Cities 46 (2015) 85–93

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Cities
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cities

Dynamic variations in ecosystem service value and sustainability

of urban system: A case study for Tianjin city, China
Minggao Xue, Yangmei Luo ⇑
School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Rapid urbanization and industrialization in China have seriously threatened the ecosystem and urban
Received 11 August 2014 sustainability. This paper estimated the dynamic variations of ecosystem service value (ESV) in response
Received in revised form 29 April 2015 to changes of land use/land cover (LULC) under rapid urbanization, and it analyzed their impacts on sus-
Accepted 15 May 2015
tainability of urban system. Tianjin, the largest coastal city in China, was selected as the study area. The
Available online 22 May 2015
total ESV of Tianjin was approximately 8791.86 million Yuan in 2003, 7948.04 million Yuan in 2007, and
8378.53 million Yuan in 2011. By taking the total dynamic ESV as one of the key factors, we calculated the
Keywords:
indexes of urban sustainability from 2003 to 2011. It was found that the dynamic variations of ESV in
Land use/land cover (LULC) change
Ecosystem service value (ESV)
response to LULC changes had significant impacts on the sustainability of urban system. Therefore, in
Sustainability order to increase the capacity for urban sustainable development, there is an urgent need to lighten
Urbanization the heavy burden on the ecosystem through rational land use management during rapid urbanization.
Tianjin Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
China

