Developing an ecosystem services-based approach for land use planning

Rapid urbanization has altered many ecosystems, causing the decline in many ecosystem services (ES), and generating serious ecological crisis. The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region is one of the most rapidly urbanized regions in China and has experienced a remarkable period of population growth, and built-up area expansion. To cope with these challenges, this paper proposed a four-step key ES zone delineation framework by land-use matrix for land management in a rapidly urbanizing region. This framework was applied in key ES zone delineation in the YRD region. The results showed that there was obvious spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of total ES capacities: The high-capacity levels were mainly distributed in the south of the region, while the low-capacity levels were densely distributed in the middle and north of the region. V (80–100) and II (20–40) accounted for 27.44% and 47.12% of the total area, respectively. Among the five levels, Level II occupied the largest area of the region. I (0–20) and IV (60–80) had patchy patterns in the region and clustered in the middle of the region. I and IV accounted for 13.24% and 5.48% of the total area, respectively. III (40–60) had belt distribution in the region and accounted for 6.72% of the total area. This paper not only contributes to the guidance of land management for the Ecological Redline Policy in the YRD Region but also helps to improve the application of ecosystem service approach in decision support in rapidly urbanizing regions.