Ecology and environment of the Belt and Road under global climate change: A systematic review of spatial patterns, cost efficiency, and ecological footprints

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will play an essential role in boosting the world’s economy. However, the main portion of the Belt and Road (B&R) is in arid, semi-arid, or sub-humid fragile ecological regions, which with global climate change and the intensification of human activities will face many pressing environmental challenges in the future. Despite this, in the existing research on the B&R, papers in the field of natural sciences are less than 1.2–4.3% of the total number of papers on the main databases, which is far lower than the coverage in humanities and social sciences. And those focused on the ecological and environmental issues along the B&R are even fewer, so necessary understanding of both the risks and adequate mitigation measures remains unclear. This paper systematically reviews the relevant research on the eco-environments along the B&R, and summarizes it in terms including of spatial patterns and cognition, cost efficiency and evaluation, ecological security and evaluation, ecological footprint and carrying capacity. It further suggests that a better understanding of environmental changes and their effects on the B&R is needed. Additionally, it is essential that the potential positive socio-economic impacts for the future under the BRI are sustainable. Finally, future research directions are proposed to improve for the better eco-environments in B&R regions with consideration of global changes.