Identifying hotspots and management of critical ecosystem services in rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta Region, China

Cai, Wenbo; Gibbs, David; Zhang, Lang; Ferrier, Graham; Cai, Yongli

Abstract

Rapid urbanization has altered many ecosystems, causing a decline in many ecosystem services, generating serious ecological crisis. To cope with these challenges, we presented a comprehensive framework comprising five core steps for identifying and managing hotspots of critical ecosystem services in a rapid urbanizing region. This framework was applied in the case study of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) Region. The study showed that there was large spatial heterogeneity in the hotspots of ecosystem services in the region, hotspots of supporting services and regulating services aggregately distributing in the southwest mountainous areas while hotspots of provisioning services mainly in the northeast plain, and hotspots of cultural services widespread in the waterbodies and southwest mountainous areas. The regionalization of the critical ecosystem services was made through the hotspot analysis. This study provided valuable information for environmental planning and management in a rapid urbanizing region and helped improve China's ecological redlines policy at regional scale.

Citation

Cai, W., Gibbs, D., Zhang, L., Ferrier, G., & Cai, Y. (2017). Identifying hotspots and management of critical ecosystem services in rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta Region, China. Journal of environmental management, 191, 258-267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.01.003

• Acceptance Date: Jan 2, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jan 21, 2017
• Publication Date: Apr 15, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 23, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 23, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Environmental Management
• Print ISSN: 0301-4797
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 191
• Pages: 258-267
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.01.003
• Keywords: Ecosystem services; Hotspot; Rapid urbanization; Yangtze River Delta Region
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/448723
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479717300038
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Identifying hotspots and management of critical ecosystem services in rapidly urbanizing Yangtze River Delta Region, China; Journal Title: Journal of Environmental Management; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.01.003; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
• Contract Date: Jan 23, 2018