Search Results (33)

Cultural ecosystem services (CESs) reflect the interaction between ecosystems and human well-being. Owing to constraints in data availability and existing methodological limitations, deriving information from non-material ecosystem attributes was inadequate. We took Yulin City, located in the northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau, as a case study. Based on open-source geospatial data and user interaction data from social media, a coupled multi-source model was applied to elucidate the spatial distribution of CESs’ supply–demand flow. The Maxent and LDA model were utilized to quantify CES supply–demand, whereas the breakpoint and gravity model were applied to explain the direction and intensity of CES flow. The results indicated the following: (1) aesthetic was the most perceivable CES in Yulin, with 27% high supply areas and four demand topics. And the perception of the educational CES was the least pronounced, with only 2% of high supply areas and two demand topics. (2) Yulin exhibited a notable mismatching in CES supply–demand, with the supply–demand matching area constituting only approximately 10%. In the center of the city, CESs displayed a spatial pattern of a supply–demand deficit, while areas farther from the city center presented a spatial pattern of a supply–demand surplus. (3) The flow of CESs followed a pattern of movement from peripheral counties to central counties and from less developed counties to more developed counties. We proposed the following targeted recommendations: introducing low-perception CESs to promote the enhancement of ecosystem services (ESs); and alleviating CES supply–demand mismatches by enhancing transportation accessibility and protecting the ecological environment. Simultaneously, attention should be directed towards the developmental disparities between counties, providing differentiated guidance for CES spatial flow. Our study provided a theoretical foundation for understanding CES supply–demand flow and offered scientific insights for the spatial development of urban CES. Full article

The geological and environmental conditions of the northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau are highly fragile, with frequent landslides and collapse disasters triggered by rainfall and human engineering activities. This research addresses the limitations of current landslide hazard assessment models, considers Zhuanyaowan Town in northern Shaanxi Province as a case study, and proposes an integrated model combining the information value model (IVM) with ensemble learning models (RF, XGBoost, and LightGBM) employed to derive the spatial probability of landslide occurrences. Adopting Pearson’s type-III distribution with the Bayesian theorem, we calculated rainfall-induced landslide hazard probabilities across multiple temporal scales and established a comprehensive regional landslide hazard assessment framework. The results indicated that the IVM coupled with the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model achieved the highest prediction performance. The rainfall-induced hazard probabilities for the study area under 5-, 10-, 20-, and 50-year rainfall return periods are 0.31081, 0.34146, 0.4, and 0.53846, respectively. The quantitative calculation of regional landslide hazards revealed the variation trends in hazard values across different areas of the study region under varying rainfall conditions. The high-hazard zones were primarily distributed in a belt-like pattern along the Xichuan River and major transportation routes, progressively expanding outward as the rainfall return periods increased. This study presents a novel and robust methodology for regional landslide hazard assessment, demonstrating significant improvements in both the computational efficiency and predictive accuracy. These findings provide critical insights into regional landslide risk mitigation strategies and contribute substantially to the establishment of sustainable development practices in geologically vulnerable regions. Full article

In the context of rapid urbanization and extreme climate change globally, balancing ecological resources and economic development for land spatial planning has become one of the pressing issues that need to be addressed. This study proposes a composite model to construct a spatial ecological security pattern. It identifies restoration areas with different risk levels based on the spatial distribution of land use, offering suggestions for optimizing spatial configuration. Focusing on the central Shaanxi region of the Yellow River Basin in China, ecological sources are identified by integrating ecological factors, and ecological corridors and restoration zones are extracted using the minimum cumulative resistance difference and circuit theory. The results indicate significant improvements in ecological quality and desertification in the study area from 2000 to 2020. Currently, the core area covers 51,649.71 km², accounting for 62.18% of all landscape types; the total ecological source area covers 31,304.88 km², representing 18.84% of the entire area. These ecological source areas are mainly distributed in the northern Loess Plateau and the southern mountainous regions. The area has 26 important ecological corridors, identifying 16 ecological pinch points and 12 ecological barriers, presenting an ecological security pattern characterized by a grid-like structure in the northern region and a dispersed pattern in the southern region. Additionally, 273.72 km² of ecological restoration priority areas and 197.98 square kilometers of ecological restoration encouragement areas are proposed as key planning regions for ecological environmental protection. This study provides references for optimizing spatial configuration to promote the sustainable development of urban and rural living environments in the Yellow River Basin. Full article

