Influence of land use evolution on ecological environment quality in the mountainous areas of Shiqian, Southwest China: Spatiotemporal characteristics and driving exploration

Currently, rapid socioeconomic development has caused over-exploitation of mountain land, severely damaging the regional ecology. Rational development and ecological protection provide a scientific basis for precise land use planning, management, and restoration. This study focuses on Shiqian County, a typical mountainous area, using land data from 2005 to 2020 and employing land use models, ecological quality indices, and spatial autocorrelation to reveal spatiotemporal differences in land use-ecology interactions and explore internal mechanisms. The results show that, from 2005 to 2020, changes in rural residential land and other construction land were the most significant, followed by changes in urban construction land. During 2010–2015, 5.199 km² of cultivated land was converted to other construction land. From 2015 to 2020, 7.104 km² of forest land was converted to water area. The overall ecological environment of Shiqian County shows a deteriorating trend, mainly due to the conversion of cultivated land, forest land, and meadow to construction land, which has the highest contribution rates of 16.803%, 28.273%, and 13.60%, respectively. Between 2005 and 2020, the ecological environment quality was mainly dominated by “high-high” agglomeration areas, with a significant p-value of 0.001–0.05. Over time, the ecological environment has been affected by many factors, among which NDVI has the strongest impact. Thus, relevant government departments urgently need to implement policies for the precise adjustment of land use structure, optimize land use and planting patterns, and provide a decision-making basis for precise land use planning and ecological restoration.