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Impact of climate change and human activities on economic values produced by ecosystem service functions of rivers in water shortage area of Northwest China

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Abstract

Climate change and human activities are affecting the ecological health of rivers and the economic value of its ecosystem services. Taking water quantity as the intermediate variable, we proposed a quantitative calculation method for the impact of climate change and human activities on the economic value produced by the ecosystem service functions of rivers. The framework mainly consists of three steps: firstly, we quantitatively determined the changes in the amount of water coming from rivers due to climate change and human activities; secondly, combining the theory of resource and environmental economics to calculate the economic value generated by ecological service functions of rivers; finally, we quantitatively identified and analyzed the impact of climate change and human activities on the economic value produced by the ecosystem service functions of rivers. Taking Baoji section of Weihe River (BSWR) as an example, we quantitatively analyzed and calculated the impact of climate change and human activities on the economic value produced by ecosystem service functions of rivers. The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: in recent 52 years, the economic value produced by the ecosystem service functions of rivers decreased by 3.57 billion yuan due to the climate change and human activities; the total economic value has been reduced by an average of 68 million yuan per year. This useful work can not only reveal the impact of climate change and human activities on the economic value of ecosystem services of rivers but also can provide an important basis for the reasonable management model of water resource of ecosystem of rivers watershed.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Key Program) (Grant No.51939009). And we are grateful to the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Eco-hydraulics in Northwest Arid Region of China, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an, 710048, China

    Bo Cheng & Huaien Li

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  1. Bo Cheng
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  2. Huaien Li
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Correspondence to Huaien Li.

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Cheng, B., Li, H. Impact of climate change and human activities on economic values produced by ecosystem service functions of rivers in water shortage area of Northwest China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 26570–26578 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08963-2

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