The impact of socioeconomic factors on vegetation restoration in karst
regions: a perspective beyond climate and ecological engineering
Abstract
Socioeconomic factors are important parameters that affect vegetation
changes in karst areas. Previous studies primarily focused on ecological
engineering when analyzing the impact of human activities on vegetation
restoration, whereas the impact of socioeconomic factors has been less
studied. Using the methods of structural equation modeling and
geographically weighted regression, this study quantitatively analyzed
the interactive effects of socioeconomic factors on vegetation changes
in karst areas using counties as the research unit. The results showed
that both the enhanced vegetation index and net primary productivity in
the humid karst areas of China showed an increasing trend between 2000
and 2020. Among the socioeconomic factors, non-agricultural economy and
rural economy had a positive effect on vegetation change, with maximum
path coefficients of the structural equation model of 0.79 and 0.64,
respectively; whereas population pressure had a negative impact with a
minimum path coefficient of –0.80. Over time, the positive impact of
rural economy on vegetation restoration showed an increasing trend, and
the path coefficient increased from –0.92 to 0.64; in turn,
non-agricultural economy and population pressure showed a decreasing
trend. Moreover, because they were affected by the heterogeneity of the
karst mountain environment, the impact of various socioeconomic factors
on vegetation restoration had obvious spatial non-stationarity. The
results of this study will promote our understanding of the mechanism
underlying vegetation change in humid karst areas and provide scientific
reference for ensuring the sustainability of the ecological effects in
these areas.