Using Multisource Geospatial Data to Identify Potential Wetland Rehabilitation Areas: A Pilot Study in China’s Sanjiang Plain

Abstract

Wetland rehabilitation, highlighted in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is imperative for responding to decreased regional biodiversity and degraded ecosystem functions and services. Knowing where the most suitable wetland rehabilitation areas are can strengthen scientific planning and decision-making for natural wetland conservation and management implementation. Therefore, we integrated multisource geospatial data characterizing hydrological, topographical, management, and policy factors, including maximum surface water coverage, farming time, anthropogenic disturbance, and wetland protection level, to identify potential wetland rehabilitation areas in the Sanjiang Plain (SJP), the largest marsh distribution and a hotspot wetland loss region in China. Our results indicate that a total of 11,643 km2 of wetlands were converted into croplands for agricultural production from 1990 to 2018. We estimated that 5415 km2 of the croplands were suitable for wetland rehabilitation in the SJP, of which 4193 km2 (77%) have high rehabilitation priority. Specifically, 63% of the potential areas available for wetland rehabilitation are dry croplands (3419 km2), the rest (37%) being paddy fields. We argue that the selected indicators and approach used in this study to determine potential wetland rehabilitation areas could guide their investigation, at either the provincial or national scale and would be beneficial to conservation and sustainable management of wetlands in the SJP.

Spatial Planning Strategies for Wetlands Based on a Multimethod Approach: The Example of Tianjin in China

“…Furthermore, the rapid pace of urban expansion exacerbates the conflict between regional ecological conservation and development. Thus, it becomes crucial to proactively anticipate future urban-development scenarios, prioritize the protection of ecological spaces, and establish a harmonious relationship between wetland conservation and development through strategic planning [35]. In summary, the current research on wetland spatial optimization largely centers around wetland evolution [36], kernel density analysis [22], distribution types [37], and influencing factors [38] to propose strategies for wetland spatial planning based on the analysis of spatial distribution characteristics.…”

Detecting Coastal Wetland Degradation by Combining Remote Sensing and Hydrologic Modeling

“…However, the spatial and temporal patterns of coastal wetland degradation at a large scale have not been systematically investigated. A lack of such knowledge hinders formulating appropriate policies and implementing priorities of coastal wetland restoration [21][22][23].…”