VARIATIONS IN ECOSYSTEM SERVICE VALUES AND LOCAL ECONOMY IN RESPONSE TO LAND USE: A CASE STUDY OF WU'AN,CHINA

In an industrial/mining city, land use, ecosystem service values (ESVs) and local economy have a close relation. The study reported in this paper is conducive to optimising land use and to balancing ecosystem services and local economy. The aim is to provide useful information and advice for industrial/mining cities concerned with sustainable development. Wu'an, which is rich in mineral resources and an important energy supplier in Hebei Province, is selected as the study area. The ecosystem service value coefficients of industrial ecosystem and urban ecosystem are estimated adopting the cost method and applied to the city from 1996 to 2005. The temporal and spatial changes of the ESVs estimated within the entire ecosystem, sub‐ecosystems and individual ecosystem services are analysed and discussed based on land use. The results show that land use in Wu'an had a great influence on the ESVs and especially the project of converting farmland into forests determined the entire ecosystem structure and functions. Additionally, the study shows the comparing relationships between ecosystem service values and local economy through various mathematical expressions. One significant relationship can be abstracted into an inverse curve (zone) under restrained conditions. The conclusions suggest that the rapid local economy development should build on a reasonable land use with emphasis on the high ecosystem services. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.