1. Introduction urbanization is attracting more and more worldwide scholarly

Currently, urbanization has become one of the most important
and significant trends around the world, and the accelerated urban
expansion indicates that the whole world has entered ‘‘the century
of the city’’ (Anonymous, 2010). Cities are the most concentrated
areas of human activity, and they are typically social–economic–
natural complex ecosystems (Ma & Wang, 1984). As the material
base and natural capital of human society, ecosystem services pro-
vide vital benefits supporting the stable operation and develop-
ment of social and economic systems (Chase, Pielke, Kittel,
Nemani, & Running, 2000; Costanza, Cumberland, Daly,
Goodland, & Norgaard, 1997; Costanza, d’Arge, et al., 1997; Daily,
1997; Lambin et al., 2001) and play an extremely important role
in sustainability of urban system. However, the ravenous appetite
of cities for land resources has adversely affected landscapes and
ecosystems at the local and regional scales (Cheng, Yang, Zhao, &
Wu, 2009; Wu, Xiang, & Zhao, 2014), and this phenomenon is par-
ticularly prevalent in developing countries (Dewan & Yamaguchi,
2009; Geymen & Baz, 2008; Henríquez, Azócar, & Romero, 2006;
Kumar, Pathan, & Bhanderi, 2007; Liu, Liu, Zhuang, Zhang, &
Deng, 2003; López, Bocco, Mendoza, & Duhau, 2001; Wei & Ye,
2014). China is the largest urbanizing nation and developing coun-
try in the world (Kamal-Chaoui, Leman, & Zhang, 2009); its
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: xmgwt@hust.edu.cn, xuemg__1105@sina.com (M. Xue),
crystalluo@hust.edu.cn (Y. Luo).
attention due to its astonishing pace, uniqueness and complexity.
Admittedly, China has witnessed unprecedented economic growth
and social development during rapid urbanization. However, due
to the short-sighted behavior of the local governments and the lack
of useful tools for guiding sustainable land use management, many
natural and semi-natural lands have been converted into construc-
tion lands (Liu, Zhan, & Deng, 2005; Liu et al., 2003). Urban built-up
areas have increased at an alarming rate in the past few decades,
especially in large coastal cities (Wei & Ye, 2014). The dramatic
LULC changes have placed heavy pressure on ecosystems and seri-
ously threaten urban sustainability.
With growing public awareness of sustainability, ecosystem
service valuation has become a hot topic in academia. Since
Costanza, d’Arge, et al. (1997) published their pioneering work
on the economic valuation of global ecosystem services, a vast
body of literature has estimated the variations of ESV in the con-
text of worldwide rapid urbanization (Estoque & Murayama,
2012; Kreuter, Harris, Matlock, & Lacey, 2001;
Mendoza-González, Martínez, Lithgow, Pérez-Maqueo, & Simonin,
2012). Based on the work of Costanza, d’Arge, et al. (1997), Xie,
Lu, Leng, Zheng, and Li (2003) developed a more specific and prac-
ticable method for China’s terrestrial ecosystem service valuation.
Thereafter, a large number of studies on ESV variations in response
to China’s rapid urbanization have emerged (Li, Li, & Qian, 2010;
Liu, Li, & Zhang, 2012; Qi, Ye, Zhang, & Yu, 2014; Su, Xiao, Jiang,
& Zhang, 2012; Wan et al., 2015). Li (2002) argued that willingness
to pay (WTP) is the core concept of ecological valuation, and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2015.05.007
0264-2751/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
86 M. Xue, Y. Luo / Cities 46 (2015) 85–93
people’s WTP is affected by socio-economic factors. Therefore,
ecosystem service valuation should reflect the temporal dynamics
of social and economic development. Otherwise, its significance in
practical application will be weakened (Zhao & Yang, 2007).
According to Pearl’s S-shaped growth curve, Li (2002) proposed a
method for temporal dynamic ecological valuation; based on Li’s
method, a growing body of literature has estimated the regional
dynamic ESVs in China (Feng, Ma, Wang, & Xu, 2013; Hu, Hong,
& Wu, 2013). Although the importance of ESV as a useful tool in
guiding sustainable land use planning and urban management
has been widely recognized (Atkins, Burdon, Elliott, & Gregory,
2011; Barral & Oscar, 2012; Fisher, Turner, & Morling, 2009;
Gómez-Baggethun & Barton, 2013; Sun, Zong, Ke, Wang, & Wang,
2011; Tang et al., 2007; Vihervaara, Kumpula, Tanskanen, &
Burkhard, 2010), there seems to be a blind spot in the literature
on the issue of the actual use of ecosystem services economic val-
uation (Laurans, Rankovic, Billé, Pirard, & Mermet, 2013). Most of
the studies focus only on ESVs themselves or their variations; how-
ever, they rarely pay attention to the issue of how to integrate ESV
into actual use for guiding sustainable development. The knowl-
edge gap on how to communicate information to policy makers
and the general public is one of the challenges on the application
of ESV (Wu, Ye, Qi, & Zhang, 2013). The problem of information
communication can potentially be solved by indicators. As the
empirical and indirect interpretation of reality, indicators can
effectively communicate related information to decision makers
