Analysis of the Eco-environmental Quality Index in the Tropical Rainforest National Park in China during 1990-2020

Abstract

To precisely clarify the eco-environment quality status of the Tropical Rainforest National Park, this study develops and validates an eco-environmental quality index (EQI) model applicable to the evaluation of the eco-environment quality of the Tropical Rainforest National Park by using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) as a platform, based on the RSEI model, and applying standardized processing of indicators, artificial correction of PCA eigenvectors, and stepwise regression analysis modeling. And the EQI change trends, change processes, and spatial distribution of significant changes in the Tropical Rainforest National Park are analyzed at two different levels, namely dynamic changes in ecological environmental quality and spatial identification of time series changes, respectively. We also investigate the effects of factors such as the model's internal indicators, topographical elements, and the distribution of land use cover types on the changes in EQI. The results indicate that: 1) The application of the EQI4 model could invert the EQI spatial distribution map consistent with the RSEI model, and the overall change of EQI in tropical rainforest national parks estimates using the EQI4 model reveals a stable and slightly decreasing trend with obvious process volatility. 2) The Tropical Rainforest National Park's EQI spatial distribution and fluctuation zoning has shown obvious spatial heterogeneity. The proportion of spatial area with significant changes in EQI increases as the study time series progress, and the deterioration trend of its time series EQI is the most pronounced in the two regions represented by Jianfengling and Diaoluoshan. (3) The distribution of EQI coefficients of variation in Tropical Rainforest National Park is in excellent agreement with those of NDVI and WET, as measured by R2 values of 0.69 and 0.79, respectively. The bivariate clustering of EQI coefficients of variation with topographic elements reveals that low-elevation, gently sloping areas with frequent human activities, and forest cash crop cultivation areas have greater EQI fluctuations. Consequently, timely, accurate, and rapid quantitative assessment and spatial and temporal change analysis of the eco-environmental quality of Tropical Rainforest National Park can promote the protection of natural resources and ecologically sustainable development of the national park.

Evaluation of optimum season selection for construction RSEI: A case study of ecological environment quality assess-ment in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 2001 to 2020

“…Furthermore, previous studies on RSEI time series have typically used a specific period to assess the changing characteristics of RSEI. Instance, some researchers chose the image of the growing season (July to September, 1 June to 31 October, and May to October) to construct RSEI (Cao et al, 2022;Ji et al, 2020b;Jian et al, 2022). But there is no explanation for chose the images of the above period.…”