Redefinition of land-use patterns at local level based on evaluation of ecological service value

Quantizing ecological benefits of land use is favorable for comparing directly with the land use benefits. Based on the quantitative ecological benefits, redefinition of land-use patterns at local level can provide a good condition for land sustainable utilization. Therefore, taking Shapingba district in Chongqing as an example, adopting land-use situation database, using coefficients of ecological service value, the temporal-spatial changes of ecological service value were analyzed, and the spatial distribution of ecological service value was analyzed, the future patterns of land use were redefined. The results indicated that the ecological service value reduced from 1.50 million to 1.40 million, the net loss reached 0.10 million in the study region from 1996 to 2006. Accordingly, each hectare land suffered an average loss of 25.54 in the Shapingba district, Chongqing. The coefficient values for cultivated land, garden land, woodland raised by Costanza et al. were close to regional actual values. However, the coefficient values for water land were far away from the coefficient values of the lake/river (8498/hm2·a). By rectifying 30 percent of the previous coefficient by 5667/hm2·a, it was very close to the actual one. According to the spatial distribution of ecological service value and its changes, the future pattern of land use had four trends as follows: the stable zone, mainly in Jingkou town and Huilongba town; the descend-to-rise zone, mainly in Qinjiagang town and Huxi town; the sensitive zone, mainly in Chenjiaqiao town, Zengjia town and Tuzhu town; the sustainably-increased zone, mainly in Geleshan town and Zhongliang town.