scholarly journals Ecosystem Services Changes on Farmland in Response to Urbanization in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area of China

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 501
Author(s):  
Xuege Wang ◽  
Fengqin Yan ◽  
Yinwei Zeng ◽  
Ming Chen ◽  
Bin He ◽  
...  

Extensive urbanization around the world has caused a great loss of farmland, which significantly impacts the ecosystem services provided by farmland. This study investigated the farmland loss due to urbanization in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China from 1980 to 2018 based on multiperiod datasets from the Land Use and Land Cover of China databases. Then, we calculated ecosystem service values (ESVs) of farmland using valuation methods to estimate the ecosystem service variations caused by urbanization in the study area. The results showed that 3711.3 km2 of farmland disappeared because of urbanization, and paddy fields suffered much higher losses than dry farmland. Most of the farmland was converted to urban residential land from 1980 to 2018. In the past 38 years, the ESV of farmland decreased by 5036.7 million yuan due to urbanization, with the highest loss of 2177.5 million yuan from 2000–2010. The hydrological regulation, food production and gas regulation of farmland decreased the most due to urbanization. The top five cities that had the largest total ESV loss of farmland caused by urbanization were Guangzhou, Dongguan, Foshan, Shenzhen and Huizhou. This study revealed that urbanization has increasingly become the dominant reason for farmland loss in the GBA. Our study suggests that governments should increase the construction of ecological cities and attractive countryside to protect farmland and improve the regional ESV.

Author(s):  
Wenjing Wang ◽  
Tong Wu ◽  
Yuanzheng Li ◽  
Hua Zheng ◽  
Zhiyun Ouyang

Shortfalls and mismatches between the supply and demand of ecosystem services (ES) can be detrimental to human wellbeing. Studies focused on these problems have increased in recent decades, but few have applied land use optimization to reduce such spatial mismatches. This study developed a methodology to identify ES mismatches and then use these mismatches as objectives for land use optimization. The methodology was applied to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao “Greater Bay Area” (GBA), a megacity of over 70 million people and one of the world’s largest urban agglomerations. Considering the demand for a healthy and secure living environment among city-dwellers, we focused on three ES: heat mitigation, flood mitigation, and recreational services. The results showed large spatial heterogeneity in supply and demand for these three ES. However, compared to current conditions in the GBA, our model showed that optimized land use allocation could better match the supply and demand for heat mitigation (number of beneficiaries increased by 15%), flood mitigation (amount of population exposed to flood damage decreased by 37%), and recreation (number of beneficiaries increased by 14%). By integrating land use allocation and spatial mismatch analysis, this methodology provides a feasible way to align ES supply and demand to advance urban and regional sustainability.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Chen ◽  
Bo-Ming Sun ◽  
Dan Chen ◽  
Xin Wu ◽  
Long-Zhu Guo ◽  
...  

The small Sanjiang plain is one of the most important commodity grain production bases and the largest fresh water wetland in China. Due to the rapid expansion of agricultural activities in the past 30 years, the contradiction between economic development and the loss of ecosystem services has become an issue of increasing concern in the area. In this study, we analysed land use changes and the loss of ecosystem services value caused by these changes. We found that cropland sprawl was predominant and occurred in forest, wetland, and grassland areas in the small Sanjiang plain from 1980 to 2010. Using a model to evaluate ecosystem services value, we calculated that the decreased values of ecosystem services were 169.88 × 108Yuan from 1980 to 2000 and 120.00 × 108Yuan from 2000 to 2010. All of the ecosystem services were diminished from 1980 to 2010 except for food production. Therefore, the loss of ecosystem services value should be considered by the policymakers of land use and development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1174
Author(s):  
Yeyu He ◽  
Yaoqiu Kuang ◽  
Yalan Zhao ◽  
Zhu Ruan

