A novel-quantitative vulnerability evaluation method for multi-type ecological functional areas based on dynamic weight determination and NPP

Abstract Most precious studies focused on one single type of ecological functional area during single period, which ignored the differences of evaluation systems and index weights among different ecological areas in different study periods. In addition, the comparability of vulnerability assessment results among different study areas was poor. This paper proposed a novel-quantitative vulnerability evaluation method for multi-type and multi-temporal ecological functional areas using dynamic weighting method: Three-River Source region grassland meadow wetland ecological functional area(TRSR), Guiqiandian karst rocky desertification control ecological functional area(GQD), Hunshandake desertification control ecological functional area(HSDK), and Chuandian forest and biodiversity ecological functional area(CD), and then introduced the net primary productivity (NPP) to realize the determination of multi-type ecological vulnerability thresholds, which is helpful to compare the vulnerability evaluation results of different ecological functional areas in a unified and comparable level. The results showed that: (1) The proposed novel-quantitative vulnerability evaluation method had higher applicability in vulnerability assessment for multi-type ecological functional areas(91.1% for TRSR,91.9%for HSDK, 91.7% for CD, and 94.2% for GQD) based on dynamic weight determination method;(2) The determination of vulnerability thresholds based on NPP could provide a comparable level to investigate the spatial distribution patterns of ecological vulnerability in multi-type ecological functional areas for different periods; (3) The average ecological vulnerability of TRSR, GQD, and CD belonged to mild vulnerability, while that of HSDK belonged to moderate vulnerability; (4) There were significant differences in the dominant factors of ecological vulnerability for multi-type ecological functional areas in different periods. The research results could provide data and method supports for ecological protection for multi-type ecological zones in national scale.