Does land use change decline the regional ecosystem health maintenance? Case study in subtropical coastal region, Fuzhou, China

Zhipeng Fan; Xiaomei Li; Chaowu Yang; Hao Zhang; Xulin Guo; Shuhui Lai; Jinming Sha

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123631

Does land use change decline the regional ecosystem health maintenance? Case study in subtropical coastal region, Fuzhou, China

J Environ Manage. 2024 Dec 16:373:123631. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123631. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhipeng Fan¹, Xiaomei Li², Chaowu Yang¹, Hao Zhang³, Xulin Guo⁴, Shuhui Lai⁵, Jinming Sha³

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental and Resource Sciences & College of Carbon Neutral Modern Industry, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350117, China.
² College of Environmental and Resource Sciences & College of Carbon Neutral Modern Industry, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350117, China. Electronic address: lixiaomei@fjnu.edu.cn.
³ School of Geographical Sciences & School of Carbon Neutrality Future Technology, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350117, China; Research Center of Sino-Europe Environmental Management and Landscape, China.
⁴ Department of Geography and Planning, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C8, Canada.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.

PMID: 39689542
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123631

Abstract

Regional environmental management aims to maintain or improve regional ecosystem health (REH) and prevent its degradation over time. In the context of rapid urbanization and global sustainability over the last two decades, has land use change resulted in a deterioration of REH? By using the improved REH framework model as Pressure-Vigor-Organization-Resilience-Service (P-VOR-S), this paper proposed Regional Ecosystem Health Maintenance (REHM) as a dynamic quantitative indicator of REH, and detected REHM as well as its response to land use change in the coastal city of Fuzhou, China during 2003-2018. The results showed that: (1) During 2003-2018, the average REH gradually decreased in spite of the 62.50-67.55% area coverage of the REH "well" level. The REHM "maintenance" level covered 9764.69 km² (83.74%), while the REHM "degradation" and "improvement" covered only 1485.17 km² (12.74%) and 410.99 km² (3.52%), respectively. (2) The REHM "degradation" in Fuzhou was predominantly caused by the conversion of forest to cultivated land and cultivated land to construction land, as well as the conversion of forest and water to construction land. (3) The REHM map highlighted the degraded areas as hotspots for environmental management concerns, and the area of REHM "degradation" or "improvement" could be served as key indicator for regional environmental management and spatial land planning.

Keywords: Fuzhou; Land use change; P-VOR-S; Regional ecosystem health maintenance (REHM).