Study on the Evaluation and Assessment of Ecosystem Service Spatial Differentiation at Different Scales in Mountainous Areas around the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, China

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 16;20(2):1639. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021639.

Abstract

Ecosystem services are closely related to human wellbeing-which refers to the basic material conditions required to maintain high standards of quality of life, of health, and of safety and security, as well as good social relationships, and freedom of choice and action-and have a high potential value. The adequate valuation of ecosystem service values (ESV) is now an urgent need for the implementation of policy measures such as ecosystem asset management, ecological compensation and paid use of ecosystem services. Based on the method of ecosystem value equivalent factor per unit area, in this paper we investigated the variability of total ESV spatial distribution and regional differences in the value of 11 ecosystem service types provided by ecosystems in the mountainous areas of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region at different spatial scales and discussed the relationship between ESV and land use land cover (LULC). The results show that the total ESVs in 2015 and 2020 in the mountainous areas of BTH region were 5671 × 108 CNY and 6381 × 108 CNY, respectively. The change trend of each ecosystem service value from 2015 to 2020 was dominated by an increase of water supply service, and the maintenance of soil and nutrient cycle services in the mountainous area of BTH and the Yanshan Mountain (YSM). The change patterns of the value of ecosystem service categories in the Taihang Moutain (THM) and Bashang region (BSR) are dominated by an increase in the value of maintained soil and water supply services and a decrease in the value of regulating services. The calculation of ESV can be made more accurate by considering climate and vegetation conditions at the region, ecosystem, county or township scales rather than at grid scale, as, for calculating the interannual variation of total ESV, the spatial scale variability is large. The assessment of ESVs is important from the point of view of planning the use of the environment, of spatial planning, and of nature conservation. The ecosystem service of woodland and water bodies are more prominent compared with other land-use types and construction land and bare land provide the lowest value of service. There is some similarity between the value changes of ecosystem service categories and the distribution of LULC types. This study strengthens the understanding of the spatial scales of different ESV in mountain areas, which is beneficial to ecosystem management policies.

Keywords: Bashang region; Taihang Mountain; Yanshan Mountain; ecosystem service; human wellbeing; land use land cover.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Beijing
  • China
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Ecosystem*
  • Humans
  • Quality of Life*
  • Soil

Substances

  • Soil

Grants and funding

This research was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (grant numbers D2021503001), the Science & Technology Fundamental Resources Investigation Program (grant numbers 2022FY100104), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 41877170, 42001009) and the Key Research and Development Plan Project of Hebei Province (grant numbers 20324201D, 22324202D, 20324203D).