Comparing Wetland Ecosystems Service Provision under Different Management Approaches: Two Cases Study of Tianfu Wetland and Nansha Wetland in China

Yuchao Zhang, Steven Loiselle, Yimo Zhang, Qian Wang, Xia Sun, Minqi Hu, Qiao Chu and Yuanyuan Jing
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Yuchao Zhang: Key Laboratory of Watershed Geographic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Steven Loiselle: Dipartimento di Biotecnologie, Chimica e Farmacia, University of Siena, CSGI, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy
Yimo Zhang: WWF China, Beijing 100037, China
Qian Wang: WWF China, Beijing 100037, China
Xia Sun: WWF China, Beijing 100037, China
Minqi Hu: Key Laboratory of Watershed Geographic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Qiao Chu: Key Laboratory of Watershed Geographic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Yuanyuan Jing: Key Laboratory of Watershed Geographic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: The largest blue-green infrastructures in industrialized, urbanized and developed regions in China are often multiuse wetlands, located just outside growing urban centers. These areas have multiple development pressures while providing environmental, economic, and social benefits to the local and regional populations. Given the limited information available about the tradeoffs in ecosystem services with respect to competing wetland uses, wetland managers and provincial decision makers face challenges in regulating the use of these important landscapes. In the present study, measurements made by citizen scientists were used to support a comparative study of water quality and wetland functions in two large multiuse wetlands, comparing areas of natural wetland vegetation, tourism-based wetland management and wetland agriculture. The study sites, the Nansha and Tianfu wetlands, are located in two of the most urbanized areas of China: the lower Yangtze River and Pearl River catchments, respectively. Our results indicated that the capacity of wetlands to mitigate water quality is closely related to the quality of the surrounding waters and hydrological conditions. Agricultural areas in both wetlands provided the lowest sediment and nutrient retention. The results show that the delivery of supporting ecosystem services is strongly influenced by the location and use of the wetland. Furthermore, we show that citizen scientist-acquired data can provide fundamental information on quantifying these ecosystem services, providing needed information to wetland park managers and provincial wetland administrators.

Keywords: STP activity; wetland ecosystem services; water quality improvement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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