and the public (Spangenberg, Pfahl, & Deller, 2002), thus promot-
ing a better understanding of complex phenomena (Repetti &
Desthieux, 2006). Due to this advantage, indicators have been uti-
lized in the assessment on urban planning and environmental
management with increasing frequency (Li et al., 2009; Merkle &
Kaupenjohann, 2000). By taking the rural ecosystem service value
as one of the key factors, Liu, Wang, and Long (2010) put forth the
method of the calculation of the index of rural sustainability in
Jiangsu Province of China, which provided new ideas and inspira-
tion for the application of ESV.
The present study focuses on Tianjin city, which is the largest
coastal city and a famous international port city in China. Serving
as one of the most important engines of China’s economic growth,
Tianjin has experienced rapid urbanization during the past few
decades. Meanwhile, huge areas of natural and semi-natural lands
have been converted into built-up areas to satisfy the needs of
accelerated urbanization and economic development. Since the
local government put forward the development goal of the
eco-city construction and accordingly adjusted the land policy in
2006, the local ecological environment has gradually improved.
All these reasons mentioned above have made this city a meaning-
ful case study. Comprehensive studies on the impacts of LULC
changes on the regional ecosystem and sustainability are very
scarce in this area. This paper depicted the LULC dynamics and
the corresponding variations of ecosystem service value (ESV) from
2003 to 2011. By taking the total dynamic ESV as one of the key
factors, we established an indicator of urban sustainable develop-
ment state and analyzed the relationship between LULC change,
regional ESV, and urban sustainability. Based on our results, this
paper provides useful information and advice for sustainable
development in Tianjin. Furthermore, we hope this case study will
provide a valuable reference to other coastal cities in China.
2. Methodology
2.1. Study area
Tianjin (38°340 N to 40°150 N, 116°430 E to 118°040 E) is located in
the northeast part of the North China Plain, near Beijing (Fig. 1). It
covers a total area of approximately 11919.7 km2 and has a coast-
line of 130 km. Tianjin has a semi-humid and continental monsoon
climate, with four distinct seasons. The temperatures range from
2 °C to 28 °C, and the annual average temperature is approxi-
mately 14 °C.
Tianjin is an economic and logistics center of the Bohai Rim
region and northern China, from which products from a vast area
within northern and northwestern China can be exported overseas.
During the past few decades, Tianjin has experienced rapid urban-
ization and economic development. The urban area and the popu-
lation have dramatically expanded, and the regional GDP increased
from 19.82 billion Yuan in 1978 to 1130.73 billion Yuan in 2011.
However, the areas of cropland, grassland, orchard, and unused
land have significantly decreased.
2.2. Land use classification
The data sets on land use of Tianjin from 2003 to 2011 were
taken from the Tianjin statistical yearbook (Tianjin Municipal
Bureau of Statistics, 2012). According to the land use classification
system established by the China National Committee of Agriculture
Divisions (1984) and the Tianjin statistical yearbook (Tianjin
Municipal Bureau of Statistics, 2012), the data sets were classified
into eight land use/land cover (LULC) categories that included
woodland, grassland, orchard, cropland, wetland, water body,
unused land, and built-up.
2.3. Assignment of ESV
According to the work of Costanza, d’Arge, et al. (1997) and Xie
et al. (2003), Li et al. (2010) assigned the ecosystem service value of
unit area of each land use category in Shenzhen based on the near-
est equivalent ecosystem. In this paper, this assignment method
was adopted to obtain the annual average ecosystem service value
of unit area of each land use/land cover (LULC) category in Tianjin
(Table 1).
2.4. Calculation of ESV
Once the annual average ecosystem service value of unit area of
each LULC category is determined, the ESV of Tianjin can be calcu-
lated through the formulas shown as follows:
X
ESVk ¼ Ak  VCkf ð1Þ
f
X
ESVf ¼ Ak  VCkf ð2Þ
k
XX
ESV ¼ Ak  VCkf ð3Þ
k f
where ESVk , ESVf , and ESV refer to the ecosystem service value of
land use/land cover category k, the ecosystem service value of func-
tion type f, and the total ecosystem service value, respectively. Ak is
the area (ha) of land use/land cover category k, and VCkf is the value
coefficient (RMB Yuan/ha) of land use/land cover category k, ecosys-
tem service function type f. To ensure that all the ESVs were compa-
rable across time, we set 2003 as the base year and calculated the
ESVs for different years with the value coefficient in 2003.
2.5. Dynamic adjustment of ESV
With the development of society and the improvement of living
standards, people will pay more attention to ecosystem services,
leading to an increase of their WTP for ecosystem service. Thus,
the static ESV should be adjusted through the coefficients of social
 M. Xue, Y. Luo / Cities 46 (2015) 85–93 87

