[Ecological Vulnerability Assessment and Driving Factor Analysis in the Middle Section of Yellow River Basin Based on...

The sustainable development of regional economy is seriously affected by the ecological environment, and assessing ecological vulnerability is a crucial step for implementing ecological management and rehabilitation. With the support of multi-source data, the middle section of Yellow River Basin, a typical ecologically sensitive area, was selected as the research area, and 13 indicators including terrain, meteorology, surface, soil, vegetation, biological abundance, population density, and GDP were selected to construct an SRP model evaluation index system according to its ecological background characteristics. Based on the global Moran's I index and LISA cluster map, this study analyzes the characteristics of time and spatial evolution of ecological sensitivity in the middle sections of the Yellow River in 2000, 2010, and 2020 and uses geographic detectors to detect the driving factors. The results showed that： ① The ecological environment in the middle section of the Yellow River Basin was dominated by severe vulnerability and moderate vulnerability, accounting for more than 50%, and showed a "northwest high, southeast low" spatial distribution pattern. The comprehensive index of ecological vulnerability from 2000 to 2020 was 2.84, 2.79, and 2.58, which showed a stable and decreasing trend in the level of ecological vulnerability. ②Ecological vulnerability had obvious spatial aggregation characteristics. The high aggregation areas were mainly distributed in the extremely vulnerable areas and the severely vulnerable areas with relatively intense population activities, while the low aggregation areas were mainly concentrated in the general vulnerable areas with good ecological conditions. ③ The key factors influencing the spatial evolution of ecological vulnerability in the middle section of Yellow River Basin included vegetation coverage, net primary productivity of vegetation, air temperature, biological abundance, and GDP, and the q values of each driving factor increased to varying degrees after interaction. The research results provide a reference for the conservancy and management of the ecological environment in the middle section of the Yellow River Basin.