Spatial variations in the relationships between road network and landscape ecological risks in the highest forest coverage region of China

Abstract The road network is one of the most ubiquitous and significant long-term legacies of all types of human disturbances on the landscape. Taking the upper reaches of the Minjiang River in Fujian Province of southeast China as a case, the spatiotemporal dynamics of the landscape patterns and landscape ecological risk (LER) were explored, and based on the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model, the geographical heterogeneity in the correlations between the road network and the LER were identified. Our results showed that: (1) The distribution of the LER had a gradually decreasing trend from the middle to the periphery in 2007, with the high-risk area expanding to the western part of the study area in 2012 and 2016. The LER close to the road network was generally higher than those far from the road network. (2) The GWR model fit our case better than the ordinary least square (OLS) model, with both of the measurements of the road network (i.e., distance to the nearest road, DNR; and kernel density estimation, KDE) being significantly correlated with the LER at the 1% level. (3) According to the quantified coefficients estimated by the GWR model, we found that there were spatial variations in the associations between the two regressors and different level effects of roads on the LER. (4) The GWR analysis also indicated that the high-level roads mainly affected areas where human activities were more intensive, whereas the low-level roads infiltrated every corner of the region, mainly affecting areas that were far from the city. (5) The significant cumulative impacts of the road network on the LER were also observed in this study. Benefitting from the quantification and visualization of the spatial paradigm in regard to their trade-off and the synergistic associations between the LER and the road network at the grid level, our study provides suggestions for implementing more appropriate policies that will alleviate the impact of road construction on the landscape. This study also sheds light on further applications of the GWR model in future research on road ecology.

[1]  B. Malekmohammadi,et al.  Ecological risk assessment of wetland ecosystems using Multi Criteria Decision Making and Geographic Information System , 2014 .

[2]  Wenwu Tang,et al.  Spatially Explicit Landscape-Level Ecological Risks Induced by Land Use and Land Cover Change in a National Ecologically Representative Region in China , 2015, International journal of environmental research and public health.

[3]  Shaohong Wu,et al.  Interannual Variations in Growing-Season NDVI and Its Correlation with Climate Variables in the Southwestern Karst Region of China , 2015, Remote. Sens..

[4]  Jianguo Wu,et al.  Urban heat islands and landscape heterogeneity: linking spatiotemporal variations in surface temperatures to land-cover and socioeconomic patterns , 2009, Landscape Ecology.

[5]  K. Seto,et al.  Modeling the Drivers of Urban Land Use Change in the Pearl River Delta, China: Integrating Remote Sensing with Socioeconomic Data , 2003, Land Economics.

[6]  Gonzalo Fernández-Sánchez,et al.  Estimation of CO2 emissions in the life cycle of roads through the disruption and restoration of environmental systems , 2014 .

[7]  Shenghui Cui,et al.  Potential for forest vegetation carbon storage in Fujian Province, China, determined from forest inventories , 2011, Plant and Soil.

[8]  Peter Calow,et al.  Developing predictive systems models to address complexity and relevance for ecological risk assessment , 2013, Integrated environmental assessment and management.

[9]  R. B. Hammer,et al.  Road development, housing growth, and landscape fragmentation in northern Wisconsin: 1937-1999. , 2006, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[10]  T. Rangel,et al.  SAM: a comprehensive application for Spatial Analysis in Macroecology , 2010 .

[11]  Christopher E. Ferrell,et al.  TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: EXPERIENCES, CHALLENGES, AND PROSPECTS , 2004 .

[12]  Guang-shui Chen,et al.  Soil respiration and carbon balance in a subtropical native forest and two managed plantations , 2007, Plant Ecology.

[13]  J. Kollmann,et al.  Bioengineering effectiveness of seed mixtures for road verges: Functional composition as a predictor of grassland diversity and invasion resistance , 2015 .

[14]  U. Mörtberg,et al.  Road ecology in environmental impact assessment , 2014 .

[15]  M. Austin.  Species distribution models and ecological theory: A critical assessment and some possible new approaches , 2007 .

