Spatial-temporal heterogeneity of landscape ecological risk in Yushenfu Mining Area from 1995 to 2021

As a strong human disturbance, coal mining has affected the ecosystem service function and economic value on mining area. However, there is a lack on the comparing for the long-term spatial scale evolution of landscape ecological risk after mining development based on different landforms in the same climate environment. Therefore, the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of landscape ecological risk were explored on loess hilly and sandy land in the Yushenfu Mining Area based on the Landsat data from 1995—2021 with the construction of landscape ecological risk index and spatial statistical analysis methods. The results showed that: ① There was no significant changing between loess hilly and sandy land for the ecological risk pattern from 1995 to 2000. From 2000 to 2010, the low level ecological risk area changed to a higher level in the loess hilly region. In 2010, the proportion of medium-high, medium and medium-low ecological risk areas was 70% in the loess hilly area, while the high ecological risk area in the sand-covered area increased but not significant, and it was still dominated by medium-low ecological risk and account for 31%. Since 2010, the landscape ecological pattern tended to homogenization, and the landscape ecological risk gradually stabilized to a low-medium, medium and high-medium on loess hilly area, and the proportion of these three risk levels was 74% in 2021. The sandy landscape also formed a low, medium and low-medium ecological risk, and the proportion of the three risk levels was 77%, and decreased and stabilized gradually. ② From 1995 to 2021, the landscape ecological risks showed obvious spatially clustered distribution characteristics, and presented a clear hotspots and coldspots in Yushenfu Mining Area. The ecological risk hotspots were mainly located in the loess hilly area in the northeast and southeast of the study area where coal has been developed for a long time and the geological environment has been seriously damaged, and the ecological risk coldspots were mainly located in the sand-covered areas in the central part of study area which are still under resource exploration and survey. ③ Human disturbance was the most important factor affecting the landscape ecological risk in Yushenfu Mining Area, the determining force of q values in the loess area and the sand-covered area were 0.49−0.72 and 0.38−0.55, respectively, followed by vegetation coverage and temperature in the loess hilly area, and vegetation coverage and air temperature had a similar effects on landscape ecological risk in the sand-covered area, and the least factor was elevation for ecological risk on both landforms, the q values were less than 0.10. ④ The results of spatial and temporal landscape ecological risk indicated that the landscape pattern should be optimized according to the characteristics of different landforms in the process of ecological restoration in Yushenfu Mining Area, and the mining scheme should be optimized to reduce the surface ecological damage and the active restoration strategy should be actively carried out in the loess hilly area. Whilethe natural restorationcan be implemented to ensure the ecological stability on the sand-covered mining area.