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Landscape Ecological Risks and Ecosystem Services in China

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Ecology and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (8 December 2023) | Viewed by 5762

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Gui Jin

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Guest Editor

School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: resources and environment management; climate change; regional development strategy; decision making; natural resources economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Min Song

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Guest Editor

School of Business Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Interests: land resources economy; land use and management

Prof. Dr. Hai Liu

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Resources and Environmental Science, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
Interests: land space planning; ecosystem value evaluation

Dr. Lei Zhang

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Resources and Environmental Science, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
Interests: land space optimization; environmental policy and management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing intensity of human activities has caused the global natural ecosystem to face huge risks, and may cause the structure, function and organization of the natural ecosystem, upon which human beings depend in order to survive, to become unstable. Relieving the pressure and stress caused by the continuous development of human society and exploring the sustainable development plan from the perspective of landscape ecological risk, are feasible ways to promote the harmonious coexistence of human and nature. The focus of this Special Issue is not only on the comprehensive assessment and regional analysis of risks, but also on the need to broaden the risk solutions in natural and social ecosystems from the perspective of comprehensive management and decision-making guidance. China is the largest urbanized region in the world at present, and the contradiction between the ecological environment and economic development is very acute. We must create a basic theory with Chinese characteristics, formulate a measurement method of ecological risk identification and ecosystem services that is compatible with scale and error, analyze and deduce China's landscape ecological risk and ecosystem services pattern, and provide new research ideas and means for global landscape ecological risk and ecosystem analysis.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Ecological risk assessment,
Regional ecological sustainability,
Integrated management,
Landscape patterns,
Ecological processes.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Gui Jin
Prof. Dr. Min Song
Prof. Dr. Hai Liu
Dr. Lei Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

landscape ecological risk
ecosystem service
natural and social ecosystem
comprehensive management

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 4267 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhancing Sustainability through Ecosystem Services Evaluation: A Case Study of the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System in Digang Village

by Shuyang Tang, Ziwei Liu, Yumei Li and Mingqin Zhou

Sustainability 2024, 16(5), 1875; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16051875 - 24 Feb 2024

Viewed by 666

Abstract

The Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System, as a paradigm of traditional Chinese agricultural recycling models, represents a distinct ecosystem. This study focuses on the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System in Digang Village, Huzhou, as a typical case. The village serves as a core conservation base for the Huzhou Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System, hosting the Huzhou Agricultural Science and Technology Development Center’s Academician and Expert Workstation and the world’s only Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System Visitor Center. These facilities provide strategic guidance for the conservation, development, planning, and inheritance of the Huzhou Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System. Considering the unique environment and limitations in data acquisition, this study employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) to develop an ecosystem service assessment framework encompassing eight aspects and 29 factors assessing the provisioning, regulating, and cultural services of the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System. The results indicate that the ecosystem services of the Digang Village Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System perform at a high level, with cultural services playing a significant role in the overall ecosystem services. The regulating services are relatively weak, highlighting deficiencies in mulberry land management, while the capacity of provisioning services is strong. These findings are crucial for understanding the value of ecosystem services in Digang Village’s Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System, identifying management shortcomings, and providing direction for future assessments and management. This study also offers a practical and effective assessment method for ecosystem service evaluation at smaller scales, where the targeted approach and the presence of significant ambiguity and uncertainty in data are prominent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Ecological Risks and Ecosystem Services in China)

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18 pages, 481 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Farmland Transfer Mode and Livelihood Capital Endowment Impacts on Income Inequality: Rural Survey Data of Hubei Province, China

by Han Yu, Kun Chen, Qingying Zhu and Baishu Guo

Sustainability 2024, 16(2), 509; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020509 - 06 Jan 2024

Viewed by 618

Abstract

Studying the impact of different farmland transfer modes on farmers’ income inequality can help understand the reasons for the income gap between farmers. Based on this, we use field survey data and OLS regression, quantile idea and Shapley decomposition to analyse the impact of farmland transfer on farmers’ income inequality. The results show that the influence of farmers’ spontaneous mode on the increase in farmers’ income is better than that of the market-led mode and government-led mode. The market-led and government-led transfer modes also significantly enhance the positive impact of livelihood capital on farmers’ income. The higher the level of natural, material, labour and social capital of farmers, the more favourable the effect on income, while the financial capital is more beneficial to high-income farmers. As for the restraining effect of the transfer modes on the income gap, the farmers’ spontaneous mode is the best, the government-led mode is the second, and the market-led mode is the worst. Further research shows that the transfer mode greatly impacts the income inequality of middle-income and low-income farmers. There are significant differences in the effects of livelihood capital on farmers’ income inequality in different transfer modes. Therefore, on the premise of following farmers’ willingness, the government should play a leading role in further standardizing the farmland transfer market and improving the household income of low-income and middle-income farmers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Ecological Risks and Ecosystem Services in China)

