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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 10594

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Dr. Wanxu Chen

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Guest Editor

Department of Geography, School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, China
Interests: ecological and environmental effects of urbanization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jie Zeng‬‬‬‬

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Department of Geography, School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430078, China
Interests: land use change; ecosystem services; ecosystem health; socio-ecosystem; spatial resilience; regional sustainable development
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Prof. Dr. Guangqing Chi

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Guest Editor

Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Interests: environmental demography; socio-environmental systems; population-infrastructure dynamics; computational and spatial analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ecosystems are the material basis of human existence and development. Ecosystem health is also the basis of human well-being. Increasing attention has been focused on the relationship between ecosystem health and human well-being because ecological issues have become a serious problem affecting human health. Uncovering the relationship between ecosystem health and human well-being is vital to promote the sustainable development of coupled human and natural systems. This Special Issue seeks novel scientific papers related to ecosystem health and human well-being, especially (but not limited to) original empirical studies and scholarly reviews on conceptual and methodological advances as well as interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research paradigms.

Dr. Wanxu Chen
Dr. Jie Zeng‬‬‬‬
Prof. Dr. Guangqing Chi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

ecosystem services
ecosystem health
human well-being
landscape ecology
ecological modelling

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 7894 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Variations of Habitat Quality and Ecological Risk and Their Correlations with Landscape Metrics in a Robust Human Disturbed Coastal Region—Case Study: Xinggang Town in Southern China

by Huiqing Han, Zhihua Su and Guangbin Yang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(4), 2837; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20042837 - 06 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1012

Abstract

This paper explores how landscape risk and habitat quality vary in coastal areas with strong anthropogenic disturbance based on a case study. We analyze the temporal–spatial variations of habitat quality and ecological risk in the coastal region by adopting the methods of theInVEST model and the ecological risk index. The correlations of habitat quality and ecological risk with landscape metrics are subsequently quantified. The results indicated the presence of obvious distance gradients in relation to the deterioration of habitat quality and the increase in ecological risk. Moreover, the gradient area close to the coastline exhibits significant habitat quality and ecological risk changes. The majority of landscape metrics show positive correlations with habitat quality and ecological risk, and these correlations vary with the distance gradients. Since the rapid urbanization of the coastal region, the marked expansion of built-up land and decrease in natural landscapes has significantly impacted the landscape pattern index and, consequently, changed the habitat quality and ecological risk level. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem Health and Human Well-Being)

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19 pages, 4484 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Convergence Analysis of Cross-Province Human Well-Being in China: A Spatiotemporal Perspective

by Lei Jiang, Yuan Chen, Wenjie Liang and Bo Zhang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 1858; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031858 - 19 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1232

Abstract

China’s economy has been experiencing a new development mode that emphasizes an environmentally friendly green economy and high living standards. The concept of human well-being has become increasingly prominent in recent years to replace GDP per capita as an important indicator for evaluating happiness. In the context of the green economy, it is of great significance to incorporate environmental indicators for evaluating human well-being. To this end, this paper constructs a new human well-being evaluation indicator system including environmental sustainability, and then evaluates the well-being levels of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020 using a comprehensive evaluation method. Then, various statistical methods and visualization methods are used to deeply analyze the spatiotemporal changes in the well-being scores of Chinese provinces during the sample period. Finally, the spatial convergence model was used to verify if cross-province well-being scores would converge to a common steady state. The findings are as follows. (1) The scores of the environmental sustainability subsystem greatly vary from province to province. This is because the local governments have attached great importance to the construction of green ecological civilization in recent years, thus increasing the investment in protecting the ecological environment. (2) From temporal dimensions, overall human well-being scores of 30 provinces slightly increased year after year. In geography, eastern provinces have the highest human well-being scores, followed by northeast, northwest, and southwest provinces. (3) In terms of the scores of the four subsystems, we find that nearly all provinces have their advantages and disadvantages. (4) From the results of the spatial convergence models, both absolute and conditional β convergence have been verified, indicating that the human well-being of all provinces will converge to the common steady state in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem Health and Human Well-Being)

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22 pages, 5738 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prediction of Spatiotemporal Changes in Sloping Cropland in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River Region under Different Scenarios

by Xiaowei Yao, Ting Luo, Yingjun Xu, Wanxu Chen and Jie Zeng

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010182 - 23 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1420

Abstract

With the rapid urban expansion and extensive occupation of cropland, sloping cropland has become an important cropland resource across China. How sloping cropland will change under different socioeconomic scenarios is poorly understood. Therefore, we modeled land-cover change using SSP-RCP multi-scenario simulations and analyzed the evolution and driving factors of sloping cropland change in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Region (MRYRR). The results indicate the following: In the past twenty years, the cropland and sloping cropland areas in this region declined but the proportion of sloping cropland in total area has been increasing. The average slope of sloping cropland has increased from 7.95° to 8.28°. By 2035, the sloping cropland and total cropland areas will continue to decrease according to the current trend (SSP2-4.5). The average slope will increase maximally to 8.63° under the SSP4-3.4 scenario and minimally to 8.45° under the SSP4-6.0 scenario. Under SSP4-3.4, the extent of slope increase will exceed that in 2005–2010, when regional cropland slope showed the strongest increase in the past. Among 14 social, economic, and ecological factors, average annual precipitation and GDP contributed the most to the change in sloping cropland. This study provides support for decision-making in sustainable land resource allocation to balance urban expansion and cropland conservation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem Health and Human Well-Being)

