Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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Assessing the dynamic variations of ecosystem

service value in response to land use change and
socio-economic development

Shuhua Ma, Lei Wang, Siwen Ji & Lu Xing

To cite this article: Shuhua Ma, Lei Wang, Siwen Ji & Lu Xing (2021): Assessing the
dynamic variations of ecosystem service value in response to land use change and socio-
economic development, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, DOI:
10.1080/09640568.2021.1973973

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2021.1973973

Published online: 07 Oct 2021.

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Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2021.1973973

Assessing the dynamic variations of ecosystem service value in

response to land use change and socio-economic development
Shuhua Maa, Lei Wangb, Siwen Jib and Lu Xingc

a
Business School, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, P.R. China; bSchool of Management,
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, P.R. China; cSchool of Economics and
Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, P.R. China

(Received 5 December 2020; revised 17 July 2021; final version received 2 August 2021)

This article establishes a dynamic evaluation model of ecosystem service value

(ESV) by introducing the spatial heterogeneity coefficient and social development
coefficient to assess the spatiotemporal dynamic variations of ESV. Taking Wuhan
as a case study, the effects of land use change on the variations of ESV are
analyzed, and the impacts of people’s willingness to pay for ecosystem services
and socio-economic development on a time-series ESV are also explored. The
results showed that: (1) Wuhan has a large-scale land use transfer, the
accumulative land transfer area reached 599 km2. (2) The static ESV of Wuhan
experienced a process of first rising and then falling, with the total ESV decreasing
by 1.24 billion yuan from 2000 to 2015. (3) The dynamic ESV evaluation reversed
the overall downward trend of static ESV and significantly increased after
adjustment, which were 1.52 times, 1.51 times, 1.62 times and 2.06 times of static
ESV for that year, respectively; (4) The ecosystem services of Wuhan bear great
downward pressure, but people’s demand for ecosystem services is increasing and
their willingness to pay for ecosystem services has been significantly improved.
These findings can provide valuable support for decision-makers to identify the
providers and beneficiaries of ecosystem services and formulate rational land use
management policies.
Keywords: ecosystem service value; land use change; willingness to pay; spatial
heterogeneity; cross-sensitivity coefficient

1. Introduction
China’s urbanization has experienced unprecedented rapid development since the
implementation of the policy of reform and opening-up. The urbanization rate
increased from 17.9% in 1978 to 59.6% in 2019 (National Bureau of Statistics 2019).
Although rapid urbanization has made great achievements in China’s economy, it has
also caused a series of eco-environmental problems, including ecosystem degradation,
environmental pollution, biodiversity loss and resource depletion (Cui et al. 2019;
Yang and Hu 2019; Wang et al. 2020), especially the change in land use structure.
Wang et al. (2014) reported that more than 21% of lands have changed their original
land use type in the past three decades. Furthermore, there are serious problems,
including the prominent contradiction between land supply and demand, the unbal-
anced distribution of land reserves, the drastic loss of arable land and so forth (Long

Corresponding author. Email: shinglu1205@njust.edu.cn

ß 2021 Newcastle University

2 S. Ma et al.

et al. 2012; Liu, Fang, and Li 2014). With the rapid development of China’s economy
and urbanization, the drastic land use changes have posed a huge impact on the eco-
logical environment (Li et al. 2018; Ye et al. 2018; Qiu et al. 2019).
Land use change is generally considered as one of the most significant impacts of
human activities on ecosystem services (Liu et al. 2019; Liu et al. 2020). Ecosystem
services are the benefits that humans derive directly or indirectly from various ecosys-
tems, including tangible material products and intangible services (Costanza et al.
1997). Irrational land use change leads to the gradual weakening of ecosystem serv-
ices, the aggravation of ecosystem imbalance and increases in restoration cost
(Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MEA] 2005). Moreover, many studies have
revealed that dramatic changes in land use can cause huge losses of ecosystem service
value (ESV). For example, Costanza et al. (2014) reported that the global loss of ESV
resulting from land use change between 1997 and 2011 was US$4.3–20.2 trillion per
year. Song and Deng (2017) concluded that the loss of ESV in China from 1988 to
2008 was about US$76.26 billion. Similar results were observed in European coastal
areas, for which the net loss of ESV was more than e209,109 per year (Roebeling
et al. 2013). One of the major reasons for the decline of ecosystem services is that
traditional land use policies ignore the assessment and reflection of the hidden eco-
logical value and cost of land use, and rarely consider the relationship between land
use and ecosystem services (Sonter et al. 2017; Su, Wei, and Lin 2020). In recent dec-
ades, this issue has received growing attention from the academic community.
The evaluation of ecosystem services not only reflects the effects of human activ-
ities and economic development on various land ecosystems but also reflects human
awareness of the importance of ecosystem services. Since Costanza et al. (1997) pro-
posed the valuation approach on economic value of global ecosystem services, ecosys-
tem service evaluation has received widespread attention by scholars all over the
world, and a growing body of research has estimated the variations of ESV around the
world at different scales, such as at global scale (Costanza et al. 2014; Song 2018;
Sannigrahi et al. 2018), national scale (Li, Fang, and Wang 2016; Song and Deng
2017; Akhtar, Zhao, and Gao 2021), regional scale (Kindu et al. 2016; Yirsaw et al.
2017; Ye et al. 2018) and basin scale (Fu et al. 2016; Wang and Mo 2018; Rimal
et al. 2019). However, due to the spatial heterogeneity and non-linear change of ESV
with time, the method used by Costanza et al. (1997) is not suitable for direct applica-
tion to China. Therefore, based on the study by Costanza et al. (1997), Xie et al.
(2008) revised the equivalent factor for evaluating Chinese terrestrial ecosystems, and
the method has been widely used for evaluating the variations of ESV at national or
regional scales in China (Wang et al. 2014; Hu et al. 2019; Xu et al. 2020; Yang
et al. 2020). However, this method is a static evaluation method, but the ecosystem
services vary with different natural geographical conditions (Wang et al. 2016; Xing,
Xue, and Wang 2018). In fact, ecosystem services are regulated by a series of eco-
logical mechanisms and exhibit dynamic temporal and spatial changes closely related
to the structure and process of ecosystems (Xie et al. 2017). China has a vast territory
with varied terrain and natural features. The static evaluation method cannot reflect the
dynamics of spatial and temporal variations of ecosystem services. So Xie et al.
(2017) proposed methods to modify the equivalent factor: (1) based on net primary
productivity (NPP); (2) based on rainfall; (3) based on soil retention simulation. These
three modified approaches gradually enriched and refined the types of land ecosystems
and improved the accuracy of the equivalent factors of ecosystem services. In addition,
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 3

