Abstract
Since the implementation of the Chinese economic reforms. The habitat quality of coastal has gradually deteriorated with economic development, but the concept of "ecological construction" has slowed the negative trend. For quantitative analysis of the correlation between the Pearl River Delta urban expansion and changes in habitat quality under the influence of the policy, we first analyzed the habitat quality change based on the InVEST model and then measured the impact of construction land expansion on the habitat quality through habitat quality change index (HQCI) and contribution index (CI) indicators. Finally, the correlation between urbanization level and habitat quality was evaluated using geographically weighted regression (GWR) and the Self-organizing feature mapping neural network (SOFM). The results indicated that: (1) during the study period from 2000 to 2020, habitat quality declined due to urban sprawl, indicating a deterioration of ecological structure and function, and the decrease was most significant from 2000 to 2010. (2) The urbanization index had a negative effect on the habitat quality, but the negative effect have improved after 2000, reflecting the positive effect of policies such as "ecological civilization construction" (3) The implementation degree of ecological civilization varies greatly among cities in the study area: Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, and Zhongshan have the best level of green development. These results reflect the positive role of policies in the prevention of damage to habitat quality caused by economic development and provide a reference for the formulation of sustainable urban development policies with spatial differences.
Highlights
Since the implementation of the Chinese economic reforms
(2) The urbanization index had a negative effect on the habitat quality, but the negative effect have improved after 2000, reflecting the positive effect of policies such as "ecological civilization construction" (3) The implementation degree of ecological civilization varies greatly among cities in the study area: Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, and Zhongshan have the best level of green development
Before analyzing the spatiotemporal change of habitat quality and its degree of coupling with urbanization level, we examined the urban expansion in the Pearl River Delta region from 1990 to 2018
Summary
Since the implementation of the Chinese economic reforms. The habitat quality of coastal has gradually deteriorated with economic development, but the concept of "ecological construction" has slowed the negative trend. Land-use cover change and expansion of construction land, population agglomeration, high-intensity human activities, industrial structure transformation, and rapid economic development have led to the degradation of habitat quality, which places considerable pressure on the maintenance of biodiversity, ecosystem service functions, and ecological security[24,25,26,27]. Adnan used CA (Cellular Automata) and Markov Chain models to predict future land use types and assess the corresponding socio-economic risks[29] They have reported that to achieve sustainable urban ecological development, the urban growth rate and expansion direction need to be controlled based on the quantity and spatial distribution of land and population. We focus on the role of policy in mitigating the negative impacts of urbanization on habitat quality
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