Spatiotemporal Changes in Ecosystem Services along a Urban-Rural-Natural Gradient: A Case Study of Xi’an, China

Xiaoxuan Li, Hongjuan Zhang, Zhicheng Zhang, Juan Feng, Kang Liu, Yawei Hua and Qian Pang
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Xiaoxuan Li: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Hongjuan Zhang: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Zhicheng Zhang: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Juan Feng: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Kang Liu: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Yawei Hua: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Qian Pang: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Urban areas are the areas that are most strongly affected by human activities, which presents many challenges to the ecosystem and human well-being. Ecosystem services (ES) are a comprehensive indicator to measure the ecological effects of urbanization. To effectively identify and evaluate the impact of urbanization on ES, the spatial-temporal pattern of ES should be considered. According to the level of urbanization, Xi’an city is divided into four regions: the urban core area, the urban extended area, the rural area, and the ecological conservation area, then, five comprehensive ecosystem services (CES) are evaluated by In VEST model. The results showed the following: (1) There is an obvious spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of ES. The ecological conservation area is the hot spot of ES supply, and the low value is mostly distributed in the urban core area. (2) The CES in the urban extended area that has undergone the greatest change between 2000 and 2015, and the rates of change in the ecological conservation area are the smallest. (3) There is a significant correlation between urbanization and ES, and the correction between landscape urbanization and ES is the most significant. (4) The agglomeration relationship between urbanization and ES in different regions is not consistent. Regional division provides a new way to understand the interaction between urbanization and ES in time and space, so as to provide better guidance for policy makers in formulating sustainable development policies to alleviate the loss of ES caused by the process of urbanization.

Keywords: ecosystem services; urbanization; spatial-temporal distribution; urban-rural-natural gradient; bivariate Moran’s I; spatial correlation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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