Fig. 1. The study area.

Table 1
Annual average ecosystem service value of unit area of different LULC categories in Tianjin (RMB Yuan/ha).

Woodland Grassland Orchard Cropland Wetland Water body Unused land Built-up
Gas regulation 2811.34 624.59 1726.97 401.62 1445.83 0 0 0
Climate regulation 2168.75 722.92 1445.84 714.88 13735.40 369.49 0 0
Water supply 2570.37 642.59 1606.48 481.94 12450.22 16386.10 24.10 0
Soil formation and retention 3132.64 1566.32 2349.48 1172.73 1373.54 8.03 16.06 0
Waste treatment 1052.34 1052.24 1052.24 1317.31 14602.90 14618.97 8.03 0
Biodiversity protection 2618.56 875.53 1747.05 570.30 2008.10 2000.07 273.10 0
Food 80.32 240.97 160.45 803.24 240.97 80.30 8.03 0
Raw material 2088.42 40.16 1064.29 80.32 56.23 8.03 0 0
Recreation and culture 1028.15 32.13 530.14 8.03 4457.98 3486.06 8.03 0
Total 17550.79 5815.46 11683.13 5550.39 50371.18 36957.07 337.36 0

development stage to better reflect the real variations of ESV in
response to the changes of social development level. Li (2002) pro-
posed that Pearl’s S-shaped growth curve could be utilized to
describe the characteristic of ecological value.
The simplified form of Pearl’s S-shaped growth curve model is
shown as follows:
1
l¼
1 þ et
where l refers to the coefficient of social development stage and t
refers to the social development stage, represented as follows:
1 while wetland suffered a slight decrease.
t¼ 3
En
where En refers to the Engel coefficient. Thus, the static ESVs in dif-
ferent years can be adjusted through the following equation:
ESVd ¼ ESVs  l
where ESVd , ESVs , and l refer to the dynamic ESV after adjustment,
the static ESV, and the coefficient of social development stage,
respectively.
3. Results and analysis
loss. There was also a slight decrease in orchard land. On the other
hand, there was a sharp increase in built-up area, indicating that
many natural and semi-natural lands were converted to built-up
area. Wetland areas remained unchanged, while woodland, grass-
land, and water body areas increased slightly. During the period
2007 to 2011, the reductions in grassland, orchard, and unused
land areas accelerated significantly. Grassland sharply declined to
ð4Þ zero, with a 100% decrease, while unused land suffered the greatest
loss. Conversely, woodland and built-up area continued increasing,
especially woodland. The growth of woodland sped up significantly
compared to the previous period, while the growth of built-up area
slowed down. During this period, water body remained unchanged,
ð5Þ
Overall, from 2003 to 2011, unused land, cropland, and orchard
suffered substantial losses, and grassland was reduced to zero. In
contrast, there was a remarkable growth in built-up, indicating
that rapid urbanization and industrialization in Tianjin had con-
ð6Þ sumed a large amount of natural and semi-natural lands.
Benefiting from the effective implementation of ‘‘2009–2012
Tianjin Forestry Construction Plan’’, woodland experienced a con-
sistently accelerated growth over the whole study period. Due to
the adjustment of land use policy, the decrease rate of cropland
was greatly reduced. In addition, it is worth noting that local water
body was well protected.

3.1. LULC dynamics and changes

3.2. Temporal patterns and overall trends of ESV
Table 2 shows the LULC dynamics and changes in Tianjin from
2003 to 2011. During the period 2003 to 2007, unused land had Table 3 and Fig. 2 show the temporal patterns and overall
the highest rate of decline, whereas cropland suffered the greatest trends of the ESVs of different LULC categories in the study area
88 M. Xue, Y. Luo / Cities 46 (2015) 85–93

Table 2
LULC dynamics and changes in Tianjin from 2003 to 2011.

