Human expansion into Asian highlands in the 21st Century and its effects

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 4955 - 12
• Main Authors: Yang, Chao, Liu, Huizeng, Li, Qingquan, Wang, Xuqing, Ma, Wei, Liu, Cuiling, Fang, Xu, Tang, Yuzhi, Shi, Tiezhu, Wang, Qibiao, Xu, Yue, Zhang, Jie, Li, Xuecao, Xu, Gang, Chen, Junyi, Su, Mo, Wang, Shuying, Wu, Jinjing, Huang, Leping, Li, Xue, Wu, Guofeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 24.08.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 21st century; 704/844/4081; 704/844/685; 706/689/680; Asia; Asia, Southeastern; Asian People; Cultivated lands; Ecological effects; Ecosystem; Habitat fragmentation; Highlands; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Lowlands; multidisciplinary; Regional development; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Asia, Southeastern; Asia
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32648-8

Most intensive human activities occur in lowlands. However, sporadic reports indicate that human activities are expanding in some Asian highlands. Here we investigate the expansions of human activities in highlands and their effects over Asia from 2000 to 2020 by combining earth observation data and socioeconomic data. We find that ∼23% of human activity expansions occur in Asian highlands and ∼76% of these expansions in highlands comes from ecological lands, reaching 95% in Southeast Asia. The expansions of human activities in highlands intensify habitat fragmentation and result in large ecological costs in low and lower-middle income countries, and they also support Asian developments. We estimate that cultivated land net growth in the Asian highlands contributed approximately 54% in preventing the net loss of the total cultivated land. Moreover, the growth of highland artificial surfaces may provide living and working spaces for ∼40 million people. Our findings suggest that highland developments hold dual effects and provide new insight for regional sustainable developments. Most of the intensive human activities usually occur in lowlands. Here the authors report that human activity expansions also were widely distributed in Asian highlands in the 21st century and held dual effects, which provides new insights for regional human activity expansions.