Spatial Patterns and Intensity of Ecosystem Service Values in Beijing

Abstract

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits that humans receive from nature. The payments for ES provide financial incentives to urban managers to conserve natural ecosystems. The spatial pattern and intensity of ES values have become leading principles of urban planning. Although most ES evaluations of urban regions are at the city scale, urban land planning is typically made at the landscape level. The applications of remote sensing data provide a great opportunity for quantifying the ES in a finer analytical unit. In this study, we investigated the spatial patterns of ES in Beijing by calculating the economic value of each ES based on the landscape type. We compared the ES intensities observed in different administrative districts and land use types, and we obtained the following results: (1) The ES values in Beijing are distributed in a spatial pattern with low value at the center and high values in the surrounding area, with the highest value in Miyun District and the lowest value in Dongcheng District. The difference in ES intensity between above two districts is 4.087 × 10 4 yuan per hectare. (2) The ES type with higher value in Beijing are hydrology regulation and climate regulation services. (3) The land use type of forest is the main source of ES values, accounting for 67.2% of the total value. This study provides a spatial clarification of ES value in Beijing, which could supply a scientific reference to support urban optimization and resource allocation.