Comprehensive Evaluation And Ecological Restoration Strategy Of Geopark Landscape Resources System

A geopark is a natural area or territorial space that abounds in geological heritage landscapes together with other landscape resources such as biological landscapes and cultural landscapes.Over the years,many academic studies have been carried out on the evaluation,protection and development of geological heritage landscape resources in geoparks,but only few on the other landscape resources,especially on the various landscape resources whole and ecological restoration,leaving almost a blank in China and being inconsistent with China's current acceleration of ecological civilization construction and ecological restoration for territorial space.In fact,there exist interrelationships,interplays and interdependencies among various landscape resources in a geopark,including geological heritage landscape,biological landscape and cultural landscape resources.In light of this,for the construction,management,protection,development and others of a geopark,various landscape resources should be considered as an integral whole,that is,a geopark landscape resources system,and efforts should be made on ecological restoration of damaged landscape resources and environment or landscape ecosystem.In view of the above,the paper mainly studied the geopark landscape resources system with focus on the theoretical analysis,comprehensive evaluation and ecological restoration strategy of the system.Firstly,from the perspective of the system,the paper put forward the concept of geopark landscape resources system and,by using systematic scientific methods and combining theory with examples,systematically analyzed the element composition,interrelationship,evolution law and driving mechanism of the geopark landscape resources system.Secondly,according to the comprehensive evaluation connotation and principle and basis of comprehensive evaluation indicator selection for the geopark landscape resources system,through questionnaire survey,hierarchical analysis,entropy,fuzzy mathematics and other relevant methods,a comprehensive evaluation indicator system and model of the geopark landscape resources system were constructed.Thirdly,after constructing a theoretical basis of the landscape ecosystem and landscape ecological restoration of a geopark,and analyzing the current ecological restoration models,the paper established a theoretical model of multi-level system ecological restoration of a geopark,and proposed the landscape ecological restoration strategy and measures in respect of 4 levels: element,system,management and culture.Finally,with Meijiang National Geopark in Hunan Province as an example,based on introducing the landscape resource type and landscape unit evaluation level of the park,the paper conducted an empirical study on the above study theory:(1)systematically analyzing the evolution characteristics and driving factors of the park landscape resources system;(2)comprehensively evaluating the park landscape resources system;(3)based on the systematic analysis and comprehensive evaluation results,analyzing the main problems existing in the park landscape ecosystem,and furthermore proposing the strategy and measures for the park landscape ecological restoration.From above-mentioned study,the major achievements and understandings are as follows:(1)The geopark landscape resources system is an organic whole with a specific structure and functions formed by a combination of various interacting and interdependent landscape resources in a geopark.Its elements can be divided into 5 major categories(i.e.,geological heritage landscape,biological landscape,other natural landscape,cultural landscape,and hard landscape),12 medium categories,55 small categories and hundreds of subcategories.There are interrelationships,interplays and interdependencies between the system as a whole and its elements,between elements and elements,and between the system as a whole and its external environment.The geopark landscape resources system and its external environment can form a larger system,that is,a geopark landscape resources-environment system.(2)The stability of the geopark landscape resources system is decided by the stability of the landscape resource elements and the stability of the relationship between such elements.In the absence of any significant external interference,the evolution of the geopark landscape resources system(i.e.,the geopark life cycle)can be basically segmented into 5 stages: original exploration stage,preliminary formation stage,rapid development stage,stable development stage and gradual decline stage.Such evolution is the result of interaction and coordination of various driving forces.The driving force contains natural driving force and man-made driving force,where the former is divided into natural gradually-changing acting force and natural suddenly-changing interference force,while the latter into man-made basic driving force,government macro-control force and man-made suddenly-changing interference force.It is necessary to properly regulate the driving mechanism for the evolution of the geopark landscape resources system to ensure the health,harmony and relative stability of the geopark landscape resources system.(3)The comprehensive evaluation of the geopark landscape resources system is a comprehensive analysis,evaluation and prediction of the quality status and the development and evolution trend of the geopark landscape resources system according to certain comprehensive evaluation indicator systems and methods.The comprehensive evaluation indexes are main regulation and control factors which: 1)reflect the functions or values of the geopark landscape resources system;2)reflect the protection situation of the geopark landscape resources system and its external environment;3)reflect the development and evolvement of the geopark landscape resources system.The comprehensive evaluation indicator system is divided into 4 levels,including 3 first-level indicators,9 second-level indicators and 21 third-level indicators.The evaluation indicator weights are obtained by use of a subjective and objective comprehensive weighting method which combines the analytic hierarchy process and entropy method,and the comprehensive evaluation scores of the indicator at each level(i.e.,element level,criterion level,and target level)are obtained by means of the fuzzy mathematics method and then is used to grade the comprehensive evaluation as excellent,good,fair,poor and very pool(a total of 5 grades).It is necessary to diagnose and analyze the problems of the geopark landscape resources system according to the comprehensive evaluation results and process,so as to provide a scientific basis for the geopark landscape ecological restoration.