Inicio  /  Water  /  Vol: 9 Núm: 3 Par: 0 (2017)  /  Artículo
ARTÍCULO
TITULO

The Human Threat to River Ecosystems at the Watershed Scale: An Ecological Security Assessment of the Songhua River Basin, Northeast China

Yuan Shen    
Huiming Cao    
Mingfang Tang    
Hongbing Deng    

Resumen

Human disturbances impact river basins by reducing the quality of, and services provided by, aquatic ecosystems. Conducting quantitative assessments of ecological security at the watershed scale is important for enhancing the water quality of river basins and promoting environmental management. In this study, China?s Songhua River Basin was divided into 204 assessment units by combining watershed and administrative boundaries. Ten human threat factors were identified based on their significant influence on the river ecosystem. A modified ecological threat index was used to synthetically evaluate the ecological security, where frequency was weighted by flow length from the grids to the main rivers, while severity was weighted by the potential hazard of the factors on variables of river ecosystem integrity. The results showed that individual factors related to urbanization, agricultural development and facility construction presented different spatial distribution characteristics. At the center of the plain area, the provincial capital cities posed the highest level of threat, as did the municipal districts of prefecture-level cities. The spatial relationships between hot spot locations of the ecological threat index and water quality, as well as the distribution areas of critically endangered species, were analyzed. The sensitivity analysis illustrated that alteration of agricultural development largely changed the ecological security level of the basin. By offering a reference for assessing ecological security, this study can enhance water environmental planning and management.

 Artículos similares

       
 
Elias Dimitriou, Andreas Efstratiadis, Ioanna Zotou, Anastasios Papadopoulos, Theano Iliopoulou, Georgia-Konstantina Sakki, Katerina Mazi, Evangelos Rozos, Antonios Koukouvinos, Antonis D. Koussis, Nikos Mamassis and Demetris Koutsoyiannis    
Storm Daniel initiated on 3 September 2023, over the Northeastern Aegean Sea, causing extreme rainfall levels for the following four days, reaching an average of about 360 mm over the Peneus basin, in Thessaly, Central Greece. This event led to extensive... ver más
Revista: Water

 
Zhaoyue Ma, Yong Zhao, Wenjing Zhao, Jiajun Feng, Yingying Liu, Jin Yeu Tsou and Yuanzhi Zhang    
This study on total suspended matter (TSM) in the Pearl River Estuary established a regression analysis model using Landsat 8 reflectance and measured TSM data, crucial for environmental management and engineering projects. High coefficients of determina... ver más

 
Anna Marino, Francesca Bona, Stefano Fenoglio and Tiziano Bo    
Of all the environmental elements that influence the biological communities of rivers, water flow characteristics are undoubtedly the most important. Unfortunately, natural hydrological characteristics are increasingly threatened by human activities, esp... ver más
Revista: Water

 
Defang Lu, Yuejun Zheng, Xianghui Cao, Jiaojiao Guan, Wenpeng Li and Kifayatullah Khan    
In recent decades, the water cycle process in the Loess Plateau has undergone drastic changes under the influence of anthropogenic disturbance and climate variability. The Loess Plateau has been greatly affected by human activities and climate change, an... ver más
Revista: Water

 
Katerina Vatitsi, Sofia Siachalou, Dionissis Latinopoulos, Ifigenia Kagalou, Christos S. Akratos and Giorgos Mallinis    
Freshwater ecosystems provide an array of provisioning, regulating/maintenance, and cultural ecosystem services. Despite their crucial role, freshwater ecosystems are exceptionally vulnerable due to changes driven by both natural and human factors. Water... ver más
Revista: Water