Indirect impacts of future urban expansion on ecosystem services in the transnational area of China, North Korea, and Russia

Abstract

Assessing the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services is important for understanding the cascading effect of urbanization on the environment. However, few studies have assessed the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services. In this study, the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services refer to the impacts of cropland displacement on ecosystem services, which is triggered by urban expansion. Taking the transnational area of Changbai Mountain as a study area, we assessed the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services during 2015–2050. We first quantified three key ecosystem services, that is, carbon storage (CS), water retention (WR), and air purification (AP). Then, the future urban expansion and cropland displacement were simulated by using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and the zoned Land Use Scenario Dynamics‐urban (LUSD‐urban) model. Finally, the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services were assessed. The results indicated that influenced by the cropland displacement, the CS, WR, and AP will decrease by 0.03%–0.16%, 0.01%–0.06%, and 0.03%–0.16%, respectively. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) side will be the foremost region of ecosystem service indirect losses. The indirect losses of ecosystem services on the DPRK's side will be significantly higher than those on the Chinese side and Russian side. Meanwhile, on the DPRK's side, the indirect losses of CS and AP will be 1.01–1.74‐times and 1.01–1.67‐times the direct losses of these two ecosystem services, respectively. In addition, cropland displacement will cause significant trade‐offs between food provisioning services and regulation services. To promote sustainable development in this transnational area, we propose to make effective land‐use policies to optimize cropland displacement and take ecosystem services as effective tools to guide land‐use planning.

Habitat Quality Assessment under the Change of Vegetation Coverage in the Tumen River Cross-Border Basin

“…These results fully demonstrate the impact of FVC on HQ. A comparison of the evaluation results regarding HQ in this study with the results of the cross-border areas of China, North Korea, and Russia calculated using Gan.X based on the InVEST model [60] reveals a relatively consistent spatial distribution pattern and temporal variation characteristics. Zhang.Y et al also evaluated the HQ on the Chinese side of the Tumen River cross-border basin and found that it improved slightly [72].…”

“…where Q i represents the HQ assessed using the InVEST model, H j is the habitat suitability of land cover type j, D xj is the threat to land cover type j, Z is a scaling parameter reflecting spatial heterogeneity, and k is the half-saturation parameter (usually assuming a value of 0.05). The values of the maximum impact distance, weight, and distance attenuation function of each stress factor (Table 2) and the habitat suitability of different land cover types and their sensitivity to stress factors (Table 3) were determined based on the relevant literature and the actual conditions of the Tumen River basin [57][58][59][60].…”

Assessing the impacts of future urban expansion on multiple ecosystem services in the transnational area of Changbai Mountain

“…We will also attempt to use high-resolution remote sensing data to quantify ESs within cities, particularly those ESs provided by green spaces and water bodies (Santos et al, 2017). Finally, we will combine multiple methods, such as remote sensing and modeling simulations, to quantify ES flows within the TACM (Sun et al, 2022;Sun et al, 2023;Zhang et al, 2023).…”