Geospatial modeling and assessment of Island ecosystem health after restoration projects: a case study in Qinshan Island, Jiangsu Province, China

Comprehensively assessing the ecosystem health of islands provides very important information to assist managers with ecological restoration efforts and to develop protection policies and recommendations for related marine administrators. However, evaluation of the ecosystem health of islands usually involves a single ecosystem health value, which does not assess the situation from the spatial and temporal perspectives. The present study analyzed ecological conditions and the effects of ecological restoration on Qinshan Island and the surrounding sea area using geographic information systems and remote sensing to assess the ecosystem health of Qinshan Island based on vigor-organization-resilience and water, sediment, and bioecological quality models. The results indicated that, from 2009 to 2018, the ecosystem health index of the land area increased from 0.351 to 0.567. The ocean health index of the surrounding sea area improved from 0.91 in 2009 to 0.82 in 2018. The island comprehensive ecosystem health indices were 0.5187 and 0.6427 in 2009 and 2018, suggesting that the ecosystem health of Qinshan Island changed from moderately degraded to healthy. The critical underlying factor for the improvement of the ecosystem health indices for Qinshan Island is the ecological restoration projects performed during 2011-2017, which effectively improved the environmental conditions. (c) 2022 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)