Spatiotemporal dynamics and driving factors of vegetation coverage around linear cultural heritage: A case study of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal

• Published in: Journal of environmental management Vol. 349; p. 119431
• Main Authors: Jiang, Aihui, Sun, Fengzhi, Zhang, Baolei, Wu, Quanyuan, Cai, Shangshu, Yang, Zhiwei, Chang, Yong, Han, Rongqing, Yu, Sisi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Beijing-hangzhou grand canal; Cultural heritage; Geographic detector model; Trend analysis; Vegetation; Geographic detector model; Cultural heritage; Beijing-hangzhou grand canal; Vegetation; Trend analysis
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119431

Linear cultural heritage, which plays significant roles in safeguarding the world's cultural and maintaining global civilization, has obtained rising concerns in purpose of sustainability. However, in view of existing publications, most attention has been paid on its values of recreation, history and culture. Its ecological environment is still poorly understood. As the longest linear cultural heritage in the world and spiritual symbol of China, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (BHGC) was selected as the study area in this study. We focused on the vegetation coverage around the BHGC from 2000 to 2020 and aimed to practically investigate whether and why vegetation distributes imbalanced along the entire BHGC. The annual Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), derived from Landsat images, was used to indicate the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation coverage. Based on ten natural and human interference factors, the geographic detector model was applied to analyze its driving mechanism. Results show that (1) vegetation coverage around the BHGC presented apparently spatial heterogeneity. Cities located at both ends of the BHGC showed lower vegetation coverage, whereas those in the middle were relatively higher. (2) Vegetation coverage in 23 cities around the BHGC was relatively stable over time, i.e., nearly 76.39% of the study area was measured unchanged trend. The slight degradation mainly occurred to the sub-urban and extra-urban areas. (3) The driving forces of human interferences on vegetation coverage dynamics around the BHGC surpassed natural factors from 2000 to 2020. Population density, GDP and cultural heritage density presented higher explanatory powers of vegetation growth compared to other seven factors. These findings provide a scientific basis for local governments to intervene in vegetation changes and ecological restoration through natural and human factors within the favorable scope. [Display omitted] •Spatial distribution of vegetation coverage around the BHGC presented apparent heterogeneity.•Temporal dynamics of vegetation coverage around the BHGC showed different pattern in space.•The impact of cultural heritage on vegetation coverage was analyzed for the first time.•Population density, GDP and cultural heritage density are key drivers for vegetation growth around the BHGC.