Evaluation of the Ecological Status of Wetlands of International Importance in China

Xinsheng Zhu, Yongfeng Yang, Jun Yuan and Ziru Niu ()
Additional contact information
Xinsheng Zhu: Academy of Inventory and Planning, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing 100013, China
Yongfeng Yang: Academy of Inventory and Planning, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing 100013, China
Jun Yuan: Academy of Inventory and Planning, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing 100013, China
Ziru Niu: Shanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd., Xian 710075, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: An international assessment of wetlands is important for quantifying the current state of development of international wetland structure and function. At present, the management department and public lack a comprehensive understanding of the ecological status of internationally important wetlands in China. Here, using annual ecological monitoring data and hierarchical analysis, an evaluation index system was constructed with water environment, biological environment, biodiversity, and disturbance pressure as influencing factors, and an evaluation of the ecological status of 63 wetlands of international importance (WOII) in China was carried out, it is helpful to formulate technical plans for the ecological management of wetlands of international importance (WOII). The results showed that the average ecological status score of these wetlands was 0.714 ± 0.075, and there were differences in this score between different regions. The ecological status of wetlands in northeastern and northern coastal areas were mostly evaluated as ‘excellent’ and ‘good’, while some wetlands in other areas of China were evaluated as ‘poor’. The type and protection level of wetlands have an important impact on their ecological status. The ecological status of wetlands according to type were ranked swamp wetlands > coastal wetlands > river wetlands > lake wetlands, while those with national level protection were ranked higher than those with provincial level protection. The ecological status of WOII in China is generally good, but is adversely affected by human activities, alien species invasion, and other factors. Hence, there needs to be a focus on improving the protection and management mechanisms for WOII, promoting improvements in the ecological status of these wetlands, and transforming ecological product value.

Keywords: wetlands of international importance; ecological status assessment; conservation management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3701/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3701/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3701-:d:1071534

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().