Response of ecological vulnerability to land use change in a resource-based city, China

Abstract

Resource-based cities (RBCs) have become the region with strong land use change (LUC) due to the land destruction resulted from the exploitation of resources. Meanwhile, with the development of urbanization and industrialization, serious ecological environment problems generally exist in this area. Analyzing the relationship between land use and ecological vulnerability (EV) has become an important research topic for the sustainable development of the ecological environment in RBCs. In this study, a typical RBC, Datong city in Shanxi province of China, was selected to conduct the EV evaluation using the genetic projection pursuit model and analyze land use pattern change from 2000 to 2018. Moreover, the relationships between LUC and EV were discussed from two aspects: the EV of land use types and the correlation between LUC and EV. From 2000 to 2018, the land use of Datong city has changed significantly, mainly due to the decrease of cultivated land and grass land, as well as the increase of forest land, construction land, and mining land. The EV of Datong was relatively high in the west and relatively low in the east, and the quality of ecological environment was gradually improved. The ecological vulnerability synthetic index (EVSI) was different among land use types, of which the EVSI of mining land and forest land was particularly prominent. EV was affected by many factors, among which LUC was clear. The increase of mining land, construction land, unused land and forest land area can increase the EV of Datong city, while the increase of cultivated land, grass land and water body area can reduce the EV. Local governments should adopt different management measures to reduce regional EV, including reclaiming the abandoned construction land and mining land, limiting the scope of coal mining area, carrying out the ecological agricultural construction, focusing on the soil and water conditions of forest land, implementing ecological protection planning and focusing on controlling severely vulnerable areas.