Trade-offs/synergistic relationship between water ecosystem services and urbanization in the Yellow River Basin urban agglomeration

Abstract

[Objective] The relationship between water ecosystem services and urbanization is related to regional sustainable development. The Yellow River Basin has pronounced water ecological problems, and clarifying the synergistic relationship between water ecosystem services and urbanization and their influencing factors will contribute to formulating development strategies. [Methods] This study evaluated the distribution pattern of water ecosystem services and urbanization from 2000 to 2020 by using the InVEST model and a comprehensive evaluation model, explored the trade-offs/synergistic relationship between the two using bivariate autocorrelation, correlation coefficients, and the division of variance method, and analyzed the ecological and social influencing factors on the Trade-offs/synergistic relationship based on the geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) model. [Results] (1) The water ecosystem services of the Yellow River Basin urban agglomeration are dominated by food production and soil and water conservation services, and have been significantly enhanced; the level of urbanization has been increasing, and the differences between counties (districts) have been narrowing. (2) The spatial relationship between water ecosystem services and urbanization is dominated by the types of “low-low” and “high-low”, which show a trade-off relationship globally and a synergistic relationship locally in counties and districts, but the number of counties and districts with the trade-off relationship has gradually increased and is the main distribution of the northwestern part of the Yellow River Bend Metropolitan Area, the central part of the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration, and the eastern part of the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration. (3) Precipitation, ecological measures based on vegetation restoration, land-use intensity and location factors have mainly positive effects on the trade-offs/synergistic relationship, while the opposite is true for temperature, altitude, topography and level of economic development. Elevation and topography factors have the strongest influence on the trade-offs/synergistic relationship, followed by precipitation, and the rest of the factors have a weaker influence. [Conclusion] Therefore, to address the spatial mismatch between water ecosystem services and urbanization, ecological protection and development policies need to be formulated in zones and classified according to the synergistic relationship between the trade-offs between the two and the temporal differentiation of their driving factors.

Keywords

• water ecosystem service|urbanization|trade-offs/synergistic relationship|influencing factors|yellow river basin urban agglomeration