Ecological Change Assessment and Protection Strategy in the Yellow River Basin

: The ecological environment of the Yellow River basin is sensitive and fragile. Affected by climate change and large-scale, high-intensity human development, the overall and systemic ecological degradation of the basin is prominent, and the ecological security situation is unoptimistic. To effectively promote ecological protection, high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, and to build a strong ecological security barrier, we systematically evaluated the current status and changes in the Yellow River basin ecosystem regarding structure and quality in the past two decades. We summarized the main problems and deficiencies in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Yellow River, including the ecological fragility of the basin, prominent systemic degradation, and the constraints of the current work regarding institutional mechanism, investment, and implementing effect. Thus, we propose future ecological protection and restoration strategies. Our research shows that the Yellow River basin ecosystem has maintained a stable structure in the past two decades. However, ecosystem types have changed significantly, cities and towns have expanded considerably, forests, grasslands, and wetlands have increased, and desertified areas have been reduced considerably. The overall quality of the ecosystem, particularly in the middle reaches, has improved; however, degradation still occurs, particularly in the lower reaches. Therefore, we propose that ecological protection and restoration of the Yellow River basin should be strengthened through three aspects: (1) systematically evaluating the implementation of ecological projects, (2) promoting ecological protection and restoration according to local conditions, and (3) innovating the value realization mechanism of ecological products to ensure the ecological security of the region.