Abstract
Ecological land is one of the key resources and conditions for the survival of humans because it can provide ecosystem services and is particularly important to public health and safety. It is extremely valuable for effective ecological management to explore the evolution mechanisms of ecological land. Based on spatial statistical analyses, we explored the spatial disparities and primary potential drivers of ecological land change in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone of China. The results demonstrated that the global Moran’s I value is 0.1646 during the 1990 to 2005 time period and indicated significant positive spatial correlation (p < 0.05). The results also imply that the clustering trend of ecological land changes weakened in the study area. Some potential driving forces were identified by applying the spatial autoregressive model in this study. The results demonstrated that the higher economic development level and industrialization rate were the main drivers for the faster change of ecological land in the study area. This study also tested the superiority of the spatial autoregressive model to study the mechanisms of ecological land change by comparing it with the traditional linear regressive model.
Highlights
Land use is defined as the activities of human beings that use their labor to obtain material goods and services
The total area of ecological land in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone decreased by 178.17 km2 from 1990 to 2005
We can conclude that the exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) is an effective method for measuring spatial patterns of ecological land changes and can be used to explore the distribution characteristics, local heterogeneity, and local homogeneity by comparing it with the general clustering analysis
Summary
Land use is defined as the activities of human beings that use their labor to obtain material goods and services. In contrast with construction land meeting the need of urban development and farmland supporting food security, ecological land is defined as the land resources that provide natural ecosystem services and maintain regional ecological security. It is one of the basic resources and conditions for the survival of humans and other organisms. Ecological land plays an irreplaceable role in the healthy maintenance of urban or regional ecosystems. Urban expansion cannot be avoided; many ecological lands, which play a pivotal role in ecological service functions, will be converted to construction land [10]. Protecting ecological land, which is gradually improving, and restoring the serious ecological damage zone and refunding the natural land is significant because it can maintain the ecological balance, improve the quality of a regional eco-environment, promote the harmonious co-existence of man and nature, and realize sustainable economic and social growth
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