Spatial–Temporal Variations of Water Ecosystem Services Value and Its Influencing Factors: A Case in Typical Regions of the Central Loess Plateau

Abstract

Water resources provide indispensable ecosystem services, which are related to human well-being and sustainable social development. Accurately measuring the water ecosystem services value (WESV), and then grasping its changing characteristics, is particularly important for solving water problems. In this study, the typical area of the central Loess Plateau location is taken as the research area. Based on remote sensing images and statistical data, the direct market method combined with the equivalent factor method was used to calculate the WESV including groundwater and surface water, which is of greatest originality. The temporal and spatial variation characteristics in 2010, 2015 and 2020 were analyzed. Then, four WESV driving factors including per capita GDP, population density, proportion of water areas, and water consumption were selected, and the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was used to analyze the spatial distribution pattern and temporal variation of WESV’s response to the influencing factors. The results showed that WESV experienced a process of first decreasing and then increasing, which was mainly caused by Yulin. For the composition of WESV, the proportion of provisioning services value has increased, which caused the proportion of regulating services value to decrease. The correlations between four factors and WESV were different. The distribution pattern of the influences was spatially heterogeneous, which showed regular variations over time. These results indicate the necessity of WESV’s independent research and provide a realistic basis for ecological compensation in the Yellow River Basin.