Comprehensive natural resources evaluation from multi-category aggregation: a case study of Huanggang

Figures & data

Figure 1. Study area location.

Table 1. Comprehensive evaluation index system and data sources in Huanggang City.

Resource category	Criterion layer	Index layer	Index description	Data source	Reference
Land (cultivated land)	Terrain	Terrain part	Geomorphic type of surface divided by standard^2	Public basic geographic information data (1: 1 million) (2021)	Ge & Xia, (2020)
		Field surface slope^1	Slope of ground surface	30 m DEM of Hubei province (2010)	Ge & Xia, (2020)
		Altitude^1	Surface elevation^2		Ullah and Mansourian (2016)
		Area proportion	Area ratio of cultivated land to administrative in village^2	The 5th forest resources census of Huanggang (2018)	Lu et al. (2021)
	Property	Plough layer thickness	Soil reference depth (REF_DEPTH) in HWSD	Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) (2009)	Ge & Xia, (2020)
		Organic content	Organic carbon (T_OC and S_OC) in HWSD		Yang et al. (2014)
		Plough layer texture	Topsoil texture class (T_TEXTURE) in HWSD		Shao et al. (2022)
		Soil acidity and alkalinity	Topsoil Ph (H2O) (T_PH_H2O) in HWSD^2		Yang et al. (2014)
		Nutrient status	Content of N, P, K in soil^3	Multi-target Regional Geochemical Survey in Hubei Province (2012)	Yang et al. (2014)
		Beneficial microelement	Content of beneficial microelements in soil^2		Yang et al. (2014)
		Proportion of permanent basic farmland	Ratio Permanent basic farmland area to administrative area in village	Overall Planning of Mineral Resources in Hubei (2020)	Yang et al. (2014)
	Cultivation	Irrigation guarantee^1	Distance between cultivated land and water system	National basic geographic databases (1: 250000) (2017)	Lu et al. (2021)
		Field road accessibility	Cultivated land number ratio of accessible by road to total in village		Ullah and Mansourian (2016)
		Cultivation distance^1	Distance between cultivated land and residential area		Brown et al. (2013)
	Health	Heavy metal elements^1	Pollution index calculated by heavy metal element content	Multi-target Regional Geochemical Survey in Hubei Province (2012)	Yang et al. (2014)
		Pesticide and fertiliser inputs^1	Total amount of pesticides and fertilisers in county	Huanggang statistical yearbook (2021)	Zuo et al. (2022)
Water	Supply	Resource amount	Water resources amount in county	Huanggang water resources bulletin (2020)	Y. Xu et al. (2023)
		Water supply	Quantity provided by water source project for the user in county		Y. Xu et al. (2023)
	Efficiency	Recycling rate of industry	Industrial water consumption in county, excluding discharge and consumption		Y. Xu et al. (2023)
		Urban domestic consumption	Water consumption per capita of urban residents in county		Y. Xu et al. (2023)
		Agricultural saving	Reciprocal of average water consumption for irrigation in county		Y. Xu et al. (2023)
		Sewage treatment and reuse	Sum of designed capacity of sewage treatment plants in county	Website of China Sewage Treatment Engineering (2022)	Menció et al. (2010)
	Environment	Chemical characteristics and quality	Quality degree of key water source areas in county^4	Data published on the website of Huanggang Government (2022)	Xiang et al. (2022)
		Number of protections	Number of water protection in county		Lu et al. (2021)
Forest	Quality	Coverage	Forest coverage in village	The 5th forest resources census of Huanggang (2018)	Li et al. (2022)
		Community structure	Average degree of community structure of forest in village^5		Ge & Xia, (2020)
		Stock volume	Total volume of various living trees in village		Ge & Xia, (2020)
		Canopy density	Average canopy density in village		Ge & Xia, (2020)
	Utilization	Topographic relief^1	Ratio of altitude difference to area in county	30 m DEM of Hubei province (2010)	Zuo et al. (2022)
		Transportation accessibility	Ratio of highway mileage to area in town	National basic geographic databases (1: 250000) (2017)	Zuo et al. (2022)
		Economic condition	County GDP	Huanggang statistical yearbook (2021)	Xiang et al. (2022)
		Altitude^1	Altitude	Globeland30	Xiang et al. (2022)
	Ecology	Biodiversity(forest)	The overall diversity of organisms and their constituent systems	Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas (2016)	Xiang et al. (2022)
		Number of forest parks	Number of forest park in county	List of Forest Parks in Hubei Province (2022)	Lu et al. (2021)
	Economy	Forestry output value	Gross forestry production in county	Huanggang statistical yearbook (2021)	Xiang et al. (2022)
		Tourism value	Gross tourism production in county		Lu et al. (2021)
Wetland	Biodiversity (wetland)	Animal and plant species	Species of animals and plants of key wetlands in county^6	The 2nd National Wetland Resources Survey Report (2014)	Cai et al. (2022)
		Degree of species threat^1	Threatened degree of key wetlands in county^6		Qiu et al. (2022)
	Health	Area	Wetland area in county	The 3rd National Land Survey (2021)	Zuo et al. (2022)
		Water quality degree	Water quality degree of key wetlands in county^4	The 2nd National Wetland Resources Survey Report (2014)	Zhang et al. (2021)
		Degradation rate^1	Wetland degradation rate from 2000 to 2020 in county	Globeland30 (2020 2000)	Qiu et al. (2022)
		Shoreline naturalness	Proportion of non-artificial shoreline in county	Remote sensing interpretation (2020)	Cai et al. (2022)
		Peat layer thickness	Peat layer thickness of key wetlands in county	Supplementary field survey (2022)	self proposed
	Guarantee	Institutional protection completeness	Wetland protection institutions and investment in county^7	The 2nd National Wetland Resources Survey Report (2014)	Qiu et al. (2022)
		Number of wetland parks	Number of wetland parks in county	List of Wetlands in Hubei (2020)	Zhang et al. (2021)
Minerals	Ecology	Greening of derelict mines	Proportion of revegetation of abandoned mining sites in county	Remote sensing interpretation (2020)	self proposed
		Degree of ecological protection^1	Area ratio of ecological red line to administrative in county	Overall planning of mineral resources in Hubei (2021–2025)	self proposed
	Inventory	Identification of resource reserves	Average ratio of various mineral resources to total reserves in county	Overall planning of mineral resources in Huanggang (2016–2020)	Ge & Xia, (2020)
		Designed mining scale	Weighted sum of the number of different size mines in county^8		self proposed
		Number of large and medium mines	Number of large and medium mines in county		Ge & Xia, (2020)
	Utilization	Topographic relief^1	Ratio of altitude difference to area in county	30 m DEM of Hubei province (2010)	self proposed
		Mining water supply conditions	Ratio of water system length to area except water in county	National basic geographic databases (1: 250000) (2010)	self proposed
		Transportation accessibility	Ratio of highway length to administrative area in county		Zuo et al. (2022)
	Economy	Industrialisation stage	County industrialisation stage judged by Chenery’s rule^9	Huanggang statistical yearbook (2021)	self proposed
		Urbanisation stage	Population ratio of urban resident to total in county		self proposed
		Proportion of mining economy	Ratio of gross mining production to GDP in county		self proposed

