Land Use Change and Ecosystem Health Assessment on Shanghai–Hangzhou Bay, Eastern China

Abstract

Reasonable quantitative assessment on urban ecosystem health is conducive to the sustainable development of the economy and human society. This paper quantitatively evaluated the impact of land use change on ecosystem services and ecosystem health by building a comprehensive evaluation system (vigor–organization–resilience–ecosystem services), and then analyzed the spatial-temporal pattern, evolution characteristics, and driving factors in the Shanghai–Hangzhou Bay area (SHB) over the 2000–2015 period. The results show that: the area of cropland and forest accounted for more than 65% and was mainly converted into built-up land in the past 15 years. The overall ESV showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. Forest accounted for the largest proportion of the total ESV, more than 60% in each year. The ecosystem health value of SBH decreased from 2000 to 2015. At the city scale, the ecosystem health was significantly deteriorated. All cities reached the lowest value by 2015. At the districts/counties scale, the number with the relatively well or well level decreased from 32 in 2000 to 20 in 2015 by 24.64% of the total area. Overall, inland regions of SBH had better ecosystem health situation than coastal areas. The rapid urbanization of population and economy were driving factors for the decline of the ecosystem health. The indicator system of integrating the vigor, organization, resilience, and ecosystem service for ecosystem health assessment is a potential method which could provide a quantitative and comprehensive way for evaluating ecological and environmental effects in the future.

Evolution of Urban Ecosystem Service Value and a Scenario Analysis Based on Land Utilization Changes: A Case Study of Hangzhou, China

“…This finding suggests that areas of high value ecosystem services are mainly located in the peripheries of cities. This is similar to the results of other studies that found the greatest decline in habitat quality in downtown areas [38] and found that the urban ecosystem health significantly deteriorated [19]. Changes in the ESV are a direct reflection of land use changes, and in the context of rapid urbanization, dramatic land use changes have become a major factor in weakening and destroying the value of urban ecosystem services [52].…”

“…The development of spatial information technology, such as remote sensing, has further pushed forward research on ecosystem services, and the evaluation method of coupling land use changes and ecosystem service value (ESV) has been widely used [13][14][15]. Several studies have examined the effects of land use changes on the value of services of different ecosystems, such as studies on highlands [16], coastal areas [17][18][19], and urban landscapes [17,[20][21][22][23]. At present, an increasing number of scholars at home and abroad are studying the impact of land use changes on ESV, and ecosystem service valuation methods are widely used in urban planning.…”

Evaluation and driving factors of ecological integrity in the Alxa League from 1990 to 2020

“…Land use intensity also influenced the ecological integrity condition of different ecosystem types, such as wetland (Jiang et al, 2015) and island zones (Jiang et al, 2018). However, compared with desert ecosystems, the explanatory power of land use intensity in other ecosystems was much weaker, and economic factors had more weight in terms of affecting ecosystem integrity (Xiao et al, 2022;Xu et al, 2022). Typically, the economy has a complicated influence on the local natural ecological environment (Kijima et al, 2010), while our study showed that the economic factor had a lower influence on ecological integrity.…”

Method of Water Body Information Extraction in Complex Geographical Environment from Remote Sensing Images

“…(68,69) Hangzhou Bay is an important part of the Yangtze River Delta owing to its geographical location, dense population, concentrated cities, and developed industry. (70,71) Since China's reform and opening up, the Hangzhou Bay area has witnessed rapid social and economic developments. It is one of the fastest growing regions in China and has brought together a large number of people and economic activities.…”