SPATIAL EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUITABILITY FOR HUMAN SETTLEMENT OF KASHGAR, NORTHWEST CHINA

Environment of human settlement, which is the basis of human existence and development, is usually assessed by its natural suitability. Here we established Human Settlement Environmental Index (HSEI) to evaluate the environment of human settlement in the Kashgar region based on several factors including terrain, climate, hydrology, vegetation and other natural factors. Results show that suitability for human settlement decreases from the northwest and north to the northeast and southern part of the study area. The high suitable region, suitable region and middle suitable region (29896 km(2)) are mainly distributed in the northwest part of Kashgar, accounting for 3.94%, 10.38%, and 12.32% of the whole study area respectively. The low suitable region and unsuitable region (82316 km(2)), which cover 73.36% of the whole study area, are mainly distributed in eastern and southern part of the study area.