Natural environment suitability for human settlements in China based on GIS

Abstract

With the degeneration of environment and acceleration of urbanization, human environment has attracted great attention worldwide. This paper sets up the Human Settlements Environment Index (HEI) model and evaluates the natural environment suitability for Human Settlements in China based on GIS technology. The results show that the HEI of China decreases from southeast to northwest in general, HEI is significantly correlated with population density at grid size and the correlation coefficient (r) between them reaches 0.93, which indicates that natural environment suitability for Human Settlements has a significant influence on population distribution. Most people in China mainly concentrate in areas with high natural environment suitability. The total suitable area is 430.47×10 4 km 2 , which accounts for nearly 45% of the total land area in China, while the proportion of people living in the area reaches 96.56%. With a population density of 18 people per square kilometer, the critical area is the transitional region for people to live in China. The critical area covers 225.11×10 4 km 2 with a population of 41.12 million. The non-suitable area covers 304.42×10 4 km 2 with a population of only 2.49 million.

The spatio‐temporal change of China's net floating population at county scale from 2000 to 2010

“…Natural environment suitability influences population distribution, and most people in China concentrate in areas with high NES. In general, the level of NES is higher in the East and lower in the West of China (Feng et al ., ; Yang and Ma, ). As shown in Figure , the regions with high NES were also the major population migrating destinations.…”

Habitation environment suitability and population density patterns in China: A regionalization approach

“…More recently, Yang and Ma (2009) constructed a Natural Environment Suitability Index (NESI) model of China that included variables such as climate, hydrology, surface configuration, and ecological conditions, and used the composite index to evaluate the relationship between population density and the natural environment. Similarly, Feng, Yang, and Zhang (2009) analyzed the ecological environment suitability for human settlements in China by considering terrain, climate, water, and land use and cover change. Li, Liu, and Zhang (2011) evaluated the human settlements environment suitability in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of Chongqing, and considered factors such as terrain, climate, hydrology, vegetation, and other natural factors.…”

Environmental suitability evaluation for human settlements in Bosten Lake Basin

“…People in Northwest China are suffering from serious environmental and ecological challenges because of distinct natural environment and historical factors [3]. Bosten Lake Basin locates in the intersecting and transitional zone between Tianshan Mountains and Taklimakan Desert, which is a sensitive place of ecological and environmental change [4]. In recent years, number of ecological and environmental problems including reduction in downstream [5].…”