Uneven Distribution of Ecosystem Services along the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin in Tibet Reveals the Quest for Multi-Target Policies of Rural Development in Less-Favored Areas

Abstract

This study was conducted in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau which is a typical less-favored ecologically fragile area. First, we constructed a GIS-based spatial gridding structure over the study area, the Yarlung Zangbo river basin in China’s Tibet, and used a value-assessment model to measure supply, support, regulation, and culture ecosystem services in each study grid. We then analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of different ecosystem services in the region from 2000 to 2020. In addition, we conducted a spatial visualized analysis of the trade-off and synergies of multiple ecosystem services in each study grid. We found that: (1) On the temporal scale, from 2000 to 2020, the values of the four ecosystem services for supply, support, regulation, and culture along the basin demonstrated an upward trend. (2) On the spatial scale, the values of ecosystem services showed an uneven distribution, with a decline trend from east to west along the basin. (3) From the perspective of land use types, due to the large areas of water, grassland, and forest along the river basin, the ecosystem service values of the three types of land use ranked among the top levels. (4) The trade-offs and synergies between different ecosystem services and their spatial distribution along the river basin showed an uneven distribution pattern. The ecosystem services zoning revealed that the policies in guiding rural sustainability in the less-favored areas should adjust the measures to local conditions, it's necessary to establish multiple targets across the entire region.

Multi-Scenario Land Use Change Simulation and Spatial Response of Ecosystem Service Value in Black Soil Region of Northeast China

“…It has greatly promoted the development process of ESV evaluation in China [32,33]. It has been widely used in the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration [34], Ganzhou region [35], Tibet region [36], Yangtze River Economic Belt [37], and other different regions in China.…”

“…Recent studies on the response of land use change to ecosystem service values are abundant, but most of them are located in economically developed regions and ecologically fragile regions, such as Wuhan, Tibetan regions, Sichuan and Yunnan regions, etc. [34,36]; or the research objects only focus on a certain type of land use, such as forest land, arable land, urban land, etc. [25,49].…”