Impacts of Urbanization and Associated Factors on Ecosystem Services in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration, China: Implications for Land Use Policy

Abstract

Conflicts between ecological conservation and socio-economic development persisted over many decades in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration (BTH). Ecosystem services were affected drastically by rapid urbanization and ecological restoration programs in the BTH since 2000. This study aims to identify the spatial patterns of the four types of ecosystem services (net primary productivity (NPP), crop production, water retention, and soil conservation) in 2000 and 2010, and to make clear the impacts of urbanization and associated factors on the spatial patterns of ecosystem services. Based on the quantification of ecosystem services, we assessed the spatial patterns and changes, and identified the relationships between the type diversity of ecosystem services and land-use change. We also analyzed the effect of the spatial differentiation of influencing factors on ecosystem services, using the geographical detector model. The results showed that the average value of crop production increased substantially between 2000 and 2010, whereas the net primary productivity decreased significantly, and the water retention and soil conservation decreased slightly. The ecosystem services exhibited a spatial similar to that of influencing factors, and the combination of any two factors strengthened the spatial effect more than a single factor. The geomorphic factors (elevation and slope) were found to control the distribution of NPP, water retention, and soil conservation. The population density was responsible for crop production. We also found that the urbanization rate plays a major indirect role in crop production and water retention when interacting with population density and slope, respectively. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) indirectly influences the spatial distribution of NPP when interacting with geomorphic factors. These findings highlight the need to promote new strategies of land-use management in the BTH. On the one hand, it is necessary to carefully select where new urban land should be located in order to relieve the pressure on ecosystem services in dense urban areas. On the other hand, the maintenance of ecological restoration programs is needed for improving vegetation coverage in the ecological functional zones in the medium and long term.

Unbalanced Development Characteristics and Driving Mechanisms of Regional Urban Spatial Form: A Case Study of Jiangsu Province, China

“…We combined traditional statistical methods and spatial statistical methods and we explored the driving mechanism of unbalanced regional spatial urban form in detail. The economy was the fundamental driving variable of urban spatial expansion size [45,46] in Jiangsu Province. The counties or districts with larger industrial production and larger labor force are more likely to have more developed high-tech industries and bigger foreign trades, which will in turn enlarge the size of urban spatial expansion.…”

Identification of Natural and Anthropogenic Drivers of Vegetation Change in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Megacity Region

“…Both macroscopic and microscopic geomorphology had important impacts on the distribution of soil and hydrothermal conditions, as well as strong coupling effects including the intensity of human activity, land cover, vegetation distribution patterns, and its changes [67]. Land use regulations under various slopes in the National Soil and Water Conservation Law directly affect the type of vegetation cover.…”

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Water Yield Service and Its Response to Urbanisation in the Beiyun River Basin, Beijing

“…where q represents the explanatory power of driving force X to water yield, ranging from 0 to 1; N and σ 2 stand for the sample size and variance of the study area, respectively; L is the classification number of driving force; N h and σ h 2 , respectively, stand for the sample size and the variance of water yield in class h [47,48].…”