Abstract
Land use and land cover change is an important driving force for changes in ecosystem services. We defined several important human-induced land cover change processes such as Ecological Restoration Project, Cropland Expansion, Land Degradation, and Urbanization by the land use/land cover transition matrix method. We studied human-induced land cover changes in the Yellow River Basin from 1980 to 2015 and evaluated its impact on ecosystem service values by the benefit transfer method and elasticity coefficient. The results show that the cumulative area of human-induced land cover change reaches 65.71 million ha from 1980 to 2015, which is close to the total area of the Yellow River Basin. Before 2000, Ecological Restoration Project was the most important human-induced land cover change process. However, due to the large amount of cropland expansion and land degradation, the area of natural vegetation was reduced and the ecosystem value declined. Since 2000, due to the implementation of the “Grain for Green” program, the natural vegetation of upstream area and midstream area of Yellow River Basin has been significantly improved. This implies that under an appropriate policy framework, a small amount of human-induced land cover change can also improve ecosystem services significantly.
Highlights
Croplands are mainly distributed in the upstream area (UA) (26.45%) and midstream area (MA) (63.06%); forests are mainly distributed in the UA (24.83%) and MA (63.95%); grasslands are widely distributed in the source area (SA) (24.27%), UA (44.07%), and MA
(30.82%); wetlands are mainly distributed in the SA (26.79%) and UA (50.74%); urban land are mainly distributed in the UA (34.66%), MA (42.02%), and downstream areas (DA) (22.42%); barren land are mainly distributed in the SA (20.69%), UA (63.87%), and MA (14.99%); and water bodies of the Yellow River Basin (YRB) are widely distributed
Compared with 1980, the area of urban land, water bodies, and urban lands in the YRB increased by 45.10%, 3.44%, and 2.58% in 2015, while wetland, bare land, grassland, and farmland decreased by 7.18%, 2.27%, 1.31%, and 1.29%, respectively
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The monetary value evaluation of ecosystem services has greatly promoted the development of research related to ecosystem services, including raising public awareness of the importance of ecosystem services to society [22,23], safeguard the benefits and interests of different stakeholders [24], guiding decision-making and policy-making [14], and developing knowledge about ecosystem management [25] It can provide incentives for ecosystem protection and restoration, such as payments for ecosystem services programs [26,27,28]. Most studies only regard LULC changes as the result of land policy or human activities, and fail to distinguish between natural and human-induced processes in land cover changes. The objectives of this paper are to (1) investigate the land use/land cover (LULC) trend and human-induced LC changes in the YRB from 1980 to 2015, (2) assess the ES monetary values (ESV) of the YRB based on the benefit transfer method from 1980 to 2015, and (3) evaluate the impact of LULC changes on ESV
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