Scentific Research

The research group of Prof. Juanle WANG, researcher of the fourth major research field of China-Pakistan Joint Research Centre on Earth Sciences (aka., CPJRC), have made new progress in the ecological health assessment of coastal areas along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (akas., CPEC). The relevant research results were recently published in Ecological Indicators.   

The coastal area of the CPEC serve as a vital link in the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. However, the region is facing significant ecological challenges due to natural disasters and intensive human activities. To effectively monitor and assess the ecological health of these critical coastal areas, Prof. WANG’s team employed integrated-labelling and deep-learning models to obtain land cover data from 2000 to 2023. Then a Vigour-Organization-Resilience (VOR) model with 12 assessment metrics was constructed to evaluate the landscape ecological health of the region. The assessment results show that the “bare land” areas in Gwadar and Ormara remain predominantly “sick”, while the “impervious surfaces” in Karachi and the lower Indus are “unhealthy” with little fluctuation. There is an expansion of “sub-healthy” areas in the lower reaches of the Indus River and an increase in “crop” areas. And mangroves in the Indus Delta remain “very healthy”. Overall,the coastal areas of the CPEC are rated as “unhealthy” with signs of moderate improvement. Based on the assessment, the research recommends that people shall focus on rehabilitation of “sick” areas, promote the sustainable agriculture in “sub-healthy” areas, and the protection of “healthy” and “very healthy” areas in the CPEC coastal areas.  

The research demonstrates the effectiveness of deep learning and VOR modelling in assessing long-term ecological health, providing a valuable framework, which can facilitate ecological restoration and resource management in the coastal areas along CPEC and can be applied to other coastal areas facing similar challenges as well.

The relevant research was funded by CPJRC.

Paper：Deep learning-driven land cover monitoring and landscape ecological health assessment: A dynamic study in coastal regions of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor from 2000 to 2023

Link：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112860

Ecological Health Assessment of the Coastal Zone areas along CPEC