Merits of hedgerows in slope farmlands in the Three Gorges Reservoir area

Hedgerow is an agro-forestry technique with tremendous ecological and socio-economic functions. Its ecological benefits include soil and water conservation, which in turn enhances soil fertility and soil physical properties. Hedgerows also provide additional employment and income to farmers. This paper used analytical hierarchy process theory to establish indicator system consistent with ecological and socio-economic functions. These indicators were then used to evaluate the merits of six hedgerow patterns in slope farmlands in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. The plant species of six hedgerow patterns were Citrus reticulate, Pyrus pyrifolia, Zanthoxylum bungeanum, Vitex negundo, Morus alba and Begonia fimbristipula respectively. The entropy weight decision-making and expert grade methods were integrated to calculate synthetic weights of the indicators. This provided a more accurate assessment of hedgerow benefits in the region. The study showed that the highest and lowest ecological benefits were from V. negundo and B. fimbristipula hedgerows, respectively. Z. bungeanum hedgerow had superior economic and an overall comprehensive benefit over the other hedgerow patterns in the region. The social benefit of M. alba hedgerow was the highest among all the hedgerow patterns.