Agricultural Transformation and Its Impact on Ecosystem Services and Human Well-Being in Peri-Urban Areas: The Case of Xi’an, China

Abstract

There is a gap in understanding the relationships between the transformation of agricultural landscapes, ecosystem services and human well-being in the peri-urban fringe of major cities worldwide. In this paper, we use semi-structured interviews, perception surveys, social surveys and field mapping to examine linkages between agricultural and landscape transition, ecosystem services and human well-being in five sample villages in Xi’an metropolitan zone, China. The results indicate that: (1) Agricultural change has increased landscape fragmentation, with a shift from grain to more profitable horticulture and nursery production. The farming system is more diversified and exhibits a multifunctional character. (2) This transformation has had a significant impact on the character of the agroecosystem. (3) The agricultural transformation towards greater multifunctionality has increased the supply of ecosystem services, including tourism-related activities, potentially improving human well-being. (4) Different combinations of activities in the sample villages were evaluated with respect to a well-being index, indicating the importance of combining horticulture and tourism. (5) Linkages identified between agricultural transformation, ecosystem services and human well-being may have significant implications for potential approaches within future studies.

Identifying the Changes in Ecosystem Services and Human Well-Being under Agricultural Transformation Contexts in Peri-Urban Areas: A Case Study of the Xi’an Metropolitan Zone, China

“…V 3 represents the value of APS; A ij represents the value of absorption or purification of the j-th pollutants (including SO 2 , NO X , HF, and dust) per unit area of the i-th agricultural type; P j represents the cost of treatment of the j-th pollutants per unit mass; S i is the area of the i-th agricultural type [58,59].…”

“…This transformation has driven the changes and restructuring of agricultural land use and its cultivation structure, significantly impacting agricultural ecosystem services [15]. Furthermore, urbanization has facilitated the development and reconfiguration of rural economies, improved the infrastructure and public service levels, altered the agricultural practice modes, and shifted the belief and dominant values of the rural areas due to the urban cultural dissemination, ultimately exerting a profound influence on the well-being of rural residents [16,17].…”

“…The interviews conducted by Lyytimaki with Finnish farmers showed that the cultural services significantly contributed to the well-being of local farmers, while the contribution of provisioning services received little attention from the residents and the regulating services were hardly mentioned [40]. Also, few scholars have explored the interactive impacts of ecosystem services on human well-being at the village scale in the context of agricultural transformation in urbanizing areas [16,41].…”

“…There has been a shift from traditional grain planting to diversified modern agriculture and spatial specialization. This not only leads to changes in landscape patterns such as land use, crop types, and cultivation structures, but more importantly, results in changes to the economic structure of farming households, the agricultural practice modes, the trade network of agricultural products, the social relationship networks of the rural areas, the farmers' enthusiasm for agricultural production, and the values of the farmers [16,49,50]. Thus, from a broad human-land coupling system perspective, namely a comprehensive transformation of "ecological-social-cultural" contexts triggered by agricultural transition, how to understand and discern the changes in ecosystem services and human well-being, especially the differences in the dimensions (describing the primary concerns of farmers) and the degree or level (representing the perception value of farmers) of human well-being between different agricultural specialization regions, and in particular, how to understand the relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being, is a crucial scientific issue in PUAs [11].…”

Diversity and Functions of Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University Campus of Bangladesh

“…Natural ecosystems are profoundly altered by agricultural practices in a number of ways. The impacts of agricultural transformation on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services are significant (Bilenca et al, 2012;Zhou et al, 2022). Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are conspicuous eusocial organisms in most terrestrial ecosystems, including crop lands of agroecosystem (Rabeling 2008;et al, Ward et al, 2010).…”