Study on the trade-off/synergy between ecosystem services and human well-being based on land use in Weinan City, China.

Change of land use have important impacts on ecosystem services (ESs) and human well-being (HWB), yet the trade-off/synergy among land use, ESs, and HWB has still not received sufficient attention at city regional scales level. Weinan City in the southern of the Loess Plateau of China was taken as the study area. Based on ArcGIS, InVEST model, and RUSLE model, the characteristics of spatial and temporal variations of land use and ESs from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed, and the trade-off/synergy relationship between land use, ESs, and HWB was quantified using correlation analysis. The results indicated that the area of cultivated land decreased significantly and the area of built-up land increased significantly from 2000 to 2020 in Weinan City. The grain production, soil conservation, and water yield functions showed an increasing trend, which was a synergistic relationship with HWB. Carbon storage and habitat quality functions showed a decreasing trend, which was a trade-off relationship with HWB. The index value of HWB has increased significantly, mainly in the added value of agricultural and rural per capita income. Land use intensity has a trade-off relationship with GP, WY functions, and HWB. There are many factors that affect this trade-off/synergy relationship, such as land use patterns, economic development, and population growth. The study can provide a theoretical basis for the sustainable development of regional economy and nature.

Ecological risk assessment and restoration area identification of Pengyang County on the basis of the landscape pattern and function.

The joint landscape ecological risk as well as ecological corridors for ecological restoration area identification is of great significance to the past evolution and future development of landscapes. Ecological risks were assessed based on the landscape pattern and functional changes in Pengyang County in 2000, 2010, and 2020; ecological restoration areas were divided based on ecological risks and security pattern. Results showed that the ecological risk types in Pengyang County were mainly low risk from 2000 to 2010 and distributed in the central region, while the high-risk areas increased from 2010 to 2020 and were concentrated in the southern residential area. According to a comprehensive assessment of the landscape ecological risks, an ecological security pattern consisting of 17 ecological source points and 34 potential ecological corridors with an average length of 6.57 km was identified. Three ecological restoration areas were eventually identified: mining restoration areas, mountain restoration area, and urban restoration area. Our results would provide an important perspective for the sustainable development of regional natural landscape resources.

Potential Zoning of Construction Land Consolidation in the Loess Plateau Based on the Evolution of Human-Land Relationship.

Towns serve as the basic unit of implementation for comprehensive land consolidation and rehabilitation. The utilization of scaling law can provide a new perspective for construction land consolidation. From two perspectives of the town hierarchic system and the growth of a single town, this research applies the Rank-Size Rule and Allometric Scaling Law to analyze the scale structure, hierarchy and allometric scaling evolution relationship of population and construction land in the Loess Plateau at the town scale in 2000, 2010, and 2017. Furthermore, the consolidation potential of construction land is divided into five zones and puts forward recommendations for the comprehensive consolidation of the construction land. The results indicate: (1) The majority of towns have small or medium populations and 62% of the towns in the study show negative population growth. Geographically, the northern part has a smaller population size compared with the southern part. 96% of the towns show an increasing trend in the quantity of construction land, and the south and north parts of the study area have more construction land compared with the center part. The zone of the Valley Plain has the largest population size, and the zone of the Sandy and Desert Area has the largest quantity of construction land. (2) The rank-size distributions of both population and construction land comply with the power-law relation. The population hierarchy has changed from equilibrium to concentration, while the hierarchy of construction land shows an opposite pattern. So, the whole town hierarchic system of the Loess Plateau is gradually tending to the optimal distribution, which is the town hierarchic system gradually forming an ideal sequence structure. (3) The population-construction land relationship obeys the allometric scaling law, and the major allometric type is positive allometry. The human-land relationship tends to be coordinated, and the town system tends to be reasonable. The allometric scaling coefficient is not robust in different geographical areas, especially in Irrigated Agricultural Areas. Furthermore, 90% of the towns have weak coordination of human-land relationships, and 60% of the towns have a relatively faster growth rate of construction land than the relative growth (decline) rate of population. (4) The consolidation potential of construction land is divided into five types. High Consolidation Potential Area concentrates in the Eastern Loess Plateau, while Medium and Low Consolidation Potential Area concentrically distribute in the Western Loess Plateau. The Human-land Coordination Area has a small number and scattered spatial distribution. The land use of towns that are concentrated around prefecture-level cities or with unique resources is not intensive enough. The zoning of construction land consolidation potential based on the results of the allometric scale is in line with reality, and local governments should make use of the characteristics and trends of the town system to formulate planning schemes to promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas.

Do environmental conservation programs contribute to sustainable livelihoods? Evidence from China's grain-for-green program in northern Shaanxi province.

Several studies reported that conservation programs worldwide have profoundly reshaped participants' livelihoods and influenced other socio-economic processes. A fully understanding of how such conservation programs influence human lives is, therefore, crucial for their success. There, however, is little robust evidence of the effect of China's grain-for-green program (GGP), the largest conservation program in the world, on participants' livelihoods. That is, we do not know whether the program fulfills its goal of, at the very least, doing no harm to the lives of participants while simultaneously enhancing their environmental perception. To help fill this gap, we used a sustainable livelihood approach and structural equation modeling, based on household survey data from China's northern Shaanxi province, to compare the livelihood components of participants and non-participants in the GGP. We then characterized the interactions and pathways between their livelihood components and environmental perception. We found that the GGP indeed does no harm to participants' lives. Although participants suffer from a small reduction in natural capital due to a sharp decrease in their landholdings, they have much more off-farm income, subsidies, and financial and social assets than non-participants. Respondents commonly held positive attitudes toward the program's environmental benefits, but they had weak perceptions of the social and direct economic benefits of the GGP. Respondents' environmental perceptions of the GGP were significantly influenced by the number of available laborers, their education and health levels, off-farm income, subsidies, and the accessibility of transportation. Therefore, further resources should be dedicated to improving education as well as rural health care and infrastructure in order to create more off-farm job opportunities for GGP participants. In addition, decision makers should carefully redesign supporting policies, such as payments for ecosystem services, to help poor participants rebuild their livelihoods.

Emergy measures of carrying capacity and sustainability of a target region for an ecological restoration programme: a case study in Loess Hilly Region, China.

Evaluating the sustainability of a target region for an ecological restoration programme is challenging because it involves different aspects of human society and environment as well as multiple disciplines. Carrying capacity provides a useful measure of the sustainability of a given region where an ecological restoration programme is implemented. In this article, the Yangou catchment, a geomorphic unit, was used as a case study in the Loess Hilly Region of China, where emergy synthesis was used to measure the environmental resources base. The specific standard of living in terms of emergy was employed to calculate carrying capacity over the period 1998-2005 and to assess the sustainability of the Yangou catchment where an ecological restoration programme was carried out. The results of the evaluation indicated that after implementing the ecological restoration programme, there was some improvement in the environmental aspects of the Yangou catchment during the study period, suggesting that the ecological restoration programme alleviated ecological degradation. However, several emergy-based indices and the support areas also illustrated that the ecological restoration programme was not successful enough in terms of preservation and utilisation of environmental resources to enhance sustainability. This indicates that further actions are necessary on conserving environmental resources, improving the emergy input structure for agricultural production and in lifestyle changes for the local people in living in the Yangou catchment.