grade, and the ecological vulnerability grades showed the distribution pattern that the northern desert area was more vulnerable than the central artificial oasis, and the central artificial oasis was more vulnerable than the southern mountainous area. (3) Ecological vulnerability in TRB showed significant spatial autocorrelation characteristics, and the trend was enhanced. The spatial distribution of hot/cold spots presented the characteristics of “hot spot—cold spot—secondary hot spot—cold spot” from north to south. (4) The explanatory power of each factor of ecological vulnerability was temperature (0.5955) > land use (0.5701) > precipitation (0.5289) > elevation (0.4879) > slope (0.3660) > administrative division (0.1541). The interactions of any two factors showed a non-linear strengthening effect, among which, land use type ∩ elevation (0.7899), land use type ∩ precipitation (0.7867), and land use type ∩ temperature (0.7791) were the significant interaction for ecological vulnerability. Overall, remote sensing data contribute to realizing a quick and objective evaluation of ecological vulnerability and provide valuable information for decision making concerning ecology management and region development.
“…This method presented an apparent advantage compared with other studies and can be applied to assess vulnerability, particularly in arid lands. In TRB, ecological vulnerability showed a distribution pattern which not only corresponded with the actual situation, a typical mountain-oasis-desert pattern in an arid area, but was also consistent with the development requirements of the region [44]. Adequate and rational desert construction in arid areas expanded the living space of human beings and improved the quality of the local ecological environment [67,68].…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 59%
“…In 2017, the population and gross national product accounted for 11.83% and 28.51% of Xinjiang, respectively, while the land area accounted for 1.39% of Xinjiang. However, because of the typical temperate continental arid climate and increasing development intensity in the middle oasis, urban expansion [43], lack of water resources [44], environment pollution [45], soil erosion [46], desertification [47], and the fragile ecological environment have already negatively influenced the local development and posed great challenges to the sustainable development of the basin, making the TRB appropriate for assessing ecological vulnerability. Establishing a quantitative ecological vulnerability assessment framework in a raster scale is important for a more detailed understanding of the ecosystem in TRB.…”
Ecological vulnerability assessment increases the knowledge of ecological status and contributes to formulating local plans of sustainable development. A methodology based on remote sensing data and spatial principal component analysis was introduced to discuss ecological vulnerability in the Toutun River Basin (TRB). Exploratory spatial data analysis and a geo-detector were employed to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of ecological vulnerability and detect the driving factors. Four results were presented: (1) During 2003 and 2017, the average values of humidity, greenness, and heat in TRB increased by 49.71%, 11.63%, and 6.51% respectively, and the average values of dryness decreased by 165.24%. However, the extreme differences in greenness, dryness, and heat tended to be obvious. (2) The study area was mainly dominated by a high and extreme vulnerability grade, and the ecological vulnerability grades showed the distribution pattern that the northern desert area was more vulnerable than the central artificial oasis, and the central artificial oasis was more vulnerable than the southern mountainous area. (3) Ecological vulnerability in TRB showed significant spatial autocorrelation characteristics, and the trend was enhanced. The spatial distribution of hot/cold spots presented the characteristics of “hot spot—cold spot—secondary hot spot—cold spot” from north to south. (4) The explanatory power of each factor of ecological vulnerability was temperature (0.5955) > land use (0.5701) > precipitation (0.5289) > elevation (0.4879) > slope (0.3660) > administrative division (0.1541). The interactions of any two factors showed a non-linear strengthening effect, among which, land use type ∩ elevation (0.7899), land use type ∩ precipitation (0.7867), and land use type ∩ temperature (0.7791) were the significant interaction for ecological vulnerability. Overall, remote sensing data contribute to realizing a quick and objective evaluation of ecological vulnerability and provide valuable information for decision making concerning ecology management and region development.
