Analysis of the Characteristics of Ecological Security Zoning and Its Dynamic Change Pattern: A Case Study of the Weibei Area

Yue Zhang,Yifan Zou,Liyuan Zhang,Kanhua Yu

doi:10.3390/su12177222

Abstract

The development pattern of agriculture and energy exploitation in the southern marginal area of the Loess Plateau is widespread in the northern part of China. As a typical example, the fragile ecological area in the Weibei region is greatly affected by human factors, which makes the local ecological environment and social sustainability disturbed to varying degrees. Taking the Weibei region as the study area, through the comprehensive analysis of social, economic, and climate data, an index system suitable for the ecological security assessment of the Weibei region was constructed. The ecological security of this region was quantitatively evaluated by spatial principal component analysis (SPCA), and its ecological security partition was divided and analyzed. There were five zones at different levels, and I to V represented the development of ecological security from a low level to a high level. The results showed that from 1997 to 2017, the ecological security of different districts and counties in the Weibei region showed different trends. For example, the ecological security index of Tongguan County, Chengcheng County, and Pucheng County continued to decrease, but the overall index value was still high, and the ecological security index of Dali County, Fuping County, and Hancheng County increased. During this period, the ecological security of regions I and II continued to increase, while regions IV and V first decreased and then increased. At the same time, the area of the ecological security buffer region increased year by year. This study can provide a feasible method for assessing ecological security of the current regional model of mixed agriculture and energy extraction industry.

Highlights

In recent years, human agricultural production and lifestyles have an important impact on the ecological environment [1]
Through the selection of the ecological security index system, the 11 evaluation factors selected all represent the stable status of ecological security
Due to the expansion of economic development and the urbanization process, it is difficult to determine the development of ecological security, and there is a lack of research on the overall ecological security zoning in the Weibei region

Summary

Introduction

Human agricultural production and lifestyles have an important impact on the ecological environment [1]. The impact of the current agricultural development pattern on the environment is widespread in most regions of China. When agricultural development and energy development co-exist, it has a more profound impact on regional ecological environment. As an important part of ecological environment protection, ecological security research is related to the evolution of the regional ecological environment and indirectly affects the development of the regional economic system [4]. Combining the characteristics of this study, we can determine that the ecological security of the study area is mainly reflected in its agricultural production. Sustainable agricultural development and its good cycle with the economy and the environment are conducive to improving the overall ecological security level. When assessing the ecological security of areas with agricultural development as the mainstay, we can focus on the index factors that affect agricultural production and present the ecological security status of the assessed area by calculating the ecological security index

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion