Redai dili (Jul 2023)
Identifying Land Use Conflict Based on Ecosystem Service Trade-Offs in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China
Abstract
China is currently facing a critical period of economic transformation and social development, with land use being under tremendous pressure, facing multiple challenges. The imbalance in land use structure is becoming increasingly prominent and conflicts over various land uses are becoming more intense, thereby attracting an increasing focus. Land use conflict refers to the inconsistent and disharmonious land use methods and quantities among stakeholders in the process of land resource utilization, as well as the conflicting states between various land use methods and environmental aspects. The study of land use conflicts can provide important references for stabilizing land use structures, alleviating land use conflicts, and optimizing the allocation of national spatial resources. Identifying the spatial range and intensity of land use conflicts is a prerequisite for alleviating regional land use pressure. However, existing research has thus far provided insufficient characterization of the negative ecological and environmental effects of land use. The concept of ecosystem service trade-offs is advantageous regarding expressing the negative effects of land use conflicts and their inherent causes. Therefore, based on the perspective of ecosystem services, this study identifies the intensity and spatial distribution characteristics of land use conflicts in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in different types of space using ecosystem service trade-off analysis. Results show that from 2010 to 2020, land use change in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was relatively drastic, with a decrease of 1,440.90 km2 (8.20%) in arable land area and an increase of 1,649.92 km2 (28.01%) in urban land area. During the study period, carbon fixation, soil retention, and water production services exhibited increasing trends, whereas food supply and habitat quality services exhibited decreasing trends. High-gain areas of food supply and carbon fixation, as well as high-loss areas of water production and soil retention, were mainly distributed in the southwest and northwest of the study area. The land use conflict index of the study area was 1.05, indicative of strong land use conflict. This was mainly because the study area had a large number of service types to balance, with the balance relationships being strong. Among them, the balance relationships between water production and food supply, habitat quality, and carbon fixation were the dominant factors in land use conflicts in the study area. The intensity of land use conflicts in each subregion ranged from strong to weak in the following order: natural or semi-natural area (1.10) > semi-natural semi-artificial area (0.97) > artificial area (0.77) > semi-natural area (0.45). Natural or semi-natural area was the main area of land use conflicts, mainly because this area had many service types to balance, with the balance relationships being strong. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics, the spatial distribution range of land use conflicts in the study area was mainly characterized by weak and moderate conflict areas; however, land use conflicts were more severe in some local areas. The spatial distribution structure of land use conflicts in the study area showed a medium-weak-medium pattern from the periphery to the central part. Strong and extremely strong conflict areas were concentrated in natural or semi-natural areas.
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