Intensifying Human-Nature Interaction on China’s Dryland Landscape: An Evidence from Wildland–urban Interface

Dryland ecosystems provide a wide range of ecological services essential to human well-being, but the poor soils of drylands make them highly vulnerable to damage from human activities, with far-reaching economic and social consequences. Therefore, the study of human-nature interactions in drylands is important for sustainable development. However, the economic and social impacts of different forms of human-nature interactions vary widely. Traditional land cover-based studies of indicators of human-nature interactions in drylands have failed to adequately distinguish between these impacts. Therefore, based on the Google Earth Engine cloud platform, this study extracted and mapped the distribution of WUIs in China's drylands for the period 1990 to 2020 by combining a variety of data, including GHL-S building area and land cover data. In addition, the study quantitatively analyses the relationships between spatial and temporal changes, landscape-scale changes, and regional GDP and population changes in the WUIs of China's drylands.

 

The results show that the WUI area in China's drylands has increased by about 15.9% over the past 30 years, and this expansion trend is particularly concentrated near large urban agglomerations.The WUI areas in the landscape are characterised by diversity, fragmentation, homogeneity and edge simplicity, which indicate a complex spatial pattern. To further explore the relationship between WUI expansion and regional GDP and population changes, this study used the Pearson correlation coefficient at the scale of 486 dryland counties. The results show a strong relationship between WUI expansion and economic and population growth, suggesting that human-nature interactions in China's drylands have been increasing over the past three decades and that the associated risks are growing.

 

In particular, the expansion of the WUI has significantly changed the socio-economic structure of these areas, leading to more frequent natural disasters and public health events that seriously threaten the survival and development of human communities. The study highlights that increasing human activities in drylands can exacerbate problems such as ecological degradation, land desertification and water scarcity, making it particularly urgent to implement scientific landscape planning and sustainable development strategies in these regions. Such planning not only helps to mitigate the negative impacts of human activities on the environment, but also strikes a balance between economic development and ecological conservation, and promotes the harmonious coexistence of society and nature.

 

This study provides important quantitative data and insightful analytical perspectives for understanding WUI changes in China's drylands and their impacts on economic and social development. In the future, as data technology and analytical methods continue to advance, similar studies will play an increasingly important role in the sustainable development of the world's drylands. An in-depth study of the interactions between human activities and the natural environment can help policy-makers address the challenges facing drylands and ensure that the ecological, economic and social systems in these areas can achieve long-term sustainable development.