Spatiotemporal Distribution and Driving Force Analysis of the Ecosystem Service Value: A Typical Case Study of the Coastal Zone, Eastern China

Abstract

Identifying and assessing the drivers of change in ecosystem service value (ESV) is critical for integrated management and human well-being in coastal zone areas. This paper took a typical coastal zone in eastern China as the research object. Based on five periods of remote sensing monitoring data of land use status from 2000 to 2020, the ESV of Yancheng was estimated by adopting the equivalence factor method. Spatial statistical analysis and GeoDetector were applied to reveal the heterogeneous features of ESV and its driving mechanism. The results suggested that: (1) From 2000–2020, each land use type in the study area changed to different degrees, among which the most drastic change was in the construction land, which increased continuously by 962.69 km2, the cultivated land area decreased continuously by 784.1 km2, and the area of water body decreased by 163.34 km2. (2) ESV experienced a process of increasing and then decreasing, from 547.84 × 108 yuan to 570.86 × 108 yuan and then decreasing to 507.62 × 108 yuan, with farmland ecosystems having the largest ESV, accounting for more than 60%. Regulatory services were the core function of ecosystem services, accounting for more than 60%. (3) There was significant spatial-temporal differentiation in ESV, with extremely low ESV expanding in rapidly developing urbanized areas. The ESV distribution exhibited significant spatial autocorrelation and local spatial clustering, with the gravity center showing a general trend from north to southwest. (4) The ESV spatial and temporal evolutionary characteristics were the result of a multifactorial integration of land use, topography, socio-economics, and climate factors. The explanatory power of each factor in descending order was LDI > DEM > POP > GDP > RAI > TEM, and any two-factor interaction had higher explanatory power than the single factor.