(4)The geopark landscape ecosystem is a regional complex characterized by certain patterns,functions and dynamic changes.It can be considered to be composed of three elements(subsystems)that interact with and influence each other,which are geopark landscape resources-environment system,tourists,and local residents.(5)The geopark landscape ecological restoration is not a traditional ecological restoration,but the territorial space ecological restoration centering on geopark landscape ecosystem;at the element level,the focuses are on the various landscape resources of the geopark landscape resources system.According to the damage degree of the object to be restored,the geopark landscape ecological restoration may be divided three categories: ecological restoration,ecological remediation,and ecological reconstruction.(6)Based on the theoretical basis of landscape ecosystem and landscape ecological restoration of a geopark and the analysis of the existing theoretical models of ecological restoration,a theoretical model of multi-level system ecological restoration of a geopark is proposed.The mode shows four characteristics: 1)the completeness contents for ecological restoration;2)the integration of measures for ecological restoration;3)the multi-level process of ecological restoration;4)the dynamic states of ecological restoration.Furthermore,this mode consists of 4 stages or aspects which enrich each other,interacts with each other and independent to each other,that is,element,system,management,and culture.Restoration at the aspect of element refers to mere ecological restoration of technology,which include geological heritage landscape restoration,biology landscape restoration,humanistic landscape restoration,river landform restoration,and landscape waters restoration,etc.Restoration at the aspect of system refers to ecological restoration with systematic technologies,that is,the ecological restoration made based on the overall situation,namely,all the elements,all the factors,all the process,and all the scope,with diversified restoration technologies and under the instructions of system engineering theories.Ecological restoration at the aspect of management is to take social,economic,political,and law measures to facilitate the ecological restoration of the geopark landscape resources system.Ecological restoration at the aspect of culture refers to the restoration of thoughts,ideas,and culture of human,with the purpose of helping people establish the eco-civilization concept and other cultural ideas or thoughts favorable to ecological protection and restoration,by changing the ideological thoughts of all the people.(7)Finally,by taking Hunan Meijiang National Geopark as the example,this paper made empirical studies on the geopark landscape resources system and its ecological restoration.Hunan Meijiang National Geopark is a comprehensive geopark mainly featured with karst landform.Its geological heritage landscape resources are divided into 2 medium categories,5 small categories and 23 subcategories(23 landscape units are provincial-level or above).Its biology landscape resources are divided into 2 medium categories,8 small categories and 18 subcategories(2 landscape units are level II or above).Its humanistic landscape resources are divided into 2 medium categories,11 small categories and 19 subcategories(5 landscape units are level II or above).Its other natural landscape resources are divided into 3 medium categories and 6 small categories(1 landscape units are level II or above).Its hard landscape resources are divided into 2 medium categories and 9 small categories(2 landscape units are level II or above).The evolution process of the geopark landscape resources system(i.e.,the geopark life cycle)has gone through 4 stages,that is,original exploration,preliminary formation,rapid development and stable development,with man-made driving force the main driving factor.Comprehensive evaluation is made on the geopark landscape resources system with the evaluation system established and the methods described above,and the final score is 70.9,reaching the grade of “fair”.The prominent landscape ecosystem problems identified in the current situation of the geopark include: 1)poor value of the biology landscape resources;2)poor protection of the landscape resources;3)poor health conditions of the public environment;4)great density of the permanent residents here.In which,big local populationand and heavy land utilization,are main reasons leading to landscape ecosystem problems.Finally,strategies and methods were proposed from all different aspects(element,system,management,and culture)in view of the damages and the main problems of the geopark landscape ecosystem.The paper has three main innovations:(1)from the perspective of system,the paper put forward the concept of geopark landscape resources system,and systematically analyzed its element composition,interrelationship,evolution law and driving mechanism;(2)starting from the three first-level indicators,namely,system value,system protection and system regulation,The paper constructed a comprehensive evaluation indicator system and model of the geopark landscape resources system,and for the individual evaluation of the group value and diversity indicators(specifically 8 third-level indicators)of various landscape resources of a geopark,the paper proposed 8 mathematic models to improve the quantitative study level;(3)The paper constructed a theoretical basis of the landscape ecosystem and landscape ecological restoration of a geopark,established a theoretical model of multi-level system ecological restoration of a geopark,and worked out the geopark landscape ecological restoration strategy and measures in respect of the 4 step-by-step,independent and interconnected levels: element,system,management and culture.