scholarly journals How to Optimize Ecosystem Services Based on a Bayesian Model: A Case Study of Jinghe River Basin

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 4149
Author(s):  
Chengyan Tang ◽  
Jing Li ◽  
Zixiang Zhou ◽  
Li Zeng ◽  
Cheng Zhang ◽  
...  

Based on a Bayesian Network Model (BBN), we established an ecological service network system of the Jinghe River Basin in 2015. Our method consisted of using the distributed eco-hydrological model (Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model) to simulate water yield, the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) model to estimate Net Primary Productivity (NPP), the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) model to calculate soil erosion and the Crop Productivity (CP) model to simulate agricultural productivity to quantify the four ecosystem services. Based on the network established, the key variable subset and the visual optimal state subset, which we visualized, were analyzed and used to provide spatial optimization suggestions for the four kinds of ecosystem services studied. Our results indicate that water yield, concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the mountain and river areas, is increasing in the Jinghe River Basin. NPP is continuously increasing and is distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the mountain areas on both sides of the river. Agricultural productivity also shows an upward trend, with areas of high productivity concentrated in the southern downstream mountain areas. On the contrary, the amount of soil erosion is declining, and the high erosion value is also declining, mainly in the upper reaches of the basin (in the Loess Hilly Area). Additionally, we found that a synergistic relationship exists between water yield, NPP and agricultural productivity, which can increase vegetation cover, leading to enhanced agricultural productivity. However, water yield can be reduced as required in order to balance the tradeoff between water yield and soil erosion. Clear regional differences exist in ecosystem services in the river basin. In the future, the two wings of the middle and lower reaches of the river basin will be the main areas of optimization, and it is likely that an optimal ecosystem services pattern can be reached.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2072
Author(s):  
Ying Fang ◽  
Tianlin Zhai ◽  
Xiaodong Zhao ◽  
Kun Chen ◽  
Baishu Guo ◽  
...  

Ecosystem services are characterized by region and scale, and contribute to human welfare. Taking Yantai city, a typical bay city in China, as the example, its three representative ecosystem services: food supply (FS), carbon sequestration (CS) and water yield (WY) were chosen as study targets. Based on analyzation of six different aspects of the supply and variation characteristic of demand, this study tried to propose advices for comprehensive improvement of ecosystem services for spatial optimization. The results showed that: (1) ecosystem services supply was strong in central and southern areas of Yantai, while the northern coastal areas were relatively weak; (2) synergistic relationships were found of FS-CS, FS-WY and CS-WY both in 2009 and 2015, with the strongest one for FS-WY. Additionally, in the synergistic relationships, each pair of ecosystem services was dominated by one ecosystem service; (3) most of the three pairs of synergistic relationships had the tendency to strengthen with larger scales; (4) four ecosystem demands changing areas were observed and comprehensive improvement suggestions for them were proposed. This work provides a new attempt to improve ecosystem services based on its supply-demand relationship, which will give a baseline reference for related studies in Yantai city, as well as other similar bay cities.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 616
Author(s):  
Jie Gao ◽  
Xuguang Tang ◽  
Shiqiu Lin ◽  
Hongyan Bian

The ecosystem services (ESs) provided by mountain regions can bring about benefits to people living in and around the mountains. Ecosystems in mountain areas are fragile and sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance. Understanding the effect of land use change on ESs and their relationships can lead to sustainable land use management in mountain regions with complex topography. Chongqing, as a typical mountain region, was selected as the site of this research. The long-term impacts of land use change on four key ESs (i.e., water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), carbon storage (CS), and habitat quality (HQ)) and their relationships were assessed from the past to the future (at five-year intervals, 1995–2050). Three future scenarios were constructed to represent the ecological restoration policy and different socioeconomic developments. From 1995 to 2015, WY and SC experienced overall increases. CS and HQ increased slightly at first and then decreased significantly. A scenario analysis suggested that, if the urban area continues to increase at low altitudes, by 2050, CS and HQ are predicted to decrease moderately. However, great improvements in SC, HQ, and CS are expected to be achieved by the middle of the century if the government continues to make efforts towards vegetation restoration on the steep slopes.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1605
Author(s):  
Chaoxing Sun ◽  
Xiong Zhou

The assessment of future climate changes on drought and water scarcity is extremely important for water resources management. A modeling system is developed to study the potential status of hydrological drought and water scarcity in the future, and this modeling system is applied to the Jinghe River Basin (JRB) of China. Driven by high-resolution climate projections from the Regional Climate Modeling System (RegCM), the Variable Infiltration Capacity model is employed to produce future streamflow projections (2020–2099) under two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. The copula-based method is applied to identify the correlation between drought variables (i.e., duration and severity), and to further quantify their joint risks. Based on a variety of hypothetical water use scenarios in the future, the water scarcity conditions including extreme cases are estimated through the Water Exploitation Index Plus (WEI+) indicator. The results indicate that the joint risks of drought variables at different return periods would decrease. In detail, the severity of future drought events would become less serious under different RCP scenarios when compared with that in the historical period. However, considering the increase in water consumption in the future, the water scarcity in JRB may not be alleviated in the future, and thus drought assessment alone may underestimate the severity of future water shortage. The results obtained from the modeling system can help policy makers to develop reasonable future water-saving planning schemes, as well as drought mitigation measures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinliang Zhang ◽  
Yizi Shang ◽  
Jinyong Liu ◽  
Jian Fu ◽  
Shitao Wei ◽  
...  

Abstract The Jinghe River remains the major sediment source of the Yellow River in China; however, sediment discharge in the Jinghe River has reduced significantly since the 1950s. The objective of this study is to identify the causes of sediment yield variations in the Jinghe River Basin based on soil and water conservation methods and rainfall analyses. The results revealed that soil and water conservation projects were responsible for half of the total sediment reduction; sediment retention due to reservoirs and water diversion projects was responsible for 1.3% of the total reduction. Moreover, the Jinghe River Basin has negligible opportunity to improve its vegetation cover (currently 55% of the basin is covered with lawns and trees), and silt-arrester dams play a smaller role in reducing sediment significantly before they are entirely full. Therefore, new large-scale sediment trapping projects must be implemented across the Jinghe River Basin, where heavy rainfall events are likely to substantially increase in the future, leading to higher sediment discharge.


Author(s):  
Son Ngo ◽  
Huong Hoang ◽  
Phuong Tran ◽  
Loc Nguyen

Land use/land cover (LULC) and climate changes are two main factors directly affecting hydrologic conditions. However, very few studies in Vietnam have investigated changes in hydrological process under the impact of climate and land use changes on a basin scale. The objective of this study is to assess the individual and combined impacts of land use and climate changes on hydrological processes for the Nam Rom river basin, Northwestern Viet Nam using Remote Sensing (RS) and Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT) model. SWAT model was used for hydrological process simulation. Results indicated that SWAT proved to be a powerful tool in simulating the impacts of land use and climate change on catchment hydrology. The change in historical land use between 1992 and 2015 strongly contributed to increasing hydrological processes (ET, percolation, ground water, and water yield), whereas, climate change led to significant decrease of all hydrological components. The combination of land use and climate changes significantly reduced surface runoff (-16.9%), ground water (-5.7%), water yield (-9.2%), and sediment load (-4.9%). Overall climatic changes had more significant effect on hydrological components than land use changes in the Nam Rom river basin during the 1992–2015. Under impacts of projected land use and climate change scenarios in 2030 on hydrological process of the upper Nam Rom river basin indicate that ET and surface flow are more sensitive to the changes in land use and climate in the future. In conclusion, the findings of this study will basic knowledge of the effects of climate and land-use changes on the hydrology for future development of integrated land use and water management practices in Nam Rom river basin.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 843
Author(s):  
Qingxiang Meng ◽  
Likun Zhang ◽  
Hejie Wei ◽  
Enxiang Cai ◽  
Dong Xue ◽  
...  

The continuous supply of ecosystem services is the foundation of the sustainable development of human society. The identification of the supply–demand relationships and risks of ecosystem services is of considerable importance to the management of regional ecosystems and the effective allocation of resources. This paper took the Yihe River Basin as the research area and selected water yield, carbon sequestration, food production, and soil conservation to assess changes in the supply and demand of ecosystem services and their matching status from 2000 to 2018. Risk identification and management zoning were also conducted. Results show the following: (1) The spatial distribution of the four ecosystems service supply and demand in the Yihe River Basin was mismatched. The food production supply levels in the middle and lower reaches and the upstream water yield, carbon sequestration, and soil conservation supply levels were high. However, most of the areas with high demand for ecosystem services were concentrated downstream. (2) From 2000 to 2018, the supply of water yield and carbon sequestration in the Yihe River Basin decreased, while that of food production and soil conservation increased. The demand for the four ecosystem services also increased. (3) Water yield faced considerable supply–demand risks. Fifty percent of the sub-basins were at a high-risk level, and the risk areas were concentrated in the middle and lower reaches. The three remaining services were mainly at low-risk levels. The Yihe River Basin was divided into eight types of supply–demand risk spatial management zones based on the ecosystem service supply and demand levels, which will help promote refined regional ecosystem management and sustainable development. The supply and demand assessment of ecosystem services from a risk perspective can integrate the information of natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems and provide scientific support for watershed spatial management.


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