Ecological Assets Research Articles

Advancements in ecological assets and ecological product supply: in-depth insights from Karst World Heritage sites

AbstractEcological assets (EA) are fundamental to the supply of ecological products (EP). They underpin the provision of ecological functions by ecosystems, their existence, and health. However, a comprehensive assessment of EA and the supply of EP remains lacking. This study employs the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method and identifies 215 relevant articles from the Scopus database. The study: (1) Analyzes selected literature by publication years, research themes, geographical distribution, affiliations, and stages. (2) Summarizes key advances and significant achievements in domestic and international research. (3) Formulates six critical scientific questions and provides recommendations based on the current status and characteristics of EA and the supply of EP in Karst World Heritage (WH) Sites. This study furnishes research insights for practitioners and policymakers in the field, contributing to the sustainable development of ecosystems in Karst WH Sites.

Youth Engagement in Water Quality Monitoring: Uncovering Ecosystem Benefits and Challenges

A youth-centric participatory mapping approach was employed to monitor the lower Mill Creek, an urban waterway located in Cincinnati, Ohio, by collecting geospatial data points on surface water quality and ecological assets. Utilizing the ArcGIS Field Maps application, a digital survey-based tool was developed to identify key areas related to ecological assets and urban water management challenges. The purpose of this citizen science approach was to allow researchers to capture and understand community perspectives and insights while engaging in scientific research that focuses on identifying geographic vulnerability areas and ecological assets. The primary objective was to empower local community groups and residents in an environmental justice neighborhood to understand the current opportunities and constraints of the adjacent waterbody, enabling informed decision-making for future planning initiatives that benefit both conservation and remediation efforts aligned with local values and needs. A youth-centric participatory mapping approach was employed to monitor the lower Mill Creek, an urban waterway in Cincinnati, Ohio, through the collection of geospatial data on surface water quality and ecological assets. The findings, based on hotspot analysis, revealed significant spatial clustering of heavy debris near the barrier dam and the lower portion of Mill Creek, where it converges with the Ohio River. This accumulation is attributed to the structural features of the barrier dam’s inner flood catchment area, which traps debris during rainfall events. Although no areas showed spatial significance for perceived ecological services, students identified specific areas with esthetic and biodiversity value, particularly at Mill Creek’s confluence with the Ohio River and along the northern stretch of the stream corridor. These findings provide valuable insights for guiding future conservation and remediation efforts that reflect both community values and environmental priorities.

Discovering the Ecosystem Service Value Growth Characteristics of a Subtropical Soil Erosion Area Using a Remote-Sensing-Driven Mountainous Equivalent Factor Method

Evaluation ecosystem service value (ESV) is critical, as “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. To assess the incremental effects of ecological assets on soil and water conservation in subtropical mountains, we developed a remote-sensing-driven mountainous equivalent factor (RS-MEF) method to estimate the ESV of Changting County, China. This method is a hybrid of a conventional equivalent factor framework and remote sensing techniques for mountains, achieving several advancements, including spatial adjustment using vegetation activity merged with productivity, improved spatial resolution, and the removal of topographic effects. Using the RS-MEF method, we estimated that the ESV of Changting County was approximately CNY 15.80 billion in 2010 and CNY 34.83 billion in 2022. Specifically, the ESV per unit area of the major soil erosion area (MSEA) in the county was less than that of the non-major soil erosion area (n-MSEA); however, the ESV growth rate of the MSEA from 2010 to 2022 was faster than that of the n-MSEA. Therefore, the ESV gap between the two areas was reduced from 28.99% in 2010 to 15.83% in 2022. Topographic gradient analysis illustrates that areas with elevations of 385 to 658 m and steep slopes achieved a high ESV, while high-elevation areas with gentle slopes will be a focus of control in the next phase. Our study demonstrates that significant achievements have been made in ecological restoration from an ESV perspective, with a notable reduction in low-ESV areas in the MSEA; the insights gained into ESV growth and its underlying factors are valuable and instructive for future soil and water conservation efforts.

How to account for nature-based solutions as the ecological assets that support economy and society

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are ecological assets that support economy and society with a variety of services. Through integrated environmental and economic accounting systems, it is possible to measure and monitor these services and eventually integrate NBS into decision-making processes. This commentary presents the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA), and in particular the Ecosystem Accounting modules where NBS may find a suitable format to systematically link changes in ecological assets with services and benefits provided to economic activities and people. If well structured, such information could significantly support policy actions through transparent cause-and-effect relationships.

Evaluating the Snow Cover Service Value on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

The Snow Cover Service Value (SCSV) is an important component of the ecological assets of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). Exploring the SCSVs on the QTP is the key to maintaining the functions of climate regulators and Asian water towers, and it is also an important theoretical basis for maintaining the ecological security of ecological barrier areas. Using multi-source data such as daily and monthly observation data sets and related statistical yearbooks, an evaluation framework for the SCSVs on the QTP was constructed for the first time. The results showed that the average annual SCSV of the QTP from 2001 to 2020 was 6.99 trillion yuan, and the average annual climate regulation value was 5.81 trillion yuan, which was the most important SCSV. The Inner Plateau Basin, the Brahmaputra Basin, and the Yangtze Basin had the highest SCSVs, while the Yellow Basin had the lowest unit SCSV, where it was the most vulnerable area of snow cover resources on the QTP, and the SCSV of the Yellow Basin was significantly correlated with rainfall. The correlation between the SCSV and the temperature in the Indus and Ganges Basins was significant. The freshwater supply value of the snow in the Indus Basin and Tarim Basin was found to be able to reach 30% of the whole year in June, where it would be necessary to pay attention to the risk of flooding caused by snowmelt during the melting period. Finally, this paper discussed the strategies for the protection and development of snow resources in each basin based on the spatial distribution characteristics, seasonal variation characteristics, and influencing factors of the SCSVs. The research can provide reference for the rational allocation of snow resources and ecological protection on the QTP.

Sustainable Municipal Blueprint: An Instrument For Plummeting Torrent Susceptibility And Construction Resilient Cities In Nigeria

Universally, (90%) of catastrophes have been brought about by floods, storms, heatwaves, and other climate-related occasions. Nigerians and their urban communities have been unending survivors of perpetual flooding for the beyond 40 years. This has brought about monstrous obliteration of properties, lived souls, significant infrastructure, and disturbance of financial exercises and ecological assets and ultimately made 2 million individuals destitute. Thusly, this has raised appropriate issues encompassing the conventional metropolitan plan of Nigerian urban areas and accordingly provoked the need to re-evaluate the idea of the metropolitan plan. This is to comprehensively consider the ecological, social, financial, and designing angles during the time spent preparation and advancement of urban areas altogether, to establish dynamic metropolitan conditions. Henceforth, the point of this paper is to audit the basic causes and the impacts of metropolitan flooding to widen the idea of the feasible metropolitan plan as a viable device to diminish flood weakness and make Nigerian first urban communities, for example, Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Anambra versatile to flooding. The purposive methodology was utilized involving the subjective investigation of auxiliary information identified with Lagos, Anambra, Ibadan, and the Kano States and essential information from member perception. The discoveries from the paper showed that the hidden significant causes that exacerbated flooding in these Nigerian urban areas remember human activities for seepage frameworks, for example, unloading of decline, raising of designs on flood fields, improper improvement of metropolitan preparation and foundation, and other unpredictable activities that meddle straightforwardly or in a roundabout way with the free progression of water. Additionally, the review confirmed that Nigerian super urban communities needed supportable metropolitan plans because of “Nigerian Insight” on what metropolitan plans ought to be. The conventional discernment doesn’t resolve ecological issues, but instead on the shallow and style. Hence, improvement ought to instill all parts of the metropolitan plan to make human settlements comprehensive, protected, strong, and maintainable.

Policy analysis for informing climate adaptation, environmental resilience, and irrigation demands in the Rio Grande Basin

Water policymakers internationally face the challenge of adapting to climate, supporting environmental resource needs, and meeting irrigation demands for food security in the world's arid and semi-arid regions. Much recent work has assessed the economic performance of environmental river flows to support endangered species habitat protection. However, little published work to date has systematically formulated and applied methods to identify the economic performance of various policy measures that adapt to climate, support endangered species, and meet irrigation demands for water. This work's original contribution with international relevance is to address those gaps by identifying the economic performance of various water shortage sharing methods for handling climate water stress while supporting protection of critical habitat to protect the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) along with Willow tree (Salix bonplandiana) habitat in the middle part of the Rio Grande Basin in North America, a region facing a number of conflicts between commercial uses of water and protection of key ecological assets. It develops a hydroeconomic optimization model containing information on crop water use and endangered species requirements in that region to identify the economic performance of three climate adaptation policy scenarios for handling water shortages while respecting endangered species habitat protection requirements. Results show how water shortages as well as policy responses for handing those shortages affect the economic value of water in agriculture for food security both with and without critical habitat to support the endangered flycatcher. This work's international relevance comes from its capacity to inform policy debates on the costs of protecting endangered species habitat under various climate scenarios and climate policy adaptation measures. Findings provide a general framework to address existing gaps in understanding and measuring the economic performance of measures to promote environmental resilience.

The importance of ecosystem services to support the governance of critical ecological assets

Ecosystem services (ES) are the ecosystem contribution to human well-being: they bridge ecosystems with socio-economic systems, in terms of both impacts and dependencies. So far, most of the research on ES focused on the services delivered “here and now”, i.e. where spatial location of ecosystem providers and human users can be defined and when the delivery of the needed services can be allocated to the current generations. However, especially when considering the medium- and long-term effects of climate change adaptation, there is the need to start projecting the scope of the services beyond national boundaries and to the future generations. Although formally listed and acknowledged, many ES currently miss applications able to support appropriate biophysical assessment and valuation. In this respect, it is time to start considering ES that go beyond the “here” because they serve the global society, and beyond the “now” because they consider long terms impacts. This article identifies possible streams of these “not-here, not-now” ES that requires developing applications, as it is already happening for many other ES. Such ES, in fact, contribute to identify long-term “critical ecological asset”, whose assessment can provide important environmental metrics for economic and financial analyses.

Community Sustainability Through Sustainable Community-Based Tourism

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate how rural communities facing the problems of ageing population and lack of economic opportunities can be revived by adopting the approach of sustainable community-based tourism. Theoretical Framework: The study was guided by theories related to community development, placemaking, and community-based tourism. Method: The research used the case analysis method to analyze a community revitalization project in rural Taipei, Taiwan. Data were collected through field observation and interviews. The researcher was invited to participate in the related meetings and observe the practices of the community revitalization project. The researcher also interviewed the leader and volunteers of the community development project. Results and Discussion: It is found that a placemaking process mixed with top-down (facilitated) and bottom-up engagement approaches can effectively generate a sense of place among various groups of constituents. The research also found that it is critical to identify and leverage the cultural and ecological assets of the community in an innovative and integrated way so as to effectively connect the community and the society. To revive a community, volunteers played a mediating role in fulfilling the needs of the community and connecting the community with the society. Research Implications: The findings of the research can be applied to rural communities with similar problems and ecological/cultural assets. For policy makers, the study suggests that community revitalization requires an engagement process balanced with top-down (facilitated) and bottom-up approaches. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the micro-view of sustainability literature by analyzing sustainability at a community level through the aspects of community placemaking and sustainable community-based tourism.

Improved Wetland Mapping of a Highly Fragmented Agricultural Landscape Using Land Surface Phenological Features

Wetlands are integral components of agricultural landscapes, providing a wide range of ecological, economic, and social benefits essential for sustainable development and rural livelihoods. Globally, they are vulnerable ecological assets facing several significant threats including water extraction and regulation, land clearing and reclamation, and climate change. Classification and mapping of wetlands in agricultural landscapes is crucial for conserving these ecosystems to maintain their ecological integrity amidst ongoing land-use changes and environmental pressures. This study aims to establish a robust framework for wetland classification and mapping in intensive agricultural landscapes using time series of Sentinel-2 imagery, with a focus on the Gwydir Wetland Complex situated in the northern Murray–Darling Basin—Australia’s largest river system. Using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, we extracted two groups of predictors based on six vegetation indices time series calculated from multi-temporal Sentinel-2 surface reflectance (SR) imagery: the first is statistical features summarizing the time series and the second is phenological features based on harmonic analysis of time series data (HANTS). We developed and evaluated random forest (RF) models for each level of classification with combination of different groups of predictors. Our results show that RF models involving both HANTS and statistical features perform strongly with significantly high overall accuracy and class-weighted F1 scores (p < 0.05) when comparing with models with either statistical or HANTS variables. While the models have excellent performance (F-score greater than 0.9) in distinguishing wetlands from other landcovers (croplands, terrestrial uplands, and open waters), the inter-class discriminating power among wetlands is class-specific: wetlands that are frequently inundated (including river red gum forests and wetlands dominated by common reed, water couch, and marsh club-rush) are generally better identified than the ones that are flooded less frequently, such as sedgelands and woodlands dominated by black box and coolabah. This study demonstrates that HANTS features extracted from time series Sentinel data can significantly improve the accuracy of wetland mapping in highly fragmentated agricultural landscapes. Thus, this framework enables wetland classification and mapping to be updated on a regular basis to better understand the dynamic nature of these complex ecosystems and improve long-term wetland monitoring.

Quantitative assessment of ecological assets in the world heritage karst sites based on remote sensing: with a special reference to South China Karst

The benefits provided by ecological assets play a crucial role in enhancing human well-being. However, there is a scarcity of viable methods for assessing their status. This study is grounded in Land Use and Land Cover Change (LUCC) and integrates both the quantity and quality aspects of these assets. Utilizing the ecological asset index (EQ and EQi), this study conducts a quantitative assessment of the assets in the Shibing karst and the Libo-Huanjiang karst heritage sites, while also qualitatively analyzing their influencing factors. The findings reveal that: (1) In the Shibing heritage site, forest and impervious surface assets exhibited an upward trend, whereas cropland and grassland experienced a decline; meanwhile, shrub and water body assets remained relatively stable. The total area of assets rated as excellent or good increased by 95.371 km2, resulting in an EQ enhancement of 45.427. (2) Likewise, in the Libo-Huanjiang heritage site, forest and impervious surface assets demonstrated an upward trajectory, while shrub assets declined. Cropland, grassland, and water body assets experienced minimal variation. The total area of assets rated as excellent or good expanded by 168.227 km2, resulting in an EQ enhancement of 80.806. (3) The execution of a series of ecological protection projects and management plans for heritage site conservation primarily accounts for the enhancement of regional assets. Notably, ecological resources, socio-economic conditions, human resources, and conservation management policies serve as pivotal drivers influencing the alterations in heritage site assets.

Applying a Holistic Approach to Environmental Flow Assessment in the Yen River Basin

Environmental flow assessment is an essential tool in water resource management. This study employs a holistic approach to evaluate the environmental flow in the Yen Basin, Thanh Hoa, Vietnam. Based on information gathered from a field survey, the Yen River system is divided into five reaches, and environmental objectives and ecological assets are identified in each reach. Hydrological and hydraulic mathematical models are applied to simulate the flow regime in the river, demonstrating their potential to assess environmental flow, especially in basins with limited data. The detailed results from the mathematical model facilitate selecting environmental flow components to address specific objectives for each river reach. By analyzing and selecting the flow regime, this study aims to ensure environmental protection while also considering basin development requirements, laying the groundwork for defining prescribed flow regimes in basin water management.

Nature-Based Solutions vs. Human-Induced Approaches for Alpine Grassland Ecosystem: “Climate-Help” Overwhelms “Human Act” to Promote Ecological Restoration in the Three-River-Source Region of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

How climate change and human activities drive the evolution of the regional environment and where the quality of ecosystems improve or decline over time have become widespread concerns. In this study, we took the Three-River-Source (TRS) region of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau as a case, aiming to identify and quantify the contribution of the natural and anthropogenic factors to the ecosystem changes over the past years from 1980 to 2018 using the methods of remote sensing and spatial statistical analysis. Based on the land cover map interpreted by reference to satellite remote sensing imagery data, we defined the Ecological Restoration Area Proportion (ERAP) as the bare land patch decrement to indicate the ecologically restored quantity in space. Assembling the restoration project information, we digitalized and vectorized the ecological Restoration Intensity (RI) including the spatial range and temporal duration. Combining the ERAP and the net primary productivity (NPP), which indicates the quantity and quality of ecosystems, respectively, the ecological asset Index (EAI) was developed and calculated. Having integrated the datasets of the vegetation monitoring, climatic factors, geographical factors, and human activities, we performed multi-variable analysis of the attribution of how the change in the EAI, the NPP, and the EAI have been affected by these factors together. The NPP of the middle and eastern parts of the TRS region has improved the most, as the average growth rate of NPP reached approximately 2.5 kg C/m2/10a. Due to such dynamic pattern, we found that human-induced re-vegetation has made limited contributions in our multi-regression model as the variance explained by the RI merely amounts to 4.4% to 8.8%, while the changes were mostly dependent on the regional temperature and the precipitation which contributed over 45% to the ecological restoration on average. It was summarized that “climate-help” overwhelms “human act” in such alpine grassland ecosystem. The regression results for the different aspects of the ERAP and NPP demonstrated that the ecological restoration project helped most in regard to ecosystem quality improvement rather than the restored ecosystem quantity. Our study has developed a comprehensive assessment methodology that can be reused to account for more ecological asset. The case is an example of an alpine ecosystem in which the success of ecological restoration needs favorable climatic conditions as supporting evidence for the nature-based solution.

Examining the Tourism and Recreation Potential of Istanbul Neşet Suyu Nature Park in Terms of Conservation ond Usage Principles

The global increase in urban population and the growth of urban areas have led to a growing need for recreation in urban areas. However, unplanned and unregulated growth of cities causes damage to both their ecological assets and natural resources in the surrounding rural areas. Global climate change has already threatened the world and our natural resources, making the support, preservation, and transmission of ecosystems in urban and rural areas increasingly important every day. In the ranking of forest assets per capita, Istanbul is 78th out of 81 provinces in our country. Therefore, it is essential that forest assets and in-forest recreation areas in Istanbul are used in a more qualified and planned manner compared to other provinces. In this study, one of Istanbul's most important in-forest recreation areas, Neşet Suyu Nature Park, was observed and evaluated through field observations and a survey, considering its existing assets. Neşet Suyu Nature Park, one of the nine nature parks in Belgrad Forest located within the borders of Sarıyer district in Istanbul, is an important recreational area with visitor potential throughout the year, frequently chosen by people. In line with the evaluation results, recommendations have been made to increase the usage potential by prioritizing the preservation of the area's natural and ecological assets to enhance the current usage towards a more qualitative state.

Demographic shrinkage promotes ecosystem services supply capacity in the karst desertification control

Although ecological services have been improved in karst desertification control areas, it is still unclear how population shrinkage affects ecosystem service supply capability through ecological assets. In this study, Theil-Sen median, regression analysis, and variance partitioning were applied to explore the linkages of population change (observed data and shared socioeconomic pathways 1-representative concentration pathways 2.6), ecological asset composition (land use), quality (Normalized difference vegetation index [NDVI] and tree height), and ecosystem services in different periods (population growth and decline periods). The results showed that the population change during the growth period (2000–2038) was dominated by migration patterns. In degraded ecoregions (karst desertification) dominated by population out-migration, the net expansion of forest was 15.88 % during 2000–2020, NDVI and tree height increased by 0.57 % and 54.96 %, and ecosystem service supply capability increased by 2.68 %. In contrast, in non-degraded ecoregions (non-karst and karst non-desertification) with population in-migration, change rates of forest (−5.40 % and − 23.68 %), NDVI (0.49 % and 0.53 %), tree height (−8.35 % and − 31.25 %), and ecosystem service supply capability (2.04 % and 2.18 %) were apparently lower than degraded ecoregions. During the population decline period (2039–2100), although the migration pattern between two regions during the growth period was replaced by a population drop within a single region, the positive correlation between population shrinkage with ecological assets and service supply capability was still followed. Overall, the study found that both ways of population shrinkage that involve out-migration and decline can alleviate the land pressure of degraded ecoregions, which enhances ecosystem service supply capability by regulating ecological assets.

A KNETSCH PROPOSITION AND A DUE PROCESS FOR THE EVALUATION OF MINING PROJECTS IN ECOLOGICALLY SENSITIVE AREAS: AN ILLUSTRATION THROUGH TWO AUSTRALIAN CASE STUDIES

Drawn on some Knetsch observations, this paper illustrates a due process for the economic evaluation of mining projects that impact sensitive and irreversible ecological assets. Towards this end, two case studies of coal mining projects in Australia are considered — one on the Liverpool Plains in New South Wales and the other on the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland. The adverse environmental and social externalities of these projects are well known — especially the impacts on the Gunnedah and the Great Artesian Basins. Notwithstanding these impacts, which are exceedingly difficult to value, private financial analyses demonstrate significant revenue gains. Mining firms find such gains difficult to ignore. Nevertheless, economic analyses illustrate that the net benefits to Australia are possibly absent even without accounting for the costs of environmental social externalities. Given that the property rights of the mineral reserves are vested with the State, the Resource Rent Tax (RRT) becomes a legitimate fiscal policy tool. The paper argues that the assessment of mining decisions must account for the depreciation of the Mineral asset. When this depreciation is measured alongside the Hartwick–Rule, the mining projects demonstrate monetary viability only when the RRT is enforced and is invested in its entirety on options that generate annual returns in excess of 3% to 4%. If recognized, the costs of environmental and social externalities could readily wipe out this, and for that matter any, monetary viability owing to the irreversible nature of the natural social endowments.

Ecosystem service evaluation based on local knowledge of residents using spatial text-mining

This study aims to evaluate the ecosystem services of Upo wetland, one of the best-known Ramsar sites in Korea, reflecting the characteristics of the ecological assets and local knowledges in the area. Application of spatial text-mining begins with collecting local perceptions and knowledge of residents on the 17 ecological assets of Upo site and surrounding area. Our results identified five important ecosystem services: flood control during heavy rainfall, water purification by aquatic plants, cultural and natural heritages, agricultural products and water provision for crop cultivation. GIS created a map where these ecosystem services were linked to the locations of 17 ecological assets. This map showed which ecosystem service is associated with particular ecological assets and their characteristics from residents’ perspectives. Mapping local knowledge using the spatial text-mining is able to identify multi-functional bases which provide various ecosystem services in the same location simultaneously. Identification of multi-functional bases can provide information for local government to design an effective and comprehensive management plan considering physical-cultural geography of ecosystem services.

Analysis and Prediction of Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Ecosystem Service Value on the Northern Slopes of the Kunlun Mountains Based on Land Use

The ecological environment in the mountainous areas of southern Xinjiang is very sensitive and fragile, and identifying the ecological asset retention within the mountainous areas is a top priority at the current stage in the context of comprehensive environmental management in arid zones. This study examines the conversion and ecosystem service values between different land types within the mountainous areas based on a time series of land-use data from 1990 to 2020, and the results show that: (1) The value of ecosystem services on the northern slopes of the Kunlun Mountains shows an overall increasing trend. It increased from CNY 308.645 billion in 1990 to CNY 326.550 billion in 2020. Among them, the value of ecosystem services increased significantly between 2000 and 2010, with an increase of CNY 39.857 billion. Regulatory services accounted for more than 66% of the value of each ecosystem service. (2) Land use on the northern slopes of the Kunlun Mountains has changed significantly since 1990. The areas of cropland, forest land, grassland, watershed, and construction land have all shown an upward trend, with the greatest increase in construction land. The area of unutilized land, on the other hand, has slightly decreased. (3) The value of ecosystem services within the northern slopes of the Kunlun Mountains was spatially high in the south, low in the north, and higher in the west than in the east. The study also found a significant positive spatial correlation between ecosystem service values. In the spatial distribution, the increasing areas were mainly distributed in the southeast, and the decreasing areas were in the north. Changes in land types are expected to include an increase in the area of grassland and woodland, a decrease in unutilized land and cropland, and an overall improvement in the ecological environment of the northern slopes of the Kunlun Mountains in the next decade. This study also provides lessons and references for sustainable development and ecological protection in ecologically fragile regions.

Evaluation of the Degree of the Value Realization of Ecological Products of the Forest Ecological Bank in Shunchang County

The forest ecological bank (FEB) plays a vital role in the transformation of ecological assets into ecological capital. The purpose of this study is to clarify the role of Shunchang County’s FEB in promoting the realization of the value of forest ecological products and the degree of the value realization of FEB ecological products so as to provide data support and policy reference for sustainable forest management and an ecological product value realization model. The ratio of the sum of the material supply value and the forest premium benefit of the forest ecosystem of the state-owned forest land to the total production value of the forest ecosystem of the state-owned forest land in Shunchang County is taken as a quantitative index of the realization degree of the ecological product value of the FEB in Shunchang County. (1) The difference in the production value of the forest ecosystem per unit area between state-owned forest land and non-state-owned forest land is USD 340.17, and the production value of the ecosystem brought about by the scientific cultivation of the FEB has increased by USD 25.92 million. (2) The base price of state-owned forest land in Shunchang County is USD 378.30, the base price of non-state-owned forest land is USD 247.23, and the value-added premium value of forest land is USD 30.19 million. (3) The realization degree of the ecological product value of the FEB in Shunchang County is 85.51%. These results show that the FEB can accelerate the progress of forest ecological products and play an important role in the construction of the ecological civilization proposed by China.

Evaluating the impact of land use and land cover changes on forest ecosystem service values using landsat dataset in the Atwima Nwabiagya North, Ghana

This study investigated land use and land cover (LULC) changes and its impact on forest ecosystem service values for 20 years in the Atwima Nwabaiagya North District using Landsat images of 2002, 2012 and 2022. Supervised classification with Maximum Likelihood Algorithm was used to classify the Landsat images. Five LULC types (high-dense forest, low-dense forest, water, bare-ground, and Built-up area) were successfully classified, with overall accuracies of 99.0 % and Kappa coefficients of 0.99. The result of the study showed a reduction of high-dense forest to 23.87 %, low-dense forest to 26.53 %, and water areas as 1.16 % whereas built-up (21.44 %) and bare-ground (27 %) experienced an expansion in their land areas. Related literatures and ecological assets value table with adjusted price value were used to evaluate ecosystem service values in response to LULC changes. The study discovered that ecosystem service value for high and low-dense forests have declined from USD 22.68 million and USD 8.75 million to USD 14.56 million and USD 5.2 million respectively. The overall total ecosystem service value declined by USD 33.73 million in 2002 to USD 21.91 million in 2022. It was revealed that the most notable feature to changes in forest ecosystem service values was the expansion of built-up and bare-grounds. There is a need to curb the current drivers of LULC changes in the Atwima Nwabiagya North to stop further forest degradation for optimum delivery of forest ecosystem service values in the district. For land use planners and decision makers who need site-specific information on the effects of LULC alterations on values of forest ecosystem services, the study's findings are essential. This will make it easier to track past environmental changes and obtain quick, accurate results for use in decision-making.