Original ArticlesRegional-scale assessment of environmental vulnerability in an arid inland basin
Introduction
The assessment of environmental vulnerability is essential for understanding environmental conditions. The concept of vulnerability is usually portrayed in negative terms as the susceptibility to harm and is derived from the social sciences (Adger, 2006, Kang et al., 2015). The often-cited definition by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is that environmental vulnerability is the degree of susceptibility to adverse effects caused by an environmental condition or specific hazard. Vulnerability is related to the risk of damage to the natural environment or ecosystem (Kang et al., 2015, Zou and Yoshino, 2017). The key parameters of environmental vulnerability are the stress to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity (Adger 2006). The vulnerability of social-environmental systems shows that vulnerability is mainly influenced by the build up or erosion of the elements of social-environmental resilience (Adger 2006). Therefore, identifying the social-environmental factors that affect vulnerability is helpful for evaluating environmental vulnerability (Zou and Yoshino, 2017). The elements of vulnerability include hydrological meteorology, climate change, populations, and biological processes, which are affected by anthropogenic activities (Kaly et al., 2002, Zhong et al., 2017). Knowing how to correctly integrate data from multiple sources, such as meteorology, natural conditions, soil biology and socioeconomic conditions, is critical for vulnerability evaluations (Kaly et al., 2002). However, evaluating environmental vulnerability over large areas is a difficult and complex process because of regional environmental differences. Therefore, regional-scale factors are necessary to describe the actual situation of local area because a universal assessment system and universal factors are not currently available (Beroya-eitner, 2016).
The arid region of Northwest China is located in the mid-latitudes of Eurasia and represents one of the areas of the world that are sensitive to global climate change (Wei et al., 2015). The ecosystem and environmental location of this region play important roles in water conservation, wind prevention and sand fixation. The Shiyang River Basin (SRB) has a large area, and the eco-environment is very fragile in Northwest China because of the severe natural environment and large population (Wei et al., 2013). The SRB plays a crucial role in maintaining local human survival, activity and social development. A comprehensive environmental vulnerability evaluation would provide a scientific basis for regional eco-environmental management and can also provide experience and reference for other similar watershed management efforts.
A number of studies have been conducted on environmental vulnerability assessments, and they can be classified based on two aspects: research on assessment index systems because of the variability of indices and research on applying quantitative assessment methods. For the former, vulnerability is considered a process that includes the mutual effects of the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of a system (Adger, 2006, Jiang et al., 2018, Turner et al., 2003, Zou and Yoshino, 2017). Different indices are integrated to calculate vulnerability values and identify the response of the ecosystem to human activities or changes in natural processes. Furthermore, scholars have evaluated environmental vulnerability through ecosystem services, which can reflect environmental system changes and environmental resilience (Kandziora et al., 2013, Frank et al., 2012). Environmental vulnerability and ecological functions can be quantitatively calculated by ecosystem services and landscape metrics, and ecological planning can be carried out according to the ecological function level or division (Frank et al., 2012). In addition, ecological function zone and ecosystem service maps have been used to describe regional ecological health and ecological management (Burkhard et al., 2012, Frank et al., 2012). At present, most studies on environmental vulnerability involve quantitatively analyses using comprehensive indices, including natural conditions, socioeconomic conditions and human activities (Koschke et al., 2013, Walz and Stein, 2018, Zhong et al., 2017).
In this paper, the environmental vulnerability distance index (EVDI) was established to evaluate environmental vulnerability at a regional scale based on remote sensing data, meteorological data, digital elevation model data and social statistical data. The main steps of the comprehensive assessment were as follows: (1) Twenty-three indices were classified into four groups of environmental factors: hydro-meteorological factors, socioeconomic factors, topographical factors, and soil biological factors. (2) The EVDI was used to synthesize the four categories of environmental factors and estimate the spatial distribution of environmental vulnerability. (3) The spatial distributions of environmental vulnerability were analyzed to interpret the characteristics of the environmental states in Northwest China.
The objectives of this study were to (1) establish a comprehensive index system for environmental vulnerability assessment at a regional scale, (2) calculate the environmental vulnerability value through the SPCA method and EVDI model based on the index system, and (3) interpret the distribution patterns of environmental vulnerability of the SRB in Northwest China.
Section snippets
Study area
The SRB (101°22′-104°16′E, 36°29′-39°27′N) is one of three inland river basins in Gansu Province in the northwestern region of China, and it lies between the Badanjilin Desert and the southern part of the Tengger Desert. The terrain is high in the south and low in the north, and the elevation in the SRB ranges from 5,000 m to more than 1,200 m (Fig. 1). In addition, the basin occupies an area of 4.16 × 104 km2 and includes seven counties.
The Shiyang River originates in the Qilian Mountains and
Spatial characteristics of vulnerability for each group of factors
The four groups of factors including hydro-meteorological factors, socioeconomic factors, soil biological factors, and topographical factors were calculated and displayed using ArcGIS 10.2. The results were classified into six levels based on the natural breaks classification method: none, very low, low, moderate, high, and very high (Smith et al., 2015).
Ecological management and optimization of environmental vulnerability
The environmental vulnerability assessment was designed to provide decision makers with recommendations to improve environmental quality. The map of the spatial division of ecological management and optimization was developed in combination with the environmental vulnerability map, and the Qilian Mountains National Reserve and the Liangucheng National Reserve were divided into three regions (Fig. 13): (1) key protection region, (2) optimal allocation region, and (3) strict management region.
Research improvement in the future
GIS technology can be used to easily create graphics to display the spatial distribution of complex environmental vulnerability at different regional scales. This approach allows the integration of various types of spatial information and socio-economic data to comprehensively evaluate environmental issues. However, due to the low-resolution, complex statistical dataset and the complexity of environmental systems, it is necessary to combine the change processes involved in environmental
Conclusions
The SRB is one of three inland river basins in China, encompassing the Qilian Mountains in the south and deserts in the north. It is a region of important ecological functions and highly dense populations in northwest China. The water resources in this region are very limited, and the per capita water resource sharing and utilization rates are very low. The environmental conditions have a direct impact on local survival and development. This paper used remote sensing images and statistical data
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the support by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 41861040 and 41761047) and Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (grant numbers 1506RJZA129).
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