Study on application of regional ecological risk assessment during the development and utilization of Chu Island

Abstract

Taking natural disaster risk problems in the uninhabited island ecosystem as the main research object and combined with the features of uninhabited island ecosystem, regional ecological risk assessment was carried out with the relative risk model (RRM) taking an exemple of Chu island. According to ‘Weihai Chu island protection and utilization planning (2011~2020)’, the study area was divided into three risk areas, which are key protected area, basic facility area and ecological tourism area. Birds, sea cucumbers and their habitat as the receptors for Chu island ecological risk assessment was selected, and combined with the regional sources of risk occurrence probability, the range and intensity, storm surge, drought and cold wave were the main risk sources in the region. The exposure response relationship of “risk source—stress—habitat—ecological end point” in each risk area was analyzed. We pointed out: (1) in the development and utilization process of Chu island, storm surge is the most influential source of risk in the region, and its influence is far higher than drought and cold wave; (2) the island land resources, especially the vegetation, affected by the risk source is the largest, followed by water and the tidal flat; (3) As the two main functional areas in the development and utilization process of Chu island, the relative risk value of basic facility area and ecological tourism area, which is 1.05 and 0.97 respectively, is larger than key protection area, and its relative risk value is 0.5.