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16 pages, 4144 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on the Spatiotemporal Evolution of the Ecological Landscape and Construction of an Ecological Network: A Case Study of Hebei Province

by Shijie Gu, Shuhuan Li, Shuai Wu, Bing Tian, Yincui Hu, Minmin Cui and Mingze Sun

Sustainability 2023, 15(21), 15661; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115661 - 06 Nov 2023

Viewed by 845

Abstract

Research on the establishment of a regional ecological network can provide a scientific basis and valuable guidance for the protection of regional animals and plants, water conservation, sustainable resource utilization, and optimization of land use patterns. This study investigated the impacts of land use changes on the ecological security pattern using morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model, and the analysis of spatiotemporal changes and fragmentation of land use types. The results indicate that from 2000 to 2020, the dominant trend in land use types was the expansion of cultivated land, grass land, and wood land. Although the proportion of cultivated land was the largest and was concentrated in the southern part of Hebei Province, the total area of cultivated land showed a decline. Landscape index calculations revealed an increase in fragmentation of the overall landscape ecological patches, while the spatial and quantitative distribution of landscape types gradually became more uniform. Furthermore, 52 patches with the highest landscape index were identified as ecological sources, mainly located in northern Hebei Province in 2020. MSPA calculations showed that elevation, slope, and land use type contributed significantly to the comprehensive resistance surface. Using the MCR model, an ecological network for Hebei Province was constructed, consisting of 114 ecological corridors and 28 ecological nodes. The ecological corridors exhibited a distribution pattern of high density in the north and low density in the south, while the ecological nodes enhanced overall ecological connectivity in the region. Based on the current ecological environment, it is recommended to increase the number of ecological corridors and ecological nodes to enhance ecosystem stability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Ecological Risks and Ecosystem Services in China)

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18 pages, 1967 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Spatio-Temporal Characteristics and Influence Path of High-Quality Economic Development from the Perspective of Urban Land Transfer

by Kun Chen, Yinrong Chen, Min Liu and Yi Chen

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5549; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065549 - 22 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1208

Abstract

The transfer of urban land is an important means for the government to optimize the allocation of resources and promote economic development, and its impact on high-quality economic development (HQED) in the new era is worthy of attention. Based on the panel data of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2004 to 2017, the entropy method and panel regression model are used to analyze the direct, indirect, and non-linear effects of land transfer on HQED. The study found that: (1) The HQED level of the Yangtze River economic belt increased steadily from 2004 to 2017, but the overall level was low, showing the spatial characteristics of high downstream and low middle and upstream. (2) Urban land transfer (ULT) has a significant positive direct impact on HQED, especially in the upper and middle reaches, while the indirect impact is more beneficial to the downstream areas. The impact of industrial structure upgrading (uis) and urbanization (urb) on HQED is significantly negative in the upstream area, while significantly positive in the downstream area. (3) There is a significant threshold effect in ULT, and its positive impact on HQED decreases with the expansion of the threshold scale, but increases in the upstream and midstream areas. The overall impact of uis and urb shows inverted “U” characteristics and significant differences in different areas. The conclusion is that the government should first further reform the land resource management system, and then improve the efficiency of construction land use, to reduce the dependence on land resources, and finally promote the upgrading of industrial structure and improve the quality of urbanization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Ecological Risks and Ecosystem Services in China)

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Review

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22 pages, 2503 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Bibliometric Review of Rural Living Environment Improvement Research in China Based on CNKI Database: 1992–2022

by Ying Wei, Anlu Zhang and Yan Ma

Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6561; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086561 - 12 Apr 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1792

Abstract

Improving the rural living environment has become one of the hot issues in the study of rural revitalization in China. Based on 972 high-quality journal articles, in the database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), this paper provides a detailed bibliometric review of research on the improvement of the rural living environment in China, from 1992 to 2022. Based on a descriptive statistical analysis of the publication trends, authors, institutions, source journals, and high-frequency keywords of the sample literature, this paper uses cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis to quantitatively analyze the main research fields, hot topics, and improvement directions. The results show, that the study of the improvement of the rural living environment presents a good trend. The main research include six aspects: rural sewage improvement, rural waste management, rural environment collaborative treatment, rural toilet improvement, new rural construction and management, and rural environmental green development. Among them, the research heat and abundance of research results of the first three, is higher than the latter three. To further deepen the research related to the rural living environment improvement in the future, issues such as rural toilet improvement, new rural construction and governance, and green development of rural environment, need more attention. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Landscape Ecological Risks and Ecosystem Services in China)

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