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21 pages, 2282 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Spatial Differentiation and Driving Forces of Ecological Welfare Performance in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

by Ling Bai, Tianran Guo, Wei Xu and Kang Luo

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 14801; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192214801 - 10 Nov 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1457

Abstract

Ecological welfare performance contributes directly to human well-being and regional sustainable development. Improving the regional ecological welfare performance in the process of pursuing green and sustainable development demands theoretical innovation and empirical exploration. Based on the super-efficiency SBM model, this study evaluated the ecological welfare performance of 108 cities during the period of 2009 to 2019. The Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition and spatial convergence model were employed to analyze the differences in ecological welfare performance across and within the study area and explore the underlining causes of such spatial differentiation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the upper, middle and lower reaches. It can be seen from the results that: (1) the overall difference in the ecological welfare performance of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is associated with a fluctuating downward trend during the study period. Regional and inter-regional differences were revealed and hypervariable density was identified as the main source of the differences. (2) The ecological welfare performance of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has absolute and conditional β convergence, and the ecological welfare performance of each city-region and surrounding urban areas has a positive impact on each other. (3) The difference in the spatial-temporal differentiation trend is manifested by the difference in the convergence rate. The cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River have the fastest convergence rate, followed by the cities in the upper reaches, and the cities in the lower reaches are the slowest. This geographic difference is mainly driven by the combined effects of industrial structure, urban characteristics, environmental regulation, foreign direct investment, and transportation accessibility. Finally, it is proposed that future policies should focus on the imbalanced regional development in the study area, and each region needs to explore ways to improve local ecological welfare performance according to local conditions, and ultimately promote the overall green, coordinated and high-quality development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem Health and Human Well-Being)

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21 pages, 605 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Digital Economy, Environmental Regulation, and Ecological Well-Being Performance: A Provincial Panel Data Analysis from China

by Xiaoming Song, Ze Tian, Chenhui Ding, Chao Liu, Wei Wang, Ronggai Zhao and Yingchun Xing

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(18), 11801; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811801 - 19 Sep 2022

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 2506

Abstract

China is currently in a strategic opportunity period for green and high-quality development, and developing the digital economy is an important choice to achieve environmental pollution control, improve regional ecological efficiency, and enhance social welfare. In this context, the impact of the digital economy on ecological well-being performance and the role of environmental regulation need to be examined. In this study, the super-efficiency SBM-DEA model was used to measure the level of ecological well-being performance in 30 provinces of China from 2011 to 2019. On this basis, the mediating effect model and spatial Durbin model were adopted to explore the transmission mechanism and regional heterogeneity of the impact of the digital economy on ecological well-being performance. The empirical results show that the digital economy significantly contributes to regional ecological well-being performance in China, and there is significant spatial spillover as well. Moreover, the findings still hold under robustness tests. The results also show that environmental regulation is an important transmission path for the digital economy to enhance regional ecological well-being performance, and the impact of environmental regulation on ecological well-being performance varies by region; specifically, the impact in eastern China is positive but not significant. However, the digital economy plays a significant positive role in promoting ecological well-being performance in the central and western regions, and is more obvious in the central region. Finally, suggestions are put forward to enhance the role of the digital economy in regional ecological well-being performance, which is of great significance for promoting green economic growth and high-quality development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem Health and Human Well-Being)

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15 pages, 8527 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Ecological Landscape Design and Healing Effect Based on 3D Roaming Technology

by Zhengsong Lin, Yuting Wang, Yang Song, Tao Huang, Feng Gan and Xinyue Ye

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(18), 11406; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811406 - 10 Sep 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1939

Abstract

Impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic, the human sub-health in national high-tech zones (hereinafter referred to as high-tech zones) has become more prominent. It is critical for the mental sub-health group in the high-tech zone to relieve the anxiety and tension caused by the pressure of life and work. This paper uses SketchUp virtual engine (Unity 2019) software, and 3D roaming technology to carry out the ecological landscape transformation design of the Baotzixi ecological corridor in the East Lake High-tech Zone, to construct a 3D roaming landscape scene and measure its therapeutic effect by inviting subjects to participate in an interactive experience experiment on the ErgoLAB platform. The results illustrate that: (1) the thermogram trend shows that the more attractive the 3D roaming landscape scene is, the stronger the subjects’ interest is; (2) the participants have a positive emotional arousal state in the immersive experience of the 3D roaming landscape scene after the modification design; and (3) the mean skin conductance (SC) fluctuation variance of the subjects is 5.819%, indicating that the healing effect is significant in the state of positive emotional arousal. The research results show that there is a connection between the subjects and the 3D roaming landscape scene after the transformation design of “high interest, emotional arousal and significant healing”. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem Health and Human Well-Being)

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