Ecological Vulnerability of Nyingchi, Tibet

Abstract

The Alpine ecological region of Qinghai Tibet Plateau is undergoing significant changes endangering its vulnerability to ecology. Based on Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model, six indexes were are analyzed to evaluate the ecological vulnerability of Nyingchi city in Tibet. The Spatio-temporal ecological vulnerability of Nyingchi city from 2000 to 2015 was quantified based on spatial modeling techniques and observed changes were discussed in the context of space and time. The Ecological Vulnerability Standardized Index (EVSI), which was obtained by accounting different vulnerability levels yielded that the overall vulnerability of Nyingchi is relatively high in the north and gradually decreasing towards the south. The changes observed correlated well with local topography, climate, disaster volume and water conservancy construction. As a result, five levels of ecologically fragility could be defined for Nyingchi city, which shall provide a direction to efforts for ecological restoration and re-construction. From the perspective of ecological restoration and reconstruction planning of restoration and reconstruction can be addressed based on the severity of the vulnerability. Such studies on other vulnerable cities at a closer time periods can establish a continuous monitoring systems to detect changes in vulnerability. Automated systems with continuous feed of satellite data with dynamic Realtime processing can help measure and feed information to information dashboards which monitor ecological health of a region. These systems can ensure sustainability of our ecology.