2003 2007 2011 2003–2007 2007–2011 2003–2011

Area (ha) Area (ha) Area (ha) Area (ha) % Area (ha) % Area (ha) %
Woodland 35,943 36,300 55,817 357 0.99 19,517 53.77 19,874 55.29
Grassland 607 610 0 3 0.49 610 100.00 607 100.00
Orchard 36,817 36,300 30,877 517 1.40 5423 14.94 5940 16.13
Cropland 475,480 443,690 440,746 31,790 6.69 2944 0.66 34,734 7.31
Wetland 171,800 171,800 171,780 0 0.00 20 0.01 20 0.01
Water body 67,400 67,450 67,450 50 0.07 0 0.00 50 0.07
Unused land 157,673 132,460 87,307 25,213 15.99 45,153 34.90 70,366 44.63
Built-up 314,150 360,300 394,613 46,150 14.69 34,313 9.52 80,463 25.61

from 2003 to 2011, respectively. The overall structure of the ESVs

of different LULC categories remained stable during the whole
study period. Wetland contributed the most value to the total
ESV, followed by water body and cropland, while built-up area,
grassland, and unused land contributed the least value. It is worth
noting that the contribution of woodland increased in the second
period, primarily due to the sharp increase in its area. It can be
seen that the dynamic ESVs of grassland, orchard, and unused land
continued decreasing, while the dynamic ESVs of woodland, crop-
land, wetland, and water body first decreased and then increased.
Table 4 and Fig. 3 show the temporal patterns and overall
trends of the ESVs of different ecosystem service functions in
Tianjin from 2003 to 2011, respectively. During the whole study
period, the rank of the contributions from different ecosystem ser-
vice functions to the total ESV remained the same. The ESVs of Fig. 2. ESVs of different LULC categories in Tianjin from 2003 to 2011 (104 Yuan).
waste treatment, water supply, and climate regulation contributed Note: WL1 – woodland; GL – grassland; OD – orchard; CL – cropland; WL2 –
wetland; WB – water body; UL – unused land; BU – built-up.
the most value to the total ESV. The combined ESV of these three
function types accounted for more than 70% of the total ESV, indi-
cating that waste treatment, water supply, and climate regulation
were the dominant ecosystem service function types in the study reduction in the coefficient of social development stage triggered
area. However, the ESVs of raw material, food, and gas regulation the decreases in the ESVs of woodland, grassland, wetland, and
contributed the least value. Their combined ESV accounted for only water body even though their areas showed no change or increased
approximately 8% of the total ESV. During the whole study period, (Table 2). Overall, the decreases in the ESVs of all LULC categories
the ESVs of all ecosystem service functions first decreased and then resulted in a sharp decline in the total ESV during the first period.
increased. In 2006, the local government put forward the development goal of
eco-city construction, and then, Tianjin officially started the con-
3.3. Variations of ESV struction of the eco-city in 2007. Under the guidance of the goal,
the local government promulgated the ‘‘Regulations of land man-
3.3.1. Variations of the ESVs of different LULC categories agement of Tianjin city’’, which proposed more rational measures
Table 5 shows the variations of the ESVs of different LULC cate- for land management. By increasing the intensity of land use,
gories in Tianjin from 2003 to 2011. During the period 2003 to Tianjin gradually reduced construction land to effectively protect
2007, Tianjin was at the stage of accelerated urbanization (Wang, farmland. As a result, the decrease rate of cropland dropped shar-
Liu, & Li, 2011; Wang, Wang, & Huang, 2014). The rapid and rough ply from 2007 to 2011 (Table 2). In addition, as the coefficient of
urban expansion consumed huge areas of cropland, orchard, and social development stage was higher than in the previous period,
unused land, inevitably leading to a great loss in the total ESV. there was an increase in the ESV of cropland. In this period, there
Due to a high value coefficient, the slight decrease in orchard area was more unused land instead of cropland converted to urban con-
generated a substantial loss in the total ESV. However, due to a low struction land, leading to a larger reduction in the ESV of unused
value coefficient, the dramatic decrease in unused land generated a land in contrast to the previous period. Compared with the previ-
relatively slight loss in the total ESV. During this period, the ous period, orchard and grassland suffered a greater loss, especially

Table 3
ESVs of different LULC categories in Tianjin from 2003 to 2011 (104 Yuan).

