YANG Ping, PENG Yu, LIU Xuehua, MENG Hongyan, WANG Bin
Ecological assessments are used to identify important areas for ecological protection and to provide scientific support for urban planning. This study took Manasi County, Xinjiang Province, as a case study and constructed an ecological sensitivity and ecological risk criteria system based on expert knowledge and an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. The ecological sensitivity and risk assessment was used to evaluate the urban development suitability and to divide the whole area into prohibited construction, restricted construction and appropriate building zones. The process shows that the integrated expert knowledge, AHP data, and GIS data provides an effective ecological assessment method. The Manasi County has 41.31% extremely sensitive areas, 16.17% highly sensitive areas, 16.44% moderately sensitive areas, 7.07% low sensitive areas, and 19.01% non-sensitive areas. The extremely high ecological risk areas are mainly in the southern part of Taxi River County, the middle and southern part of Qingshui River County, and the northern part of Guangdongdi County. The high risk areas are mainly in the upstream and midstream regions of the Manasi and Taxi Rivers. The areas suitable for development are mainly in the towns of Manasi, Lanzhouwan, the western part of the 147 Production and Construction Corps, the northern part of Beiwucha, the western part of Xinhu farm, and the 148, 149 and 150 Production and Construction Corps areas, the low suitability for development areas are mainly in the desert, mountains, and wetlands.