Urban ecosystems, as important carriers of human development, not only undertake socio-economic functions but also provide diversified ecosystem services to humans through natural ecosystems. However, in the rapid global urbanization process, urban ecological management faces many challenges.

In their new study, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and their collaborators explored the challenges of rapid urbanization in achieving ecosystem services (ESs) satisfaction and equity.

Through an in-depth analysis of the impact of urbanization process on the supply-demand relationships of ecosystem services, they revealed the mechanisms by which various key factors affected the region’s ecological services.

Related results were published in Resources, Environment and Sustainability.

The researchers adopted a multi-level analysis perspective, quantified the satisfaction of ESs through supply-demand ratio, and evaluated the fairness of ESs through supply-demand Gini coefficient. They used Guangdong Province, a typical urbanized area in southern China, as a case study to assess the supply and demand relationships of four regulating ESs: water retention, soil retention, carbon storage, and water purification.

Their results showed that the overall supply-demand equity of ecosystem services was maintained at a safe level. However, single factor effects on ESs satisfaction or inequity may be limited or opposite. Interactive effects of multiple factors, natural and socio-economic factors, can effectively mitigate these divergent impacts through non-linear synergies.

A targeted management mechanism should be established at the district and city levels to ensure alignment of urban ecosystem management policies at different levels, according to the researchers.

“Policy interventions should focus on equitable resource distribution, prioritizing the improvement of supply levels in areas with insufficient ecological resources,” said FANG Zhou, first author of the study and a postdoc at XTBG.

Through ecological protection and restoration, and the construction of urban green infrastructure, the satisfaction and equity of key ecosystem services should be enhanced, said FANG.

The study was supported by the Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation and Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.