Woodland Grassland Orchard Cropland Wetland Water body Unused land Built-up Total
2003 ESVs 63082.80 353.00 43013.78 263909.94 865376.87 249090.65 5319.26 0.00 1490146.30
ESVd 37218.85 208.27 25378.13 155706.86 510572.35 146963.48 3138.36 0.00 879186.32
% 4.23 0.02 2.89 17.71 58.07 16.72 0.36 0.00 100.00
2007 ESVs 63709.37 354.74 42409.76 246265.25 865376.87 249275.44 4468.67 0.00 1471860.10
ESVd 34403.06 191.56 22901.27 132983.24 467303.51 134608.74 2413.08 0.00 794804.45
% 4.33 0.02 2.88 16.73 58.79 16.94 0.30 0.00 100.00
2011 ESVs 97963.24 0.00 36074.00 244631.22 865276.13 249275.44 2945.39 0.00 1496165.42
ESVd 54859.41 0.00 20201.44 136993.48 484554.63 139594.25 1649.42 0.00 837852.64
% 6.55 0.00 2.41 16.35 57.83 16.66 0.20 0.00 100.00
 M. Xue, Y. Luo / Cities 46 (2015) 85–93 89

Table 4
ESVs of different ecosystem service functions in Tianjin from 2003 to 2011 (104 Yuan).

2003 2007 2011

ESVs ESVd % ESVs ESVd % ESVs ESVd %
Gas regulation 60437.58 35658.17 4.06 59172.10 31952.93 4.02 63562.13 35594.79 4.25
Climate regulation 285617.52 168514.51 19.17 283349.95 153008.97 19.25 286516.59 160449.29 19.15
Water supply 362824.63 214066.53 24.35 361322.61 195114.21 24.55 365152.34 204485.31 24.41
Soil formation and retention 99670.53 58805.61 6.69 95892.81 51782.12 6.52 100216.60 56121.30 6.70
Waste treatment 419891.72 247736.11 28.18 415740.32 224499.77 28.25 416705.88 233355.29 27.85
Biodiversity protection 95299.45 56226.68 6.40 92811.33 50118.12 6.31 95516.10 53489.02 6.38
Food 43894.34 25897.66 2.95 41315.64 22310.45 2.93 41097.47 23014.58 2.75
Raw material 16266.45 9597.21 1.09 16030.70 8656.58 1.09 19503.30 10921.85 1.30
Recreation and culture 106241.81 62682.67 7.13 106222.77 57360.30 7.22 107892.42 60419.76 7.21
Total 1490146.30 879186.32 100.00 1471860.10 794804.45 100.00 1496165.42 837852.64 100.00

Overall, expect for woodland and built-up area, the ESVs of all
LULC categories decreased during the whole study period, inevita-
bly leading to a sharp decline in the regional total ESV.

3.3.2. Variations of the ESVs of different ecosystem service functions

Fig. 3. ESVs of different ecosystem service functions in Tianjin from 2003 to 2011
(104 Yuan). Note: GR – gas regulation; CR – climate regulation; WS – water supply;
SF&R – soil formation and retention; WT – waste treatment; BP – biodiversity
protection; FS – food supply; RM – raw material; R&C – recreation and culture.
grassland, which declined to zero. Therefore, the loss of these two
LULC categories generated a greater loss in the total ESV in contrast
to the previous period. From 2008, the construction of the eco-city
entered the accelerated development stage. The local government
promulgated the ‘‘2009–2012 Tianjin Forestry Construction Plan’’,
aimed at highlighting the role of woodland in the construction of
the eco-city. As a result, the area of woodland soared. Due to the
remarkable increase of area and the high value coefficient, the
ESV of woodland achieved a remarkable increase, thus contributing
the most value to the rebounding of the total ESV. In this period,
the growth in the coefficient of social development stage triggered
the increase in the ESVs of water body and wetland, even though
their area had no change or decreased (Table 2). In the second per-
iod, the total ESV achieved a growth of 430.4819 million Yuan.
Table 6 shows the variations of the ESVs of different ecosystem
service functions from 2003 to 2011. During 2003 to 2007, the
ESVs of all ecosystem functions suffered different degrees of reduc-
tion, consequently leading to a sharp decline in the total ESV. The
ESV of food had the highest rate of decline, mainly due to the great
loss of cropland. The ESVs of soil formation and retention, biodiver-
sity protection, and gas regulation had a relatively high rate of
decline, primarily due to the decrease of orchard, which had a high
value coefficient in the three functions (Table 1). The ESV of waste
treatment suffered the greatest loss, due to the decreases in crop-
land and orchard. The decline in orchard area was also responsible
for the dramatic loss in the ESVs of water supply and climate reg-
ulation. In contrast with the previous period, from 2007 to 2011,
the ESVs of all ecosystem functions experienced different degrees
of increase, resulting in a growth of the total ESV. Owing to the
substantial increase in woodland area, the ESVs of raw material
and gas regulation had the highest growth rate, while the ESVs of
water supply, waste treatment, and climate regulation gained the
greatest value. Overall, from 2003 to 2011, the ESVs of all ecosys-
tem service functions decreased, especially the ESVs of waste treat-
ment, water supply, and climate regulation.
In summary, the total ESV first decreased and then increased
from 2003 to 2011. Undeniably, the adjustment of the land use pol-
icy for the construction of eco-city achieved a rebound in the total
ESV. However, the total ESV of 2011 did not recover to the level of
2003. During the whole study period, the total ESV suffered a sharp
decline of 413.3368 million Yuan. It was found that the rebound in
the total ESV primarily relied on the increase of woodland. Some of
the LULC categories with a high value coefficient, such as wetland,
orchard, and grassland, were not paid enough attention to; this
was the main reason for the significant loss in the total ESV.

