Evolution characteristics of landscape ecological risk patterns in Shangluo City in the Qinling Mountains, China

Abstract

Landscape ecological risk assessment (LERA) is the basis of regional landscape pattern optimization, and a tool that can help achieve a win-win situation between regional development and ecological protection. The landscape ecological risk (LER) of the southern end of the Qinling Mountains, China exhibited an increasing trend after the year 2000, but the degree of increase and the spatial and temporal dynamics were not clear, limiting the formulation and implementation of landscape optimization measures in the area. Here, we constructed a landscape pattern risk index ERI by combining data on landscape disturbance and landscape vulnerability from land use information for Shangluo City for years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020; then, we calculated a LER level and its spatial and temporal dynamics for Shangluo City for years 2000 to 2020. Moran’s I and LISA indices were used to characterize the spatial correlation of ERI in Shangluo City. We found that Shangluo had a large proportion of medium-risk areas, and its LER shifted from medium-high, high in year 2000 to medium risk, medium-low and low risk in year 2020, and LER of Shangluo was clustered in space but the degree of clustering decreased in the past 20 years. We conclude that the development strategy of Shangluo should depend on providing a sustainably-developed environment.

Keywords

• LERA
• ERI index
• spatial autocorrelation analysis
• Shangluo
• Qinling Mountains