The increase in ecological risks caused by human activities has become a global concern in recent years. The Landscape Ecological Risk Index based on the theory of landscape ecology is more suitable for assessing large-scale ecological risks. Assessing landscape ecological risks and the mechanisms by which humans directly or indirectly affect them will help to manage and control the regions’ ecological risks through scientific and policy methods. In this study, a new model of landscape ecological risk assessment based on the moving window method is proposed. The Loess Plateau of China is used as an example, and the Human Footprint Index dataset of the Loess Plateau is constructed. Different human footprint factors and climate factors are applied, and the human direct and indirect effects on the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau are explored based on the geographical detector model. The results show that, in 2000, 2010 and 2020, the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau are currently in an unstable state, and the highest value area of the Landscape Ecological Risk Index continues to expand, with values of 113,566.1553 km², 114,575.6772 km² and 120,718.5363 km², respectively. Among all the human footprint factors, the population density factor has the highest effect on the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau. Among the climate factors, both the average temperature factor and the average lagged temperature factor have significant effects on the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau. With the interaction of any two human footprint factors and climate factors, the effect of these factors on the landscape ecological risks of the Loess Plateau is enhanced.

An urban ecological zone (UEZ) is an important part of a city, focusing on environmental conservation and ecological economic development simultaneously. During the past decade, the urban scale of Xi’an city in China has been expanding, and the population has been increasing rapidly. This dramatic change is a huge challenge to urban sustainability. It puts forward higher requirements for the construction of an UEZ. Under different spatial resolution scales, this study adopted Landsat8-OLI and gaofen-2 (GF-2) satellite high-resolution remote sensing data to interpret the land use/cover change (LUCC) of the Weihe River UEZ. The ecosystem service value (ESV) was assessed, and the ecological effect was analyzed based on LUCC. The results showed that the spatial distribution of land types in the Weihe River UEZ changed significantly from 2014 to 2020. The construction land gathered to the southeast. Especially, the vegetative land (i.e., forestland, grassland and other green land) and water body showed a slightly increasing trend since the official establishment of the UEZ in 2018. The cultivated land area gradually reduced, and the vegetative land area tended to be concentrated as well as expanded. Through the interpretation of GF-2 remote sensing data, the ESV at the Weihe River UEZ showed a downward trend in general. The high-value areas were mainly distributed in the Weihe River and its surrounding beach areas, which were greatly affected by river water scope. Construction land normally had low ESV, and it was affected by human activities obviously. Therefore, the development of urban construction had significant impacts on the Weihe River UEZ.