Enhancing Sustainability through Ecosystem Services Evaluation: A Case Study of the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System in Digang Village

Abstract

The Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System, as a paradigm of traditional Chinese agricultural recycling models, represents a distinct ecosystem. This study focuses on the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System in Digang Village, Huzhou, as a typical case. The village serves as a core conservation base for the Huzhou Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System, hosting the Huzhou Agricultural Science and Technology Development Center’s Academician and Expert Workstation and the world’s only Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System Visitor Center. These facilities provide strategic guidance for the conservation, development, planning, and inheritance of the Huzhou Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System. Considering the unique environment and limitations in data acquisition, this study employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) to develop an ecosystem service assessment framework encompassing eight aspects and 29 factors assessing the provisioning, regulating, and cultural services of the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System. The results indicate that the ecosystem services of the Digang Village Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System perform at a high level, with cultural services playing a significant role in the overall ecosystem services. The regulating services are relatively weak, highlighting deficiencies in mulberry land management, while the capacity of provisioning services is strong. These findings are crucial for understanding the value of ecosystem services in Digang Village’s Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System, identifying management shortcomings, and providing direction for future assessments and management. This study also offers a practical and effective assessment method for ecosystem service evaluation at smaller scales, where the targeted approach and the presence of significant ambiguity and uncertainty in data are prominent.