Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Health in the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins

As “kidneys of the earth”, wetlands play an important role in ameliorating weather conditions, flood storage, and the control and reduction of environmental pollution. With the development of local economies, the wetlands in both the Amazon and Yangtze River Basins have been affected and threatened...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rui Sun, Pingping Yao, Wen Wang, Bing Yue, Gang Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2017-03-01
Series:ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/6/3/81
_version_ 1811276636937519104
author Rui Sun
Pingping Yao
Wen Wang
Bing Yue
Gang Liu
author_facet Rui Sun
Pingping Yao
Wen Wang
Bing Yue
Gang Liu
author_sort Rui Sun
collection DOAJ
description As “kidneys of the earth”, wetlands play an important role in ameliorating weather conditions, flood storage, and the control and reduction of environmental pollution. With the development of local economies, the wetlands in both the Amazon and Yangtze River Basins have been affected and threatened by human activities, such as urban expansion, reclamation of land from lakes, land degradation, and large-scale agricultural development. It is necessary and important to develop a wetland ecosystem health evaluation model and to quantitatively evaluate the wetland ecosystem health in these two basins. In this paper, GlobeLand30 land cover maps and socio-economic and climate data from 2000 and 2010 were adopted to assess the wetland ecosystem health of the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins on the basis of a pressure-state-response (PSR) model. A total of 13 indicators were selected to build the wetland health assessment system. Weights of these indicators and PSR model components, as well as normalized wetland health scores, were assigned and calculated based on the analytic hierarchy process method. The results showed that from 2000 to 2010, the value of the mean wetland ecosystem health index in the Yangtze River Basin decreased from 0.482 to 0.481, while it increased from 0.582 to 0.593 in the Amazon River Basin. This indicated that the average status of wetland ecosystem health in the Amazon River Basin is better than that in the Yangtze River Basin, and that wetland health improved over time in the Amazon River Basin but worsened in the Yangtze River Basin.
first_indexed 2024-04-13T00:01:19Z
format Article
id doaj.art-5dab0409296e413e920b9070f55fea4b
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2220-9964
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-13T00:01:19Z
publishDate 2017-03-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
spelling doaj.art-5dab0409296e413e920b9070f55fea4b2022-12-22T03:11:21ZengMDPI AGISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information2220-99642017-03-01638110.3390/ijgi6030081ijgi6030081Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Health in the Yangtze and Amazon River BasinsRui Sun0Pingping Yao1Wen Wang2Bing Yue3Gang Liu4State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Remote Sensing and Digital City, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, ChinaCenter for School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, ChinaCenter for School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, ChinaCenter for School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Remote Sensing and Digital City, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, ChinaAs “kidneys of the earth”, wetlands play an important role in ameliorating weather conditions, flood storage, and the control and reduction of environmental pollution. With the development of local economies, the wetlands in both the Amazon and Yangtze River Basins have been affected and threatened by human activities, such as urban expansion, reclamation of land from lakes, land degradation, and large-scale agricultural development. It is necessary and important to develop a wetland ecosystem health evaluation model and to quantitatively evaluate the wetland ecosystem health in these two basins. In this paper, GlobeLand30 land cover maps and socio-economic and climate data from 2000 and 2010 were adopted to assess the wetland ecosystem health of the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins on the basis of a pressure-state-response (PSR) model. A total of 13 indicators were selected to build the wetland health assessment system. Weights of these indicators and PSR model components, as well as normalized wetland health scores, were assigned and calculated based on the analytic hierarchy process method. The results showed that from 2000 to 2010, the value of the mean wetland ecosystem health index in the Yangtze River Basin decreased from 0.482 to 0.481, while it increased from 0.582 to 0.593 in the Amazon River Basin. This indicated that the average status of wetland ecosystem health in the Amazon River Basin is better than that in the Yangtze River Basin, and that wetland health improved over time in the Amazon River Basin but worsened in the Yangtze River Basin.http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/6/3/81wetlandecosystem healthYangtze River BasinAmazon River Basin
spellingShingle Rui Sun
Pingping Yao
Wen Wang
Bing Yue
Gang Liu
Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Health in the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
wetland
ecosystem health
Yangtze River Basin
Amazon River Basin
title Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Health in the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins
title_full Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Health in the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins
title_fullStr Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Health in the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Health in the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins
title_short Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Health in the Yangtze and Amazon River Basins
title_sort assessment of wetland ecosystem health in the yangtze and amazon river basins
topic wetland
ecosystem health
Yangtze River Basin
Amazon River Basin
url http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/6/3/81
work_keys_str_mv AT ruisun assessmentofwetlandecosystemhealthintheyangtzeandamazonriverbasins
AT pingpingyao assessmentofwetlandecosystemhealthintheyangtzeandamazonriverbasins
AT wenwang assessmentofwetlandecosystemhealthintheyangtzeandamazonriverbasins
AT bingyue assessmentofwetlandecosystemhealthintheyangtzeandamazonriverbasins
AT gangliu assessmentofwetlandecosystemhealthintheyangtzeandamazonriverbasins