Optimized Land-Use Scheme Based on Ecosystem Service Value: Case Study of Taiyuan, China

Abstract

Evaluating the variations of ecosystem services in response to land-use change is recognized as an effective method in supporting policy making involved in land-use management and environment protection. Using the gray forecasting models, this study predicts the land-use change from 214 to 22 in Taiyuan, China, and establishes a linear programming model to optimize the land-use structure for 22 to maximize the total ecosystem services value (ESV). Then the study compares the difference between the government’s land-use planning and the optimized land-use structure and evaluates their effects on ESV. The results show that the areas of woodland and built-up land will keep growing from 214 to 22, whereas cropland, orchard, grassland, and water body will decrease continuously. The total ESV is 15,482.95 million renminbi (RMB; the official currency of China) in the government’s land-use planning and 15,57.24 million RMB in optimized land-use structure, an increase of 87.29 million RMB. Moreover, compared with the government’s land-use planning, the ESV of all ecosystem services, except food production and raw materials, have varying degrees of increase in optimized land-use structure. These demonstrate that the optimized land-use structure is an effective land-use scheme that is worthy of consideration and is a reference for land managers and policy makers. In addition, this case study may provide valuable information to other cities in China.