Exploring the spatial relationship between ecosystem services (ES) and human disturbance intensity (HDI) is vital for maintaining regional ecological security. This study aims to explore the spatial correlation between ES and HDI in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and provide meaningful implications for coastal ecological planning. Multi-source remote sensing data, remote sensing software, and geographic information system provided initial data and technical support for this research. We integrated four human pressures (population, land-use, traffic, and energy) to map the HDI in the GBA for 2018. Coastal ES were comprehensively considered and spatially visualized by extracting the ES sources. The geographically weighted Pearson correlation coefficient and bivariate local Moran were used to quantitatively reflect and spatially visualize the detailed relationship between ES and HDI. Our study presents several key findings. First, the central and southern parts of the GBA are under strong HDI, dominated by a dense population and intense land utilization. Second, the kernel density of ES sources can better manifest the spatial distribution of ES objectively in comparison to the traditional model calculation. Provisioning services mainly originate from the periphery of the central cities; cultural services are highly concentrated in the heartland of the GBA; and regulating and maintenance services have high density in the outermost regions. Third, ES and HDI have a significant correlation, and the geographically weighted Pearson correlation coefficient and local indicator of spatial association cluster maps illustrate that unlike the global findings, the local correlation is spatially nonstationary as the local scale is affected by specific human activities, natural conditions, regional development, and other local factors. Four, high-capacity regions of ES provision are mainly under high HDI. Areas with high provisioning service values are mainly affected by population and traffic pressure, whereas regulating and maintenance services and cultural services are mainly dominated by high-density populations. Regulating and maintenance services are also affected by land-use pressure. We determine that human disturbance has negative spillover effects on ES, which should be the focus in regional ecological planning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3269
Author(s):  
Xuege Wang ◽  
Fengqin Yan ◽  
Fenzhen Su

Unprecedented urbanization has occurred globally, which has converted substantial natural landscapes into impervious surfaces and further impacted ecosystem services and functioning. In this study, we quantified the spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization and investigated the impacts of urbanization on the ecosystem service value (ESV) in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China from 1980 to 2018. The results show that the GBA has experienced extensive urbanization, with the urban area increasing from 2607.4 to 8243.5 km2 from 1980 to 2018. Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Foshan exhibited the top five highest urban expansion rates. Throughout the study period, edge expansion was the most dominant growth mode, with a decreasing trend, while infilling increased in the GBA. The total ESV loss induced by urban expansion in the GBA reached 40.5 billion yuan over the past four decades. The ESV loss due to the water body decrease caused by urbanization was the largest. Our study suggests that decision-makers should control new urban areas and protect water bodies, wetlands, and forests with high ESVs to promote the sustainable development of urban agglomerations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7044
Author(s):  
Dawei Wen ◽  
Song Ma ◽  
Anlu Zhang ◽  
Xinli Ke

Assessment of ecosystem services supply, demand, and budgets can help to achieve sustainable urban development. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as one of the most developed megacities in China, sets up a goal of high-quality development while fostering ecosystem services. Therefore, assessing the ecosystem services in this study area is very important to guide further development. However, the spatial pattern of ecosystem services, especially at local scales, is not well understood. Using the available 2017 land cover product, Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 optical images, a deep learning land cover mapping framework integrating deep change vector analysis and the ResUnet model was proposed. Based on the produced 10 m land cover map for the year 2020, recent spatial patterns of the ecosystem services at different scales (i.e., the GBA, 11 cities, urban–rural gradient, and pixel) were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) Forest was the primary land cover in Guangzhou, Huizhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, and Hong Kong, and an impervious surface was the main land cover in the other four cities. (2) Although ecosystem services in the GBA were sufficient to meet their demand, there was undersupply for all the three general services in Macao and for the provision services in Zhongshan, Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Foshan. (3) Along the urban–rural gradient in the GBA, supply and demand capacity showed an increasing and decreasing trend, respectively. As for the city-level analysis, Huizhou and Zhuhai showed a fluctuation pattern while Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, and Hong Kong presented a decreasing pattern along the gradient. (4) Inclusion of neighborhood landscape led to increased demand scores in a small proportion of impervious areas and oversupply for a very large percent of bare land.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Changjun Gu ◽  
Yili Zhang ◽  
Linshan Liu ◽  
Lanhui Li ◽  
Shicheng Li ◽  
...  

Land use and land cover (LULC) changes are regarded as one of the key drivers of ecosystem services degradation, especially in mountain regions where they may provide various ecosystem services to local livelihoods and surrounding areas. Additionally, ecosystems and habitats extend across political boundaries, causing more difficulties for ecosystem conservation. LULC in the Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) has undergone obvious changes over the past four decades; however, the spatiotemporal changes of the LULC across the whole of the KSL are still unclear, as well as the effects of LULC changes on ecosystem service values (ESVs). Thus, in this study we analyzed LULC changes across the whole of the KSL between 2000 and 2015 using Google Earth Engine (GEE) and quantified their impacts on ESVs. The greatest loss in LULC was found in forest cover, which decreased from 5443.20 km2 in 2000 to 5003.37 km2 in 2015 and which mainly occurred in KSL-Nepal. Meanwhile, the largest growth was observed in grassland (increased by 548.46 km2), followed by cropland (increased by 346.90 km2), both of which mainly occurred in KSL-Nepal. Further analysis showed that the expansions of cropland were the major drivers of the forest cover change in the KSL. Furthermore, the conversion of cropland to shrub land indicated that farmland abandonment existed in the KSL during the study period. The observed forest degradation directly influenced the ESV changes in the KSL. The total ESVs in the KSL decreased from 36.53 × 108 USD y−1 in 2000 to 35.35 × 108 USD y−1 in 2015. Meanwhile, the ESVs of the forestry areas decreased by 1.34 × 108 USD y−1. This shows that the decrease of ESVs in forestry was the primary cause to the loss of total ESVs and also of the high elasticity. Our findings show that even small changes to the LULC, especially in forestry areas, are noteworthy as they could induce a strong ESV response.


One Ecosystem ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Vrebos ◽  
Jan Staes ◽  
Steven Broekx ◽  
Leo de Nocker ◽  
Karen Gabriels ◽  
...  

Since the early 2000s, there have been substantial efforts to transform the concept of ecosystem services into practice. Spatial assessment tools are being developed to evaluate the impact of spatial planning on a wide range of ecosystem services. However, the actual implementation in decision-making remains limited. To improve implementation, tools that are tailored to local conditions can provide accurate, meaningful information. Instead of a generic and widely-applicable tool, we developed a regional, spatially-explicit tool (ECOPLAN-SE) to analyse the impact of changes in land use on the delivery of 18 ecosystem services in Flanders (Belgium). The tool incorporates ecosystem services relevant to policy-makers and managers and makes use of detailed local data and knowledge. By providing an easy-to-use tool, including the required spatial geodatasets, time investment and the learning curve remain limited for the user. With this tool, constraints to implement ecosystem service assessments in local decision-making are drastically reduced. We believe that region-specific decision support systems, like ECOPLAN-SE, are indispensable intermediates between the conceptual ecosystem service frameworks and the practical implementation in planning processes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-197
Author(s):  
Christiane Cavalcante Leite ◽  
Marcos Heil Costa ◽  
Ranieri Carlos Ferreira de Amorim

The evaluation of the impacts of land-use change on the water resources has been, many times, limited by the knowledge of past land use conditions. Most publications on this field present only a vague description of the past land use, which is usually insufficient for more comprehensive studies. This study presents the first reconstruction of the historical land use patterns in Amazonia, that includes both croplands and pasturelands, for the period 1940-1995. During this period, Amazonia experienced the fastest rates of land use change in the world, growing 4-fold from 193,269 km2 in 1940 to 724,899 km2 in 1995. This reconstruction is based on a merging of satellite imagery and census data, and provides a 5'x5' yearly dataset of land use in three different categories (cropland, natural pastureland and planted pastureland) for Amazonia. This dataset will be an important step towards understanding the impacts of changes in land use on the water resources in Amazonia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cora Chan

Abstract The 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre marked China out as an exception in the chapter of world history that saw the fall of international communism. The massacre crystalized the mistrust between China and Hong Kong into an open ideological conflict—Leninist authoritarianism versus liberal democracy—that has colored relations between the two since then. This article tracks the hold that authoritarianism has gained over liberal values in Hong Kong in the past thirty years and reflects on what needs to be done in the next thirty years for the balance to be re-tilted and sustained beyond 2047, when China’s fifty-year commitment to preserving Hong Kong’s autonomy expires. Still surviving (just) as a largely liberal (though by no means fully democratic) jurisdiction after two decades of Chinese rule, Hong Kong is a testing ground for whether China can respect liberal values, how resilient such values are to the alternative authoritarian vision offered by an economic superpower, and the potential for establishing a liberal-democratic pocket within an authoritarian state. The territory’s everyday wrestle with Chinese pressures speaks to the liberal struggles against authoritarian challenges (in their various guises) that continue to plague the world thirty years after the end of the Cold War.​


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