Assessing the Impacts of Urban Expansion on Bundles of Ecosystem Services by Dmsp-Ols Nighttime Light Data

Yangyang Gu, Xuning Qiao, Mengjia Xu, Changxin Zou, Dong Liu, Dan Wu and Yan Wang
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Yangyang Gu: School of Surveying and Land Information Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, China
Xuning Qiao: School of Surveying and Land Information Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454003, China
Mengjia Xu: Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Nanjing 210042, China
Changxin Zou: Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Nanjing 210042, China
Dong Liu: Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Nanjing 210042, China
Dan Wu: Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Nanjing 210042, China
Yan Wang: Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Nanjing 210042, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: Urban expansion poses severe threats to ecosystems. It is therefore important we better understand the impact of different urban expansion level on ecosystems for developing regionally differentiated ecological protection policies. Here, we proposed a conceptual framework to describe the impacts of urbanization on bundles of ecosystem services. Referred to as the concept of land use degree by nighttime light data, we put forward and verified an urban expansion level model. According to this model, study area was divided into a slow increase zone, increase zone, and rapid increase zone. Then, taking Taihu Lake Basin in China as a case, we used Zonal-statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients to reveal the impact in different zones of urban expansion level on multiple ecosystem services: crop production, freshwater supply, aquatic production, net primary productivity, soil conservation, water retention, flood regulation, and forest recreation index. Our results revealed that urban expansion levels significantly impacted all ecosystem services. In either increase zone or rapid increase zone, we found lowered values of crop production, net primary productivity, soil conservation, water retention, and flood regulation, while both aquatic production and forest recreation index increased in all zones from 1990 to 2010. Across the levels of urbanization, urban expansion level was always negatively correlated with provisioning services. This result suggests local governors should improve crop production per unit area and increase the cultivated land area to guarantee food security. In addition, urban expansion level had positive correlations with the trade-offs between flood regulation and forest recreation index, and those among crop production, freshwater supply, and net primary productivity. Therefore, policy-makers should effectively maintain the land use balance among ecological protection, agriculture development, and urban expansion to better coordinate relationships between development and protection. In acquiring quantitative knowledge of how urban expansion level drives ecosystem changes, our findings may help guide future sustainable urban planning with respect to ecosystem services, urban development, and human welfare benefits.

Keywords: Nighttime light data; urban expansion level; ecosystem services; trade-off and synergy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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