Comprehensive evaluation of the eco-environmental vulnerability in the Yellow River Delta wetland

Abstract

The eco-environmental vulnerability is an important indicator of the development in wetland. However, the vulnerability is influenced by various interacting factors. The interaction among these factors is fuzzy and stochastic, making it difficult to describe the evaluation results accurately and quantitatively. To overcome the difficulty, this study takes the Yellow River Delta wetland as object, and makes an accurate vulnerability evaluation. Through investigations, the author establishes a four-layer evaluation indicator system, including a target layer, a criterion layer, an indicator layer and an element layer. The cloud model theory is introduced to describe qualitative indicators. Meanwhile, two cloud models are constructed, respectively, the comment layer and the membership of the element layer. In addition, the indicator weight is solved by the queuing theory. In this way, the state of each indicator is quantified in an accurate manner. The results show that the comprehensive evaluation of the eco-environmental vulnerability in the study area is C (0.697, 0.083, 0.017) and the corresponding eco-environmental vulnerability falls to the “strong vulnerability” level. The results, compared with the catastrophe progression method, are valid. The research results provide technical support for the comprehensive evaluation of eco-environmental vulnerability in wetland.

Keywords

• Cloud model
• Ecological environmental vulnerability
• Vulnerability level
• Catastrophe progression method
• Comprehensive evaluation