¹Negative index. ²Index is scored according to ‘Specification of arable land survey, monitoring and evaluation’. ³Index is a weighted sum; weights of N, P, and K are 0.4, 0.4, and 0.2. ⁴Index is scored according to ‘Environmental quality standards for surface water’. ⁵Index is scored according to ‘Technical regulations for continuous forest inventory’. ⁶Index is scored according to ‘Technical regulations for wetland resources investigation’. ⁷Index is scored according to expert evaluation. ⁸Weights of small, medium, and large mines are 1, 2, and 3. ⁹Chenery’s rule is from (Chenery et al., 2015).

Table 2. Result of weights.

Resource category	$\mathit{E}{W}_r$	Criterion layer	Index layer	$v_{\mathit{ri}}$
Land (cultivated land)	0.1859 (α = 0.5) 0.1875 (α = 1) 0.1877 (α = 2)	Terrain	Terrain part	0.0611
			Field surface slope	0.1015
			Altitude	0.0456
			Area proportion	0.0265
		Property	Plough layer thickness	0.029
			Organic content	0.0423
			Plough layer texture	0.0479
			Soil acidity and alkalinity	0.0451
			Nutrient status	0.0235
			Beneficial microelements	0.0228
			Proportion of permanent basic farmland	0.0266
		Cultivation	Irrigation guarantee	0.1498
			Field road accessibility	0.1162
			Cultivation distance	0.0665
		Health	Heavy metal elements	0.1454
			Pesticide and fertiliser inputs	0.0502
Water	0.1994 (α = 0.5) 0.1973 (α = 1) 0.1959 (α = 2)	Supply	Resource amount	0.1469
			Water supply	0.1154
		Efficiency	Recycling rate of industry	0.1114
			Urban domestic consumption	0.081
			Agricultural saving	0.064
			Sewage treatment and reuse	0.0597
		Environment	Chemical characteristics and quality	0.2572
			Number of protections	0.1644
Forest	0.1873 (α = 0.5) 0.1887 (α = 1) 0.1894 (α = 2)	Quality	Coverage	0.0597
			Community structure	0.1175
			Stock volume	0.0959
			Canopy density	0.0759
		Utilization	Topographic relief	0.0436
			Transportation accessibility	0.0593
			Economic condition	0.0292
			Altitude	0.0277
		Ecology	Biodiversity (forest)	0.2303
			Number of forest parks	0.1186
		Economy	Output value	0.0782
			Tourism value	0.0641
Wetland	0.2007 (α = 0.5) 0.1982 (α = 1) 0.1989 (α = 2)	Biodiversity (wetland)	Animal and plant species	0.3202
			Degree of species threat	0.1726
		Health	Area	0.065
			Water quality degree	0.1142
			Degradation rate	0.0798
			Shoreline naturalness	0.0387
			Peat layer thickness	0.0536
		Guarantee	Institutional protection completeness	0.0686
			Number of wetland parks	0.0873
Minerals	0.2267 (α = 0.5) 0.2282 (α = 1) 0.2280 (α = 2)	Ecology	Greening of derelict mines	0.1102
			Degree of ecological protection	0.0964
		Inventory	Identification of resource reserves	0.1751
			Designed mining scale	0.0731
			Number of large and medium mines	0.0573
		Utilization	Topographic relief	0.0861
			Mining water supply conditions	0.0603
			Transportation accessibility	0.1209
		Economy	Industrialisation stage	0.0702
			Urbanisation stage	0.0477
			Proportion of mining economy	0.1027

