Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165631
Title: Quantifying the impact of the grain-for-green program on ecosystem health in the typical agro-pastoral ecotone: A case study in the xilin gol league, inner mongolia
Authors: Wang, Z.
Yu, Q.
Guo, L.
Keywords: Agro-pastoral ecotone
Ecosystem health
Pressure-state-response model
The Grain-for-Green program
Xilin Gol League
Issue Date: 2020
Publisher: MDPI AG
Citation: Wang, Z., Yu, Q., Guo, L. (2020). Quantifying the impact of the grain-for-green program on ecosystem health in the typical agro-pastoral ecotone: A case study in the xilin gol league, inner mongolia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17 (16) : 1-16. ScholarBank@NUS Repository. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165631
Rights: Attribution 4.0 International
Abstract: The Green-for-Grain program (GGP) is the largest environmental restoration program in China. It is effective in controlling land desertification but at the same time is highly affected by regional differences. Ecosystem health, as an important indicator of ecosystem sustainability, can effectively assess the ecological impact of the GGP and provide a basis for follow-up actions. As a typical agro-pastoral ecotone along the Great Wall, the Xilin Gol League has seen increasing land-use intensity, thus, it is crucial to understand the ecological conditions of the region in order to deploy a policy of the GGP in accordance with local conditions. In this study, using remote sensing images and social statistics data from 1990–2015, land-use transformation and the turning point of vegetation coverage was determined. Based on the pressure-state-response (PSR) model, an ecological health evaluation system was constructed to quantify the temporal and spatial variation of ecosystem health. Then, the spatial correlation between the changes in forest and grass coverage, as well as the changes in the ecosystem health index (EHI), was evaluated using GeoDa software. The results showed that (1) grassland was the primary land-use/land-cover (LULC) in the Xilin Gol League. Since 2000, land-use transfer types changed significantly and grassland degradation weakened; landscape connectivity increased, and vegetation coverage increased. (2) Over the past 25 years, the ecosystem in the study area was at a subhealthy level and showed a trend toward a healthy level. (3) The spatial correlation between ?Area% (change in forest and grass coverage) and ?EHI (change in ecosystem health index) was positive between 2000 and 2015 and the correlation gradually increased, indicating that the GGP did enhance the health of the ecosystem of Xilin Gol. This study provided a specific reference for the evaluation of ecosystem health in the agro-pastoral ecotone of China and a theoretical basis for the implementation of sustainable management policies in the study area. © MDPI AG. All rights reserved.
Source Title: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
URI: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/197769
ISSN: 16617827
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17165631
Rights: Attribution 4.0 International
Appears in Collections:Students Publications

Show full item record
Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormatAccess SettingsVersion 
10_3390_ijerph17165631.pdf2.57 MBAdobe PDF

OPEN

NoneView/Download

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric


This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons