Optimization land use based on multi-scenario simulation of ecosystem service for sustainable landscape planning in a mixed urban - Forest watershed

Abstract

Integrating ecosystem services (ESs) into land development strategies can provide a new perspective in order to make more informed land use (LULC) decisions. In this sense, a specific framework is provided to use ESs in land allocation in Ilam urban watershed, Western Iran. This region is experiencing unsustainable development and destruction of natural ecosystems and as a result, these conditions have affected ecological characteristics, and ESs. Therefore, characterizing the LULC of this watershed and its impact on ESs is significant to comprehensively understanding the influences of human activities on ecosystems. Hence, the simulated annealing-genetic hybrid algorithm was assessed to optimize LULC using Six types of ESs; including, food provisioning (FP), water yield (WY), sediment retention (SR), recreation quality (RQ), aesthetic quality (AQ) and habitat quality (HQ). Regarding optimization approach, FP, WY, SR, RQ, AQ, HQ and land integration (LI) scenarios were designed based on LULC types and ESs. Considering the land allocation, the results indicated that most changes are related to the northwest, southeast, southwest and middle parts of the region. Moreover, an increasing trend was observed regarding dense forest and low-dense forest, according to the following scenarios: FP, RQ, LI, AQ, WY, SR and HQ. In contrast, a decreasing trend was obtained for cropland in the same order of scenarios. Additionally, the highest areas of garden, grassland, park, river, urban land, and road classes were observed in scenarios HQ, LI, SR, WY and FP, respectively. The results also revealed that the SDR scenario can be regarded as the best one having the lowest LULC fragmentation. Our study indicated that using ESs to optimize LULC allocation is a useful and an important strategy due to the fact that one can consider both the function and the structure of ecosystems in LULC planning and management decisions. Thus, the results of this research can help land managers in order to develop LULC, based on ESs and ecological conditions, which would finally lead to maintain the ESs and achieve sustainable development.