many studies used biomass to modify the spatial differences of ecosystem services,
and remarkable achievements have been made (Xu and Ding 2018; Wang et al. 2018;
Li et al. 2018), but there are still some deficiencies. Wang (2015) found that although
there is an apparent positive correlation between biomass and ESV, there are also dif-
ferences in plant species, rate and capacity of organic matter accumulation in different
areas. Moreover, biomass data are generally average value and need to be further
modified by using NPP as an adjustment factor.
With the continuous progress of the social economy and the improvement in living
standards, people’s awareness of ecological conservation is also increasing, resulting in
a growth in their willingness to pay corresponding fees for ecosystem services (Li,
Cui, and Liu 2017; Su, Wei, and Lin 2020). Meanwhile, the willingness to pay needs
to be matched with the ability to pay to ultimately determine the payment for ecosys-
tem services (Fei et al. 2018; Li et al. 2018; Xing, Xue, and Wang 2018). But most of
the existing literature does not include willingness to pay and ability to pay within the
evaluation system, leading to large errors in the evaluation results (Li, Li, and Qian
2010; Arowolo et al. 2018). Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the static ESV assess-
ment method to reflect the spatial heterogeneity of ecosystems and the real variations
of ESVs in response to the variations in social development level.
In order to make up for these defects, based on the spatial heterogeneity of ecosys-
tem services and the change in people’s willingness to pay for ecosystem services at
different social development stages, this article aims to construct a comprehensive
coefficient adjustment framework and a dynamic ESV evaluation model to estimate
the effects of land use change and socio-economic development on ecosystem services.
Wuhan, a rapidly urbanizing and largest city in central China, is selected as a case
study. The specific objectives of this study are: (1) to estimate the static and dynamic
ESV of Wuhan from 2000 to 2015; (2) to assess the sensitivity of ESV evaluation to
uncertainty in value coefficients; (3) to analyze the effects of land use change on the
variations of ESV; (4) to explore the impacts of the willingness to pay for ecosystem
services and socio-economic development on a time-series ESV.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Study area
Wuhan, the largest city in the center of China, is located at 29 580 –31 220 N and
113 410 –115 050 E. It has jurisdiction over seven central urban areas and six remote
urban areas (Figure 1). Wuhan belongs to the north subtropical monsoon climate with
superior natural conditions. The average annual precipitation is 1,150–1,450 mm, and
the average annual temperature is 15.8–17.5  C (China Meteorological Data Service
Centre 2018). There are abundant water resources and wetlands, with 166 lakes and
265 reservoirs in 2017 (Luo et al. 2018). The total area of the lakes is about 803
square kilometers, known as “City of Hundreds of Lakes” (Zheng et al. 2019).
Wuhan has experienced rapid economic development from 2000 to 2015. By the
end of 2015, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Wuhan was 1,090.56 billion yuan,
maintaining a high growth rate of 8.8%, higher than the national level of 6.9%, an
increase of 803.7% compared with 120.68 billion yuan in 2000, and the Compound
Annual Growth Rate is over 14% (Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Statistics 2016). In
2015, the registered population of Wuhan reached 8.29 million, an increase of 10.7%
compared with 7.49 million in 2000, and the urbanization rate of the registered
4 S. Ma et al.

Figure 1. The study area.

population reached 70.6% (Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Statistics 2016). The per cap-
ita disposable income of urban residents in Wuhan is 36,436 yuan, an increase of
438.9% compared with 6,760.7 yuan in 2000, and the Engel coefficient is reduced
from 38.5% to 30.8% (Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Statistics 2016).

2.2. Data sources

The data utilized in this article primarily involves remote sensing image data and
socio-economic data. The remote sensing image data are taken from the resource and
environment science data center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (https://www.
resdc.cn/). Among them, the land use classification map has four periods of 2000,
2005, 2010 and 2015, and the Landsat TM/ETM remote sensing image is the major
data source, which is generated through manual visual interpretation. In addition, it
includes one administrative district map of China at the provincial scale and one
administrative district map of Wuhan and its subordinate county scale, and one map of
Chinese NPP distribution in 2010, which was calculated and obtained based on the
light energy utilization model GLM_PEM.
The socio-economic data, such as GDP, household registration population data and
Engel coefficient are extracted from the Wuhan Statistical Yearbook 2000–2015
(Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Statistics 2016), in which the Engel coefficient is the
composite index of the ratio of per capita food consumption and per capita consump-
tion of urban households in Wuhan. The data on the treatment cost of waste gas and
wastewater are taken from the China Statistical Yearbook in 2016 (http://www.stats.
gov.cn/). The treatment cost of industrial waste is extracted from the Wuhan
Environmental Status Bulletin in 2015 (http://hbj.wuhan.gov.cn/). The fees for resi-
dents’ garbage disposal are obtained from the “charging standard of Wuhan municipal
domestic garbage service fee” (Wuhan Municipal Government 2016). The water price
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 5

is from China Water Network (http://www.h2o-china.com/). The prices for indica rice
and japonica rice come from the China Agricultural Price Survey Yearbook and China
Price Statistics Yearbook from 2000 to 2015 (https://data.cnki.net/). Except for the
average price of grain, other data are calculated based on the price level in 2000.

2.3. Land use classification

In this study, the land use data is classified using the land use classification system of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which contains 6 primary categories and 25 second-
ary categories. The study covers all primary categories and 18 secondary land use cate-
gories. Among them, paddy field and dry land occupy the highest proportion. The
mixed evergreen deciduous broad-leaved forest is the main part in the woodland eco-
system. The grassland ecosystem is dominated by high-coverage grassland. Rivers,
lakes, tidal flats and beaches are included in the classification of waters. According to
the above classification, the land use/land cover is classified into seven categories:
paddy field, dry land, woodland, grassland, waters, wetland and built-up land.

2.4. Calculation of the dynamic degree of land use

The dynamic degree of land use describes the change in the area of a certain land use
type during a specific period, which can reflect the rate of regional land use changes.
It plays an important role in comparing regional differences and analyzing trends in
land use changes (Su, Wei, and Lin 2020). The calculation formula is as follows
(Wang et al. 2018; Tan et al. 2020):

ðUn Um Þ 1
K¼   100% (1)
Um T

where K is the dynamic degree of land use, which represents the rate of change of a
certain land use type during a specific period; Um and Un refer to the area of a certain
land use type at the beginning and the end of the study period, respectively; T is the
year within the study period.

