2016 Volume 55 Issue 5 Pages 314-320
Identifying the vulnerable area is important for forest resource management. In this research, with support of remote sensing and GIS, an environmental vulnerability index is constructed to describe the vulnerability status in Daxing'anling area, China. Thirteen variables related to exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of ecosystem were integrated to a comprehensive index using spatial principal component analysis. The results show that the degree of vulnerability distributed unevenly through the whole area. The highest value of environment vulnerability index (EVI) is approximately 0.8 which appeared in the southern and central part while the lowest is about 0.012 that located in the eastern region. According to the numerical results, the vulnerability is classified into five levels : potential, slight, light, medium and heavy level. The distribution map of environmental vulnerability might provide a more rational decision-making basis for effective forest management.
