Editorial

Solutions for sustaining natural capital and ecosystem services

Lake Hawassa Basin (LHB)-the study area is known for its rich and diverse aquatic and terrestrial natural resource base. However, the prevailing environmental and social problems, such as land degradation, deforestation, pollution, resource exploitation, etc. impacted the existing provisioning services (PS), and the effect becomes remarkable unless sound management is in place. The study aimed at the assessment and mapping of PS to suggest development options for decision-makers. The study employed various methods including primary and secondary data collection, including existing Land Use Land Cover (LULC), desk review, stakeholder consultations, site visits, expert judgment matrix, and ArcGIS v10.1. The study results include 6 PS identified and prioritized from the existing 14 PS, mapping of the spatial pattern of the selected 6 PS at the basin scale, and alternative development options recommended for the decision-making process conducted by decision-makers and development partners to ensure efficient management of ecosystem services in LHB. The importance of this study, as well as the simplicity and user-friendly nature of the methods and approach adopted, enables interested parties to replicate while conducting similar studies in different places within the country or globally. The intervention of adopting this study approach helps also to avoid or minimize the aforesaid biophysical and socioeconomic environmental problems and ensure development activities planned or implemented in the respective study area are environmentally friendly, and socially acceptable, through sustainable management of natural resources. In this regard, decision-makers and development partners shall provide adequate consideration for this study approach and the result of demonstrating basin scale spatial variability of PS. This plays a vital role in the sustainable management of natural resources as well as provisioning services existing in the study area to benefit the community members, ensure human well-being, and secure the livelihood of the people residing within or around the Lake Hawassa Basin.

Ecosystem services (ES) are defined as the benefits of the natural environment that sustain human life. The analyses of the balance of ecosystem services (ES balance) and its driving factors are critical for achieving the region’s sustainable development goals. This study explored the ES balance in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei-Inner Mongolia (JJJM) region, considering the region’s rapid urbanization, implementation of ecological restoration projects, and intense agricultural and pastoral activities. It quantified the ES balance on different scales and selected nine natural and anthropogenic driving factors to reveal its spatio-temporal heterogeneity and change characteristics in 2000–2020. The main conclusions were as follows: (1) The ES balance in the JJJM region exhibited a significant spatial differentiation: generally higher in its eastern and northern areas and lower in its western and southern parts; (2) The ES balance in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region showed a general trend of initial increase and subsequent decrease, while Inner Mongolia exhibited a continuous upward trend. High-value areas (>46) and low-value areas (<10) increased significantly. 27.33% of the areas showed a continuous improvement trend, but the overall ES balance was declining at a rate of 0.110–0.166/year; (3) Among natural factors, temperature had the highest explanatory power (0.409) regarding ES balance, while among anthropogenic factors, grazing density had the highest explanatory power (0.311). The interaction between temperature and precipitation is the strongest; (4) During the study period, the explanatory power of anthropogenic factors increased over time, indicating that human activities were exerting a gradually increasing impact on the JJJM region’s ES balance. Overall, this study enhanced spatio-temporal understanding of the driving factors of ES balance differentiation, and offered a scientific basis for ecological policy-making and the development and transition of socio-economic activities, which could prove to be invaluable in promoting the coordinated development of regional ecologies and economies.

One of the biggest challenges for ecosystem services (ES) science is to make the concept operational for decision-making purposes. The capacity to understand the long-term sustainability of multiple ES is still limited, while being highly needed to improve the management of natural resources. This work aims to use ES, and particularly the assessment of their capacity and flow, to explore the sustainability of the ES provision in the coastal social-ecological system of the Venice lagoon, Italy, by adopting a spatially explicit approach. By applying multivariate analysis on the ES maps, a zonation is derived which reflects the different bundles of ES in the lagoon. A new approach to analyze the ES bundles is presented, which determines their degree of sustainability. Building on the rationale that not all combinations of ES are desirable for the long-term maintenance of ES capacity, a ‘sustainability threshold’ for multiple ES is proposed. This threshold corresponds to a balance between ES capacity and flow, and to a balance between the flow of regulating ES and the flow of ES mediated by human activities. The results show that about 53% of the lagoon’s surface is exploited to a level that falls beyond the ‘sustainability threshold’ and thus should be considered in an unsustainable condition. This reveals the need to intervene to change the patterns of ES uses in some areas of the lagoon, to enjoy the benefits offered by the ecosystem without impairing its capacity to provide them. Some potential directions for change are discussed, moving towards a more sustainable management of the lagoon social-ecological system.

