Assessing the changes in land use and ecosystem services in Changzhou municipality, Peoples’ Republic of China, 1991–2006

Abstract

a b s t r a c tMuch of the world is experiencing fast urbanization. Many peri-urban open spaces, such as parks, forest, farmland, and wetlands, have been built over, which has resulted in a steep decline of ecosystem services at the municipal and regional levels. Using remote sensing, geography information system (GIS) technology and economic evaluation method for ecosystem services, the evolution of landscape spatial structure in 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 of Changzhou City, People's Republic of China, was obtained and the change of ecosystem services resulted from land use change was evaluated. Study results show a continuing expansion of urbanized areas and reduction in ecosystem services. Before 2001, farmland was the main type of land use, accounting for more than 53.3% of the total area within the broadlydrawn municipal boundaries. In 2006, farmland and built-up areas were the main land-use types. The built-up area increased by 122% from 1991 to 2006. From 1991 to 2001, the proportion of ecological land (farmland, forests, grasslands, and water-covered areas) within Changzhou's municipal boundaries decreased 24.1%. Based on the observed changes, the economic value of ecosystem services provided by Changzhou's ecological land decreased by 19.3% from 1991 to 2006 and the annual decrease ratio was approximately 1.3%. Conversion of farmland to other uses was responsible for the largest reduction in the value of ecosystem services, equal to 239.8 million RMB (equivalent to USD 37.8 million). Our research results were already adopted locally by Changzhou Municipal Bureau of Urban Planning and applied for Changzhou Mater Urban Planning. The current study can contribute not only to improvements in the Changzhou environment, but to the study of and improvements to other rapidly-urbanizing cities, as the rapid growth of urban areas is one of the most pronounced environmental trends of recent times.

The Impact of Land Cover Change on Ecosystem Service Values in Urban Agglomerations along the Coast of the Bohai Rim, China

“…In this method, cropland is the reference value for all ecosystems. Although the method has some potential conceptual and empirical problems, it has been widely used to value China's ecosystem services [38,39]. For the purpose of broadly analyzing the impact of land cover changes on ESV in the three study areas, this valuation method is still considered useful.…”

Specific Features of Parks and Their Impact on Regulation and Cultural Ecosystem Services Provision in Warsaw, Poland

“…Parks, beside water bodies and forests are regarded as basic elements of green infrastructure (GI) that provide ecosystem services (ES) in urban areas [1][2][3][4][5]. The green infrastructure concept is tightly linked with ES, as green infrastructure is designed and managed in order to deliver a wide range of ES to residents [6].…”

Measurement methods and applications for beneficial and detrimental effects of ecological services

“…Through temporal measurement, we can understand that ecosystem succession is a long-term dynamic process, and that therefore, once destroyed, ecological service recovery will take a long time (Li et al, 2014).…”

“…The pattern measuring method can reflect the distribution features of the ecosystem in both horizontal and vertical directions, and can evaluate the strength of the ecological service (Wang et al, 2004;Li et al, 2014).…”

“…The spatial measuring method reflects the biomass, spatial structure etc., and is closely connected with the ecosystem services that provide the scientific basis for land use, population development, and carrying capacity analysis (Li et al, 2014).…”