The Response of Rocky Desertification to the Development of Road Networks in Karst Ecologically Fragile Areas

Shiwen Zhang, Yan Wang (), Chengrong Li, Yang Wu, Yuhang Yin and Chao Zhang
Additional contact information
Shiwen Zhang: College of Ecology and Environment, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China
Yan Wang: College of Ecology and Environment, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China
Chengrong Li: Key Laboratory of Ecological Environment Evolution and Pollution Control in Mountainous Rural Areas of Yunnan Province, Kunming 650224, China
Yang Wu: College of Ecology and Environment, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China
Yuhang Yin: College of Ecology and Environment, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China
Chao Zhang: Key Laboratory of Ecological Environment Evolution and Pollution Control in Mountainous Rural Areas of Yunnan Province, Kunming 650224, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Frequent cross-regional communication makes road networks increasingly dense and has generated prominent human interference, thus resulting in the destruction of the landscape’s integrity and leading to changes in the functional processes of the habitat. In order to discuss the impacts of intense human activity brought by the road networks on the rocky desertification landscape and habitat quality in karst ecologically fragile areas, taking the road networks as the humans activity intensity factor, a quantitative analysis was conducted to analyze the impacts of road networks on the spatial evolution of the rocky desertification landscape and changes in regional habitat quality characteristics under different development modes in the study area based on a landscape pattern gradient method, spatial analysis, and INVEST model. The results showed that: (1) in the study area, due to the destruction of landscape integrity caused by the development of the road networks over the past 17 years, the landscape pattern of rocky desertification tended to be fragmented and complex, first showing an inclination for rapid fragmentation and then gradual recovery later. (2) The land-use intensity and degree of rocky desertification in the industrial areas and in the tourist areas of the study area have increased to varying degrees over the past 17 years, as is seen mainly via the expansion of construction land, cultivated land enclaves in the urban expansion areas, and new development areas. (3) Unders different regional models, the fragmentation of the rocky desertification landscape in the industrial areas was higher than that in the tourist areas, resulting in a significantly lower habitat quality and obvious degrees of degradation. The research findings provide the basis for further deepening our understanding how human activity intensity affects the evolution of the regional landscape, including the development of rocky desertification, the supply of services, and supporting habitat conservation in karst ecologically fragile areas.

Keywords: road networks; rocky desertification landscape; karst ecologically fragile areas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (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/1660-4601/20/4/3130/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3130/ (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:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:4:p:3130-:d:1064540

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

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