Correlation between Spatio-Temporal Evolution of Habitat Quality and Human Activity Intensity in Typical Mountain Cities: A Case Study of Guiyang City, China

Abstract

The acceleration of the urbanization process brings about the expansion of urban land use, while changes in land-use transformation affect the urban habitat quality, and land-use change brings a threat to regional sustainable development. Against such a backdrop, the assessment of land use on the habitat quality and the relationship between the intensity of human activities is becoming a hot spot in terms of the current land use coordinated with habitat quality. Based on the land-use data of Guiyang in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020, the spatial–temporal evolution characteristics of habitat quality in the study area, combined with the spatial correlation between human activity intensity and habitat quality, were hereby analyzed using the InVEST model. The impact of human activity intensity on habitat quality was correspondingly analyzed. The results show that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the habitat quality level in Guiyang remained stable without drastic changes, but the changes showed hierarchical distribution and were scattered, mainly reflected in the urban expansion areas of the urban–rural fringe and the key areas of industrial development, and the ecological environment quality fluctuated in a small range. (2) From 2000 to 2020, the intensity of human activities in Guiyang was mainly affected by the relatively concentrated distribution, featuring obvious and significant changes. From 2010 to 2015, the high-impact area surrounded the Guanshan Lake New Area, and the regional habitat quality presented a downward trend. In 2020, the high-impact area of the main urban area and the key industrial development zone was expected to be formed, while the low-impact area was still distributed in forest areas with complex natural conditions. (3) From 2000 to 2020, there was a significant positive correlation between human activity intensity and habitat quality in Guiyang, and such a spatial correlation was weak from 2000 to 2005. The period from 2015 to 2020 witnessed the rapid development of urban construction in Guiyang, human construction activities continue to affect the urban habitat quality. The results show that the intensity of human activities on the promoting function of land use, and the dependencies between them should be considered at the same time, and that explorations on the influence of human activities on land-use intensity and habitat quality of space link are crucial to improving the efficiency of urban land use and ecological environment protection, as well as the coordination between land use and the sustainability of urban development.