[Assessment of ecosystem health--concept framework and indicator selection]

Based on the concept framework of ecosystem health, this paper discussed the suitable indicators to synthetically assess the ecosystem health in governed landscape. Healthy ecosystem means not only ecological health itself, but also the long-term maintenance of healthy human population and the beneficial promotion of social and economic development. Resilience, biodiversity and productivity are the characteristics of healthy ecosystem. The first step in the structure of indicators to assess ecosystem health should be the determination of precise indicator principles. According to the purpose of assessment and the principles of selecting indicator, the indicator system for assessing ecosystem health can be divided into three categories, namely, biophysical indicators, ecological indicators, and social and economic indicators.