2.5. Classification of ecosystem services

Ecosystem services referred to all kinds of services where humans benefit from eco-
systems directly or indirectly, including providing various raw materials, inputting
energy and resources to socio-economic systems, accommodating and disposing of all
kinds of waste from socio-economic systems (MEA 2005). Ecosystem service func-
tions refer to the properties and processes of an ecosystem, such as ecosystem matter
and energy cycles, that have a specific function within the ecosystem and are essential
for the capacity to provide goods and services (Costanza et al. 2014). According to the
different ecosystem service functions, ecosystem services were divided into four pri-
mary categories, including supply services, regulation services, support services and
cultural services (MEA 2005). Afterwards, these services were further classified into
eleven secondary services by Xie et al. (2017), as shown in Table 1.
6 S. Ma et al.
Table 1. Classification of ecosystem services.
Secondary
Primary classification classification
Supply services Food supply
Raw material
Water supply
Regulation services Gas regulation
Climate regulation
Waste treatment
Hydrology adjustment
Support services Soil formation and
conservation
Nutrient cycling
Biodiversity protection
Cultural services Culture and recreation
2.6. Assessment of ESV
2.6.1. Assessment of static ESV
Due to the complexity of ESV evaluation of construction land, this article estimates
the static ESV from two parts: non-construction land and construction land.
2.6.1.1. Calculation of static ESV for non-construction land. In this article, non-con-
struction land includes paddy fields, dry land, woodland, grassland, waters and wet-
land, and the ESV of these land use types is calculated by using the evaluation method
proposed by Costanza et al. (1997).
XX
ESVn ¼ Aj  VCij
i j
Definition of ecosystem services
The conversion of solar energy into
edible plant and animal products.
The conversion of solar energy into
bioenergy for human use in buildings
or other uses.
The water resources provided by various
ecosystems for residents’ lives,
agriculture (irrigation), industrial
processes, etc.
The ecosystem maintains the balance of
atmospheric chemical components by
absorbing SO2, fluoride and
nitrogen oxide.
The regulation of regional climate, such
as increasing precipitation and
lowering temperature.
The removal and degradation of excess
nutrients, compounds and retained
dust by vegetation and organisms,
including purification of water and
air, etc.
The ecosystem intercepts, absorbs and
stores precipitation to regulate runoff,
regulate and store floods, and reduce
drought and flood disasters.
The accumulation of organic matter and
the role of vegetation root matter and
organisms in soil conservation.
The storage, internal circulation,
processing and acquisition of N, P
and other elements and nutrients.
The gene source and evolution, and
habitat supply of wild animals
and plants.
The ecosystem provides with (potential)
entertainment use, cultural and
artistic value.
(2)
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 7

Table 2. The equivalent factor of ecosystem service value per unit area of non-construction
lands in Wuhan (Xie et al. 2017).

Secondary Paddy Dry

Primary types types field land Woodland Grassland Waters Wetland

Provisioning Food 1.36 0.85 0.29 0.38 0.8 0.51

services production
Raw material 0.09 0.4 0.66 0.56 0.23 0.5
Water supply –2.63 0.02 0.34 0.31 8.29 2.59
Regulating Gas regulation 1.11 0.67 2.17 1.97 0.77 1.9
services Climate 0.57 0.36 6.5 5.21 2.29 3.6
regulation
Environmental 0.17 0.1 1.93 1.72 5.55 3.6
purification
Hydrological 2.72 0.27 4.74 3.82 102.24 24.23
regulation
Supporting Soil formation 0.01 1.03 2.65 2.4 0.93 2.31
services and retention
Nutrient 0.19 0.12 0.2 0.18 0.07 0.18
cycling
Biodiversity 0.21 0.13 2.41 2.18 2.55 7.87
protection
Cultural Aesthetic 0.09 0.06 1.06 0.96 1.89 4.73
services landscape

where ESV n is the ecosystem service value of non-construction land; Aj is the area of
land use type j; VCij is the value per unit area of land use type j with ecosystem ser-
vice i.
In this study, the equivalent factors for different land use types are determined
based on the study by Xie et al. (2017) and the geographical conditions of Wuhan.
The woodland factor adopts the value of the broad-leaved forest’s factor, and the
grassland factor adopts the value of irrigated grass’s factor. The equivalent factors
used in this article are shown in Table 2.
The value of one equivalent factor is proposed as the economic value of annual
natural grain yield per hectare of cultivated land, which is approximately 1/7 of the
actual grain yield (Li et al. 2018; Xue and Ma 2018; Chen et al. 2020). Therefore,
according to the average grain production of Wuhan from 2000 to 2015, the economic
value of one equivalent factor calculated in this article of Wuhan is 1,492.24 yuan/ha,
which multiplies the equivalent factor in Table 2 to obtain the ESV per unit area of
different ecosystem services for non-construction land, as presented in Table 3.
2.6.1.2. Calculation of static ESV for construction land. This article adopts the
method of Wan et al. (2015) to calculate the value of ecosystem services for gas regu-
lation, water supply and environmental purification of construction land, and the mar-
ket value method is utilized to calculate the value of the aesthetic landscape of
construction land.
Calculation of ESV of gas regulation:
Cg
CV g ¼  (3)
Ac
where CV g is the ESV per unit area of gas regulation; Cg is the total cost of waste
gas treatment; Ac is the construction land area.
8 S. Ma et al.

Table 3. The ESV per unit area of non-construction lands in Wuhan (yuan/ha).

Secondary Paddy Dry

Primary types types field land Woodland Grassland Waters Wetland

Provisioning Food 2,029 1,268 433 567 1,194 761

services production
Raw material 134 597 985 836 343 746
Water supply –3,925 30 507 463 12,371 3,865
Regulating Gas regulation 1,656 1,000 3,238 2,940 1,149 2,835
services Climate 851 537 9,700 7,775 3,417 5,372
regulation
Environmental 254 149 2,880 2,567 8,282 5,372
purification
Hydrological 4,059 403 7,073 5,700 152,567 36,157
regulation
Supporting Soil formation 15 1,537 3,954 3,581 1,388 3,447
services and retention
Nutrient 284 179 298 269 104 269
cycling
Biodiversity 313 194 3,596 3,253 3,805 11,744
protection
Cultural Aesthetic 134 90 1,582 1,433 2,820 7,058
services landscape

Calculation of ESV of water supply:

Cw þ WPw
CV w ¼  (4)
Ac
where CV w is the ESV per unit area of water supply; Cw is the total treatment cost of
waste water; W is the total amount of water, Pw is the price of water supply (the unit
price of residential water supply is 1.52 yuan/ton, and that of non-residential water
supply is 2.35 yuan/ton); Ac is the area of construction land.
Calculation of ESV of environmental purification:
Cr þ Cc
CV c ¼  (5)
Ac
where CVc is the ESV per unit area of purification environment; Cr is the fee of resi-
dent waste treatment; Cc is the cost of industrial waste treatment; Ac is the area of con-
struction land.
Calculation of ESV of aesthetic landscape:
Ct
CV a ¼ (6)
Ac
where CV a is the ESV per unit area of aesthetic landscape; Ct is the operating revenue
of tourist attractions; Ac is the area of construction land.
Because of the incomplete data and the existence of outliers, this article excluded
the outliers and averaged the data for the remaining years, and converted to the price
level of 2000, so as to facilitate the calculation and comparative analysis of the final
value. The calculated ESV per unit area of construction land in Wuhan is listed in
Table 4.
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 9

Table 4. Ecosystem services value per unit area of construction land in Wuhan (yuan/ha).

