Ecological Risk Assessment of Saltwater Intrusion and Urban Ecosystem Management in Shenzhen City

Rencai Dong, Yue Cai, Xueye Chen (), Cunjin Wang and Anxin Lian
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Rencai Dong: Key Laboratory of Urban Land Resources Monitoring and Simulation, Ministry of Natural Resources, Shenzhen 518034, China
Yue Cai: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Xueye Chen: Key Laboratory of Urban Land Resources Monitoring and Simulation, Ministry of Natural Resources, Shenzhen 518034, China
Cunjin Wang: Key Laboratory of Urban Land Resources Monitoring and Simulation, Ministry of Natural Resources, Shenzhen 518034, China
Anxin Lian: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: With continued sea level rise and over-exploitation, saline water extends farther inland, causing changes in soil salinity and water quality and leading to permanent land salinization and ecosystem damage. Saltwater intrusion (SWI), causing numerous ecosystem problems and disasters, brings risk to urban ecosystems in coastal cities. Ecological risk, in the Greater Bay Area in China, should be assessed based on the effect of SWI status on ecosystem health. In this study, we built a new ecological risk-assessment model based on the geographic information system (GIS) technique and spatial data. At the conceptual level, four main stressors were identified based on literature reading and fieldwork. Four stress factors (SFs) were thoroughly investigated, namely, SF1: the intensity gradient immersed in saltwater; SF2: the mountain phreatic water supply; SF3: the salinity tolerance of urban greenbelt vegetation; and SF4: the supply capacity of irrigation water to suppress saline water. After a comprehensive evaluation using GIS and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), we mapped and assessed the ecological risk level of the urban greenbelt for the SWI. Our results showed that the area of urban green space affected by the SWI was approximately 49.31 km 2 , almost 12.05%. Ecological risk was sorted into five ranks: (1) very low risk 47.53%, (2) low risk 26.29%, (3) medium risk 22.92%, (4) high risk 2.45%, and (5) very high risk (0.8%). The ecological infrastructure of sponges should include freshwater conservation in coastal cities, and more attention should be paid to fresh groundwater discharge from coastal ecosystems in Shenzhen.

Keywords: saltwater intrusion (SWI); ecological risk assessment (ERA); urban ecosystem management; salt-tolerant plants; Shenzhen City (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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