Eco-environmental effects of urban expansion in Xinjiang and the corresponding mechanisms

Abstract

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is an ecologically fragile area in China where rapid urbanization might threaten the safety of the ecological environment. This study assessed the main driving factors of urban expansion in Xinjiang and their interactions based on the geodetector method. Acomprehensive model of the effects of urban land expansion on the ecological environment was then constructed and applied to Xinjiang from 1997 to 2017. Factors including local government expenditures, per-capita wages of urban residents, slope, gross domestic product, proportions of secondary and tertiary industries, and population had significant effects on urban land expansion. The socio-economic pressure index grew rapidly in the study area from 1997 to 2017 with large spatial differences, while the land-use status index decreased. The eco-environmental response index and the comprehensive ecological environmental index increased steadily during the study period. Economic development was conducive to improving the overall ecological environment. The complementary effects of socio-economic pressure, land-use status, and ecological environmental response reduced the spatial differences in the comprehensive ecological environmental index in Xinjiang during the study period.

Keywords

• urban expansion
• geodetector
• ecological environmental effects
• pressure–status–response (psr) model
• xinjiang