Ecosystem Environmental Aesthetic

services Water supply Gas regulation purification landscape Total

Value coefficients –27,552.44 –6,299.22 –6,495.72 4,323.08 –36,024.3

Finally, the ESV of construction land can be expressed as follows:

ESV c ¼ ðCV g þ CV w þ CV c þ CV a Þ  Ac (7)
where ESV c is the ESV of construction land; CV g is the ESV per unit area of gas
regulation; CV w is the ESV per unit area of water supply; CV c is the ESV per unit
area of purification environment; CV a is the ESV per unit area of aesthetic landscape;
Ac is the area of construction land.
2.6.1.3. Calculation of total static ESV. The total static ESV can be calculated as
follows:
ESV s ¼ ESV n þ ESV c (8)
where ESV s is the total static ecosystem service value; ESV n is the ecosystem service
value of non-construction land; ESV c is the ecosystem service value of construc-
tion land.

2.6.2. Assessment of dynamic ESV

2.6.2.1. Spatial heterogeneity coefficient and social development coefficient. Ecosystem
services vary with geographical conditions due to regional differences in climate, soil,
vegetation cover and so on. Therefore, the national equivalent factors revised by Xie
et al. (2017) are not fully applicable to Wuhan. Because the NPP is positively related
to eight ecosystem services such as raw material production, environmental purifica-
tion and gas regulation (Fei et al. 2018; Tan et al. 2020). Therefore, this article adopts
the NPP to construct the spatial heterogeneity coefficient.
NPPwh
Q¼ (9)
NPPna
where Q is the spatial heterogeneity coefficient; NPPwh and NPPna are the mean val-
ues for NPP in Wuhan and China, respectively.
Social and economic development not only improve people’s living standards but
also enhance people’s awareness of environmental protection. When people realize the
importance of the environment to human well-being, the utility value of the ecological
environment will gradually emerge and become the inevitable cost that people are will-
ing to pay for (Zang et al. 2017). However, people’s willingness to pay is not immut-
able. The gradual increase in demand will increase people’s willingness to pay until it
tends to be saturated after a certain stage (Fu et al. 2016). Pearl’s S growth curve is a
widely used method to calculate the coefficient for the social development stage, and
it can better describe this process (Xue and Luo 2015; Xing, Xue, and Wang 2018;
Sannigrahi et al. 2019).
10 S. Ma et al.

1
l¼ (10)
1þ e（1=En 3）
where l is the social development stage coefficient; En is the Engel coefficient. The
adjustment coefficient calculated by this model is less than 1.
Suppose only this coefficient is used for correction, the static ESV will signifi-
cantly decrease after correction; that is, the dynamic ESV after adjustment by coeffi-
cient l is much smaller than the static ESV, which is inconsistent with the general
cognition that social development brings an increase in willingness to pay and thus
makes the dynamic ESV increase. Since the average value of static ESV is calculated
according to the price level of 2000, this article takes 2000 as the base year and takes
the ratio of social development stage coefficient for other years to that of 2000 as the
modified social development stage coefficient, expressed as follows:
lh
Dh ¼ (11)
l2000
where Dh is the modified social development stage coefficient; lh is the social devel-
opment stage coefficient in the hth year.
The correlation analysis of Engel coefficient, static ESV, GDP, unmodified and
modified coefficients of the social development stage is greater than 0.9, which shows
that the social development stage coefficient determined by the Engel coefficient is
consistent with the social development stage. Meanwhile, the modified coefficient Dh
is more consistent with people’s general cognition (Table 5). Therefore, this article
uses Dh to adjust the dynamic ESV.
2.6.2.2. Calculation of dynamic ESV. Based on the above modified coefficients, the
dynamic ESV can be calculated as follows:
ESV d ¼ Q  Dh  ESV s (12)
where ESV d is the dynamic ESV; Q is the spatial heterogeneity coefficient; Dh is the
modified social development stage coefficient; ESVs is the static ESV.

2.7. Sensitivity analysis

Sensitivity analysis is an essential part of ESV evaluation, which generally has two
aspects. One is the change of ESV caused by the change of value coefficient, that is,
the sensitivity of ESV to value coefficient, known as the traditional sensitivity coeffi-
cient (CS). It was proposed by Kreuter et al. (2001) to measure whether the selection
of value coefficient is appropriate.
The other is the change in ESV resulting from the land use type transfer, that is,
the sensitivity of ESV to the area transfer for different land use types, known as the
cross-sensitivity coefficient (CCS). It was proposed by Pulati and Haimiti (2014) to

Table 5. The social development stage coefficient of Wuhan.

Year 2000 2005 2010 2015

En 0.3854 0.3876 0.3704 0.3153

lh 0.4000 0.3965 0.4255 0.5428
Dh 1.0000 0.9913 1.0636 1.3568
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 11

analyze the impacts of land use type transfer on ESV evaluation. This article analyzed
the evaluation results of ESV from two aspects of traditional sensitivity coefficient
and CCS.

2.7.1. Traditional sensitivity coefficient

The traditional sensitivity coefficient is constructed by the calculation method of elasti-
city in economics, and the formula is as follows (Kreuter et al. 2001; Qiu et al. 2019;
Yang et al. 2020):
ðESV n  ESV m Þ=ESV m
CS ¼ (13)
ðVC ni  VC mi Þ=VC mi
where CS is the traditional sensitivity coefficient; ESV is the total ecological service
value; VC is the value coefficient; m and n are the initial and adjusted states respect-
ively; i is the land use type.
When CS is greater than 1, it indicates that the total value is elastic to the change
of value coefficient and is greatly affected by its change, so the evaluation results are
not credible; when CS is less than 1, it indicates that the total value is inelastic to the
change of value coefficient and has little dependence on it, and the evaluation results
are reliable.