Ecological restoration is crucial for maintaining national ecological security. Scientific and reasonable identification of key ecological restoration areas is a difficult problem facing the current national spatial planning. This study evaluated ecosystem service (ES) supply, demand, and their spatio-temporal characteristics in the Northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau (NSLP). A coupling coordination degree (CCD) model was applied to study the interactive relationship between ES supply and demand. The improved ant colony optimization (ACO) model was applied to explore the priority areas of ecological restoration. The results showed that ES supply, demand, and balance had significant spatial differences. Higher ES supply areas were distributed in the south, and higher demand areas were located in the central and northern parts. The balance of ecosystem service exhibited a similar increasing trend to the supply of ES from north to south. Temporally, the supply, demand and balance of ES showed distinct time-varying characteristics across different types of services. Total ES supply decreased from 2000 to 2020, while total ES demand and balance first declined and then rose. Moreover, total ES balance showed a significant decreasing trend in 21.22% of regions in the NSLP. Furthermore, the CCD results showed that about 82% of the regions had a disorder status in 2000, while about 90% of the regions had a coordination status from 2010 to 2020. This also implied that the coupling coordination degree in most regions gradually improved from 2000 to 2020. Finally, four ES enhancement priorities were further identified from the perspectives of enhancing ES supply capacity. Ecological restoration prioritization of different ES enhancements showed significant spatial variations, with the top 15% of the ecological restoration area located in the east–central and west–central regions. The top 5% of total ecosystem services can bring 2,470,400 yuan in ecological benefits. This research can offer scientific and theoretical guidance as well as a reference for decision-makers to undertake ecological restoration efforts. Full article

During the Middle-to-Late Neolithic period (7000–3800 BP), Shaanxi Province served as a critical juncture in the transmission of crops. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), and rice (Oryza sativa) spread westwards into the Gansu–Qinghai region and southwards into the Sichuan basin, whilst wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) were transmitted through the Shaanxi region to the middle and lower Yellow River regions. Neolithic settlements are found in all three of the main geomorphic settings in Shaanxi: the Loess Plateau, plains, and mountainous areas. While the extent to which crop diffusion and distribution were influenced by environmental changes has previously been highlighted, the strategies of crop utilization in different geomorphic contexts have not been specified. Based on crop-remains data from 33 archaeological sites in Shaanxi, this study uses statistical modeling and ArcGIS-based spatial analysis to investigate prehistoric crop utilization in Shaanxi during the Neolithic period and its environmental determinants. Our results indicate the following: (1) The dominant crops in the Neolithic Shaanxi were foxtail millet and broomcorn millet, with the proportion of foxtail millet increasing over time. (2) The Guanzhong Plain was the earliest region in Shaanxi to adopt millet and rice (~7000–3800 BP). Subsequently, millet and rice had influenced the Qinba Mountains by ~5000 BP at the latest. By ~3800 BP, millet had affected the entire northern Shaanxi Plateau, with rice only found at the Shimao site around 4000 BP. Finally, wheat and barley influenced the Guanzhong region and the Qinba region in Shaanxi around 4000 BP. In addition, rice, wheat, and barley mainly enhanced agricultural diversity in the Guanzhong Plain and Qinba Mountains but had limited impact in the Northern Plateau, where cattle and sheep have enriched subsistence strategies since about 4500 BP. (3) Environmental factors affected the distribution of crops to different extents—elevation and river proximity had minimal effects on foxtail millet and broomcorn millet but significantly influenced the presence of rice, wheat, and barley. These factors led to a spatial pattern where millet dominated in the Northern Plateau, while the Guanzhong Plain and Qinba Mountains developed mixed farming systems incorporating all four seed types. This study provides new insights into the environmental mechanisms influencing crop diffusion and prehistoric human adaptation during the Neolithic period in Shaanxi. Full article

Improvements in vegetation coverage are driven by both resource endowment conditions and policy behaviors. To accurately reflect the vegetation restoration effect after ecological policies, this study used the potential realization model to calculate the potential realization degree of vegetation restoration on the Loess Plateau and to assess the vegetation restoration effect after the Grain for Green Program from 2000 to 2020. Then, the influencing factors were explored using the spatial Dubin model. The results reveal that (1) the EVI value of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi increased from below 0.25 at the beginning of the study to approximately 0.35 by the end, indicating that the green territory of the Loess Plateau gradually expanded to the northwest over the study period, and that the east and west of the Loess Plateau are key areas of vegetation cover for further improvement; (2) compared to the traditional EVI indicator, the potential realization degree can more accurately evaluate the vegetation restoration effect driven by ecological policies; (3) policy intensity is positively correlated with the growth rate of the vegetation restoration potential realization degree by 0.183 and significant at 1% level, making it the primary factor influencing the effect of vegetation restoration. Additionally, annual average precipitation and annual sunshine percentage have significant spatial positive contributions to the improvement of vegetation restoration on the Loess Plateau. The study’s findings are expected to contribute to the development of a scientific basis for adjusting the vegetation restoration policy on the Loess Plateau and enhancing ecological restoration efforts. Full article