Table 5
Variations of ESVs of different LULC categories in Tianjin from 2003 to 2011.

2003–2007 2007–2011 2003–2011

ESVd (104 Yuan) % ESVd (104 Yuan) % ESVd (104 Yuan) %
Woodland 2815.79 7.57 20456.35 59.46 17640.56 47.40
Grassland 16.714 8.02 191.56 100.00 208.27 100.00
Orchard 2476.86 9.76 2699.83 11.79 5176.69 20.40
Cropland 22723.62 14.59 4010.24 3.02 18713.38 12.02
Wetland 432628.84 8.47 17251.12 3.69 26017.72 5.10
Water body 12354.74 8.41 4985.51 3.70 7369.23 5.01
Unused land 725.28 23.11 763.66 31.65 1488.94 47.44
Built-up 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total 84381.87 9.60 43048.19 5.42 41333.68 4.70
90 M. Xue, Y. Luo / Cities 46 (2015) 85–93

Table 6
Variations of ESVs of different ecosystem service functions in Tianjin from 2003 to 2011.

2003–2007 2007–2011 2003–2011

4 4
ESVd (10 Yuan) % ESVd (10 Yuan) % ESVd (104 Yuan) %
Gas regulation 3705.24 10.39 3641.86 11.40 68.38 0.18
Climate regulation 15505.54 9.02 7440.32 4.86 8065.22 4.79
Water supply 18952.32 8.85 9371.10 4.80 9581.22 4.48
Soil formation and retention 7023.49 11.94 4339.18 8.38 2684.31 4.56
Waste treatment 23236.34 9.38 8855.52 3.94 14380.82 5.80
Biodiversity protection 6108.56 10.86 3370.90 6.73 2737.66 4.87
Food 3587.21 13.85 704.13 3.16 2883.08 11.13
Raw material 940.63 9.80 2265.27 26.17 1324.64 13.80
Recreation and culture 5322.37 8.49 3059.46 5.33 2262.91 3.61
Total 84381.87 9.60 43048.19 5.42 41333.68 4.70

3.4. Sensitivity analysis of the importance of sustainability in cities (Ericson, 2006;

Shearer et al., 2006). Because a city is a complex system affected
Because the assignment of ESV was based on the nearest equiv- by many factors, it is not reasonable to care solely about GDP when
alent ecosystem, this means that the biomes used as proxies for examining the sustainability. Liu et al. (2010) put forward the
land use/land cover categories were not perfect matches. There index of rural sustainable development states including three key
were uncertainties in the valuation of ESV (Li et al., 2010); there- factors: ecological service value, per capita net income of farmers,
fore, additional sensitivity analysis was needed to test the robust- and grain yield. The aim of this index was to intuitively depict the
ness of the value coefficients and ESV estimated in this study. We state of coordinated development between rural ecosystem, eco-
calculated the coefficient of sensitivity (CS) by utilizing the stan- nomic subsystem, and production subsystem. By referring to this
dard economic concept of elasticity as follows (Kreuter et al., method, this paper developed an index to assess the sustainability
2001): of the urban system in Tianjin, including three key factors: GDP,
per capita net income of urban residents, and dynamic ecosystem
ðESVj  ESVi Þ=ESVi
CS ¼ ð7Þ service value. Similar to the ESV value coefficient, the GDP and
ðVCjk  VCik Þ=VCik the per capita net income of urban residents were adjusted to con-
here, we used ESVd to calculate the coefficient of sensitivity (CS). VC stant year-2003 values by the GDP index and CPI, respectively, to
refers to the value coefficient, i and j refer to the initial and adjusted ensure a comparison across time. These data sets were collected
values of ESVd , respectively, and k refers to the LULC category. If from the Tianjin statistical yearbook (Tianjin Municipal Bureau of
CS P 1, the estimated ESVd is considered to be elastic with respect Statistics, 2012). The index of urban sustainable development state
to the value coefficient; if CS < 1, the situation is just the opposite. was constructed as follows:
According to Eq. (7), the percentage changes of total ESVd for a given
percentage change in a value coefficient and the coefficients of sen- qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
sitivity (CSs) from a 50% adjustment were calculated. The results are S¼ ðA2 þ B2 þ C2 Þ=3 ð8Þ
shown in Table 7.
For all LULC categories, the CS was significantly less than 1 or
where A, B, C refer to GDP, per capita net income of urban residents,
even approximately equal to zero, indicating that the estimated
and dynamic ecosystem service value, respectively; these data
total ESVd in this study area was relatively inelastic with respect
should be standardized to [0, 1] before calculating the index. The
to the value coefficient. The CS for wetland was the highest, pri-
values and variation tendency of the three key factors and S are
marily due to the large area and the highest value coefficient.
shown in Table 8 and Fig. 4 (the values of GDP and PCNI shown
The estimation in this study proved to be robust through the sen-
in Table 8 have been adjusted by GDP index and CPI, respectively),
sitivity analysis above, in spite of uncertainties in the value
where ‘‘"’’ represents that there was an increase compared with the
coefficients.
previous year, ‘‘#’’ represents there was a decline, and ‘‘–’’ repre-
sents no change. It was found that the sustainability index of the
4. The sustainability of the urban system urban system in Tianjin showed an overall variation trend consis-
tent with the total ESVd (Fig. 4). From 2003 to 2006, and despite
Due to the increasingly serious problems triggered by rapid continuous growth in the GDP and the per capita net income of
urbanization and industrialization, people are increasingly aware urban residents, S declined in response with the decrease of total
ESVd , especially in 2006. The relatively high decrease rate of total
ESVd led to a sharp decline in S. From 2007, with the implementa-
Table 7
Percentage change in estimated total ESV and coefficients of sensitivity (CSs) from tion and development of the eco-city construction, S showed an
adjustment of ecosystem valuation coefficients (VC). upward trend, in general. In 2007, due to the slow down of the
decline in ESVd and the continuous growth of GDP and per capita
Change of value coefficient 2003 2007 2011
net income of urban residents, S started to rebound. In 2008, the
% CS % CS % CS
construction of the eco-city entered the accelerated development
Woodland VC ± 50% 2.12 0.04 2.16 0.04 3.27 0.07 stage, and S sharply increased with the growth in ESVd . In 2009,
Grassland VC ± 50% 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 both the ESVd and GDP decreased slightly, resulting in a decline in
Orchard VC ± 50% 1.44 0.03 1.44 0.03 1.21 0.02
Cropland VC ± 50% 8.86 0.18 8.37 0.17 8.18 0.16
S. In 2010, the slight decrease in total ESVd was offset by the growth
Wetland VC ± 50% 29.04 0.58 29.40 0.59 28.92 0.58 of the GDP and the per capita net income of urban residents, result-
Water body VC ± 50% 8.36 0.17 8.47 0.17 8.33 0.17 ing in a growth in S. In 2011, due to the coordinated development of
Unused land VC ± 50% 0.18 0.00 0.15 0.00 0.10 0.00 the three key factors, the sustainability index reached a remarkably
Built-up VC ± 50% 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
high level of 0.89.
 M. Xue, Y. Luo / Cities 46 (2015) 85–93 91