2.7.2. Cross-sensitivity coefficient

The diversity of land use types determines that the CCS cannot be uniformly con-
structed as the traditional sensitivity coefficient. Instead, it requires building in pairs
between different land use types year by year. In order to make the CCS of the two
land use types easy to analyze and maintain symmetry, the mean value of the area of
two land use types is adopted for the denominator area. The calculation formula is as
follows (Pulati and Haimiti 2014; Hu et al. 2020):
DESV  ESV m
CCS kl ¼ (14)
DA  ðAk þ Al Þ=2
where CCS kl is the cross-sensitivity coefficient of land use type k changed to land use
type l; DESV is the corresponding change in ecological service value; DA is the area
of land use type k changed to l; Ak and Al are the initial areas of land use type k and
l, respectively.

3. Results
3.1. Land use dynamics and changes
According to the original land use map of the four periods from 2000 to 2015, this art-
icle redrew the land use map of Wuhan shown in Figure 2. Through the comparison of
four phases of maps, it is found that the land use structure in Wuhan is primarily com-
posed by cultivated land (paddy field and dry land). The proportion of waters, built-up
land, woodland and wetland was similar, and the proportion of grassland was the low-
est. The land use in Wuhan has undergone great changes during the whole study
period, mainly manifested as the continuous decline of paddy fields, dry lands and
12 S. Ma et al.

Figure 2. Land use pattern of Wuhan from 2000 to 2015.

grassland, and the rapid expansion of built-up land. The paddy field area decreased
from 3,323 km2 in 2000 to 3,083 km2 in 2015, with the largest decrease between 2010
and 2015, accounting for 54.6% of the total decrease. The dry land area reduced from
1,952 to 1,810 km2, with a total decrease rate comparable to that of the paddy field.
Wetland and grassland also experienced a relatively small decline, shrinking by 33 km2
and 10 km2 in 15 years, respectively. Woodland showed a slow declining trend in the
whole study period, but the overall change was not obvious, and its area decreased by
23 km2. In contrast, waters and built-up land have experienced varying degrees of
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 13

Table 6. Land use transfer in Wuhan (km2).

2015 Paddy Dry Built-up

2000 field land Woodland Grassland Waters Wetland land

Paddy field 3,066 8 33 216

Dry land 1 1,810 3 15 123
Woodland 781 1 24
Grassland 2 60 4 6
Waters 8 2 1,093 17 24
Wetland 6 78 524 20
Built-up land 2 6 633

increase. Among them, the amount and proportion of built-up land changed the most,
with an accumulative increase of 405 km2 over the past 15 years, an increase of 63.2%.

3.2. Land use transfer characteristics

During the period between 2000 and 2015, a large amount of land use types in Wuhan
were transferred, and the accumulative land transfer area reached 599 km2, accounting
for 7% of the total area of Wuhan. As shown in Table 6, the main land use changes
were the conversion of other land use types to built-up land and the conversion of paddy
field and dry land to wetland, accounting for 68.9% and 8% of the total transfer area,
respectively, reflecting the urgent demand by urban construction for land in Wuhan and
the impact of policies such as returning farmland to lakes on land use transfers.
Figure 3 shows the spatial distribution of land use transfer. As depicted in Figure
3, the land transfers were mainly carried out around the central urban area. Most of
the land transfers occurred in the distant suburban area and presented a ring distribu-
tion around the central urban area.
The dynamic degree of land use in Wuhan is displayed in Table 7. As shown in
Table 7, the dynamic degree of built-up land is the largest, implying that the dramatic
change in urban expansion and most land use types changed to built-up land. In con-
trast, the dynamic degree of woodland, waters and wetland is very small, mainly
because these lands benefited from the policies of returning cultivated land to wood-
land or lakes and they were well maintained.

3.3. Variations of static ESV

3.3.1. Overall changes of static ESV
Table 8 shows the ESV of different land use types and their variations in Wuhan from
2000 to 2015. During the whole study period, the ESV of Wuhan experienced a pro-
cess of first rising and then falling, with the total ESV reduced by 1.242 billion yuan,
about 4.1% of the total ESV in 2000. The value of paddy field, dry land, woodland
and grassland decreased by 139 million yuan, 85 million yuan, 79 million yuan and 29
million yuan, respectively. However, it is still necessary to be aware of the double
decline in dry land and paddy field. The ESV of the waters grew by 806 million yuan,
which was positively influenced by the policy of returning farmland to lakes. The ESV
variation of wetland presented a trend of decreasing first and then increasing. The total
ESV only reduced by 0.19% in 15 years, which was closely related to the active imple-
mentation of the wetland protection project. The ESV provided by built-up land was
14 S. Ma et al.

Figure 3. Spatial distribution of land use transfer in Wuhan from 2000 to 2015.

negative and showed a continuously decreasing trend, with a total decrease of 1.459
billion yuan, which was 217 million yuan more than the total ESV reduction for other
land use types.
Table 9 shows the ESV of different ecosystem services and their variations in
Wuhan from 2000 to 2015. Hydrological regulation contributed the most to the total
ESV, which exceeded 20 billion yuan in the three periods, accounting for more than
70% of the total ESV. The water supply service presented in the form of negative
value, mainly because the large-scale expansion of built-up land led to the substantial
increase of residential and industrial water use, and the growing demand for water
resources in paddy field irrigation, all of which exerted certain pressure on the water
supply service. The ESV of landscape aesthetic service increased year by year, mainly
attributed to the increasing aesthetic landscape facilities provided by construction land.
In view of the change trend, in 33 five-year change data for 11 types of ecosystem
services, only five data items were positive. Moreover, only the ESV of hydrology
regulation and landscape aesthetics increased in 15 years, while the ESV of other eco-
system services decreased and showed an expanding declining trend, indicating that
the ecosystems in Wuhan bear tremendous downward pressure and need further
improvement.
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 15

Table 7. The dynamic degree (K) of different land use types in Wuhan.

Year
Land-use type 2000–2005 2005–2010 2010–2015 2000–2015

Paddy field –0.42 –0.25 –0.82 –1.44

Dry land –0.56 –0.24 –0.68 –1.45
Woodland –0.20 –0.08 –0.30 –0.57
Grassland –1.67 –0.61 –0.63 –2.78
Waters 1.08 –0.10 –0.22 0.75
Wetland –1.59 0.24 0.34 –1.05
Built-up land 3.93 1.75 5.08 12.64

Table 8. The ESV of different land use types and their variations in Wuhan from 2000 to 2015
(100 million yuan).

