Abstract
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.
Highlights
The world has been focusing on keeping the ecological ecosystem in a relatively stable dynamic equilibrium state in different aspects, such as the need to balance economic development and ecological conservation [1], and the ecosystem and communities’ response to exterior pressure [2,3]
The ecological vulnerability index (EVI) was classified into five levels using the natural breakpoint classification method (Jenks) in ArcGIS
The results identified the dynamic patterns in time series and spatial heterogeneity of EVI in Tibet
Summary
The world has been focusing on keeping the ecological ecosystem in a relatively stable dynamic equilibrium state in different aspects, such as the need to balance economic development and ecological conservation [1], and the ecosystem and communities’ response to exterior pressure [2,3]. When the external influences irreversibly exceed the balance range, environmental problems occur worldwide, such as severe climate anomalies [4,5], land desertification [6], ecosystem degradation [7], and natural disasters [8], especially in ecologically vulnerable regions. An ecological vulnerability assessment is one of the ways to assess climate change, a highlight in ecological research in recent years [15,16,17]. By identifying and targeting vulnerable regions, the threat of intense external forces can be mitigated or prevented, demonstrating the crucial importance of assessing ecological vulnerability for sustainable management and development
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