Decreasing Impact of Intra-City Disparities on Ecosystem Services During Rapid Urbanization in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration

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The match relationship between urbanization and ecosystem services (ESs) is a cornerstone of achieving sustainable development. However, the evolution patterns of urbanization/ecosystem service (UES) synergies under economic polarization in the rapid urbanization process remain poorly understood. This study integrates bivariate local Moran’s index and correlation analysis methods to examine the match relationship between urbanization and three key ESs (water yield, carbon sequestration, and food production) from 2000 to 2020 and explores the impact of intra-city disparities on the match relationship of urbanization and ESs. The findings revealed that urbanization and three ecosystem services showed increasing trends during 2000–2020 simultaneously. The spatial aggregation pattern of urbanization and ecosystem services showed smaller variations from 2000 to 2020. There was a High-High aggregation between urbanization and water yield in urban built-up areas and primarily High-Low aggregations between urbanization, carbon sequestration, and food production. Furthermore, the impact of urbanization on ESs decreased with increasing urban polarization. In particular, the Beijing–Tianjin–Tangshan region still demonstrated pronounced economic polarization, suggesting disparities in economic development within its urban core. This study highlights the importance of mitigating the adverse effects of urban polarization on ESs and fostering resilient and sustainable urban ecosystems in rapidly developing regions.