Changes in the intensity of human activities in the Erhai Lake Basin and its impact on the lake water environment

Xiaoling Chen,Liang Zheng,Zeyu An,Hai Liu

doi:10.3390/ecws-5-08017

Abstract

With the warming of the climate and the intensification of human activities, many lakes in the world are facing many problems such as deterioration of water quality and eutrophication. Erhai Lake is a national key protected water area in China, with various functions such as regulating regional climate, fisheries, and tourism. In recent years, the population around Erhai Lake has increased dramatically, and the rapid development of agriculture and tourism has caused the lake's water quality to face many problems and water ecological degradation is obvious, which seriously affects the sustainable utilization of the lake. The intensity of human activities in Erhai Lake Basin involves various aspects such as economy and society. At present, it is rare to use multi-source remote sensing data and a variety of social and economic data to establish an index system of human activity intensity, quantitatively evaluate the intensity of human activity and analyze its spatial and temporal distribution. This research uses Gaofen-2 satellite and Landsat imagery as the main data sources to extract land use information from 1986 to 2019 in the Erhai Lake Basin with high precision. Based on the concepts of human activity intensity and construction land equivalent, comprehensive consideration of ecology, economy, and society Sustainable development and other factors, establish a human activity intensity model to evaluate the human activity intensity of each administrative unit in the Erhai Lake Basin and its different sub-basins; On this basis, the temporal and spatial changes of human activity intensity in the basin and its impact on Erhai Lake environment are analyzed, which lays a foundation for further analysis of the changes of ecosystem in Erhai Lake, and provides reference for the study of the impact of human activities on lake water environment in other basins.

Highlights

As an important part of the natural ecosystem, lakes have many functions, such as regulating and storing runoff, water supply and irrigation, regulating climate and environment, and maintaining ecosystem balance, which has an important impact on human survival and development [1]
Human activities have become a factor that can not be ignored in the intervention of lake ecosystem.The results show that human activities such as changing land use pattern [6], economic development [7] and building water conservancy projects [8] can change the ecological environment of lakes in a short period of time
The emission of chemical oxygen demand (COD) is related to industrial production, but it shows an obvious downward trend in 21 years, which indicates that the technical progress of industrial production makes the emission intensity of COD decrease

Summary

Introduction

As an important part of the natural ecosystem, lakes have many functions, such as regulating and storing runoff, water supply and irrigation, regulating climate and environment, and maintaining ecosystem balance, which has an important impact on human survival and development [1]. As an important data source that can measure the spatial and temporal characteristics of human activity intensity, remote sensing has shown great potential in the acquisition of land use information and ecological environment parameters [9,10,11]. Erhai Lake is the core of China's national nature reserves and scenic spots, and the main drinking water source of Dali city It has many functions, such as regulating climate, providing water for industrial and agricultural production, and maintaining aquatic biodiversity. It is an important basis for the sustainable economic and social development of the whole basin and even. Basin and its different sub basins; on this basis, combined with water quality data, it analyzes the impact of human activity intensity on Erhai Lake environment It provides theoretical support for the sustainable development of Erhai Lake Basin

Land use change

Socio economic data

Discussion

Study area and Methods