Evaluating land ecological security and examining its relationships with driving factors using GIS and generalized additive model

Yongjiu Feng; Qianqian Yang; Xiaohua Tong; Lijuan Chen

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.272

Evaluating land ecological security and examining its relationships with driving factors using GIS and generalized additive model

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Aug 15:633:1469-1479. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.272. Epub 2018 Apr 4.

Authors

Yongjiu Feng¹, Qianqian Yang², Xiaohua Tong³, Lijuan Chen⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China; Key Laboratory of Sustainable Exploitation of Oceanic Fisheries Resources, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China; School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia.
² College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China.
³ College of Surveying and Geo-Informatics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. Electronic address: xhtong@tongji.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia; Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China.

PMID: 29758899
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.272

Abstract

Land ecological security (LES) refers to the environmental health and sustainability of the land resources and ecosystems, which are substantially affected by biophysical and socio-economic factors. We assess the spatiotemporal patterns of LES in Ningbo city on the southeast coast of China from 1975 to 2015 and explore the effects of driving factors. Expert evaluation is used to estimate the LES score for each 2×2km grid and map the patterns by Kriging. Five levels of LES are used: very secure, secure, neutral, insecure and very insecure. A generalized additive model (GAM) captures the relationships between LES and driving factors, and identifies the dominant factors. Our results show that the Ningbo LES has been deteriorating since 1975, and it is now very insecure in Ningbo city center and the central area of the satellite city Cixi. The dominant factors affecting LES are distances to city center (D_city), district center (D_district) and road networks (D_roads), and the moving window built-up area (D_ndbi). Among these, D_ndbi is most important as inferred by the highest explained deviance of the GAM. This study improves our understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns of LES in Ningbo and how LES changes. As a result, it provides insight to help local governments optimize land-use configuration, potentially improving the environment and ecosystems and creating a more environmentally friendly city.

Keywords: Generalized additive model; Land ecological security; Ningbo; Spatial determinants; Spatial patterns.