Comprehensive evaluation of regional ecological security for land use: a case study of Yanchi County, Ningxia Province

As an Abstract study conception,most researches of ecological security generally are macro-scale theoretical study with a regional,national or global perspective.Micro-scale research mainly concentrates on ecological risk,ecosystem health and ecosystem safety.In order to assess regional ecological security and to accomplish the transition from micro-scale to macro-scale research,a Driving-Function-State-Output-Respond model framework (DFSOR model) is put forward in this paper according to the analyses on regional population,society,economy,resources,environment and ecological risks.In empirical research an index .system is set out to evaluate ecological security of land use.The DFSOR model comprises five group of indicators:(1) driving indicators,which include social population pressure and economic pressure;(2) Junction indicators,which include human function,hydrodynamic function,wind function and gravity function;(3) state indicators,which include soil resources,water resources and land use/land cover;(4) output indicators,which include production output and ecological risk output;(5) response indicators,which are composed of all sorts of policies and measures for improving production of ecosystem.The method and procedure for ecological security evaluation is put forward based on DFSOR model as well.In the case study,Yanchi,the ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry,is chosen for the study.An index system built to evaluate ecological security based on the evaluation of regional ecological risks which including sandification,water erosion,soil salinization,soil pollution and shortage of water.The comprehens'ive evaluation result shows the regional ecological security index of land use in the research area increase obviously.But it is still in the state of low-graded danger.