Drought, as a natural disaster with wide-ranging impacts and long duration, has an adverse effect on the global economy and ecosystems. In this paper, four remote sensing drought indices, namely the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI), Vegetation Supply Water Index (VSWI), Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), are selected for drought analysis. The correlation analysis is carried out with the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (sc-PDSI), and based on the optimal index (CWSI), the spatiotemporal characteristics of drought in Shaanxi Province from 2001 to 2021 were studied by SEN trend analysis, Mann–Kendall test, and a center of gravity migration model. The results show that (1) the CWSI performs best in drought monitoring in Shaanxi Province and is suitable for drought studies in this region. (2) Drought in Shaanxi Province shows a decreasing trend from 2001 to 2021; the main manifestation of this phenomenon is the decrease in the occurrence of severe drought, with severe drought covering less than 10% of the area in 2010 and subsequent years. The most severely affected regions in the province are the northern Loess Plateau region and Guanzhong Plain region. In terms of the overall trend, only 0.21% of the area shows an increase in drought, primarily concentrated in the Guanzhong Plain region and the outskirts of the Qinling–Bashan mountainous region. (3) Drought conditions are generally improving, with the droughts’ center of gravity moving northeastward at a rate of 3.31 km per year. The results of this paper can provide a theoretical basis and a practical reference for drought control and decision-making in Shaanxi Province. Full article

Over recent decades, the hilly and gully regions of the northern Loess Plateau in Shaanxi province have grappled with severe soil erosion and a precarious ecological milieu. Shaped by urbanization policies, this locale has encountered a gamut of issues, including an imbalance in human–environment dynamics and the degradation of ecological integrity. Consequently, the comprehension of how urban expansion impacts the optimization of regional landscape configurations, the alignment of human–environment interactions in the Loess Plateau’s hilly and gully domains, and the mitigation of urban ecological challenges assumes paramount importance. Leveraging data from land use remote sensing monitoring, alongside inputs from natural geography and socio-economic spheres, and employing methodologies such as landscape pattern indices, we conduct an exhaustive analysis of Zichang City’s urban fabric from 1980 to 2020. Furthermore, employing the CLUE-S model, we undertake multifaceted scenario simulations to forecast urban expansion in Zichang City through to 2035. Our findings delineate two distinct phases in Zichang City’s urban expansion trajectory over the past four decades. From 1980 to 2000, urban construction land in Zichang City experienced a phase of methodical and steady growth, augmenting by 64.98 hectares, alongside a marginal decrease in the landscape shape index (LSI) by 0.02 and a commensurate increase in the aggregation index (AI) by 1.17. Conversely, from 2000 to 2020, urban construction land in Zichang City witnessed an epoch of rapid and haphazard expansion, doubling in expanse, marked by a notable escalation in LSI (2.45) and a corresponding descent in the AI (2.85). The precision of CLUE-S model simulations for Zichang City’s land use alterations registers at 0.88, fulfilling the exigent demand for further urban expansion and land use change prognostication. Under the aegis of the natural development scenario, the augmentation of urban construction land in Zichang City primarily encroaches upon grassland, farmland, and woodland, effectuating an increase of 159.81 hectares. Conversely, under the ambit of urbanization development, urban construction land contends predominantly with farmland, grassland, and woodland, heralding an augmentation of 520.42 hectares. Lastly, under the mantle of ecological protection, urban construction land expansion predominantly encroaches upon grassland, farmland, and woodland, resulting in an augmentation of 4.27 hectares. Through a nuanced analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of urban expansion and scenario-based simulations, this study endeavors to furnish multi-faceted, scenario-driven, and policy-centric insights for regional planning, urban spatial delineation, and regional ecological safeguarding. Full article

