黄土高原生态屏障建设的创新路径与展望

The ecological barriers on Loess Plateau are crucial components of ecological security strategy framed as a pattern of “Three Zones and Four Belts” in China, and serve as a vital safeguard to reduce the flooding risks of the Yellow River and the safety of the North China Plain. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the construction of the ecological barriers on the Loess Plateau has already gained some remarkable achievements, nevertheless, there are still some challenges upon us, such as intensified risks of extreme climate events and natural disasters, proper threshold of balance between ecological construction and water-sediment relationship, the harmonization among people and land conflicting, and the regional economic development and income increasing of local resident. This study briefly outlines the scientific foundations of construction of the ecological barriers on the Loess Plateau, summarizes the accomplishments in the ecological protection and restoration, and proposes several innovative paths for the construction of ecological barriers from various elements of comprehensive management strategies, disaster risk prevention and mitigation, developing new technologies, constructing green development belts, and proposing innovative management approaches. The key recommendations and prospects are put forward from five aspects, namely, (1) the impacts of future climate change and human activities, (2) thresholds of ecological construction on the Loess Plateau, (3) water-sediment relationship in the Yellow River, (4) human-land systems and rural revitalization, and (5) the integration of artificial intelligence with observation-simulation-early warning systems.