Year Quantity PF DL WD GL WS WL BL Total

2000 ESV 19.29 11.68 27.60 2.12 214.43 48.75 –23.09 300.78
Percentage 6.41 3.88 9.18 0.70 71.292 16.21 –7.677 100.00
2005 ESV 18.89 11.35 27.33 1.94 226.05 44.87 –27.63 302.80
Percentage 6.24 3.75 9.03 0.64 74.654 14.82 –9.13 100.00
2010 ESV 18.66 11.21 27.23 1.88 224.93 45.41 –30.04 299.27
Percentage 6.42 3.63 9.09 0.63 75.098 15.16 –10.03 100.00
2015 ESV 17.90 10.83 26.82 1.82 222.49 46.19 –37.68 288.36
Percentage 6.21 3.76 9.30 0.63 77.157 16.02 –13.07 100.00
00–05 Variation –0.40 –0.33 –0.27 –0.18 11.62 –3.88 –4.54 2.02
05–10 Variation –0.23 –0.14 –0.10 –0.06 –1.12 0.54 –2.41 –3.53
10–15 Variation –0.76 –0.38 –0.41 –0.06 –2.44 0.78 –7.64 –10.91
00–15 Variation –1.39 –0.85 –0.79 –0.29 8.06 –2.56 –14.59 –12.42

Note. PF: paddy field; DL: dry land; WD: woodland; GL: grassland; WS: waters; WL: wetland; BL: built-
up land.

3.3.2. Comparison of ESV in different regions

The variations in ESV in different regions of Wuhan are listed in Table 10. Vertically,
the changing trend in ESV per unit area in each region was consistent with that of the
total ESV. The total variation in ESV in central urban areas was –685.04 million yuan
and that in distant urban areas was –521.01 million yuan. The ESV for Xinzhou dis-
trict, Huangpi District, Hannan District and Caidian District showed first a rising and
then a falling trend, while the ESV for other districts presented a persistent falling
trend. From 2000 to 2015, the ESV for Caidian District and Hannan District increased
by 102.56 million yuan and 22.73 million yuan respectively, while the rest of the dis-
tricts decreased, with Jiangxia District and Hongshan District having a relatively
large decline.
Horizontally, the total ESV and ESV per unit area in different districts varied
greatly, and the overall trend is worsening, but the gap between different districts is
narrowing. For example, the ESV per unit area in Hongshan district is the highest, but
the gap between Hongshan District and Jianghan District that has the lowest ESV per
unit area narrowed year by year, from 7.63 million yuan/km2 in 2000 to 6.97 million
yuan/km2 in 2015. It is worth noting that Qingshan District, Qiaokou District and
 16

Table 9. ESV of different ecosystem services and their variations in Wuhan from 2000 to 2015 (100 million yuan).

ESV Variation
Ecosystem services 2000 2005 2010 2015 2000–2005 2005–2010 2010–2015 2000–2015

Food production 11.45 11.27 11.16 10.80 –0.18 –0.11 –0.36 –0.66
Raw material 3.33 3.26 3.24 3.17 –0.07 –0.02 –0.07 –0.16
Water supply –13.62 –16.26 –18.00 –23.46 –2.64 –1.74 –5.46 –9.83
Gas regulation 9.33 8.26 7.74 6.10 –1.08 –0.51 –1.65 –3.24
Climate regulation 19.54 19.27 19.19 18.92 –0.27 –0.07 –0.27 –0.61
Environmental 12.32 11.69 11.21 9.70 –0.64 –0.47 –1.51 –2.63
purification
S. Ma et al.

Hydrological regulation 217.63 224.89 224.02 221.74 7.26 –0.87 –2.28 4.12
Soil formation 10.25 10.02 9.98 9.84 –0.22 –0.04 –0.14 –0.40
and retention
Nutrient cycling 1.84 1.80 1.78 1.73 –0.04 –0.02 –0.05 –0.11
Biodiversity protection 16.28 15.85 15.87 15.84 –0.43 0.03 –0.04 –0.44
Aesthetic landscape 12.43 12.76 13.07 13.97 0.33 0.31 0.91 1.54
Total 300.78 302.80 299.27 288.36 2.02 –3.53 –10.91 –12.42
Table 10. Ecosystem service values and their variations in various districts of Wuhan from 2000 to 2015 (10,000 yuan).

2000 2005 2010 2015

Year 2000–2005 2005–2010 2010–2015 2000–2015
2 2 2
District ESV Value/km ESV Value/km ESV Value/km ESV Value/km2 Variation Variation Variation Variation

Caidian 440,433 401 463,553 422 459,636 418 450,689 410 23,119 –3,917 –8,947 10,256
Dongxihu 155,757 320 150,507 309 148,830 306 142,998 294 –5,250 –1,677 –5,832 –12,759
Hannan 105,748 363 106,051 364 103,538 356 108,021 371 303 –2,513 4,484 2,273
Huangpi 546,880 243 575,694 256 569,831 253 545,679 242 28,815 –5,863 –24,152 –1,201
Hongshan 339,518 593 323,150 564 315,946 551 294,004 513 –16,368 –7,204 –21,942 –45,514
Hanyang 67,854 575 66,179 561 64,504 547 58,858 499 –1,675 –1,675 –5,646 –8,996
Jiang'an 36,931 492 30,782 410 30,782 410 30,624 408 –6,149 0 –159 –6,307
Jianghan –5,287 –171 –5,287 –171 –5,287 –171 –5,705 –184 0 0 –418 –418
Jiangxia 936,789 467 935,041 466 925,221 461 889,051 443 –1,748 –9,820 –36,170 –47,738
Qiaokou 4,160 104 2,200 55 2,200 55 2,200 55 –1,959 0 0 –1,959
Qingshan 6,687 129 6,267 121 6,267 121 4,032 78 –420 0 –2,235 –2,655
Wuchang 46,796 520 44,141 491 44,141 491 44,141 491 –2,655 0 0 –2,655
Xinzhou 336,159 228 344,328 234 341,735 232 333,227 226 8,169 –2,593 –8,508 –2,932
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
17
18 S. Ma et al.

Figure 4. The grading maps of ESV per unit area of Wuhan city from 2000 to 2015 (10,000
yuan/km2).

Jianghan District all ranked last in terms of total ESV and ESV per unit area, indicat-
ing that the ecological environment in these three districts is under great pressure and
needs to be improved urgently.
In order to more visually display the changes in ESV for each district, this article
imported the ESV per unit area into ArcGIS and made a hierarchical thematic map
by using the natural discontinuity grading method, as shown in Figure 4. From
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 19

Table 11. Traditional sensitivity coefficients of different land use types in Wuhan.

2000 2005 2010 2015

Index
Land use types ESV% CS ESV% CS ESV% CS ESV% CS

Paddy field ± 50% 3.21% 0.064 3.12% 0.062 3.12% 0.062 3.10% 0.062
Dry land ± 50% 1.94% 0.039 1.87% 0.037 1.87% 0.037 1.88% 0.038
Woodland ± 50% 4.59% 0.092 4.51% 0.090 4.55% 0.091 4.65% 0.093
Grassland ± 50% 0.35% 0.007 0.32% 0.006 0.31% 0.006 0.32% 0.006
Waters ± 50% 35.65% 0.713 37.33% 0.747 37.58% 0.752 38.58% 0.772
Wetland ± 50% 8.10% 0.162 7.41% 0.148 7.59% 0.152 8.01% 0.160
Built-up land ± 50% 3.84% 0.077 4.56% 0.091 5.02% 0.100 6.53% 0.131

2000 to 2005, the ESV per unit area of Xinzhou District, Huangpi District and
Caidian District increased by one grade and other districts remained stable. From
2005 to 2010, the ESV per unit area of Wuchang District rose by one grade and
other districts remained stable. From 2010 to 2015, the ESV per unit area of
Huangpi District, Xinzhou District, Dongxihu District, Qingshan District and
Qiaokou District dropped by one grade and other districts remained stable. In add-
ition, the ESV per unit area of Hannan District, Jiangxia District, Jiang'an District
and Jianghan District did not show grade migration during the whole study period.
The results of hierarchical changes show that the ESV of different districts in
Wuhan has been improved in the first 5 years, remained stable in the next 5 years,
and declined rapidly in the last 5 years.

3.4. Analysis of dynamic ESV evaluation

In 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, the dynamic ESV of Wuhan was 45.67 billion
yuan, 45.57 billion yuan, 48.33 billion yuan and 59.40 billion yuan, respectively.
In general, it presented two characteristics. First, there was a significant increase
after adjustment. The dynamic ESV was 1.52, 1.51, 1.62 and 2.06 times the static
ESV of that year, respectively, reflecting that the ecosystems of Wuhan have a
high output of ecological services, the economic development of the whole society
is quite dynamic, and people’s willingness to pay has been significantly improved.
Second, the dynamic changing trend is opposite to the static changing trend. The
dynamic changes shows a downward-upward-upward trend, indicating that the
changes in the social development stage are more drastic, and people’s willingness
to pay shows a relatively obvious increase except for 2005. Meanwhile, the rise
and fall ranges for each period are also different, with the most remarkable
changes occurring between 2010 and 2015, indicating that these 5 years are not
only the 5 years in which the dynamic service value increased rapidly driven by
the rapid urbanization but also the 5 years in which the static service value experi-
enced huge losses.
In the three study periods, the variations in dynamic ESV for various land use
types showed three different change trends: grassland, woodland, dry land, paddy field
and wetland showed a downward-upward-upward trend, waters displayed an upward-
upward-upward trend, but built-up land presented a downward-downward-downward
trend. The ESV variation trend for all land use types was consistent with that of the
20 S. Ma et al.

total static ESV from 2000 to 2005. However, from 2005 to 2015, the ESV for each
land use type showed a decline in the static ESV assessment reversed after dynamic
correction and turned into an upward trend, reflecting that people’s attitude toward the
ecological environment changed positively.

3.5. Sensitivity coefficient analysis

3.5.1. Analysis of traditional sensitivity coefficient
As presented in Table 11, the traditional sensitivity coefficients of all land use types
are less than 1, showing that the value equivalents utilized in this article are within a
reasonable range and the evaluation results are reliable. Waters and wetland show a
relatively high sensitivity coefficient, mainly due to the larger area of waters and wet-
land, and a higher ESV provided by waters and wetland. The sensitivity coefficient of
built-up land increased the fastest, rising from 0.077 in 2000 to 0.131 in 2015, indicat-
ing that built-up land has a growing negative impact on the urban ecological
environment.

3.5.2. Analysis of CCS

The CCS for each land use type is shown in Figure 5. Due to the symmetry of the
coefficient, only the one-way conversion coefficient is presented.
The most sensitive conversion was the conversion of other land use types to
waters. The highest value appeared in the sensitivity coefficient of the conversion of
paddy fields to waters in 2005, reaching 0.889, that is, every 1% conversion of paddy
fields to waters can increase the total ESV by 0.889%, reflecting the high value of
waters and the highest increase in the value per unit area generated by the conversion
of other land use types to waters. The second was the conversion of other land use
types to built-up land. Since the value equivalent of built-up land was negative, the
ESV per unit area declined the fastest when other land use types were transformed
into construction land. Its absolute value was only less than the sensitivity coefficient
of other land use types converted to waters. The sensitivity coefficient of conversion
between wetland and other land use types was about ±0.2. However, the transform-
ation of other land use types was less sensitive to each other and was basically within
± 0.1.
The changes in sensitivity coefficients varied in different years. In Figure 5 (1–4),
the sensitivity coefficient for each year showed a downward trend, reflecting that the
utility of land use type conversion on ESV variation was decreasing. On the contrary,
in Figure 5 (5), the sensitivity coefficient showed an upward trend, but it was a nega-
tive value and the variation in sensitivity coefficient tended to 0. This was closely
related to the rising of dynamic ESV and the declining area of other land use types
except for built-up land.
The above results show that the ESV increased the most when other land use types
were converted to waters. The ESV loss was largest when other land use types were
transformed into built-up land.
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 21

Figure 5. Cross-sensitivity coefficient of land use types in Wuhan.

4. Discussion
4.1. Advantages and possible limitations
The benefit transfer method has been extensively used in estimating ESVs in different
regions and countries. Compared with the alternative market method, simulated market
method and other methods, this method has the superiority of simple calculation, wide
data sources and is convenient for comparative analysis of spatial-temporal changes
for different ecosystem services (Song and Deng 2017). However, this method has dif-
ficulties in considering the spatial-temporal differences of diverse land ecosystems
(Xie et al. 2017). Moreover, it cannot reflect the progress of socio-economic develop-
ment (Gravestock and Sheppard 2015). Meanwhile, it should be noted that the unit
value-based approach focused on the services that the ecosystem can provide. Such
estimates can also be regarded as “supply-side valuations,” which are different from
“demand-side valuations” based on willingness to pay or other spending behaviors in
the entire market (Fei et al. 2018). Costanza et al. (2014) pointed out that many eco-
system services may not be easily valued, and the relationship between ESV and
22 S. Ma et al.

observable expenditure is usually very weak. Therefore, the evaluation results obtained
by the benefit transfer method are usually regarded as the static ESV, which is only
related to its structure, function and ecosystem. This study re-measured the value coef-
ficients and constructed a dynamic ESV estimation method to analyze the spatiotempo-
ral variations in ecosystem services. Besides, the value coefficients are further adjusted
through crop prices and crop production in the study area to bring the evaluation result
more in line with the real situation. In addition, the robustness of the ESV assessment
results is tested by sensitivity analysis. The calculated results for both the traditional
sensitivity coefficient and CCS demonstrate that the ESV estimated in this study is
reliable and robust, but there are inevitably some limitations.
First, due to the limitations of existing theories and technologies, it is hard to over-
come the constraints and uncertainties of the current ESV evaluation models (Xue and
Luo 2015; Liu et al. 2020). Second, the monetization of ESV is affected by various
factors, such as inflation rate, market price, value coefficient, land use data, ability to
pay and willingness to pay, which will greatly influence the accuracy of ESV (Li
et al. 2018; Su, Wei, and Lin 2020). Finally, other physical and biological conditions
such as elevation, slope and vegetation related to ecosystems need to be comprehen-
sively considered. Therefore, the accuracy of the ESV evaluation still requires further
improvement in future research. In addition, although built-up land provides many
negative or positive ecosystem services, due to the complexity of the ecosystem pro-
vided by artificial construction land, most of its ecosystem services are difficult to
evaluate accurately (Peng et al. 2016). Although this article assessed the ESV of gas
regulation, water supply, environmental purification and aesthetic landscape services of
built-up land, the other ecosystem services of built-up land were ignored in this article.
Therefore, the scientific assessment approaches related to ecosystem services provided
by built-up land still need to be further explored.

4.2. Practical implications

Monetizing the value of ecosystem services can be compared with economic output,
thus indirectly enhancing people’s awareness of the importance of ecosystem services
to human welfare (Liu et al. 2019). According to the study results, several practical
implications can be provided accordingly.
Compared with the static ESV, the dynamic ESV has more positive implications
for the coordinated development of social economy and the ecological environment, as
well as the rational allocation of land resources and other policymaking. The assess-
ment results for dynamic ESV show that people’s demand for ecosystem services is
increasing and their willingness to pay is growing. However, although the dynamic
evaluation results show that the dynamic ESV has a significant improvement compared
with the static ESV, there are two reasons not to be blindly optimistic. First, the
dynamic ESV evaluation is carried out based on the adjustment of static ESV, reflect-
ing the change in social development and spatial heterogeneity. However, this change
goes far beyond the static ESV itself. Second, the sharp increase in the evaluating
results of dynamic ESV results from the rise in people’s demand and willingness to
pay for ecological services. In addition, the results showed that the ratio of the ESV/
GDP in Wuhan is approximately 0.13 and 0.03 in 2005 and 2015 respectively, which
is much lower than the average ratio for China (1.30) (Xing, Xue, and Wang 2018),
 Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 23

reflecting the imbalance between ecological conservation and economic development

and the necessity to enhance ecosystem services.
The land use types in Wuhan have undergone great changes, and the main change
types are the conversion of other land use types to built-up land and the conversion of
paddy field and dry land to wetland, respectively. Especially, paddy fields, dry lands
and grasslands experience a continuous decline. Therefore, there is an urgent need to
implement effective ecological protection strategies to adjust the irrational land use
structure. Meanwhile, it is necessary to solve the contradiction between socio-eco-
nomic development and land resource shortage by optimizing land resource allocation
and improving land resource utilization. In addition, natural ecosystem protection poli-
cies such as the ecological corridor construction project, and the farmland conservation
policies should be strictly implemented to protect ecological lands.
The ESV of all districts in Wuhan decreased from 2000 to 2015, except Caidian
District and Hannan District. Therefore, it is essential to formulate corresponding eco-
logical conservation strategies according to different regional characteristics, especially
in these districts where ecological services have been severely reduced, and relevant
ecological countermeasures should be followed up in time. In addition, increasing a
certain proportion of ecological lands for facilitating the vitality, functionality and sus-
tainability of urban ecosystems is also urgently needed in Wuhan.
During the whole study period, only the ESV of hydrologic regulation and aes-
thetic landscape services increased, while the other ecosystem services all displayed an
expanding downward trend. It is worth noting that increasing the expected supply of
some ecosystem services comes at the expense of reducing others, leading to inevitable
tradeoffs between different ecosystem services (Polasky et al. 2008; Su, Wei, and Lin
2020). Therefore, the rational ecological compensation mechanism should be con-
structed to maintain the sustainable supply of ecosystem services in Wuhan.

5. Conclusion
This article introduces spatial heterogeneity coefficient and social development coeffi-
cient to construct a dynamic ESV evaluation model that reflects both the physical geo-
graphical and dynamic variations of ESV with time. Wuhan is selected as a case
study. The results show that the land use in Wuhan has undergone great changes, and
the accumulative land use change area reached 599 km2, taking up 7% of the total area
of Wuhan from 2000 to 2015, mainly manifested as the conversion of other land use
types to built-up land and the conversion of paddy field and dry land to wetland,
respectively. The static ESV of Wuhan experienced a process of first rising and then
falling from 2000 to 2015, with the total ESV decreasing by 1.24 billion yuan.
Besides, it is worth noting that, except for hydrological regulation and landscape aes-
thetics services, other ecosystem services displayed an expanding downward trend.
The dynamic ESV has two distinct characteristics compared with the static ESV. First,
the dynamic ESV has a significant increase after adjustment, reflecting that the ecosys-
tem of Wuhan has a high output of ecological services, the economic development of
the whole society is quite dynamic, and people’s willingness to pay has been signifi-
cantly improved. Second, the dynamic change trend is opposite to the static change
trend, and it shows a downward-upward-upward trend, indicating that the changes in
the social development stage are more drastic, and people’s attitude toward the eco-
logical environment has changed in a positive way.
24 S. Ma et al.

In brief, the assessment results of dynamic ESV reversed the overall decline trend
in static ESV, show that people’s demand for ecosystem services is increasing and
their willingness to pay is growing in Wuhan, while its ecosystem still bears great
downward pressure and needs to be further improved.

Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to Neil Powe (Managing Editor) and three anonymous referees for
their insightful comments and suggestions that have significantly improved this paper.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding
The authors also acknowledge the financial support from Natural Science Foundation of China
[grant no. 72004093].

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