Spatiotemporal evolution and prediction of habitat quality in Hohhot City of China based on the InVEST and CA-Markov models

With the acceleration of urbanization, changes in the urban ecological environment and landscape pattern have led to a series of prominent ecological environmental problems. In order to better coordinate the balanced relationship between city and ecological environment, we selected land use change data to evaluate the habitat quality in Hohhot City of China, which is of great practical significance for regional urban and economic development. Thus, the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs(InVEST) and Cellular Automata-Markov(CA-Markov) models were used to analyze, predict, and explore the Spatiotemporal evolution path and characteristics of urban land use, and forecast the typical evolution pattern of land use in 2030. The results showed that the land use types in Hohhot City changed significantly from 2000 to 2020, and the biggest change took place in cultivated land, grassland, shrub, and artificial surface. The decrease of cultivated land area and the increase of artificial surface area were the main impact trend of land use change. The average value of habitat quality had been decreasing continuously from 2000 to 2020, and the values of habitat degradation were 0.2605, 0.2494, and 0.2934 in 2000, 2010, and 2020, respectively, showing a decreasing trend. The decrease of habitat quality was caused by the needs of economic development and urban construction, as well as the impact of land occupation. During this evolution, many cultivated land and urban grassland had been converted into construction land. The simulated land use changes in 2030 are basically the same as those during 2000–2020, and the habitat quality will still be declining. The regional changes are influenced by the urban rapid development and industrial layout. These results can provide decision-making reference for regional urban planning and management as well as habitat quality evaluation.