Ecological risk assessment of watershed economic zones on the landscape scale: a case study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

Based on the ecological risk assessment literature, we analyzed the clustering characteristics and factors influencing ecological risks in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The results showed that the areas with high ecological risk were mainly distributed in the areas of cultivated land and construction land. The ecological risk in the Yangtze River Economic Belt exhibited a downward trend from 1995 to 2015, but the areas with high ecological risk were stable. The influence of natural environmental factors on the ecological risk was greater than that of social and economic factors. The effect of social and economic factors on the ecological risk was significant in the early stage of the study period and tended to stabilize in the middle and later stages. Natural environmental factors had a strong effect on the ecological risk throughout the economic belt, and the mechanism of action had a certain level of stability. Social disturbance should be reduced in the forest areas in the middle and western parts of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and ecological support should be increased in the construction and arable areas to the east.