Reconciling UES, GEP and NCP in Chinese cities

Abstract

China is developing a new strategy to achieve harmony between nature and economic growth. In order to ensure the conformity of policies and actions in this new strategy, Chinese cities need tools to evaluate the change in nature and its contribution to human well-being. The rapid development of theories and methodologies in the valuation of nature provides many options. The potential of three frameworks — urban ecosystem services, nature’s contribution to people, and gross ecosystem products — for meeting Chinese cities’ needs was analyzed through a comprehensive literature review. The results show that the gross ecosystem products framework actively brings nature’s values into Chinese cities’ political agenda. The urban ecosystem services framework has been extensively used in scientific studies, while the nature’s contribution to people framework is gradually gaining researchers’ attention. The three frameworks complement each other due to their unique strengths in the social context of Chinese cities. Based on those discoveries, I recommend that Chinese cities adopt the three frameworks simultaneously to assess urban ecosystems and their contributions to residents’ well-being. To achieve this goal, I call for more studies to address the theoretical and methodological barriers to integrating the three frameworks.