Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 607, Issue -, Pages 911-919Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.07.044
Keywords
Ecological restoration; Effectiveness assessment; Temporal scale; Socio-ecological system; Rural economy; Structural equation modeling
Categories
Funding
- National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFC0501601]
- China-UK bilateral collaborative research on critical zone science (National Natural Science Foundation of China) [41571130083]
- China-UK bilateral collaborative research on critical zone science (Natural Environment Research Council Newton Fund) [NE/N007433/1]
- NERC [NE/N007476/1, NE/N007433/1, NE/P007988/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/N007476/1, NE/P007988/1, NE/N007433/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Large-scale ecological restoration has been widely accepted globally as an effective strategy for combating environmental crises and to facilitate sustainability. Assessing the effectiveness of ecological restoration is vital for researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers. However, few practical tools are available to perform such tasks, particularly for large-scale restoration programmes in complex socio-ecological systems. By taking a before and after design, this paper formulates a composite index (E-j) based on comparing the trends of vegetation cover and vegetation productivity to assess ecological restoration effectiveness. The index reveals the dynamic and spatially heterogenic process of vegetation restoration across different time periods, which can be informative for ecological restoration management at regional scales. Effectiveness together with its relationship to socio-economic factors is explored via structural equation modeling for three time periods. The results indicate that the temporal scale is a crucial factor in representing restoration effectiveness, and that the effects of socioeconomic factors can also vary with time providing insight for improving restoration effectiveness. A dual-track strategy, which promotes the development of tertiary industry in absorbing the rural labor force together with improvements in agricultural practices, is proposed as a promising strategy for enhancing restoration effectiveness. In this process, timely and long-termecological restoration monitoring is advocated, so that the success and sustainability of such programmes is ensured, together with more informative decision making where socio-ecological interactions at differing temporal scales are key concerns. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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