Ecosystem Health Assessment of Shennongjia National Park, China

Ecosystem health assessment is an important part of improving the management of national parks. In this paper, Shennongjia National Park is taken as the study region. By using satellite remote sensing data from 2000 to 2018, based on the Vitality Organization Resilience (VOR) model, an ecosystem health assessment is created and its spatiotemporal characteristics are analyzed. In the whole region, the ecosystem’s health level has gradually improved; the rate of improvement of the ecosystem’s health level from 2016 to 2018 has been 2.5-times that of the overall rate and the trend of improvement has been obvious. The rate of improvement of the ecosystem’s health level of non-nature protection areas has improved two-fold; the same is true of nature protection areas, and the stability change trend of the two areas has basically been the same. The establishment of national parks has played a significant role in promoting the health of the regional ecosystem. In future planning, relevant departments should pay attention to the ecological protection and restoration of the area and optimize the traditional area layout of Shennongjia National Park.

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

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph182111487 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (21) ◽

pp. 11487

Author(s):

Hang Shu ◽

Chunwang Xiao ◽

Ting Ma ◽

Weiguo Sang

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

National Parks ◽

Landscape Pattern ◽

Index System ◽

National Park ◽

Ecosystem Health ◽

Health Assessment ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

Construction Land

Assessing the health of the ecosystem based on the landscape pattern of national parks can facilitate policy makers in formulating more targeted conservation policies to better manage national park ecosystems. To analyze the landscape patterns and characteristics of the national park, the ecosystem health evaluation index system of the national park was constructed using the vigor-organization-resilience (VOR) model to evaluate the health status. In this study, the Shennongjia National Park in China was selected as a case study area to be assessed using the index system. The results revealed that the patches of construction land and farmland are the largest in number and the most complex in shape, reflecting the obvious fragmentation of construction land and farmland patches. All patch types in this national park were evenly distributed. The results of the analysis showed that the comprehensive index of national park heath, according to the VOR model, is 0.74, indicating that the ecosystems in this study area were in a good state of health. Ecosystems in strictly protected areas of this park had the highest ecosystem health index levels, while the traditional utilization areas had the lowest. Ecosystem health levels were characterized by significant spatial agglomeration characteristics, with high-high aggregation distribution areas, mainly clustered in strictly protected areas, and low-low aggregation distribution, mainly clustered in traditional utilization areas and marginal areas. This study provided a set of ecosystem health assessment systems and their practical use in China’s newly established national parks.

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A Study on the Method of Ecosystem Health Assessment in National Parks

Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment ◽

10.11614/ksl.2016.49.2.147 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 147-152

Author(s):

Jang Geun Oh ◽

◽

Hyeok Jae Won ◽

Hyeon-Ho Myeong

Keyword(s):

National Parks ◽

Ecosystem Health ◽

Health Assessment ◽

Ecosystem Health Assessment

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Into Russian Nature

10.1093/oso/9780190914554.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alan D. Roe

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Environmental Protection ◽

National Parks ◽

International Organizations ◽

National Park ◽

World War ◽

Nature Protection ◽

Soviet Government ◽

History Of ◽

Development Goals

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.

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