Vulnerability assessment of the eco-geo-environment of mining cities in arid and semi-arid areas: A case study from Zhungeer, China

Abstract

Assessing the ecological and geological environment vulnerability (EGEV) of cities arid and semi-arid regions is important for urban planning, development, and ecological protection. This study investigated the ecological and geological environmental problems and possible potential risk factors in Zhungeer City and constructed an EGEV assessment index system covering the geological environment, human activities, coal mining, and hydrological conditions. We proposed a linear weighted model to calculate the comprehensive weight of each indicator using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Entropy method based on distance function optimization (AELW), and frequency ratio accuracy is then introduced to compare the remarkable classification performance between AELW and other models. The frequency ratio accuracy results show that AELW model has the highest accuracy for EGEV assessment (62.77 %), followed by Multiplicative Integrated Normalization Model (MINM, 61.46 %), AHP (60.98 %), Ideal Point Model (IPM, 60.30 %) and Entropy (53.55 %). The EGEV of Zhungeer was classified as I-V from lowest into highest, among which the EGEV of I-II-III accounted for 78.15 %, EGEV of IV accounted for 16.42 %, and the EGEV of V risk area accounted for 5.43 %, with a good overall ecological and geological environment quality. These results can provide tangible management suggestions for reducing EGEV in Zhungeer city, and the AELW model provides direction for EGEV assessment in other similar areas.

Keywords

• Eco-geo-environment vulnerability
• Assessment index system
• Mining city
• AHP-entropy linear weighted model
• Geospatial techniques