[16]  D. Zhuang,et al.  Impacts of road network expansion on landscape ecological risk in a megacity, China: A case study of Beijing. , 2017, The Science of the total environment.

[17]  S. Dong,et al.  Evaluating the influence of road networks on landscape and regional ecological risk—A case study in Lancang River Valley of Southwest China , 2008 .

[18]  Xi-sheng Hu,et al.  Effects of road network on diversiform forest cover changes in the highest coverage region in China: An analysis of sampling strategies. , 2016, Science of the Total Environment.

[19]  Shilong Piao,et al.  Forest biomass carbon stocks in China over the past 2 decades: Estimation based on integrated inventory and satellite data , 2005 .

[20]  R. Forman,et al.  Estimate of the Area Affected Ecologically by the Road System in the United States , 2000 .

[21]  S. Dong,et al.  Forest fragmentation and landscape connectivity change associated with road network extension and city expansion: A case study in the Lancang River Valley , 2014 .

[22]  M. Cochrane,et al.  Roads, deforestation, and the mitigating effect of protected areas in the Amazon , 2014 .

[23]  Volker C. Radeloff,et al.  Road Density and Landscape Pattern in Relation to Housing Density, and Ownership, Land Cover, and Soils , 2005, Landscape Ecology.

[24]  Kai Yue,et al.  The National Key Forestry Ecology Project has changed the zonal pattern of forest litter production in China , 2017 .

[25]  Michael C. Wimberly,et al.  Influences of forest roads on the spatial patterns of human- and lightning-caused wildfire ignitions , 2012 .

[26]  Forest biomass carbon storage from multiple inventories over the past 30 years in Gansu Province, China: implications from the age structure of major forest types , 2015, Journal of Forestry Research.

[27]  Tessa K Anderson,et al.  Kernel density estimation and K-means clustering to profile road accident hotspots. , 2009, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[28]  D. Porter,et al.  Using Wildlife as Receptor Species: A Landscape Approach to Ecological Risk Assessment , 2004, Environmental management.

[29]  R. Pu,et al.  Evolution Characteristics of Landscape Ecological Risk Patterns in Coastal Zones in Zhejiang Province, China , 2017 .

[30]  Zhifeng Wu,et al.  Using kernel density estimation to assess the spatial pattern of road density and its impact on landscape fragmentation , 2013, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[31]  Richard F. Daniels,et al.  Spatially explicit sustainability analysis of long-term fiber supply in Georgia, USA , 2004 .

[32]  Lingxiao Ying,et al.  Spatiotemporal patterns of road network and road development priority in three parallel rivers region in Yunnan, China: An evaluation based on modified kernel distance estimate , 2014, Chinese Geographical Science.

[33]  K. Clarke,et al.  On the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Coupling between Land Use and Road Networks: Does Political History Matter? , 2015 .

[34]  Wayne G. Landis,et al.  A Bayesian Approach to Landscape Ecological Risk Assessment Applied to the Upper Grande Ronde Watershed, Oregon , 2012 .

[35]  Limin Dai,et al.  Application of China’s National Forest Continuous Inventory Database , 2011, Environmental management.

[36]  Wang Lei.  Statistical Analysis on the Relationship between Road Network and Ecosystem Fragmentation in China , 2004 .

[37]  E. Parzen.  On Estimation of a Probability Density Function and Mode , 1962 .

[38]  Fang Han,et al.  Assessing Landscape Ecological Risk for a World Natural Heritage Site: a Case Study of Bayanbulak in China , 2015 .

[39]  Suiliang Huang,et al.  Landscape Ecological Risk Responses to Land Use Change in the Luanhe River Basin, China , 2015 .

[40]  X. Zhang,et al.  Analysis of forest landscape dynamics based on Forest Landscape Restoration: a case study of Yong’an city, Fujian province, China , 2010, European Journal of Forest Research.

[41]  Mohammad Valipour,et al.  Temperature analysis of reference evapotranspiration models , 2015 .

[42]  U. Mörtberg,et al.  A spatial ecological assessment of fragmentation and disturbance effects of the Swedish road network , 2015 .

[43]  Xi-sheng Hu,et al.  Locating spatial variation in the association between road network and forest biomass carbon accumulation , 2017 .