$\mathrm{E}{\mathrm{W}}_{\mathrm{r}}$ is the entropy weight of the resource category; ${\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{ri}}$is the criterion weight of each index and produced by the analytic hierarchy process; α = 0.5 (protection-oriented); α = 1 (balance-oriented); α = 2 (development-oriented).

Figure 2. Functional potentiality of land. (a) α = 0.5 (protection-oriented); (b) α = 1 (balance-oriented); (c) α = 2 (development-oriented).

Figure 3. Mean functional potentiality of land in each county.

Figure 4. Functional potentiality of water. (a) α = 0.5 (protection-oriented); (b) α = 1 (balance-oriented); (c) α = 2 (development-oriented).

Figure 5. Mean functional potentiality of water in each county.

Figure 6. Functional potentiality of forests. (a) α = 0.5 (protection-oriented); (b) α = 1 (balance-oriented); (c) α = 2 (development-oriented).

Figure 7. Mean functional potentiality of forests in each county.

Figure 8. Functional potentiality of wetlands. (a) α = 0.5 (protection-oriented); (b) α = 1 (balance-oriented); (c) α = 2 (development-oriented).

Figure 9. Mean functional potentiality of wetlands in each county.

Figure 10. Functional potentiality of minerals. (a) α = 0.5 (protection-oriented); (b) α = 1 (balance-oriented); (c) α = 2 (development-oriented).

Figure 11. Mean functional potentiality of minerals in each county.

Figure 12. Comprehensive evaluation index of natural resource functional potentiality. (a) α = 0.5 (protection-oriented); (b) α = 1 (balance-oriented); (c) α = 2 (development-oriented).

Figure 13. Mean comprehensive evaluation index of natural resource functional potentiality in each county.

Table 3. Ranking of natural resource functional potentiality.

County	Land	Water	Forest	Wetland	Minerals	CI
Qichun	7	4	4	2	3	1
Hong’an	5	6	5	6	2	2
Wuxue	4	8	8	7	1	3
Macheng	8	5	1	5	4	4
Luotian	9	1	3	3	8	5
Xishui	3	2	6	4	7	6
Yingshan	10	3	2	1	9	7
Huangmei	1	7	9	9	5	8
Huangzhou	2	10	10	8	10	9
Tuanfeng	6	9	7	10	6	10

CI is the comprehensive evaluation index.

Table 4. Policy implications for natural resource development in Huanggang City.

County	Position in the plan	Recommendation
Qichun	Health industry cluster, traditional Chinese medicine city	Enhance protection of vegetation with a focus on remediation of soil pollution
Hong’an	Integrated development of red tourism	Protect and restore rivers and wetlands, conserve water and soil
Wuxue	Industrial port city	Develop mineral-related economy, restore water environment
Macheng	Land transportation hub and stone industry	Develop mineral-related economy without degrading forest coverage and ecology
Luotian	Clean energy industry and Ta-pieh green tourism centre	Develop geothermal energy, protect and restore wildlife habitats
Xishui	Port economic zone and urban economy	Develop aquaculture after remediating water pollution
Yingshan	Cultural tourism and health recuperation	Develop orchard economy, enclose hills for natural afforestation, restore river shorelines
Huangmei	Textile industry and fishery products	Restore shorelines, control water pollution, return farmland to forests
Huangzhou	Service industry, headquarters economy, and enclave economy	Control pollution of rivers and wetlands, prohibit mining
Tuanfeng	Port economic zone and urban economy	Control soil pollution, develop characteristic agriculture

Position in the plan is come from the 14th Five-Year Plan and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 of Huanggang City.

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Data availability statement

The achievement data of this paper has been uploaded to ScienceDB (doi: 10.57760/sciencedb.18532).