LUCC and Ecosystem Service Value Assessment for Wetlands: A Case Study in Nansi Lake, China

Abstract

Wetland is one of the most important ecosystems in the world. A healthy wetland ecosystem is important to the development of a regional and even global economy, and it is also beneficial to the human living conditions. In this paper, remote sensing (RS), landscape metrics were used to analyze the land use/land cover change (LUCC), landscape pattern change and the ecosystem services value (ESV) from 1987 to 2017 in Nansi Lake wetland of China. The results showed: 54.4% of the natural wetlands in Nansi Lake were replaced by constructed wetlands in the past 30 years, the ecosystem was degraded and the landscape structure was fragmented due to the severe drought in 2002 and the development of aquaculture and tourism in recent years. The ESV of Nansi Lake wetland fluctuated from 1987 to 2017, and the average annual ESV ($8134/hm2) was much lower than that of global and China’s wetlands, the LUCC driven by human production and economic development leads to the reduction of ESV, especially the rapid increase of constructed wetlands. Finally, the implications of wetland laws and policies, wetland monitoring, assessment and database construction, and wetland regional development strategies were discussed for wetland protection and management.