Ecosystem Health Assessment of Shennongjia National Park, China

Abstract

Ecosystem health assessment is an important part of improving the management of national parks. In this paper, Shennongjia National Park is taken as the study region. By using satellite remote sensing data from 2000 to 2018, based on the Vitality Organization Resilience (VOR) model, an ecosystem health assessment is created and its spatiotemporal characteristics are analyzed. In the whole region, the ecosystem’s health level has gradually improved; the rate of improvement of the ecosystem’s health level from 2016 to 2018 has been 2.5-times that of the overall rate and the trend of improvement has been obvious. The rate of improvement of the ecosystem’s health level of non-nature protection areas has improved two-fold; the same is true of nature protection areas, and the stability change trend of the two areas has basically been the same. The establishment of national parks has played a significant role in promoting the health of the regional ecosystem. In future planning, relevant departments should pay attention to the ecological protection and restoration of the area and optimize the traditional area layout of Shennongjia National Park.