Page 97 - JCAU-5-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Study on ecosystem service value in Wuhan

various scales have been carried out, ranging from global site (Costanza et al., 2014; Richardson et al., 2015). The
(Costanza et al., 1997; de Groot et al., 2012), regional unit value-based approach is not an empirical study (Jiang
(Schirpke & Tasser, 2021), urban ecosystem (Li et al., 2017; et al., 2021), and provides more convenient solutions to
Ye et al., 2013), to a single ecosystem, such as forest (Zhao aggregate comprehensive spatial-temporal distribution
et al., 2004), grassland (Zhao et al., 2004), wetland (Jiang of ESV, which has made it widely used in larger spatial
et al., 2015), and farmland (Miu et al., 2016), or individual studies, such as regional and global scales (Ida et al., 2013;
ecological service functions, such as biodiversity. Previous Tolessa et al., 2017; Song & Deng, 2017).
evaluations of the ESV in China were varied, most of
The primary data-based approach commonly demands
which have found a moderate to significant decrease in many input parameters and presents detailed accounting
ESV. For example, Li et al. (2010) found a total decline of processes, and then requires calculating biomass and
8% (US$34.16 million) in Shenzhen between 1996 and
2004 (Li et al., 2010), and Dai et al. (2021) found an overall economic values one by one, which results in the difficulties
decrease of 30.92% (CNY7.446 billion) in Chengdu from of unifying calculation approach and standardizing
parameters for the assessment of each ecosystem service
2003 to 2018 (Dai et al., 2021). Some studies such as Cai
et al. (2013) found that the ESV decreased significantly by of each ecosystem (Xie et al., 2017). Thus, this method
55.3% from 1989 to 2009 in Fuzhou city (Cai et al., 2013). is seldom applied to the comprehensive ESV owing to
However, others found almost no change (Han et al., 2016), the intensive parameterization and is suitable for the
and some have noticed increases in value due to various evaluation of a single service or a single ecosystem (Li
reasons (Wang et al., 2014). For example, Li et al. (2018) et al., 2010), otherwise on the small spatial scale (Xie
found that the ESV in Chengdu increased by 75.46% et al., 2017). However, the primary data-based approach
(CNY21.6 billion) from 2000 to 2015 (Li et al., 2018). Due generally provides only a static evaluation that ignores
to different ecological environments and different stages of spatial and temporal changes of the ecosystems, thus the
development, the ecosystem services in different regions conclusions cannot represent the spatial and temporal
may vary. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze in detail dynamic transformation of ecosystem services (Xie et al.,
the changes in the value of ecosystem services in different 2017; Sun, 2011). The intensive parameterization and static
regions to formulate management policies that are in line evaluation restricted the practical application of ESV in
with the actual local situation. environmental research and management, especially for
some cities under much ecological environment protection
Evaluating ESV generally involves two kinds of methods: pressure, such as Wuhan city.
one is referred to as the unit value-based approach using
economic value per unit area of ecosystem plus land use/ To address this gap, this paper aims to present a case
land cover proxy (Costanza et al., 1997; Xie et al., 2008; study to assess comprehensive ESV on the local scale. The
Xie et al., 2017; Costanza et al., 2014); the other is referred study focuses on Wuhan City, one of the rapidly urbanizing
to as the primary data-based approach. ESV is evaluated megacities in central China that is in contradiction with
in two steps: (i) quantifying the biophysical supply of ecological protection. Different from other works, we
ecosystem service based on a series of ecological models adopted the national land survey data whose resolution
(e.g., photosynthesis equation for gas regulation), and ratio is no less than 2.5 m, which is of high precision
(ii) estimating ESV using economic valuation techniques and can improve the accuracy of land use classification
(e.g., market price method, replacement cost method, and and valuation. In addition, with the primary data-based
travel cost method) (Wang et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2013; Li approach, evaluating the ESV of representative cities
et al., 2018). through parameter updates can establish knowledge over
time through case studies, and thus promote the iteration
The value transfer method, which belongs to the unit of research methods.
value-based approach, was proposed by Costanza et al.
(1997) to assess the global ESV (Costanza et al., 1997), In this study, we aimed to: (i) estimate land use changes
and was then developed by Xie et al. as the equivalent in Wuhan during the period of 1996 – 2018; (ii) assess the
per-unit-area following the same methodology to meet dynamic changes in ESV in response to land use changes;
Chinese situation (Xie et al., 2008; Xie et al., 2017). This and (iii) discuss the relationship between the change
method assumes an equivalent value per unit of land area in ESV and the economic development and ecological
and multiples the value by the area of each ecosystem type protection policies. Therefore, this case study will produce
to assess the total ESV. The value transfer method is a significant practical impacts to support the management
process to estimate the ESV by transferring available value of urban development and ecological protection for other
information from an existing study site to a new unstudied similar cities worldwide.

Volume 5 Issue 2 (2023) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0427