Arid Zone Research ›› 2023, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (2): 313-325.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2023.02.15

• Ecology and Environment • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatial and temporal changes of ecological environment and water conservation in Fenhe River Basin from 2000 to 2020

XU Liting(),LIU Haihong,HUANG Lijie,WANG Yufan   

  1. School of Geography and Tourism, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710000, Shaanxi China
  • Received:2022-06-13 Revised:2022-10-27 Online:2023-02-15 Published:2023-03-08

Abstract:

The ecological environment quality (based on the principles of space-time, ecology, integrity, and the dynamic changes) and water conservation in Fenhe River Basin in the past 20 years were analyzed by using the RSEI model and the InVEST model. The relationship between RSEI and water conservation was studied through the correlation analysis. The results showed that: (1) from 2000 to 2020, the area of a good grade RSEI increased by 23.6%, and the area of excellent grade (mainly distributed in the West and East of Fenhe River Basin) increased by 1.9% (2) In 2020, the total amount of water conservation would be 228.9 × 108 mm (an increase of 23 × 108 mm compared with 2000). High conservation capacity was mostly found in the upstream water supply, while the intermediate region of the middle and lower reaches had poor water conservation ability (3) The positive correlation between RSEI and water conservation was 78.42%. Conclusions: (1) The ecological environment of the Fenhe River Basin has been improving continuously for the past 20 years. The medium level shown a declining tendency after fluctuation, whereas the good and poor areas had both increased annually. (2) Over the past 20 years, the water conservation function of the Fenhe River Basin had been continuously improved. The water conservation capacity of the upstream water source areas had increased significantly, while the intermediate and lower reaches had less water conservation capacity. (3) The proportion of positive correlation between the ecological environment and water conservation in the Fenhe River Basin was the largest. The improvement of water conservation capacity could promote the improvement of ecological environment quality and vice versa. There are 21.58% of the regions with negative correlation, which was mainly related to the dominant factors of the two.

Key words: ecological environment, water conservation, spatial and temporal changes, Fenhe River Basin