Ecological vulnerability assessment and spatial pattern optimization of resource-based cities: A case study of Huaibei City, China

Abstract

The continuous, intense exploitation of resources under rapid industrialization has made the ecological environment of resource-based cities increasingly vulnerability. Negative impacts of over-exploitation include soil erosion, declines in soil fertility, water pollution, and ground collapse—seriously threatening the survival and development of cities. We used Huaibei City, one of the representative coal resource-based cities, as a case study for measuring ecological vulnerability. We considered the interference effects of human mining activities, based on a typical Pressure-Sensitivity-Resilience (PSR) conceptual framework and constructed an ecological vulnerability index (EVI) system that couples natural and human factors. We then evaluated the EVI using the comprehensive index method. Finally, we combined a Bayesian network model with an entropy difference method, to optimize land use to minimize ecological vulnerability. We found that EVI ranged from 0.25 to 077, with highly vulnerable areas mainly concentrated in the southwest and north of the study area. The subset of {Soi = 1, MSA = 1} was selected as the optimal state subset of key variables for spatial pattern optimization, and primary and secondary optimization areas were mainly concentrated in Xiangshan and Duji Districts. This research will help protect the key ecological functional zones in the region, and provide a reference for policy-making in order to improve the comprehensive carrying capacity of resource-based cities.