Ecological Health Assessment of an Urban River: The Case Study of Zhengzhou City, China

Abstract

Urban river ecological health assessment is an effective means to manage urban rivers, and combining principles of landscape ecology can provide new help for the ecological restoration of urban rivers and improving their ecosystem service value. From the perspective of important functions of ecosystems, based on typical sample site investigations of different river sections, questionnaire surveys, and remote sensing technology, a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model based on the factor analysis method was used to construct an indicator system that can quantitatively reflect the ecological health of urban rivers. This comprehensive evaluation index system includes five major functions: social function, habitat and corridor function, water ecological function, water landscape function, and spatial enclosure function. The study identified key areas, key rivers, key river sections, and main indicator projects for the ecological restoration of the urban river landscape corridors in Zhengzhou. The study results also showed that the urban river landscape corridors in Zhengzhou have prominent problems in social function, water ecological function, and habitat and corridor function, and 62.1% of the river sections are currently in a sub-healthy state. The flood control function, eutrophication of water body, naturalization rate of revetment, and five other indicators in the old city district are significantly lower than those in the new city district, and the old city district should be the focus of the ecological restoration of urban river corridors. From the evaluation of the ecological health status of typical river sections, the Jinshui River and Xionger River have a larger number of river sections that urgently need restoration. This study provides a reference for the ecological restoration of urban rivers in Zhengzhou, a rapidly urbanizing region, and has reference significance for the construction of water landscapes in small and medium-sized cities with low levels of urbanization.

Evaluation of Ecological Function Restoration Effect for Degraded Natural Forests in Xiaoxinganling, China

“…It was found that the ecological resilience of mixed forests had a higher score. The reason for this is that, compared with pure forests of a single species and low-quality forests and mixed forests of complex species [35], the soil fertility and the biodiversity of the forest stand are reduced [36], making the forest stand less resilient [37], which results in the reduction in the capacity of the forest stand to resist disasters and the capacity of the forest stand for ecological resilience [38]. In contrast, mixed forests make full use of the space of the forest stand, and their horizontal and vertical structures are more complex [39], with a more pronounced stratification phenomenon regarding light utilization in the forest [40,41].…”

Remote Sensing Application in Ecological Restoration Monitoring: A Systematic Review

“…Factor Analysis [132,133] This is a technique for simplifying multiple variables. Assuming that multicollinearity is removed between variables, factor analysis classifies highly correlated variables into one category.…”

Analyzing Cooling Island Effect of Urban Parks in Zhengzhou City: A Study on Spatial Maximum and Spatial Accumulation Perspectives

“…This study shows that parks with a larger P w have higher PCI and PCG values. Zhengzhou is mainly located in the Jialu River basin, with water bodies in the main urban area consisting mainly of artificially modified river channels and artificial lakes [67]. In a situation where water resources are relatively scarce, it is necessary to further explore the scientific issues of rationally planning and designing river corridors, artificial lakes, and other water body landscapes to improve the ecological benefits of the urban thermal environment while ensuring the healthy operation of urban water bodies.…”