Abstract
Landscape ecological risk assessment (LERA) evaluates different types of potential environmental impacts and their cumulative effects, thereby providing policy insights for sustainable regional land-use and ecosystem management. In a departure from existing literature that heavily relies on low-resolution land-use data for LERA at provincial or municipal scales, this study applies high-resolution land-use data to a relatively small research area (county). In addition, this study modifies the evaluation units of LERA from equal-sized grids to watersheds and refines the ecological vulnerability weight on the basis of finer-resolution data. The main findings are summarized as follows: (1) In 2011–2013, nearly 866 ha of land use in Xiapu County changed; moreover, the construction land, which was mainly concentrated in Songgang Street and Xinan Town, increased the most (340 ha). (2) Landscape ecological risk (LER) was roughly maintained, and areas of high ecological risk were mainly concentrated along the coast. (3) The spatial distribution of LER maintained a relatively aggregated pattern, with no trend toward more aggregated or more dispersed change. This study further discusses the relationship between local LER and land-use change and how to balance global and local LER in planning practices.
Highlights
Over the past two centuries, human flourishing has undeniably brought an enormous toll on natural, nonhuman environments and wildlife [1], posing serious ecological risks to ecosystems and human society
(1) land use/land cover (LULC) change: In 2011– 2013, there were nearly 866 ha of land‐use changes in Xiapu County, and construction lands, which were mainly concentrated in Songgang Street and Xinan Town, mostly increased (340 ha)
(1) LULC change: In 2011–2013, there were nearly 866 ha of land-use changes in Xiapu County, and construction lands, which were mainly concentrated in Songgang Street and Xinan Town, mostly increased (340 ha)
Summary
Over the past two centuries, human flourishing has undeniably brought an enormous toll on natural, nonhuman environments and wildlife [1], posing serious ecological risks to ecosystems and human society. For this reason, timely reminders of potential anthropogenic and natural damages to ecosystems become increasingly important. As expected, too many factors and ecological interactions affect the sustainability of ecosystems; unilateral risk management proposed in ERA becomes hardly effective in the management of open and complex systems [5]. Landscape ecological risk assessment (LERA) was conducted in the 2000s [10]
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