Variability in Regional Ecological Vulnerability: A Case Study of Sichuan Province, China
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ARTICLE
Variability in Regional Ecological Vulnerability: A Case Study of Sichuan Province, China Yimeng Liu1,2,3 • Saini Yang1,2,3 • Chuanliang Han4 • Wei Ni1,2,3 • Yuyao Zhu1,2,3
Ó The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Rapid urbanization and natural hazards are posing threats to local ecological processes and ecosystem services worldwide. Using land use, socioeconomic, and natural hazards data, we conducted an assessment of the ecological vulnerability of prefectures in Sichuan Province for the years 2005, 2010, and 2015 to capture variations in its capacity to modulate in response to disturbances and to explore potential factors driving these variations. We selected five landscape metrics and two topological indicators for the proposed ecological vulnerability index (EVI), and constructed the EVI using a principal component analysis-based entropy method. A series of correlation analyses were subsequently performed to identify the factors driving variations in ecological vulnerability. The results show that: (1) for each of the study years, prefectures with high ecological vulnerability were located mainly in southern and eastern Sichuan, whereas prefectures in central and western Sichuan were of relatively low ecological vulnerability; (2) Sichuan’s ecological & Saini Yang [email protected] 1
Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Natural Disaster, Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
3
Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, Ministry of Emergency Management and Ministry of Education, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
4
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
vulnerability increased significantly (p = 0.011) during 2005–2010; (3) anthropogenic activities were the main factors driving variations in ecological vulnerability. These findings provide a scientific basis for implementing ecological protection and restoration in Sichuan as well as guidelines for achieving integrated disaster risk reduction. Keywords Anthropogenic activities Ecological vulnerability Natural hazards PCA-based entropy method Rank correlation
1 Introduction The concept of vulnerability has been applied widely in fields such as disaster studies (Yang et al. 2015; Li et al. 2016; Armas¸ et al. 2017), sustainable development (Turner et al. 2003), urban growth (Hong et al. 2016), and climate science (Cinner et al. 2013). Ecological vulnerability is generally conceptualized as the potential of an ecosystem to modulate its response to external interference and stressors at a specific spatial scale (Williams and Kapustka 2000; Qiu et al. 2015; Beroya-Eitner 2016). Research into ecological vulnerability has become an important aspect of study on sustainable develop
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