Assessment of rural ecosystem health and type classification in Jiangsu province, China

Quantitative analysis of rural ecosystem health (REH) is required to comprehend the spatial differentiation of rural landscape and promote rural sustainable development under the pressure of urbanization and industrialization, especially those with dramatic changes in rural ecology of China and other developing countries. In this study, taking Jiangsu province as the case study, appropriate indicators were selected in the perspective of compound ecosystem and the rural ecosystem health index (REHI) was developed including four rural ecological subsystems of resource, environmental, social and economic. The comprehensive indicator assessment models and geographic information system (GIS) spatial methods were used to analyze the REH status and spatial differentiation of 57 counties in Jiangsu province. The REH scores of 57 rural counties were in a higher range of 0.686–0.882 and fluctuating increased from north to south, indicating that the rural ecosystem in Jiangsu province was at a relatively healthy level and counties in southern Jiangsu were healthier than those in central and northern regions. The spatial concentration of REH in Jiangsu was poor and the spatial distribution of four subsystems health levels were significantly different by spatial Gini coefficient analysis. The REH of 57 counties in Jiangsu province were classified into 13 types according to the identification of the health levels and quantity of four subsystems. Moreover, we analyzed the influencing factors of each type and proposed paths to promote the development and management of rural ecosystem.