Ecosystem Health Assessment of World Natural Heritage Sites Based on Remote Sensing and Field Sampling Verification: Bayanbulak as Case Study

Abstract

Monitoring the ecosystem health for world natural heritage sites is essential for protecting them and benefits the formulation of more targeted protection policies. This study used Bayanbulak world natural heritage site as a case, established a framework for assessing the ecosystem health through remote sensing based on the parameters of ecosystem vigour, organization, resilience, and services. Then, we verified the obtained results through field sampling. The results show that the ecosystem health in the overall study area had declined over time, however, the health within the property zone remained at high levels and stable. The area proportion of low health was low and primarily distributed in the buffer zone. Thus, in general, the ecosystem in the study area was healthy. Besides, the ecosystem health exhibited distinct spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the degree of agglomeration enhanced over time. In addition, the field vegetation samplings were consistent with the changes in the ecosystem health levels, therefore, the result of RS monitoring of ecosystem health were credible. Thus, this study provides a scientific basis for heritage managers to formulate suitable ecological protection policies and should aid further research on the ecological monitoring of heritage sites.

Ecological Health Assessment of Chinese National Parks Based on Landscape Pattern: A Case Study in Shennongjia National Park

“…In addition, the closer the distance, the more obvious the interregional interaction, which led to the aggregation effect of ecosystem health. This phenomenon is similar to the Bayanbulak World Natural Heritage Site [ 17 ]. The high-high aggregation distribution areas are mainly concentrated in strict protected areas, which are often under strict control and protection so that high-high aggregation distribution areas are mainly concentrated here with a high level of ecosystem health.…”

“…In recent years, there have been lots of related studies on ecosystem health assessment. The ecosystem health assessment involves different scales, which includes global scale, regional scale with administrative units, watershed scales, and specific ecoregional scales [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. There are also some studies assessing the health status of different ecosystems, such as the aquatic ecosystems of coasts and rivers and the terrestrial ecosystems of agriculture and forests [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”

Landscape Ecological Risk and Ecological Security Pattern Construction in World Natural Heritage Sites: A Case Study of Bayinbuluke, Xinjiang, China

“…This paper took Bayinbuluke, a famous WNHS in China, as the study area and employed a suite of analytical approaches in order to analyze landscape ecological risk and establish an ecological security pattern. Research on Bayinbuluke's conservation involves ecosystem health assessment [34] and ecological environment assessment [35]. However, vegetation degradation and grazing [36] threaten the conservation and ecological security of the outstanding universal values of the natural heritage site.…”

“…The management organization should therefore focus on protecting those buffer zones with a high level of risk. Seasonal grazing from June to September exists in the buffer zone [34], and land desertification is spreading in certain areas, leading to the spread of ecological risks to the periphery. Therefore, local areas of land desertification should be treated in a timely manner in order to prevent further expansion.…”

Wetland health assessment using DPSI framework: a case study in Kolkata Metropolitan Area

“…2009; Huang et al, 2020) and metal pollution index, heavy metal evaluation index, degree of contamination index, and water quality index (Tokatli & Fikret, 2020). Past studies have adopted different Indicators to assess the health of wetland such as aquatic macro invertebrates as bio-indicator (Sharma & Rawat, 2009), amphibian (Dupler et al, 2020), ora and fauna (Irfan et al, 2020), soil and water Indicator (Montgomery & Eames, 2008), heavy metals (Zhang et al, 2014), eutrophication concentration, and toxic release from agriculture activities ( Lu et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2020). Kolkata Metropolitan Area is surrounded by acclaimed wetlands of East Kolkata wetland, Hooghly River, Rabindra sarovar lake, several ponds and other small water bodies ).…”