Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Water Ecological Restoration Based on the Relationship between the Supply and Demand of Ecological Products—A Case Study of the Yellow River Delta

Jianing Zhang, Yeqing Duan (), Shenbei Zhou () and Yuanyuan Huang
Additional contact information
Jianing Zhang: Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
Yeqing Duan: Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
Shenbei Zhou: Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
Yuanyuan Huang: Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: The imbalance between the supply and demand of ecological products between society and ecosystems is an important cause of a series of water ecological problems, and water ecological restoration projects aim to improve the above supply–demand relationship by means of inputs from the social side. For this reason, this paper takes the Yellow River Delta region as an example to launch a study on the assessment of the effectiveness of water ecological restoration projects from the perspective of the supply and demand of ecological products. Specifically, the level of the supply and demand of ecological products, as well as the relationship between the supply and the demand in the studied area, were measured using the equivalent factor approach and the water footprint approach, and the effects of the Yellow River Delta hydro-ecological restoration project were assessed by integrating the following four metrics: land use, supply of ecological products (ecosystem services), demand for ecological products, and the relationship between the supply of and demand for ecological products. The results of this study show that although the hydro-ecological restoration project continues to replenish water resources in the Yellow River Delta region, and promotes the level of ecological product supply in the study area through the restoration of wetlands and water, the growing and excessive demand for ecological products in the study area still puts the local ecosystems at risk of degradation. In the future, the Yellow River Delta region should continue to control the scale of land for production and living on the supply side of ecological products and increase its investment in water ecological restoration, while establishing a highly efficient mode of ecological product development and utilization and a reasonable mechanism for the payment of ecological products on the demand side. In addition, the Yellow River Delta region needs to pay attention to the impacts of rising sea levels and other climatic problems on ecological restoration.

Keywords: ecological products; supply–demand relationship; water ecological restoration project; effectiveness evaluation; Yellow River Delta region (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/12/2093/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/12/2093/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:12:p:2093-:d:1284850

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().