Rapid urbanization has led to a reduction in the capacity of urban ecosystems to provide essential services. Understanding the interplay between urban ecosystem condition (EC), ecosystem service (ES) capacity and environmental stress is important for achieving sustainable economic and social development. Taking Shenzhen, a representative region of rapid urbanization in China, as an example, this study analyzed the evolution of urban EC and spatial and temporal patterns of key ESs from 2000 to 2020. With reference to the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) framework and its indicators, the analysis process used the InVEST model and empirical statistical methods. The spatial and temporal geographically weighted regression (GTWR) model was used to determine how the ESs responded to EC. The results demonstrated a tendency of increased environmental stress and degraded EC in the urban ecosystem during the study period. The supply of ESs was on the decline, with runoff retention and microclimate regulation showing significant declines, while noise reduction showed an upward tendency. ESs had an overall “east-high-west-low” spatial pattern. In terms of response relationships, the regulating and cultural services were mainly negatively correlated with PM₁₀ concentration, temperature, and the percentage of construction land and positively correlated with vegetation cover. There was spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the mechanism of EC influence on specific services. The percentage of construction land was the key negative influencing factor, indicating that urban expansion exacerbates the decrease in the supply of ESs. The results of the study also provided evidence that the MAES analysis framework can accurately analyze environmental problems in urban ecosystems and offer a practical solution for urban ecosystem assessments. For the sustainable development of urban ecosystems, it is advised that the ES concept be included as a key decision factor in the development of urban planning policies.

Human interventions and global environmental changes are increasing and threaten ecosystem services (ES) worldwide. Managing ES is a challenging task; it is essential to understand the temporal and spatial distribution of ES and the benefits derived by a human. However, ES variability in time and space has yet to be studied. Therefore, the current study investigates spatiotemporal variations of different ES indicators, individually and in combination, in the Shazand Watershed across three time periods: 1998, 2008, and 2016. Five indicators were selected to assess different dimensions of ES, including plant production, water provision, soil stability, maintenance of habitats and genetic diversity for plant and animal nurseries and reproduction, and recreation potential. We then used multiresolution segmentation to create a spatial composite indicator measuring the integration of the study indicators. SCI was used to describe spatiotemporal variations of ES through time at the subwatershed level. The results indicated that individual ES indicators display spatial variations across space and time. Moreover, comparing the spatial composite indicator across periods showed that all 24 subwatersheds could not supply more ES. However, the areas located in the central and the western part of the watershed appeared to have better ES conditions. According to the results, revising the current management plans and allocating environmental funding would benefit these areas. The results are applicable for future spatial planning of sustainable ecological conservation strategies for the Shazand Watershed and similar regions.

The construction of protected areas (PAs) is not only the most effective way to preserve biodiversity resources and the natural heritage, but also provides important cultural ecosystem services (CESs) for satisfying human psychological and spiritual needs and improving human well-being. Knowledge of CESs at the county level is vital for the bottom-up promotion of the overall work of China’s PAs. The assessment and mapping of the spatial pattern of CESs, and their supply and demand relationship in PAs and their surrounding areas, are of great significance for high-quality development planning at the county scale. In our study, we developed an integrated approach to mapping the supply and demand of CESs, and then integrated the SolVES model with social media comments to explore the matching relationship between CESs’ (aesthetic inspiration, education humanities, and recreation and ecotourism) supply and demand using Wuyishan City, China, with its abundant PAs, as a case study. The results showed that the supply of three types of CESs accounting for approximately 70% of the study area was greater than the demand, and thus these CESs have significant future development prospects. The distribution of the three high-supply CESs and tourist destinations showed roughly the same spatial patterns, in which the high-demand hot spots were identified in the south of Wuyishan City. And the total supply and demand levels inside the PAs were much greater than those outside. Therefore, clarifying the matching relationship between supply and demand of CESs at the county level is not only conducive to promoting the sustainable development of natural resources, but also provides a reference for the planning of county-level protection of PAs under each county’s jurisdiction.