Scenario-Based Analysis of Land Use Competition and Sustainable Land Development in Zhangye of the Heihe River Basin, China

Rapid economic growth has a significant impact on land use change, which would threaten the natural ecology. Zhangye city of the Heihe River Basin, China is an ecologically vulnerable region where land use changes significantly due to socioeconomic development and population increases. The study employed a computable general equilibrium of land use change (CGELUC) model to simulate land use change and then used a dynamic land system (DLS) model to spatialize land use change during 2015–2030 under three development scenarios in Zhangye city. The three development scenarios are the baseline scenario (BAU), the resource consumption scenario (RCS) and the green development scenario (GDS). We found that economic growth would lead to land demand increases in high value-added industries and decreases in low value-added industries. The cultivated land would decrease while the built-up area would increase. By 2030, the cultivated land will decrease by 8.16%, 10.89% and 4.16%, respectively, under BAU, RCS and GDS, while the built-up area will increase by 8.61%, 10.39% and 4.75%, respectively. The expansion of built-up area under RCS presents spatial characteristics of centralized distribution, while spatial characteristics of uniform discrete distributions are presented under GDS. The expansion of ecological land under GDS would be considerable, especially in the north of Sunan County and Gaotai County, and around the natural reserve of Ganzhou County. This paper provides a scientific reference for coordinating economic development and ecological protection in the rapidly developing urbanized areas in western China.

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Spatial Pattern Analysis of a Water-Related Ecosystem Service and Evaluation of the Grassland-Carrying Capacity of the Heihe River Basin under Land Use Change

Water ◽

10.3390/w13192658 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (19) ◽

pp. 2658

Author(s):

Rui Luo ◽

Shiliang Yang ◽

Yang Zhou ◽

Pengqun Gao ◽

Tianming Zhang

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Use Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Carrying Capacity ◽

Animal Husbandry ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

The Impact ◽

The Heihe River Basin

A key challenge to the sustainability and security of grassland capacity is the protection of water-related ecosystem services (WESs). With the change of land use, the supply of aquatic ecosystem services has changed, and the grassland-carrying capacity has been affected. However, the correlation mechanism between WESs and the grassland-carrying capacity is not clear. In this study, we used the InVEST(Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model to evaluate the impact of land-use change on WESs, and made a tradeoff analysis between WESs and grassland-carrying capacity. Considering that the Heihe River Basin (HRB) was an important grassland vegetation zone, which was a milestone for the development of animal husbandry in China, HRB was taken as a case. The main findings are as follows: (1) the spatial distribution of WESs shows the dissimilation rule, the upper reaches are the main water yield area, the soil retention is weakening in the middle and lower reaches, and the pollution has further increased in the middle and upper reaches. (2) The carrying capacity of animal husbandry decreased in the upper reaches, increased in Shandan County and Zhangye City in the middle reaches, and decreased sharply in other regions. (3) There was a positive correlation between the livestock-carrying capacity and nitrogen export in 2018, which was increasing. As the change of land use has changed the evapotranspiration structure, WESs have undergone irreversible changes. Meanwhile, the development of large-scale irrigated farmland and human activities would be the source of a further intensification of regional soil erosion and water pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to trade off the WESs and animal husbandry under land-use change. This paper revealed how WESs changed from 2000 to 2018, the characteristics of the changes in the spatial and temporal distribution, and the carrying capacity. It aims to provide a scientific basis for coordinating the contradiction between grassland and livestock resources, improving the regional ecological security situation, and carrying out ecosystem management.

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Land-use change and its environmental impact in the Heihe River Basin, arid northwestern China

Environmental Geology ◽

10.1007/s00254-006-0230-4 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 50 (4) ◽

pp. 535-540 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Shanzhong Qi ◽

Fang Luo

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Land Use Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Northwestern China ◽

Heihe River ◽

Arid Northwestern China ◽

The Heihe River Basin

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Scenario Analysis for Water Resources in Response to Land Use Change in the Middle and Upper Reaches of the Heihe River Basin

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su7033086 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 3086-3108 ◽

Cited By ~ 67

Author(s):

Zhihui Li ◽

Xiangzheng Deng ◽

Feng Wu ◽

Shaikh Hasan

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Water Resources ◽

Land Use Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Scenario Analysis ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Heihe River ◽

The Heihe River Basin

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Impact of land use change on water resource allocation in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin in northwestern China

Journal of Arid Land ◽

10.1007/s40333-013-0209-4 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 273-286 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

YanYun Nian ◽

Xin Li ◽

Jian Zhou ◽

XiaoLi Hu

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Resource Allocation ◽

Land Use Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Water Resource ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Northwestern China ◽

Heihe River ◽

Water Resource Allocation ◽

The Heihe River Basin

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Response of land use changes on ecological water diversion in midstream of the Heihe River Basin

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/201824602017 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 246 ◽

pp. 02017

Author(s):

Longqiang Su

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

River Basin ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Heihe River Basin ◽

Water Diversion ◽

Heihe River ◽

Cultivated Land ◽

Water Surface Area ◽

Unused Land ◽

The Heihe River Basin

Based on the land use data in midstream of the Heihe River Basin in 1986, the CLUE-S model was used to simulate the land use distribution in 2000. In addition, the simulated map was verified by the land use map in 2000. Then the spatial pattern of land used in 2015 under the scenario without water diversion was simulated. The results show that the CLUE-S model could be applied to simulate the spatial pattern of land use changes in midstream of the Heihe River basin. Under both scenarios, cultivated land and construction land area showed a tendency of increasing. Forestland, pastureland and unused land showed a tendency of decreasing, while the convert tendency from unused land to other land use types was accelerated. The water surface area decreased under the scenario without water diversion, while under ecological water diversion scenario it showed a tendency of increasing. After the implementation of water diversion, the speed was accelerated. Under the scenario without water diversion, the main types of land use changes were cultivated land, pastureland and water surface area. Conversely, they were cultivated land, pastureland and unused land.

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