Influence of Beijing Winter Olympic Games Construction on Vegetation Coverage around Zhangjiakou Competition Zone

Abstract

There is a rising concern that Olympic venue construction may affect the surrounding environment. The construction of Winter Olympic venues and competition zones is more likely to degrade the surrounding natural environment than the summer counterpart, considering the prominent land use change and extensive vegetation disturbance during the construction of ski trails in mountainous areas. Scientific assessment of the impact of this Winter Olympic Games construction on the surrounding ecological environment can be of significance for the construction of a Green Olympics. At this stage, the main framework of venue and competition construction in Zhangjiakou for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games is essentially completed, so we assessed the vegetation coverage change conditions based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from 2000 to 2020. Our results show that the construction of venues, roads, and other facilities for the 2022 Olympic Games led to a remarkable change in land use, but the impacts on vegetation coverage were negligible in the surrounding area. Due to the intensive reforestation activities since the year that Beijing won the race to host the Winter Olympics, vegetation coverage continued to increase in the Zhangjiakou area, even in the core area of Winter Olympic Games construction zones. This study provides support to the belief in hosting a Green Olympics.

Sustainable land use and green ecology: A case from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics venue legacy

“…Meanwhile, the Zhangjiakou and Yanqing zones established a comprehensive sewage treatment system to collect and reuse sewage. Overall, the construction of Olympic venues, transportation, and other facilities led to a remarkable change in land use with minimal ecological damages and intensive reforestation activities, and the vegetation coverage continued to increase in the Zhangjiakou area (Zhang et al, 2021b), bolstering the belief that the Olympics will be held in a sustainable manner.…”