[Analysis of Spatiotemporal Changes and Driving Factors of Ecological Environment Quality in the Yellow River Basin].

Abstract

The Yellow River Basin plays an important role in China's economic development and ecological protection. Based on remote sensing ecological index （RSEI） data, climate data, digital elevation data, and night-time remote sensing data, the RSEI index was used as the ecological environment quality evaluation index. such as Theil Sen slope estimation, Hurst index, and Mann-Kendall test were used to evaluate the spatiotemporal changes in the ecological environment quality of the Yellow River Basin from 2001 to 2021. Geodetectors were used to quantitatively detect and analyze the key factors and their interactions in the ecological environment of the basin. The results showed that： Firstly, the overall ecological environment quality in the Yellow River Basin was slightly lower than the moderate level and gradually improved from the northwest to the southeast. The areas with moderate and lower grades accounted for 83.12% of the total area in the basin. The ecological environment quality has shown an upward trend in the past 21 years, which was confirmed by a significance test with a confidence level of 95%. Secondly, the ecological quality within the region showed a phased change of rising decreasing rising, with frequent area transfer between adjacent ecological levels and migration of ecological positions at different levels. The proportion of ecological improvement areas in the past 21 years reached 58.09%, but 51.75% of the regional improvement trend did not pass the significance test. Thirdly, the future ecological environment quality in the basin is expected to deteriorate, with the proportion of continuously deteriorating areas accounting for 24.39% and the proportion of areas transitioning from improvement to deterioration accounting for 5.08%. Attention should be paid to the ecological deterioration risks in Qinghai and Gansu, and the trend of ecological degradation in Inner Mongolia should be curbed. Fourthly, the results of the geographical detector indicated that the ecological environment in the Yellow River Basin was mainly influenced by population density, and the influence of climate factors represented by rainfall has been continuously increasing. The interaction between the two factors enhanced the explanatory power of the factors, with the main interaction type being mutual enhancement, accounting for 70.2%. In the future, efforts should be made to strengthen the ecosystem governance in the Yellow River Basin and carry out comprehensive ecological restoration work considering both human activities and climate change. The evaluation of the ecological environment in the Yellow River Basin can provide a theoretical basis and data support for implementing targeted measures and promoting ecological protection and high-quality development in the basin.