Table 8
GDP, PCNI, ESVd and sustainability index from 2003 to 2011.

GDP (billion Yuan) PCNI (Yuan) ESVd (104 Yuan) S

2003 257.80 – – 10313.00 – – 879186.32 – – 0.58 – –
2004 268.65 " 4.21% 11209.38 " 8.69% 855288.97 # 2.72% 0.45 # 22.41%
2005 277.90 " 3.44% 12166.26 " 8.54% 840404.67 # 1.74% 0.40 # 11.11%
2006 292.31 " 5.19% 13539.12 " 11.28% 781951.04 # 6.96% 0.29 # 27.50%
2007 298.45 " 2.10% 14878.23 " 9.89% 774804.45 " 0.91% 0.36 " 24.14%
2008 327.07 " 9.59% 16760.92 " 12.65% 845556.56 " 9.13% 0.69 " 91.67%
2009 314.29 # 3.91% 18674.88 " 11.42% 840945.39 # 0.55% 0.68 " 1.45%
2010 328.31 " 4.46% 20190.27 " 8.11% 824339.62 # 1.97% 0.75 " 10.29%
2011 345.79 " 5.32% 21339.17 " 5.69% 837852.64 " 1.64% 0.89 " 18.67%

In spite of the methodological shortcomings, a growing body of

Fig. 4. Percentage variations of GDP, PCNI, ESVd and sustainability index from 2003
to 2011.
5. Discussion and conclusion
5.1. Discussion
This paper used the method proposed by Costanza, d’Arge, et al.
(1997), Costanza, Cumberland, et al. (1997) and modified by Xie
et al. (2003) to estimate the ecosystem service value (ESV) in the
study area. Furthermore, we converted the static ESV into a
dynamic ESV through the coefficients of social development stage.
Compared with the static ESV, the dynamic ESV can achieve a more
reasonable measurement of the ecological benefits and costs of
regional land policy under constantly changing social–economic
factors (Hu et al., 2013; Li, 2002), making our results more mean-
ingful for practice. Admittedly, due to the current limitation of the
theory and technology, it is still difficult to completely overcome
the uncertainties and constraints in present models of ESV
(Harwood & Stokes, 2003; Hein, Van Koppen, De Groot, & Van
Ierland, 2006; Konarska, Sutton, & Castellon, 2002; Kreuter et al.,
2001). Uncertainties and constraints, such as ecosystem hetero-
geneity and spatio-temporal scale effects, will inevitably lead to
a coarse estimation. For example, it is obviously unreasonable to
set the value coefficient of built-up area as zero, which neglects
any negative or positive impacts of built-up area on the environ-
ment (Bolund & Hunhammar, 1999; Li et al., 2010; Liu et al.,
2012; Ran, Lü, Jia, & Qi, 2006). However, it is important to note that
the accuracy of coefficients is often less critical for time series anal-
ysis than for cross-sectional analysis, as the coefficients tend to
affect estimates of directional variations less than estimates of
the magnitude of the ecosystem values at specific points in time
(Li et al., 2010). Our study was mainly concerned with the varia-
tions of the ESV in Tianjin over time. Moreover, our sensitivity
analysis indicated that the total ESV estimated in this study area
was relatively inelastic with respect to the value coefficients; thus,
our estimation was robust to some extent despite the underlying
uncertainties in the value coefficients.
literature has given encouraging signs that ESV has considerable
potential in guiding sustainable land use planning and urban man-
agement. Sustainability is the social goal of ESV (Costanza, 2000).
However, going from ESV to the achievement of sustainability is
a process that transfers from valuation point to policy point.
Thus, there is an urgent need to develop efficient value transfer
approaches (i.e., translate valuations into meaningful policy analy-
sis through efficient and informative ways) for the application of
ESV (Atkinson, Bateman, & Mourato, 2012). Unlike most of the case
studies on regional ESV in China, which focus only on ESVs and
their variations, this paper goes one step further by taking the total
dynamic ESV as one of the key factors to establish an index of
urban sustainability. By portraying the dynamic temporal trend
of the index in Tianjin over time, we provided an intuitive descrip-
tion of the impacts of local LULC changes on urban sustainability.
In contrast with ESV, which is usually shown as a tremendous
value, the index is more likely to be accepted and understood.
Thus, it promotes better information communication, and it is con-
ducive to comparisons between cities. For this reason, establishing
relevant indexes is a feasible way to translate ecological valuation
to meaningful policy analysis and should be popularized in the
application of ESV. As mentioned previously, a city is a complex
system affected by many factors; thus, creating a sound indicator
system to better characterize the complex urban system is still
an unresolved issue, and the question of how to quantify the fac-
tors included in the indicator system is also a challenge for future
research (Li et al., 2009; Zhang, Yang, & Yu, 2006).
Tianjin is well known as an international port city with a long
history, and its development is a microcosm of China’s urbaniza-
tion process. As a supplement to comprehensive studies on the
impacts of LULC changes on regional ESV and sustainability in this
area, and in addition to providing useful information, this paper
aims to provide a reference for the application of ESV through
the establishment of the index. As shown in the existing literature,
taking ecosystem service into consideration as a key factor will
soon be mainstream in urban planning and environmental
management, although significant challenges remain ahead
(De Groot, Alkemade, Braat, Hein, & Willemen, 2010;
Gómez-Baggethun & Barton, 2013). Therefore, with the increas-
ingly serious ecological crisis and growing public awareness of sus-
tainability under rapid urbanization, it is meaningful to effectively
incorporate ESV into policy-making and policy evaluation for
urban sustainable development in future research.
5.2. Conclusion
By employing Tianjin as a case study, this paper depicted the
LULC dynamics and the corresponding variations of ecosystem ser-
vice value (ESV) from 2003 to 2011. The results showed that there
was a significant increase in built-up area (46,150 ha) during the
period 2003 to 2007, while there were dramatic decreases in crop-
land (31,790 ha), orchard (517 ha), and unused land (25,213 ha),
92 M. Xue, Y. Luo / Cities 46 (2015) 85–93
inevitably leading to a sharp decline in total ESV (843.8187 million
Yuan). From 2007 to 2011, due to the drastic increase in woodland
(19,517 ha), the regional total ESV achieved a rebound instead of
continuing to decline. In general, the total ESV suffered a sharp
decline of 413.3368 million Yuan across the whole study period.
The sustainability index of urban systems in Tianjin showed an
overall variation trend consistent with the total ESVd . It is worth
noting that the coordinated development of GDP, per capita net
income of urban residents, and ESVd achieved a remarkable level
of sustainability in 2011, as high as 0.89. Under the adjustment
of land use policy for the construction of the eco-city, the
eco-environment in Tianjin has improved gradually. The local gov-
ernment’s measures provided a valuable reference to other cities
and regions in China.
Urban sustainable development is a long-term arduous task due
to the complexity of the urban system. Because our results indi-
cated that land policy would significantly affect the regional ESV
and sustainability, we suggest that policy makers avoid
short-sighted behavior in land policy formulation. In addition,
more comprehensive and rational measures should be introduced
for land use planning to achieve a sustainable synthesis of social,
economic, and ecological factors.
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to Ali Modarres (editor) and two
anonymous referees for their insightful comments and suggestions
that have significantly improved this paper. The authors also thank
seminar participants at Department of Finance, School of
Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
Finally, the authors acknowledge the financial support from
Natural Science Foundation of China. (No. 70871046, No.
71171091, and 71471070). Needless to say, we are responsible
for any remaining errors.
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