Work

Scenario-Based Land-Use Trajectories and Habitat Quality in the Yarkant River Basin: A Coupled PLUS–InVEST Assessment

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Land use/cover change (LUCC) is a dominant driver of ecosystem service dynamics in arid inland basins. Focusing on the Yarkant River Basin (YRB), Xinjiang, we coupled the PLUS land-use simulation with the InVEST Habitat Quality Model to project 2040 land-use patterns under four policy scenarios—Natural Development (ND), Arable Protection (AP), Ecological Protection (EP), and Economic Development (ED)—and to quantify their impact on habitat quality. Model validation against the 2020 map indicated strong agreement (Kappa = 0.792; FOM = 0.342), supporting scenario inference. From 1990 to 2023, arable land expanded by 58.17% and construction land by 121.64%, while forest land declined by 37.45%; these shifts corresponded to a basin-wide decline and increasing spatial heterogeneity of habitat quality. Scenario comparisons showed the EP pathway performed best, with 32.11% of the basin classified as very high-quality habitat and only 8.36% as very low-quality. In contrast, under ED, the combined share of very low + low quality reached 11.17%, alongside greater fragmentation. Spatially, high-quality habitat concentrates in forest and grassland zones of the middle–upper basin, whereas low-quality areas cluster along the oasis–desert transition and urban peripheries. Expansion of arable and construction land emerges as the primary driver of degradation. These results underscore the need to prioritize ecological-protection strategies especially improving habitat quality in oasis regions and strengthening landscape connectivity to support spatial planning and ecological security in dryland inland river basins.

Source: Sustainability

DOI: 10.3390/su18020796

Authors: Min Tian, Yingjie Ma, Qiang Ni, Amannisa Kuerban, Pengrui Ai

Institutions: Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Xinjiang University

Language: English

Topic: Land Use and Ecosystem Services

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Life on land, Clean water and sanitation, Climate action, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896