Study of Human Activity Intensity from 2015 to 2020 Based on Remote Sensing in Anhui Province, China

The interactions between human activities and land cover have a significant impact on ecosystems. Therefore, studying human activity intensity based on land use or land cover is crucial for understanding the sustainable development of ecosystems. In this study, we selected Anhui Province as the study area and estimated the human activity intensity of land surface (HAILS) in 2015 and 2020 based on the ChinaCover datasets. We further analyzed the spatial, slope, and hydrological distribution characteristics of HAILS and explored the drivers of HAILS changes. The results show that the areas with higher HAILS were mainly located in the central part of Hefei, as well as along the Yangtze and the Huaihe rivers. The largest changes from 2015 to 2020 happened in the gentle slopes with the HAILS of 20–30%, and the percentage of HAILS > 20% decreased over the slope of 15°. In the riparian zone, the HAILS showed a clear decreasing trend after 2 km, while the HAILS in 2020 were higher than in 2015 in each flow-path distance belt, except for the Huaihe river. The HAILS index was strongly correlated with population density, rural population density, urban population density, average land GDP of primary industry, and nighttime light data. The rapid growth of the urban population and economy, as well as ecological protection policies, were identified as drivers of the above changes. Therefore, the HAILS in 2015 and 2020 of Anhui Province provide effective data support to address regional ecological conservation issues.