Impact Assessments of Land-Use Change on Valued Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Land-use change is a major factor driving ecosystem service change. Measuring the ecosystem service variation in response to land-use change is an effective way to assess the environmental costs and benefits of different approaches to policy-based planning. In this chapter, we examined changes in valued ecosystem services induced by the land encroachment of urbanization in North China Plain (NCP). China is on the track for rapid urbanization since the implementation of a market-oriented economic reform in 1978. The unprecedented urbanization in China has resulted in substantial cultivated land loss and rapid expansion of urban areas. The cultivated land loss due to urbanization not only threatens food security in China, but also leads to the ecological system degradation, to which close attention should be paid. Therefore, we examined the effects of conversion from cultivated to urban areas on ecosystem service in the NCP on the basis of an NPP-based ecosystem service model and a buffer comparison method. Cultivated land loss due to urbanization in the NCP led to a total loss of ecosystem service value (ESV) of 34.66 % during 1988–2008. Urban expansion significantly decreased the ecosystem service function of water conservation (100 %), nutrient cycling (−31.91 %), gas regulation (−7.18 %), and organic production (−7.18 %), while it improved the soil conservation function (2.40 %). Land-use change accounted for 57.40 % of the changes in ecosystem service and had a major influence on changes in nutrient cycling and water conservation. However, climate change mainly determined the changes in functions of gas regulation, organic production, and soil conservation. Further, we analyzed the changes in valued ecosystem services resulting from ecological restoration programs in Shandong province. China launched a series of ecological restoration policies to mitigate its severe environmental challenges in the late 1990s. From the beginning, the effects and influences of the ecological restoration policies have been hotly debated. In the present study, we assessed the effects of two vital ecological restoration policies (Grain-for-Green and Grain-for-Blue) on valued ecosystem services in Shandong province. A new method based on the net primary productivity (NPP) and soil erosion was developed to assess the ESV. In the areas implementing the Grain-for-Green and Grain-for-Blue policies, the ESV increased by 24.01 and 43.10 % during 2000–2008, respectively. However, comparing to the average increase of ESV (46.00 %) in the whole of Shandong province in the same period, Grain-for-Green and Grain-for-Blue did not significantly improve overall ecosystem services. The ecological restoration policy led to significant trade-offs in ecosystem services. Grain-for-Green improved the ecosystem service function of nutrient cycling, organic material provision, and regulation of gases but decreased that of water conservation. Grain-for-Blue increased the water conservation function but led to a reduction in the function of soil conservation and nutrient cycling.