A novel spatiotemporal fractal dimension (STFD) for assessing ecological environment of the large-scale Yangtze River Basin China from 2012 to 2021 remote sensing data
The research of remote-sensing-based ecological environment assessment (EEA) faces three major challenges: comprehensive EEA of multiple indexes; impact of time-series fluctuations, i.e. temporal uncertainty; and spatial size selection of buffer zone, i.e. spatial uncertainty. Therefore, this paper...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | GIScience & Remote Sensing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15481603.2025.2520072 |
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| Summary: | The research of remote-sensing-based ecological environment assessment (EEA) faces three major challenges: comprehensive EEA of multiple indexes; impact of time-series fluctuations, i.e. temporal uncertainty; and spatial size selection of buffer zone, i.e. spatial uncertainty. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel spatiotemporal fractal dimension (STFD) to assess ecological environment by treating space and time as a whole, which transforms the problem of spatiotemporal uncertainty of EEA into a deterministic one. The proposed STFD is computed by weighted principal component summation with trend analysis and dendrite-radius fractal dimension from seven remote sensing indexes: normalized difference vegetation index, enhanced vegetation index, leaf area index, gross primary productivity, net primary productivity, land surface temperature, and Wetness. Moreover, it has the advantages of comprehensiveness, objectivity, decorrelation, and control of spatiotemporal uncertainty. For experiments, STFD was used to access the ecological environments of the Yangtze River basin at different river grades in China from 2012 to 2021 by MODIS products. The conclusion is: (1) From 2012 to 2021, the areas with the lowest ecological index scores in the Yangtze River basin are located in the Tibetan Plateau and the eastern coastal areas, but with a trend to become better; (2) The EEAs of primary, secondary, and tertiary rivers based on STFD are 1.22, 1.04, and 1.00 respectively. This indicates an overall trend toward improvement of the EEA in Yangtze River basin; (3) The scale-free interval of STFD ranges from 6.21 to 9.21 with a buffer distance of 500 m to 10,000 m. The coefficients of determination R2 are all greater than 0.97, indicating high accuracy and reliability of the fractal dimension. This study not only enriches the theory and methods of controlling spatiotemporal uncertainty of EEA, but also reveals the ecological environmental law in the Yangtze River basin at different river grades and offers a scientific basis for regional sustainable development and government decision-making. |
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| ISSN: | 1548-1603 1943-7226 |