The Assessment of the Spatiotemporal Characteristics of the Eco-Environmental Quality in the Chishui River Basin from 2000 to 2020

Abstract

The Chishui River Basin is located in the bordering area of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, which serves as an important ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and plays a leading role in preserving natural environments, protecting water resources, and maintaining soil functions. However, the eco-environmental quality in the basin has encountered serious challenges in recent years, and the conflict between eco-environmental protection and economic development becomes increasingly prominent. Therefore, it is particularly important to quantitatively assess the extent of the eco-environmental changes in this basin. The present study acquired Landsat series remote sensing images based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, constructed a remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) as the assessment index that reflects the eco-environmental quality using principal component analysis, studied the changing trend in the eco-environmental quality using the Sen–Mann–Kendall trend test, analyzed the spatial clustering distribution patterns of the eco-environmental quality, based on spatial autocorrelation analysis, and applied the geographical detector model to determine the impacts of natural and anthropogenic factors on the eco-environmental quality. We further applied the CA–Markov model to simulate and predict the eco-environmental quality of the basin in 2025. The results showed the following: (1) between 2000 and 2020, the eco-environmental quality of the Chishui River Basin had been greatly improved. The average RSEI value increased from 0.526 in 2000 to 0.668 in 2020, and the percentage of areas belonging to the good or excellent quality category increased from 42.65% to 68.48%. (2) The main drivers of the eco-environmental quality included population density, mean annual temperature, land use type and elevation. The interactive effect between these drivers was significantly higher than that of individual drivers, and thus possessed stronger explanatory power for quality differences. (3) It is predicted that in 2025, the eco-environmental quality of the basin will continue to improve, and the proportion of land areas with good or excellent quality will continuously increase. The present study can provide reference value for local environmental protection and regional planning.

Spatiotemporal Patterns and Driving Factors of the Ecological Environmental Quality along the Jakarta–Bandung High-Speed Railway in Indonesia

“…Furthermore, population density has consistently been the most significant influencing factor in previous studies. For example, in the same studies as those mentioned above, population density was the first influencing factor for EEQ in the Chishui Basin [33] and the second influencing factor for EEQ in the Taihu Basin [24]. In addition, studies on the EEQ in the Three Gorges Ecological Corridor region have noted that population density is always one of the top three influencing factors in different years [21].…”

“…However, in previous studies, the explanatory power of the elevation factor on EEQ was relatively weak. For example, in the Taihu Lake region [24], elevation ranked fourth in terms of explanatory power among seven factors; in the Chishui River region [33], elevation also ranked fourth. Furthermore, population density has consistently been the most significant influencing factor in previous studies.…”

“…Through a review of domestic and international EEQ research, the following can be observed: (1) Currently, research on EEQ assessment mainly focuses on simple geographical elements, such as cities (e.g., Fuzhou [26], Meizhou [27]), urban clusters (e.g., the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Metropolitan Region [22,28], the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle [29]), watersheds (e.g., Yangtze River [16,30], Yellow River [31,32], Chishui River [33], Ulan Moron River [34]) and lakes (e.g., Dongting Lake [23], Taihu Lake [24]). There is limited research on complex geographical regions, especially economic corridors of major engineering projects, which have received less attention from scholars.…”

Spatial and Temporal Dynamic Evolution and Correlation of Ecological Quality and Ecosystem Service Value in Fujian Province

“…In addition to integrating four easily accessible ecological evaluation indicators, namely green, dry, wet and heat, the RSEI also uses a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to automatically and objectively weight each indicator. There have been numerous studies using this method to quantify and accurately evaluate EQ [9], such as those conducted in watersheds [10][11][12], mining areas [13,14], wetlands [15,16], cities [17][18][19][20], etc.…”

Comprehensive influence of water resources development and utilization on ecological environment in Taohe River basin

“…Recently, the development of remote sensing technology has provided substantial data for ecosystem monitoring [5] . Different scholars discussed the land use change and ecological environment quality in different regions based on remote sensing ecological index, and found that human activities had a great impact on ecological environment [6][7][8] . To explore the comprehensive impact of water resources development and utilization on the ecological environment, definition of the ecological environment quality scientifically, and formulation of the corresponding scientific countermeasures are conducive to the ecological system gradually entering a virtuous circle and the regional development towards a sustainable direction.…”