111 / 2023-05-31 10:47:35

Coupling Impacts of Urban Expansion and Mining Activities on Ecological Environment Quality and Their Spatial Spillover Effects: A Case Study of Suburban Open-pit Mining Concentration Area in Jinan City

urban expansion; mining and rehabilitation; LUCC; ecological environment quality assessment; RSEI; GeoDetector

 The suburban open-pit mining concentration area is both the frontline of urban expansion and the main battlefield of mineral resource development. These dual forces have resulted in significant land use/cover changes (LUCC), which play a crucial role in determining the ecological environment quality (EEQ). However, research examining how LUCC, under the coupled impact of these two development events, affects EEQ is currently lacking. In this study, the response of EEQ to LUCC were retrieved using Landsat images from 2000, 2010, and 2020 for the southern suburban open-pit mining concentration area of Jinan City. A relative contribution index was proposed to address the ecological and environmental effects of non-dominant land use/cover (LUC) types, and the mechanism of LUCC on EEQ and its spatial spillover effects were revealed by combining with buffer zone analysis. The findings of the study indicate that: (1) the dominant LUC types controlling the EEQ spatial pattern are farmland, grassland, and construction land. And changes in non-dominant LUC types such as mining land and mine rehabilitation have a higher relative contribution to the changes in EEQ. (2) The transformation of farmland into construction land and mining land, and woodland into mining land together exacerbate the deterioration of the EEQ in the study area, with spatial spillovers of up to 1000m. (3) Returning farmland to woodland and grassland and mine rehabilitation are the main factors contributing to the improvement of EEQ in the study area, with spatial spillover extending from 500m-800m. (4) Nevertheless, the uneven changes in LUC continue to aggravate the agglomeration effect of EEQ deterioration. Further refine and enhance the methods and standards of ecological governance is urgently needed to counterbalance the uneven spatial spillover effects between ecological degradation and improvement. This study provides a scientific reference for promoting ecological protection and sustainable development in mining cities.