“…To date, the work has been translated into English, Italian, German, Mongolian, Chinese, and many other languages [ 19 , 20 ]. There are three editions of Chinese translation: Journey to the Dead City (Guixing Chen, 2001) [ 21 ], Mongolia, Amdo and The Dead city of Harahot (Xilong Wang, Shuqing Ding, 2002) [ 22 ], and Mongolia, Amdo and The Dead city of Harahot (full version) (Xilong Wang, Shuqing Ding, 2011) [ 23 ]. Fig.…”
Background
There is a plentiful amount of local knowledge on plants hidden in the literature of foreign exploration to China in modern history. Mongolia and Amdo and the Dead City of Khara-Khoto (MAKK) is an expedition record on the sixth scientific expedition to northwestern China (1907–1909) initiated by P. K. Kozlov (1863–1935), a famous Russian Central Asian explorer. Used as a non-professional biology book, MAKK contains some botanical knowledge. The information noted down over more than 100 years ago is about the traditional knowledge of the Mongolian folks lived on the Mongolian plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for the understanding and utilization of plants, which is of a highlighted function for the study of the botany and the history of science and technology. We therefore have carried on relevant collation, analysis, investigation and criticism to Mongolian local knowledge on plants in MAKK, and obtained the status quo of these local knowledge.
Methods
The authors used the literature research method to sort and compare the two versions of MAKK, separating out the Mongolian local knowledge about plant naming and utilization. Then, these contents were verified through literature textual method and were catalogued according to the method of ethnobotany. Based on these, the authors carried out field investigations along with Kozlov’s expedition routes in Alxa in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The methods of key informants interview, snowball sampling, and rational sampling were all used in field investigations. By analyzing the interview data of 34 key informants, we obtained the status quo of local knowledge recorded in MAKK.
Results
By means of regulation and research, it is found that Mongolian plant folk names of one genus and eight species were recorded in MAKK. Their morphological characteristics and traditional grazing knowledge are crucial naming basis. There are three types on the structures of Mongolian plant name: simple primary name, complex primary name, and secondary name. Corresponding relations between Mongolian folk name and scientific name are existed in “one-to-one,” “multitude-to-one,” and “one-to-multitude” forms. The classification of certain plants by Mongolian people has reached the level of species or varieties.
In addition, the Mongols’ usage for nine species of plants was noted in MAKK. These plants are mainly used for edible, graziery, fuelwood, building material, toponym, and belief. With the development and change of the society, it is found that some utilization methods have been replaced or even disappeared, while the remainders still continue to be applied.
Conclusions
Firstly, the Mongols have indigenous rules and systems for nominating and classifying plants. Secondly, the Mongolian local knowledge on plants possesses multiform character. Thirdly, the Mongolian local knowledge on plants and Mongolian culture have mutual influence and interdependence relationship. Fourthly, the Mongolian local knowledge on plants urgently needs to be protected in many forms. Finally, it is veritable and reliable for the records of Mongolian botanical local knowledge in MAKK by textual research, and it is valuable for scientific research. The historical notes more than 100 years ago are not only supply dependable information and momentous historical data for Mongolian ethnobotany and Chinese minority science and technology history research, but also offer references for ecology, flora, and botanical history study.
“…The evaluation result reflects the matching degree between land characteristics and agricultural requirements [3,7]. It has been applied to analyze agricultural development potential [8], optimize land use patterns, identify spatial conflicts, improve agricultural land productivity, develop crop insurance models [9], and conduct major function-oriented zoning [10].…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…CI 1 represents the consistency index of agricultural land, calculated by Equation(9). CI average represents the average consistency index, which is equal to the average of CI 0 and CI 1 , calculated by Equation(10).…”
This study was aimed at optimizing the weighted linear combination method (WLC) for agricultural land suitability evaluation (ALSE) through indicator selection, weight determination, and classification of overall suitability scores in Handan, China. Handan is a representative research area with distinct agricultural advantages and regional differences in land use, where the expansion of construction land has led to a rapid decrease of agricultural land in recent years. Natural factors (topography, climate, soil conditions, and vegetation cover) and socioeconomic factors (land use and spatial accessibility) were selected to establish a more comprehensive evaluation system. The index weight was calculated by the mutual information between index suitability and current land use. The consistency index was used to identify the boundary value dividing the overall suitability score into a suitable category and unsuitable category in each sub-region. The results demonstrated that the optimized WLC-ALSE model outperformed the comparison models using conventional methods in terms of the consistency between the evaluation results and current land use. Owing to the increasing limitations of topography, soil conditions, spatial accessibility, and land use, the proportions of suitable land in Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3 were 77.4%, 67.5%, and 30.9%, respectively. The agricultural land unsuitable for agriculture (14.5%) was less than non-agricultural land suitable for agriculture (7.4%), indicating that agricultural land had low growth potential in Handan. Finally, specific recommendations were made to improve agricultural land suitability, alleviate land use conflicts, and further optimize the model. The results can provide effective guidance for WLC-ALSE and land use decision-making for sustainable agriculture.
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