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Landscape ecological risk assessment and its driving factors in the Weihe River basin, China

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Abstract

Weihe River basin is of great significance to analyze the changes of land use pattern and landscape ecological risk and to improve the ecological basis of regional development. Based on land use data of the Weihe River basin in 2000, 2010, and 2020, with the support of Aeronautical Reconnaissance Coverage Geographic Information System (ArcGIS), GeoDa, and other technologies, this study analyzed the spatial-temporal characteristics and driving factors of land use pattern and landscape ecological risk. Results showed that land use structure of the Weihe River basin has changed significantly, with the decrease of cropland and the increase of forest land and construction land. In the past 20 a, cropland has decreased by 7347.70 km2, and cropland was mainly converted into forest land, grassland, and construction land. The fragmentation and dispersion of ecological landscape pattern in the Weihe River basin were improved, and land use pattern became more concentrated. Meanwhile, landscape ecological risk of the Weihe River basin has been improved. Severe landscape ecological risk area decreased by 19,177.87 km2, high landscape ecological risk area decreased by 3904.35 km2, and moderate and low landscape ecological risk areas continued to increase. It is worth noting that landscape ecological risks in the upper reaches of the Weihe River basin are still relatively serious, especially in the contiguous areas of high ecological risk, such as Tianshui, **liang, Dingxi areas and some areas of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Landscape ecological risk showed obvious spatial dependence, and high ecological risk area was concentrated. Among the driving factors, population density, precipitation, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and their interactions are the most important factors affecting the landscape ecological risk of the Weihe River basin. The findings significantly contribute to our understanding of the ecological dynamics in the Weihe River basin, providing crucial insights for sustainable management in the region.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971859), the Doctoral Research Start-up Fund of Northwest A&F University, China (Z1090121109), and the Shaanxi Science and Technology Development Plan Project (2023-JC-QN-0197).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Sen Chang, Yaqi Wei, Zhenzhong Dai, Wen Xu, **ng Wang, Jiajia Duan, Liang Zou, Guorong Zhao, **aoying Ren & Yongzhong Feng

Authors
  1. Sen Chang
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  2. Yaqi Wei
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  3. Zhenzhong Dai
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  4. Wen Xu
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  5. **ng Wang
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  6. Jiajia Duan
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  7. Liang Zou
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  8. Guorong Zhao
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  9. **aoying Ren
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  10. Yongzhong Feng
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Contributions

Conceptualization: CHANG Sen, WANG **ng; Methodology: CHANG Sen, WEI Yaqi; Formal analysis: CHANG Sen, DAI Zhenzhong; Writing-original draft preparation: CHANG Sen; Writing-review and editing: XU Wen, DUAN Jiajia, ZOU Liang, ZHAO Guorong, REN **aoying; Funding acquisition: FENG Yongzhong, WANG **ng. All authors approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yongzhong Feng.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Chang, S., Wei, Y., Dai, Z. et al. Landscape ecological risk assessment and its driving factors in the Weihe River basin, China. J. Arid Land 16, 603–614 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-024-0013-3

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