Territorial spatial zoning based on suitability evaluation and its impact on ecosystem services in Ezhou city

• Published in: Journal of geographical sciences 2023-11, Vol.33 (11), p.2278-2294
• Main Authors: Niu, Jinye, Jin, Gui, Zhang, Lei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Science; Geographical Information Systems/Cartography; Geography; Nature Conservation; Physical Geography; Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry
• ISSN: 1009-637X; 1861-9568
• DOI: 10.1007/s11442-023-2176-9

Exploring the spatial zoning of urban territories and their ecological effects under different decision preferences is an important approach to promote the sustainable utilization of regional resources. This paper constructs an index system for evaluating the suitability of territorial space development from the perspectives of urban development, agricultural production, and ecological conservation. It predicts and simulates the trade-offs between territorial space development and protection in Ezhou under different decision preferences using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) method. The modified equivalent factor method is used to analyze the ecosystem service values of different functional areas. The results indicate the following: (1) the preferences of decision-makers considerably influence the level of territorial space suitability. Higher (lower) levels of concern for risk result in more optimistic (pessimistic) evaluators, and this affects the priority given to ecological protection (development and utilization). (2) Under the ecological priority scenario, the status quo scenario and development priority scenario, there are significant differences in regional suitability levels. The ecological priority scenario gives high importance to ecological protection, resulting in the absolute protection of the Liangzi lake area, with 42.59% of Liangzihu district considered unsuitable for development. In contrast, the development orientation scenario designates Echeng district, an economic and political center, as highly suitable for development, with over 60% of the area available for development. (3) The total value of ecosystem services in Ezhou city was 213.355 billion yuan in 2018. Ecosystem service values were mainly provided by the water area in the permanently unsuitable development zone, leading to a mismatch between the supply and demand of ecosystem services under different scenarios.