Developing a multiscale landscape assessment framework integrating multiobjectives to identify priority action plans for sustainable development of small inhabited islands

Abstract

The sustainable development of SII (small inhabited islands) has critical impacts on human well-being and requires balancing complex multiobjectives, for which the most beneficial actions must be prioritized, with limited financial and labor support. The effect of current plans based on single-scale or single-objective assessments may be overestimated, and multiscale landscape assessments and plans offer a potential solution. This study aimed to bring more attention to SII and use landscape ecology theories and methods to develop a multiscale landscape assessment framework that integrates multiobjectives to identify priority action plans for sustainable development. This framework consists of a LEHA (landscape ecological health assessment) based on the PSR (pressure-state-response) index system and a TLSA (tourism landscape suitability assessment) based on the AHP (analytic hierarchy process) index system at regional and unit landscape scales, respectively. And we verified it on Xiaodeng Island in Xiamen, China, near Kinmen Island in Taiwan Province, which is a typical case of SII that are in the administrative division of “township” consisting of villages only. Our framework is characterized by overall consistency, hierarchical transmission and spatial variability, which ensures the scientific and operability of plans that can meet both ‘top-down’ management objectives and ‘bottom-up’ development needs. The application in Xiaodeng Island confirmed its feasibility. We proposed 4 strategies and an action plan network of 12 actions with specific content, location and order based on the assessment results with the goal of mitigating climate change, particularly in marine ecosystems, and providing more sustainable development opportunities for SII residents. In the future, we need a long-term monitoring database, scenario modeling predictions and quantitative analysis of the plan effectiveness for SII; furthermore, we need to implement this framework at different landscape scales in other areas.