Investigation of the Relationship between Supply and Demand of Ecosystem Services and the Influencing Factors in Resource-Based Cities in China

Abstract

Exploring the coupling coordination degree between supply and demand and its key influencing factors is important for ecological security and socioeconomic sustainable development in resource-based cities. On the basis of measuring the supply and demand of ecosystem services in 125 resource-based cities in China from 2000 to 2020, we analyzed the matching pattern and coupling coordination degree between supply and demand. The Spearman correlation analysis and quantile regression models were used to explore the impacts of the natural and socioeconomic factors on the coupling coordination degree between supply and demand. The results indicate that the supply and demand of ecosystem services in resource-based cities exhibits obvious spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Cities with a higher ecosystem service demand are mainly located in Eastern China. Cities with a higher ecosystem service supply are mainly concentrated in Western China. The ecosystem service supply decreased, while the demand increased over time. In addition, the coupling coordination degree between supply and demand is low and increased slowly over time. Population density, economic density, construction land, arable land and grassland have significant effects on the supply–demand relationship in resource-based cities. The elasticity coefficients obtained from the quantile regression model imply that the effects are significantly heterogeneous in terms of time and the level of coupling coordination degree.