Assessment of Ecological Security in Rare Earth Mining Area Based on PSR Model

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rare earth (RE) mining activities have caused the vegetation destruction, soil erosion, soil desertification and other ecological problems. To quantitatively evaluate the eco-security of the RE mining area, we took Lingbei RE mining area in Dingnan County as study area and used the PSR (Pressure-State-Response) model and AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method to construct its eco-security assessment system which was made up of 3 criterion levels and 10 factors. The results showed that the forest land had the most contribution to the eco-security in the RE mining area, and the tailings produced by RE mining had less; the average value of the eco-security in the mining area increased from 6.99 in 2008 to 7.00 in 2014. The natural growth and reclamation of the vegetation in the mining area could improve the eco-security. Vegetation destruction and exploiting RE would worsen it; mining RE would directly lead to the deterioration of the eco-security.