How human activities influence the island ecosystem through damaging the natural ecosystem and supporting the social ecosystem?

Island human activities damage the natural ecosystem with unique functions and support the social ecosystem for human survival and living. Identifying, quantifying, and spatially exhibiting the damage and support generated by human activities are of great significance for comprehensively revealing the anthropogenic influences on the island ecosystem and reasonably providing references for island development strategy. In this study, an evaluation model was established in perspectives of damage to the natural ecosystem and support for the social ecosystem. The damage involved geomorphology, landscape, habitat, and pollution, and the support included provision, accommodation, transportation, and recreation. The evaluation model was realized on the basis of the island use types, size effects, utilization levels, and change processes. Two new indices, namely, natural ecosystem damaged index (NEDI) and social ecosystem supported index (SESI), were proposed to represent the damage and support, respectively. Thereafter, scenario analysis was adopted to simulate the variations of NEDI and SESI in different scenarios of human activities and to provide references for the island development strategy. A total of ten islands in the Dongtou Archipelago in South China were used as the study area to demonstrate the model. Results indicated that the high NEDI and SESI areas were distributed in building, industrial, road, and reclamation areas, whereas the low NEDI and SESI areas were mainly located in vegetation areas and bare land. In different scenarios, the expansions of the road and building land generated much more damage than support, and the improvement of the utilization level produced more support than damage. The prohibition and limitation of island use types with low efficiency, the enhancement of vegetation restoration, the adequate use of reclamation area, the control of disordered exploitation expansion, and the improvement of utilization levels should be the strategies used by the Dongtou Archipelago for sustainable development. The application of the model validated its effectiveness and applicability in revealing the overall and spatial characteristics of the damage and support for islands and other coastal areas with intensive human activities. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.