Identifying Dynamic Changes in Ecosystem Services Supply and Demand for Urban Sustainability: Insights from a Rapidly Urbanizing City in Central China

Abstract

Identifying the balance and dynamic changes in supply and demand of ecosystem services (ES) can help maintain the sustainability of the regional ecosystem and improve human well-being. To achieve a sustainable ecological management regime in Zhengzhou City, this study presented a comprehensive framework for identifying dynamic changes of ES supply and demand and managing ES. Using land use data of Zhengzhou City in 1995, 2005, and 2015 and incorporating expert knowledge and the ES evaluation matrix, we evaluated the spatiotemporal changes in the ES supply and demand in Zhengzhou. Gradient analysis was conducted to identify urban–rural patterns in the budgets of ES supply and demand. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was employed to identify the hotspot areas of ES surpluses or deficits. The research results show the following: (1) In the past 20 years, the supply-and-demand relationship of ES in Zhengzhou has gradually evolved in a direction where supply falls short of demand. The average budget index of Zhengzhou’s ES supply and demand decreased from 7.30 in 1995 to −4.89 in 2015. Changes in the supply and demand status of ES in Zhengzhou corresponded to the background of rapid urbanization. (2) Urban–rural gradient differences exist in the budgets of ES supply and demand in Zhengzhou. Core development areas, such as the Zhengzhou urban areas, are in deficit, whereas a balance or surplus can be observed in rural areas far from urban centers. (3) The surplus hotspots of ES budgets were mainly distributed in the western and southern mountainous areas of Zhengzhou, and they were scattered and the scope shrank, with a decrease of 2.73 times in 20 years, whereas the deficit hotspots expanded outward with each urban area as the center, with an increase of 5.77%. Ecological management zoning (ecological conservation area, ecological improvement area, and ecological reconstruction area) with the effective guidance of ecological and economic policies could comprehensively improve ES management and achieve urban sustainability. The framework in this study can easily and quickly assess the supply and demand status of ES and provide scientific support for the ecological management in rapidly urbanizing areas.

Trade-Off and Projecting Effects of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Services under Different Policies Scenarios: A Case Study in Central China

“…These equivalent coefficients have been revised according to the actual situation in China and are more suited to China’s national conditions than those indicators proposed by Costanza et al [ 41 ]. The equivalent factor method can also rapidly obtain and calculate data, has strong applicability, and can facilitate the comparison of results [ 64 ]. Therefore, this approach was adapted in this paper based on the actual situation in Anyang.…”

“…The former tests and determines the overall spatial distribution pattern and the degree of correlation and significance of elements in the research area, whereas the latter reflects the agglomeration and differentiation characteristics of local spatial units and their neighboring units to further measure local spatial instability. The bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis was further improved based on these two levels and can be used to measure the degree of spatial correlation between the attributes of two variables [ 64 ]. The bivariate global and local autocorrelation models can be formulated as: where I is the global bivariate spatial autocorrelation index, n is the number of grid cells, W ij is the spatial weight, and are the m and z attribute values of the i and j grid cells, respectively, y m and y z are the average values of attributes m and n , respectively, I ij is the local bivariate spatial autocorrelation index, and σ m and σ z are the variances of attributes m and z , respectively.…”

Linking Ecosystem Service Supply–Demand Risks and Regional Spatial Management in the Yihe River Basin, Central China

“…The risks of ecosystem services to human beings, the degree of risks, and the available trends need to be determined to provide a strong basis for ecosystem service risk management and related policy formulation. Some conceptual models, such as the EPPS (ecosystem properties, potentials, services, and benefits) framework [69], the delivery chain of ecosystem services [17], and the comprehensive assessment framework for the ecosystem service supply and demand [20,70,71], are created to view the supplier and demand sides of integrated ecosystem services. These conceptual models provide a theoretical and practical basis for the research on the supply-demand risks of ecosystem services.…”

Complex regional telecoupling between people and nature revealed via quantification of trans‐boundary ecosystem service flows

“…Central Asia, demand, ecosystem services, flows, supply, telecoupling units to ecological integrity and ES supply and demand. This framework combined remotely sensed data, land surveys, land cover data and socio-economic data to reveal scale mismatches between supply and demand and depict the spatial and temporal characteristics of ES supply-demand budgets to provide information for ecosystem management and decision-making (Hein et al, 2006;Ji et al, 2020).…”