Influence Assessment Of Ecological Vulnerability To Land Use Change

Under the background of global environmental change, vulnerability becomes a hot research spot since its research field and scope is continuously expanding. As a part of the vulnerability, ecological vulnerability research can not only promote the regional eco-environmental construction and recovery, but also play an important role on evaluating the influence of regional eco-environment which suffers from the human activities. As a typical representative environmental factors of small-scale, land-use change has extremely profound effect on regional eco-environment. So studying the influence of ecological vulnerability to land use change can provide theoretical support for land development and construction management, eco-environmental planning, eco-environment protection, and so on. Huangshan city is a China’s typical red soil hilly mountain area in southern, which has vulnerable natural environment characteristics. Besides, due to the development of tourism and urbanization, the eco-environment bears huge pressure which from the human. Therefore, studying the ecological vulnerability to land use change in Huangshan city has important significance on rational and efficient use of land, sustainable tourism development and harmonious relationship between man and nature. Moreover, Huangshan city is a typical representation of tourism city, so this research can also provide theory and method reference for other tourist regions to studying the ecological vulnerability to land use change.Firstly, this paper summarizes the domestic and foreign researches about ecological vulnerability and ecological vulnerability to land use change. Then three theories(man-land relationship theory, sustainable development theory and systems theory) are introduced. After that, this paper gives a deeper understanding of vulnerability, ecological vulnerability and research method. Technical supports in the method are ArcGIS, ENIV and FRAGSTATS soft wares. The research model and indicator system of this method includes three aspects: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. By using this methods, the spatial-temporal characteristics of ecological vulnerability to land use change in Huangshan city, municipal district and four counties from 2002 to 2013 are quantitatively analyzed and evaluated. Research results are as follows:(1)Except Yi county, the ecological vulnerability indexes of the whole Huangshan city, municipal district, She county, Qimen county, Xiuning county in 2013 are smaller than those in 2002. While Yi county’s index rises, but the rising amplitude is not very great. Therefore, it can be concluded that the trend of ecological vulnerability in Huangshan city is falling.(2)Most areas of Huangshan City have high and higher ecological vulnerability in 2002. In 2013, not only there is no high ecological vulnerability area, but also some areas belong to low ecological vulnerability. Though the tendency of ecological vulnerability of Huangshan city shows falling, areas have higher ecological vulnerability account for absolute advantage, which means the situation of ecological vulnerability of Huangshan city is still not optimistic.(3)During the study period, the degrees of ecological vulnerability in the whole Huangshan City, She county and Qimen county are weakening. The degrees of ecological vulnerability of municipal district and Yi county remain the same. Xiuning county’s degree shows a trend of fluctuation. But compared with the ecological vulnerability indexs of 2002 and 2013, it also can be seen as unchanging.(4)In 2013, the municipal districts, She county and Xiuning county have higher ecological vulnerability, so their lands should be under certain planning and guidance to scientifical development and rational utilization. As far as the increasing ecological vulnerability index of Yi country, the development and utilization process of land must be strictly planned and scientifically guided to prevent the rising trend. The ecological vulnerability of Qimen county is low, so the land can be exploited and utilized with larger intensity.Compared with the existing research, there are two possible innovations in this paper: Firstly, this paper sets up a systematic and complete theoretical framework of ecological vulnerability to land use change and applies it in empirical analysis. Then, this paper tries to use ecological vulnerability theory in tourism city, and gives some relevant land use optimization strategies according to the findings. Huangshan city has rich natural resources and complex ecological processes. In the perspective of ecological vulnerability, this paper primarily analyses the influence of eco-environment to land use change, so the study level is not deep enough. In the future, according to the characteristics of Huangshan city and the evaluation results of ecological vulnerability, we need to further explore the treatment measures of eco-environment and scientific land use plan to achieve combination of theoretical research and practical application.