Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2019, Vol. 74 ›› Issue (7): 1420-1437.doi: 10.11821/dlxb201907011

• Ecosystem • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Landscape pattern optimization in Ningjiang River Basin based on landscape ecological risk assessment

LI Qingpu1,ZHANG Zhengdong1(),WAN Luwen2,YANG Chuanxun3,ZHANG Jie1,YE Chen1,CHEN Yuchan1   

  1. 1.School of Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
    2.Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State Universtiy, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
    3.Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou 510070, China
  • Received:2018-03-07 Revised:2019-05-18 Online:2019-07-25 Published:2019-07-23
  • Contact: ZHANG Zhengdong E-mail:zhangzdedu@163.com
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Foundation of China(41471147)

Abstract:

The ecological risks facing the landscape in the Ningjiang River Basin are influenced by multiple parameters. Landscape optimization is an effective way to assess the detrimental effects on the ecosystem. In this study, an integrated "natural-social-landscape" landscape ecological risk assessment system was produced, and the landscape ecological risk classification of the Ningjiang River Basin was based on spatial principal component analysis. Ecological resistance surfaces were constructed using the results of the landscape ecological risk analysis. The landscape resistance surfaces were produced based on the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR). The results show that human activity and landscape patterns had a more significant influence on the final risk assessment than natural factors do, such as terrain and distance from water. The landscape ecological risk was generally high, and the high ecology risk region covered 523.99 km 2, constituting the largest area and accounting for 36.06% of the research area. With the aim of decreasing the landscape ecological risk of the Ningjiang River Basin, areas of forestland greater than 50 km 2 and areas of water greater than 0.2 km 2 were selected as the eco-sources. Using interlinked points, lines and surfaces, a regional ecological network was constructed out of 15 ecological corridors. The length of the first level corridors was greater than 30000 m, the length of second level corridors was between 10000 m and 30000 m, and the length of the third level corridors was less than 10000 m. A total of 19 ecological nodes were produced. The landscape connectivity was significantly improved following landscape pattern optimization. The results of this study may help improve the ecological stability level in the study area and provide a scientific basis for both landscape ecological risk assessment and landscape pattern optimization research.

Key words: landscape ecological risk assessment, landscape pattern optimization, spatial principal component analysis, minimum cumulative resistance model, Ningjiang River Basin