Quantifying Interregional Flows of Ecosystem Services to Enhance Water Security in the Yellow River Basin, China
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149, Issue 6
Abstract
Ecosystem services (ES) have complex flow dynamics that operate across distances. However, ES assessments have focused more on their supply. Few studies consider the impacts of interregional flows on ES provision and the spatial and temporal changes of interregional flows are little known. Here, we quantified interregional flows and analyzed their variations by evaluating the interregional dependency of four water-related ES (water yield, flood mitigation, water purification, and soil retention) in the Yellow River Basin, China. The results showed that about one-third of the basin area had of the ES sourced from interregional flows, and these areas increased by during . Generally, the upstream regions with contributions of of water yield, of flood mitigation, of water purification, and of soil retention played an important role in sustaining the human well-being in downstream regions. Our approach offers a reference for building a telecoupled decision-making for other regions based on interregional flows. Moreover, the results of this study provide insights into interregional dependency on and responsibility for the transboundary ES impacts, and can help in sustainable development of watersheds by achieving environmental equality through guiding transboundary management.
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Data Availability Statement
All of the data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42071265) and the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition Program (Grant No. 2019QZKK0308).
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Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149 • Issue 6 • June 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 17, 2022
Accepted: Jan 28, 2023
Published online: Mar 21, 2023
Published in print: Jun 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Aug 21, 2023
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