[44]  S. Monavari,et al.  Cumulative effects of developed road network on woodland—a landscape approach , 2014, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.

[45]  A. Coffin.  From roadkill to road ecology : a review of the ecological effects of roads , 2007 .

[46]  Subhasis Giri,et al.  Understanding the relationship of land uses and water quality in Twenty First Century: A review. , 2016, Journal of environmental management.

[47]  J. Li,et al.  Coupled analysis on landscape pattern and hydrological processes in Yanhe watershed of China. , 2015, The Science of the total environment.

[48]  P. Shi,et al.  Effects of Urbanization Expansion on Landscape Pattern and Region Ecological Risk in Chinese Coastal City: A Case Study of Yantai City , 2014, TheScientificWorldJournal.

[49]  W. Gong,et al.  Semi-Physical Estimates of National-Scale PM10 Concentrations in China Using a Satellite-Based Geographically Weighted Regression Model , 2016 .

[50]  Xi-sheng Hu,et al.  Forest cover change and its drivers in the upstream area of the Minjiang River, China , 2014 .

[51]  Jiansheng Wu,et al.  Assessing Landscape Ecological Risk in a Mining City: A Case Study in Liaoyuan City, China , 2015 .

[52]  Ruud Foppen,et al.  Disturbance by traffic of breeding birds: evaluation of the effect and considerations in planning and managing road corridors , 1997, Biodiversity & Conservation.

[53]  Lingxiao Ying,et al.  Road impacts on spatial patterns of land use and landscape fragmentation in three parallel rivers region, Yunnan Province, China , 2014, Chinese Geographical Science.

[54]  Anna M. Hersperger,et al.  Road Traffic and Nearby Grassland Bird Patterns in a Suburbanizing Landscape , 2002, Environmental management.

[55]  J. Sendra,et al.  Exploring the driving forces behind deforestation in the state of Mexico (Mexico) using geographically weighted regression , 2010 .

[56]  Xiangzheng Deng,et al.  Landscape ecological risk assessment in Yellow River Delta , 2012 .

[57]  Xi-sheng Hu,et al.  Geographic variations of ecosystem service intensity in Fuzhou City, China. , 2015, The Science of the total environment.

[58]  Marcos M. Alexandrino,et al.  A model of road effect using line integrals and a test of the performance of two new road indices using the distribution of small mammals in an Atlantic Forest landscape , 2012 .

[59]  Heather C. Venhaus,et al.  Exploiting the attributes of regional ecosystems for landscape design: The role of ecological restoration in ecological engineering☆ , 2007 .

[60]  P. Ibisch,et al.  Roadless and Low-Traffic Areas as Conservation Targets in Europe , 2011, Environmental management.

[61]  Jian Xu,et al.  Comparison of Ecological Risk among Different Urban Patterns Based on System Dynamics Modeling of Urban Development , 2017 .

[62]  L. Hens,et al.  Application of GIS and modelling in health risk assessment for urban road mobility , 2013, Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

[63]  F. Jiguet,et al.  Road network in an agrarian landscape: Potential habitat, corridor or barrier for small mammals? , 2015 .

[64]  Peng Wang,et al.  Ecological Risk Assessment of Land Use Change in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone, China , 2013, International journal of environmental research and public health.

[65]  J. Tu.  Spatially varying relationships between land use and water quality across an urbanization gradient explored by geographically weighted regression. , 2011 .

[66]  D. Hodges,et al.  Socio-Demographic and Market Forces of Forest Land Use Change on the Northern Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee , 2009 .

[67]  B. Deal,et al.  Sustainability and Urban Dynamics: Assessing Future Impacts on Ecosystem Services , 2009 .

[68]  John M. Melack,et al.  The effects of land use changes on streams and rivers in mediterranean climates , 2013, Hydrobiologia.

[69]  C. Mulley,et al.  Residential property value impacts of proximity to transport infrastructure: An investigation of bus rapid transit and heavy rail networks in Brisbane, Australia , 2016 .

[70]  R. Forman,et al.  ROADS AND THEIR MAJOR ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS , 1998 .