Research on the Route Selection of Transmission Lines Crossing Rivers in the Yangtze River Basin (Hubei section) Based on Ecological Sensitivity Evaluation

Studies on ecological sensitivity mainly focused on the sensitivity of a wide range of ecosystems to changes in the external ecological environment. In recent years, more and more assessments have been made on urban ecological sensitivity, but few studies have focused on the ecological sensitivity of river basins. Due to the length and the complicated terrain of the transmission line, it was unavoidable to cross the Yangtze River. So far, there are few studies combined the ecological sensitivity of river basins with large transmission lines. Ecologically sensitive areas along the Yangtze River restrict transmission line channel selection from engineering safety, law and ecological space control. Our study focused on the Yangtze River (Hubei section), by collecting the data of ecologically sensitive areas along the Yangtze River (Hubei section), the spatial distribution characteristics of ecologically sensitive areas along the Yangtze River (Hubei section) were analyzed by ArcGIS spatial analysis method among different cities. The results showed that the highest total ecological sensitivity index was 0.88 in Huang Shi. The total ecological sensitivity index of the main stream of the Yangtze River (Hubei section) was 0.41, indicating moderate ecological sensitivity of the Yangtze River (Hubei section). There were spatial differences in the ecological sensitivity along the Yangtze River. When the transmission line crosses the main stream of the Yangtze River (Hubei section), there was little difference in spatial ecological sensitivity among different cities, due to the large slightly sensitive and insensitive ecological sensitivity index area of each city.