A Health Assessment Of Riparian Habitat Of Huangpu River In Shanghai,China

Riparian habitat health is intimately connected with the scale, in term of the Huangpu River riparian habitat characteristics, we determine the object of study area to be a large.scale river riparian habitat health assessment. The purpose of riparian habitat evaluation is to gain influence information of Riparian Functions, Landscape, and Riparian habitat Health, especially the Riparian habitat Health and any other useful information, this purpose proposes a problem to the managers:what are the factors affecting the health of riparian habitat? How effectively and quickly do we evaluate the health of riparian zone habitat, especially the large rivers such as the Huangpu River? In this paper, we take the Huangpu River for the study area, focusing on evaluating the health of Huangpu River riparian zone habitat, base on riding and surveying comprehensively the Huangpu River, and through the tools of Google Earth and ArcGIS to interpret the Huangpu River aerial photo and compare and analysis the Huangpu River riparian zone, scored the habitat health indoor. The Huangpu River was divided into seven parts and the riparian habitat was divided four types of land use, for each type we used the quadrat (length) 100m × (width) 30m to take points evenly, scoring, and then verified then scores by GPS positioning and field survey. And amended the fundamental various indicators, finally we determined a reasonable score standard, then to further adjust the interior scoring, and got the more realistic and accurate sample score data. By sample scores we derived the score each type of land use of each riparian habitat, then deduced reach scoring. Followed by these we would deduce all seven parts scores, finally we got the score of the entire Huangpu River.The results showed that Huangpu River riparian habitat was in bad quality. Both the urban segment and the estuary of Huangpu River downstream were complete in bad quality, which also included only the left bank of the urban section was in poor quality, the right one and both banks of the estuary section were all in the bad quality. The midstream of Huangpu River Wujing segment was in poor quality, where the right bank was in bad quality while the left one was in poor quality. The left bank of the master upriver of Huangpu River was in fair quality while the right one was in poor quality, and the whole segment was in poor quality. And two upriver Yuanxiejing and Xietang segments were in fair quality with both of their banks were all in fair quality, and the third one Damaogang segment was in poor quality because the left bank was in fair quality while the right one was in poor quality. In addition, through ArcGIS, GoogleEarth and GPS positioning fieldwork worked out the results: Huangpu River riparian habitat characteristics of land types showed a decreasing trend of woodland from upstream to downstream, and with industrial land increase, woodland fragmentation would increase, level of health was reduced, Meanwhile, with the increase of upstream forest and improvement of woodland vertical connectivity, Huangpu River health quality level and woodlands showed a increasing trend.Another discovery was the types of land on both sides were approximate same, namely about the two sides of woodland, agricultural land and construction sites often correspond to concentrated, such as estuaries and the urban section, the master reaches close to the upstream and others of land for construction of both banks focused almost entirely symmetrical; and the estuary segment, urban segment, the part of master segment close to the upriver, and thetributaries with woodland were also amazing symmetry concentrated. By analyzing the results of the vegetation coverage we obtained:the Huangpu River from the downstream to the upstream riparian vegetation habitat coverage of more than 50% rose. Meanwhile woodland transverse connectivity also showed more than 50% rose slowly from the downstream to midstream, upstream to master segment rose by a leap way, as well as to the upstream midstream resumed rose slowly, only Damaogang and River upstream were relatively flat. Finally, through the both banks of four health scores averages for each grade statistical analysis showed that:the left bank of Level 1 (bad quality) was slightly higher with 20 points than the right bank; the left bank of Level 2 and Level 3 is slightly lower from 25 to 35 points than the right bank; the left bank of Level 4 is slightly lower with 10 points than the right bank.Conclusion in this paper health assessment obtained by the Huangpu River riparian habitat for the Huangpu River riparian zone protection, and a significant guiding for management and governance. For the Huangpu River riparian habitat health rating score calculation method can be directly used as a comparable size river habitat health assessment of reference. Meanwhile, so that improve Huangpu River riparian zone health level is to increase the total vegetation of its riparian zone habitat, change its vegetation structure, focus on selecting large trees and shrubs, increasing vegetation species diversification, reducing the artificial structures’scale, returning farmland to forest, and increasing its wastelands plant trees especially planting the native tree species. For the past Riverside factories built of imposing control, or even ban to forests. Meanwhile conclusion of this paper for rapid assessment of large river provides an effective, objective and quantitative method, and a case for reference.