Watershed eco-health assessment of Hengshui Lake
衡水湖流域生态系统健康评价

Ecosystem health assessment is one of the hot issues in current environmental science and ecological research, and watershed-scale ecosystem health assessment is an important development direction. A healthy ecosystem provides a fundamental basis for the realization of regional sustainable development. Using the theory and technique of ecosystem heath to evaluate ecosystem health is of significance in theory and practice for eco-environmental management and regional sustainable development. Watershed ecosystem is a social-economic-natural complex ecosystem. Watershed eco-health assessment can help watershed planning, protection, comprehensive management and provide basis for decision-making. This research puts forward history, current condition and research scale of watershed eco-health assessment and summarizes methods of watershed eco-health assessment in the past years both at home and abroad. Indices system of watershed eco-health assessment is set up taking Hengshui Lake Basin as an example.The indices system consists of seven indices in all. The value of the watershed eco-health assessment shows Hengshui Lake Basin is in a condition of moderate or sub-morbidity. Finally, some measures are put forward for eco-health sustainable development in the future.As we further develop the theory of ecosystem health, the quantitative methods, particularly those from the development of 3S technique will contribute to the capacity to analyze and evaluate ecosystem health over large areas. The advanced technique will promote its further development.