Assessing Ecosystem Services Supply-Demand (Mis)Matches for Differential City Management in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Abstract

With the global increase in population and urban expansion, the simultaneous rise of social demand and degradation of ecosystems is omnipresent, especially in the urban agglomerations of China. In order to manage environmental problems and match ecosystem supply and social demand, these urban agglomerations promoted regional socio-ecological integration but ignored differential city management during the process of integration. Therefore, it is necessary to design a general framework linking ecosystem supply and social demand to differential city management. In addition, in previous studies, ecosystem services supply–demand amount (mis)match assessment was emphasized, but ecosystem services supply–demand type (mis)match assessment was ignored, which may lead to biased decisions. To deal with these problems, this study presented a general ecosystem services framework with six core steps for differential city management and developed a double-indices (amount and type) method to identify ecosystem services supply–demand (mis)matches in an urban agglomeration. This framework and the double-indices method were applied in the case study of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration. Ecosystem supply–demand amount and type (mis)match levels and spatial pattern of twenty-six cities were identified. Twenty-six cities in the YRDUA were classified into five kinds of cities with different levels of ES supply–demand (mis)matches for RS, three kinds of cities for PS, and four kinds of cities for CS. Differential city management strategies were designed. Despite its limitations, this study can be a reference to giving insights into ES supply–demand (mis)match assessment and management.