Spatial Distribution of Fragmentation by Diversion-Typed Hydroelectric Plant Exploitation in East Baoxing Catchment from 1999 to 2013

• Main Authors: Yong Huang, Li Zheng, Dongchuan Wang, Wengang Chen, Qianqian Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2015-03-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: landscape fragmentation processes; moving window; change of division; hydroelectric cascade exploitation; zonal statistics
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/4/3515

In the Southwest Mountain areas, successive hydroelectric plant exploitation by humans on Baoxing River can exert a significant impact on regional landscape composition and structure. Taking East Baoxing River Catchment as the study area, the authors developed a method combining Moving Window based Calculation and Spatial Correlation Analysis to analyze the relationship between fragmentation and related spatial factors at a local scale, aiming to examine the spatial distribution rule of the landscape fragmentation and provide scientific support for the conservation of landscape ecology in the study area. From the perspective of the whole study area, although there is no clear relationship between the selected factors and the Change of DIVISION (CODIV), the comparison of R values in the latter interval (2006–2013) with those in the former interval (1999–2006) proves that the human activities of plant building have led to the increase in the DIVISION value. At the local scale, results show that a high positive relationship exists between slope and CODIV (R = 0.857, p-value = 0.05), while the relationship between river distance and CODIV is highly negative (R = −0.837, p-value = 0.01). A medium strong negative relationship lies between elevation and CODIV, while there is almost no linear relationship between distance from Qiaoqi reservoir and CODIV.