Revealing trade-off and synergistic relationships among ecosystem services plays a key role in ensuring a stable ecosystem for long-term development. It is the crucial precondition for realizing watershed protection and high-quality development. The variations in land use during 1990–2020 are investigated by taking the typical areas for returning farmland to forests as an example. The spatiotemporal distributions of six key ecosystem services, namely carbon storage, water yield, net primary productivity (NPP), soil conservation, habitat quality, and forest recreation are quantified by the InVEST model and statistical data. We also uncover the spatial difference in the ecosystem in Loess Plateau, located in northern Shaanxi, with hot spot analysis and probe the trade-off and synergistic correlations among the investigated ecosystem services. The results show that: (1) the farmland decreased dramatically. On the contrary, the forests and orchards increased significantly. (2) During the same period, carbon storage and habitat quality increased, and water yield, NPP, soil conservation, and forest recreation initially declined, but subsequently rose to higher values than that in 1990. All these services in the southeastern part of the research area surpass those found in the northwest. (3) The ecosystem services relationships in northern Shaanxi are mainly characterized by synergistic correlations, which became stronger from 1990 to 2020. The trade-off effects mainly occur among the water yield and other ecosystem services and are distributed in the west and north of the investigated area. Based on these findings, this work provides scientific principles for improving the ecological environment and enhancing the resource sustainability of the study area. Full article

Restoration action is critical to ensure a safe environment for humans. Reasonable planning is essential to optimize the efficiency of ecological restoration inputs and outputs when implementing restoration measures. In this study, a method that combines human activity intensity assessment and multi-criteria decision analysis to determine ecological restoration priority (ERP) areas was developed to identify priority and feasible areas for ecological restoration in Shaanxi Province in 2020. The results showed that the total area involved in restoration feasibility assessment in Shaanxi is 10.89 × 10⁴ km². Among them, the percentage of regions with low feasibility (less than 0.2) is 68.86%, mainly located in Qinling area. High feasibility areas (more than 0.6) accounted for 2.47%, mainly located in the Loess Plateau area of northern Shaanxi. The spatial distribution of the human activity intensity is concentrated in urban areas and extended with the distribution of roads. In total, 10.69% of the regions showed high and very high intensity of human activity, including the Guanzhong urban agglomeration region. This study identified 6078 km² and 671 km² of medium and high ecological restoration priority areas, which are more concentrated in the north of the study area. The need for ecological restoration work is even more urgent in northern Shaanxi. In general, the framework in this study has spatially located the priority and feasible areas for restoration, and may provide a useful reference for landscape-scale spatial conservation planning. Full article

Enhancing the supply efficiency of ecosystem services plays a central role in improving both natural ecosystems and human well-being. Taking the Loess Plateau of Northern Shaanxi as an example, this study utilizes InVEST to assess the ecosystem services of water yield and habitat quality. The optimal solutions for the combination of these two services are calculated on the basis of the Pareto principle. The production possibility frontier curves for the two services are fitted, and the services’ supply efficiency is measured. Furthermore, this study employs ordinary least squares and geographically weighted regression to analyze the dominant factors affecting supply efficiency. The results comprise the following findings: (1) There are eighteen solutions representing the optimal combinations between the two services. (2) The supply efficiency of the two services increases from northwest to southeast in spatial distribution. (3) The dominant factors vary among different zones of supply efficiency. Population, hydrology, and gross domestic product (GDP) are the dominant factors in the general-efficiency, sub-low-efficiency, and low-efficiency supply zones, respectively. Hydrology, NDVI, and GDP are the dominant factors in the sub-high-efficiency supply zone, while GDP, terrain, and population are the dominant factors in the high-efficiency supply zone. In conclusion, this paper proposes recommendations for reducing trade-offs and enhancing supply efficiency between ecosystem services. These include dynamic supervising for the high-efficiency supply zone, moderate greening in the sub-high-efficiency supply zone, stabilizing the population in the general-efficiency supply zone, and reducing development intensity in low- and sub-low-efficiency zones. The study reveals the potential and approaches for improving the supply of ecosystem services and offers guidance for formulating ecological protection plans. Full article

The Loess Plateau region is characterized by fragmented habitats and ecological vulnerability. Analyzing the changes in land use and ecological risk within the region is of great significance for promoting high-quality development of the Loess Plateau. The study utilized land use data from 2000, 2010, and 2020 in the Loess Plateau region to assess the spatio-temporal variation in land use patterns and landscape ecological risks, aiming to provide valuable references and decision support for ecological risk management and sustainable development in the area. The results indicated that the main land use types in the region are grassland and cropland. From 2000 to 2020, forest, grassland, and water areas increased by 1.39 × 10⁶, 6.25 × 10⁵, and 7.09 × 10⁴ ha, respectively. The impervious area increased rapidly, growing from 9.77 × 10⁴ ha in 2000 to 1.85 × 10⁶ ha in 2020. The cropland decreased by 1.82 × 10⁶ ha from 2000 to 2020, with 4.61 × 10⁵, 4.95 × 10⁶, and 8.91 × 10⁵ ha of cropland converted to forest, grassland, and impervious area, respectively. The fragmentation of the ecological landscape in the region has decreased, and the diversity and richness of landscape types have increased. The fragmentation of cropland, forest, and grassland has decreased, and landscape patches have become more concentrated. High-value areas of landscape ecological risk in the region show a trend of continuous aggregation, altering the dispersion pattern of high-risk areas. Currently, high-risk areas of landscape ecology in the Loess Plateau region are mainly concentrated in northern Shaanxi and some areas along the Yellow River, such as Yulin, Yan’an, Ordos, and others. Currently, the ecological environment remains a bottleneck constraining the high-quality development of the Loess Plateau. It is necessary to persist in coordinated governance and ecological engineering construction, and improving the quality of ecological environment is a prerequisite for consolidating the social foundation and leading the high-quality development of the ecological industry on the Loess Plateau. Full article

