A Framework to Identify Priority Areas for Restoration: Integrating Human Demand and Ecosystem Services in Dongting Lake Eco-Economic Zone, China

Abstract

The identification of priority restoration areas (PRAs) for ecosystems is a critical step in establishing restoration programs. Because the majority of existing studies focused on improving the ecosystem supply, the PRAs selected are likely to be remote from human demand, and the restoration benefits will not flow to humans. To fill this gap, we constructed an improved framework integrating the ecological restoration projects’ cost and benefits as indicators for choosing PRAs. Then, we identified PRAs for each ecosystem service (ES) with Marxan, and ranked the restoration priority grades according to the superimposed value of PRAs for each ES. Finally, we adjusted the restoration priority grades based on human demand and the concentration of those areas, and chose PRAs with a high ES supply and demand. This framework was applied to the Dongting Lake Eco-Economic Zone, one of China’s most significant ecological restoration project sites. The results indicated that the areas with “high”-, “sub-high”-, and “low”-grade PRAs, based only on the increase in the ES supply, were equal to 82, 410, and 1696 km2, respectively. After considering human demand, the PRAs moved continuously towards places with a high human demand; high-priority areas grew to reach 144 km2, while low-priority areas decreased to 1498 km2. The upgrade of the proposed framework for the identification of PRAs can contribute to increasing human well-being, while also serving as a support tool for environmental restoration management.

Impacts of Land Use Transition on Ecosystem Services in the Dongting Lake Area

“…It is located in the northern part of Hunan Province and the southern part of Hubei Province, as well as an essential storage lake and ecological security function area in the Yangtze River basin [18]. This area is overall dominated by plains, which can be broadly classified into four types: lake water bodies and shoals, plains around the lake, hills and low mountains around the lake area, valley plains and hills [19]. The present investigation focused on a subset of 19 counties (cities and districts) from the three prefecture-level cities of Yueyang, Yiyang, and Changde in the DLA [20].…”

Zoning strategies for ecological restoration in the karst region of Guangdong province, China: a perspective from the “social-ecological system”

“…In recent years, the significance of ecological restoration for sustainable development has become increasingly prominent. Actively identifying priority areas for ecological protection and restoration through natural or human interventions to restore degraded ecosystems is a critical strategic task for ecological security and human wellbeing (Peng et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2023). Scientifically delineating zones enhances the precision and targeting of ecological restoration, serving as an important prerequisite for spatial control of ecological restoration projects and differentiated spatial governance (Yue et al, 2022).…”