Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2016, Vol. 71 ›› Issue (9): 1544-1561.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201609007

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Ecological risk assessment of landslide disasters in mountainous areas of Southwest China: A case study in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture

Yueyue DU1(), Jian PENG1,2, Shiquan ZHAO2,3, Zhichao HU1,4, Yanglin WANG1()   

  1. 1. Laboratory for Earth Surface Process, Ministry of Education, College of Urban and Environment Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
    2. Key Laboratory for Environmental and Urban Sciences, School of Urban Planning and Design, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, China
    3. Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
    4. College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
  • Received:2016-01-07 Revised:2016-04-15 Online:2016-11-25 Published:2016-11-25
  • Supported by:
    The Commonwealth Project of the Ministry of Land and Resources, No.201311001-2

Abstract:

Taking Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture as an example, the study assesses ecological risk of landslide geological disasters in terms of risk stressors, risk receptors, exposure and response process, and ecological end points. To be specific, firstly, the information method is used to evaluate the hazard of landslide disasters. Secondly, ecological vulnerability is evaluated based on landscape pattern metrics. Thirdly, the potential ecological damage of the study area is identified according to the ecosystem service assessment. Finally, the ecological risk of landslide disasters is comprehensively evaluated, and the partitions of risk precaution and governance are distinguished. The results show that, (1) 10 aspects including geography, geology and human activity factors, such as elevation less than 1800 m, slope within 15°-25°, NDVI less than 0.31, are the best information combination for inducing landslide geographical disasters in Dali Prefecture. As to the hazard of landslide geological disasters, the whole Dali prefecture is generally at medium and high risk levels of landslide and debris flow disasters. And the risk of northwest is lower than that of southeast; (2) the areas with high ecological vulnerability are mainly concentrated in the south of the Red River watershed, southeast of the Jinsha River watershed and the central part of the Lancang River watershed. Watersheds with low ecological damage have relatively poor water conservation service and food supply service. Watersheds with medium ecological damage have obvious advantage in providing net primary production and soil conservation service. Watersheds with high ecological damage would have relatively strong food supply and water conservation service; (3) the ecological risk of landslide disasters in Dali Prefecture presented 3 levels and 8 types of risk structures. Then 367 small watersheds were divided into 4 partitions of risk prevention and governance strategies, i.e., risk avoidance and warning areas, ecological protection and restoration areas, risk avoidance as well as ecological protection areas, and natural adaption areas.

Key words: ecological risk of landslide disasters, geological hazard, ecological vulnerability, ecological potential damage, risk prevention and governance, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture