Different impacts of urbanization on ecosystem services supply and demand across old, new and non-urban areas in the ChangZhuTan urban agglomeration, China

Abstract

Abstract Context Rapid urbanization has brought substantial changes in structure and function of ecosystems, significantly impacting ecosystem services (ESs) supply and demand, and thereby landscape sustainability. Objectives Revealing differences impacts of urbanization on ESs supply and demand across old, new and non-urban areas. Methods First, we quantified the supply and demand of four ESs, namely food production (FP), water retention (WR), carbon sequestration (CS), and habitat quality (HQ) within the ChangZhuTan urban agglomeration from 2000 to 2020. Then impacts of urbanization on ESs supply–demand ratio (ESDR)were investigated by OLS linear regression, alongside assessing sensitivities with Random Forest models. The differences in these impacts and sensitivities were compared across old, new, and non-urban areas, utilizing the proportional cover of construction land (CLP), population density (PD), and GDP density (GDPD) as urbanization indicators. Results (1) Urban expansion resulted in the increase of areas with low ESs supply but high demand, and thereby increased ESs deficits in urban edges. (2) CLP, PD and GDPD mostly had negative associations with ESDRs, especially in non-urban areas. Notably, they had positive impacts on ESDRs of CS and WR in old urban areas. (3) The sensitivity of ESDRs to urbanization differs in three areas. ESDRs were sensitive to GDPD and CLP in old and new urban areas, with only CLP emerging as the most sensitive indicator in non-urban areas, indicating the necessity for place-based strategies. Conclusions Urbanization exerted diverse impacts on ESDRs across old, new, and non-urban areas, and showed significantly negative impacts in new urban areas. This underscores the need for enhanced landscape management to balance ESs and urbanization. Results from this study can enhance understanding of relationships between urbanization and ESs, and provide insights for landscape sustainability in an increasingly urbanizing planet.