Paleoclimate studies of loess in China have focused mostly on the time series of a single borehole or profile. However, research on loess strata and regional paleoenvironmental patterns could facilitate a deeper understanding of loess as a paleoenvironmental indicator and provide new insights into interpreting loess in sedimentary records of the paleoclimate. In this study, we determined the spatial pattern and regional characteristics of the paleoclimate during the Last Interglacial period in the Luohe River Basin, Shaanxi Province, China. We selected four representative boreholes in the study area (ZK04, ZK18, ZK13, and ZK19) from different landforms and zones, distributed from the northwest to the southeast, as well as three classic profiles (JB, JD, and LC). From north to south, comparative analyses were conducted of the loess strata, magnetic susceptibility, and grain size, and we analyzed the distribution characteristics of loess and paleosols in different geomorphological regions. The results showed that both the thickness and the sedimentation rate of loess in this river basin decreased from north to south. There were few paleosol horizons in the northern Liangmao area, but numerous such horizons in the southern plateau, and the degree of paleosol development increased from north to south. The magnetic susceptibility increased, whereas the particle composition tended to become thinner from north to south. The climate fluctuations of the Last Glacial recorded by the loess and paleosols in different regions were inconsistent. Full article

The cave dwelling is one of the most typical traditional dwellings and green building forms in the Loess Plateau of Northern Shaanxi. The construction of the cave dwelling was built only based on the experience passed down by predecessors, without the guidance of formal design theories and calculation methods, and the overall safety of the cave-dwelling structure needs to be solved urgently. To make the mechanical analysis model closer to the actual force of the masonry cave dwelling, it is proposed to simplify the arch ring in the masonry cave-dwelling structure into an unhinged arch mechanical calculation model. Applying the theory of elastic center to the force method calculation in structural mechanics, the force of the cave-dwelling structure is analyzed and compared with the force results of the three-hinged arch calculation model, so as to determine the correctness and reliability of the calculation diagram of the unhinged arch. The conclusions indicate it is correct and reliable to use the unhinged arch calculation model, which is closer to the actual force situation, to calculate the forces of the arch rings in masonry cave dwellings, and both the three-hinged arch and unhinged arch models are feasible to be applied to the mechanical analysis of the arch rings. The unhinged arch calculation model is more reliable and safer in the design and calculation of the cave-dwelling leg components compared with the three-hinged arch calculation model because it considers the bending moment at the arch foot support. The research results can be used to improve the structural design data of the cave dwelling and provide theoretical guidance for the construction, repair, and protection of the cave dwelling. Full article

The ecosystem service value (ESV) is a critical metric for assessing the construction and protection of the environment. The research into the ESV pattern and the future development trend in the Loess Plateau of Northern Shaanxi is important for the conservation of water and soil and the enhancement of the natural environment in the region. In this study, the variations and distribution patterns of the ESV in the study area from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed, the influence of various natural and social factors on the ESV was quantified, the weight of each factor was analyzed and evaluated using the entropy weighting method, and, finally, a prediction was made regarding how the ESV will develop going forward in this area. The results show that (1) the ESV showed a decreasing trend from 2000 to 2020, with the highest value for soil conservation and the lowest value for food production. Among the 25 districts and counties, Suide County had the lowest ESV per unit area, whereas Huanglong County had the highest. (2) The global positive correlation was clearly visible in the ESV. According to local spatial autocorrelation analysis, the area had a “high-high” agglomeration area in the south and a “low-low” agglomeration area in the middle and north. (3) Among the various influencing factors, population density had the highest weight and the distance from roads had the lowest weight. The impact status of the area generally showed a lighter impact in the southern region and a heavier impact in the northern region. (4) In 2030, the total ESV is predicted to be CNY 4343.6 million in the study area, CNY 39 million lower than that in 2020. Full article