Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124

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Ecological Indicators
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind

Linking ecological and social systems to promote regional security

management: A perspective of ecosystem services supply-flow-demand
Xiaobing Li a, Xiang Li a, Xin Lyu a, b, *, Dongliang Dang a, Kai Wang a, Chenhao Zhang a,
Wanyu Cao a
a
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
b
College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The ecosystem services (ESs) are the extremely important basis for the identification and optimization of
Ecosystem services ecological security patterns (ESPs). Nonetheless, the great majority of existing research on ESPs has concentrated
Supply-flow-demand on the ESs supply, ignoring the ESs demand and flow from social systems, which hinders the connection between
Ecological security patterns
ecological and social systems. Consequently, using remote sensing products, meteorological observations and
Sustainable management
statistical yearbooks and other multisource data, this study analysed supply–demand matching characteristics of
Socio-ecological systems
ESs in the West Liaohe River Basin in China based on assessment of six key ESs from 2010 to 2020, including
water yield, food production, livestock breeding, soil loss by water, soil loss by wind, and net primary pro­
duction, identified the ESPs in combination with the perspective of ESs supply–demand, and discussed the
ecological compensation scheme for ESPs construction based on the ESs flow. The research results indicated that
the supply and demand of ESs within the study area was mismatched. Therefore, identifying ecological sources
solely through the high supply areas of ESs might not effectively meet the needs of human society. By expanding
the scope of alternative ecological sources and taking into account the distance between alternative sources and
high demand areas, it was helpful to improve the rationality and scientificity of the identification of ESPs. There
was a threshold effect in identification of ecological sources and extraction of ecological corridors, but there was
no significant impact on overall spatial distribution of ESPs. The results of this research will help to promote the
realization of the relationship between ESs and ESPs and better guide the development of regional socio-
ecological coupling systems.

1. Introduction
In recent years, ecological security patterns (ESPs) have widely
applied to solve the contradiction between ecological environmental
protection and socio-economic development (Lu et al., 2020; Ding et al.,
2022). The ESPs have formed the mainstream paradigm of “ecological
sources identification-resistance surface construction-ecological corri­
dors extraction-ESPs identification” (Peng et al., 2018). The ESPs are
mainly composed of ecological sources and ecological corridors, and the
ecological corridors are extracted based on ecological sources and
resistance surface (Lyu et al., 2022). As the first step and important basis
for identifying ESPs, it is crucial to accurately identify ecological sour­
ces. Currently, ecosystem services (ESs) have been extensively used in
the identification of ecological sources (Dong et al., 2021; Li et al.,
2021a). Guo et al. (2022), for instance, taking the Jianghuai Ecological
Economic Zone in China as an example, explored the identification
scheme of regional ESPs based on five ESs.
In the past, the high-value areas of ESs were generally identified as
ecological sources, mainly focusing on areas where ESs could be widely
provided (Peng et al., 2019b). On this basis, the ESPs were identified,
and it was believed that the key ecological areas that could ensure
regional ecological security could be effectively protected. For example,
Chen et al. (2022) selected high supply areas of ESs as the ecological
sources and build ESPs by superimposing three ESs (soil conservation,
water conservation and biodiversity). In fact, ecosystem management is
mainly aimed at achieving sustained supply of ESs to meet the needs of
human society (Wang et al., 2019; Gong et al., 2022). The high-value
area of ESs is the area with high supply potential, and only the part

* Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University,
Beijing 100875, China.
E-mail address: lyuxin@mail.bnu.edu.cn (X. Lyu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.111124
Received 13 June 2023; Received in revised form 26 September 2023; Accepted 10 October 2023
Available online 27 October 2023
1470-160X/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
X. Li et al.
that can meet human needs can be effectively utilized by the social
system; that is, the supply–demand of ESs ought to maintain a spatial
match to link ecological and social systems (Yahdjian et al., 2015; Cui
et al., 2022). Consequently, in addition to strong ESs capacity, ecological
sources should also be reasonably distributed in areas that can widely
satisfy the requirement of human society (Zhang et al., 2022b). In other
words, regions with a strong supply capacity of ESs may be far away
from the regions required by human society and can provide less
effective ESs for human society. These regions are not scientific and
reasonable enough as ecological sources. At present, it is necessary to
identify ESPs according to ESs supply–demand relationship and connect
ecological with social systems (Jiang et al., 2021; Ran et al., 2022).
Furthermore, the flow between the supply and demand of ESs has also
been ignored (Wang et al., 2022a). We believe that ESs flow should be
incorporated into the construction of ESPs and promote the trans­
formation from scientific research to practical management. On the
whole, few studies have included the whole process “ supply-flow-
demand ” of ESs into the identification and construction of ESPs,
which is not conducive to the coupling of ecological and social systems.
The research explored the identification and construction of ESPs
from the standpoint of ESs supply-flow-demand in the West Liaohe River
Basin. In the West Liaohe River Basin, its ecological environment is
fragile. As social economy improves by leaps and bounds, environmental
problems have become increasingly serious, such as water resource
pollution and shortages, grassland degradation, and soil erosion. At
present, it is urgent to build ESPs aiming at achieving the sustainable
Fig. 1. The roadmap of this study. WY, water yield; SL, soil loss by wind; LB, livestock breeding; SW, soil loss by water; FP, food production; NPP, net primary
production; ESs, ecosystem services.
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Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124
development of socio-ecological systems (Xia et al., 2021). Net primary
production (NPP) is a common ES in regional studies, and water yield
(WY) is necessary for basin research. Since it is a significant granary and
meat depot located in the farming pastoral ecotone in northern China,
food production (FP) and livestock breeding (LB) are two important ESs.
Moreover, since there are many mountains in the western part of the
basin, and the “Horqin Sandy Land”, one of the largest sandy lands in
China, is located in the middle of the basin, the soil loss by water (SW)
and soil loss by wind (SL) also need to be considered (Wang et al.,
2022a). Therefore, six key ESs, NPP, WY, FP, LB, SW and SL, were
selected for identification and construction of ESPs in this study. Among
them, NPP, WY, SW and SL mainly rely on natural corridors such as
rivers and air to carry out spatial flow, while FP and LB mainly carry out
spatial flow through artificial channels such as roads and railways,
closely connecting the regional supply and demand relationship.
Based on multisource data, such as remote sensing products, mete­
orological observations and statistical yearbooks, this study evaluated
six key ESs based on the f general biophysical models in the study area
between 2010 and 2020, and quantified the demand for ESs in combi­
nation with population density and residential areas based on the grid
scale. On the basis of analysing the matching characteristics of ESs
supply–demand, this paper explored applicable schemes of ESPs iden­
tification and discussed the ecological compensation scheme for ESPs
construction in accordance with the ESs flow, and proposed optimiza­
tion suggestions. A roadmap for this study is shown in Fig. 1. By doing
so, we hope to answer the following two main research questions: (1)
X. Li et al.
How can ESs supply-flow-demand be incorporated in the identification
and construction of ESPs; (2) How to promote the transformation of ESPs
scientific research into regional practical management. The decision
support would be provided to ecological security management and
sustainable development of socio-ecological coupling systems in
watershed leading areas through these research results.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area and data sources
The West Liaohe River Basin is the main source of the Liao River,
with a total area of approximately 1.26 × 105 km2, consisting of 21
county-level administrative units (Lyu et al., 2022) (Fig. 2). The West
Liaohe River Basin, with annual temperature between 5 and 6.5 ◦ C and
annual precipitation between 350 and 550 mm, is located on the
northern edge of the East Asian monsoon region (Feng et al., 2014). It
belongs to the farming pastoral ecotone in northern China. The land
coverage is mainly cultivated land and grassland, which account for
more than 70 % of the watershed area. At the same time, the basin is
located in the Bohai Rim Economic Circle and Northeast Asia triangle
economic zone, is not only the most important economic development
area of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous region, but also China’s
important energy and coal chemical industry base. As social economy
takes off, the land use types and landscape patterns in the basin have
undergone frequent changes over recent years, the contradiction be­
tween regional water resources protection and food production is very
prominent, and environmental problems such as grassland degradation
are prominent, which make regional ecological security face severe
challenges. At present, it is urgent for the basin to achieve sustainable
development of socio-ecological coupling systems by building ESPs.
Data descriptions and sources were shown in the Table 1. To facili­
tate data analysis, we used ArcGIS to unify spatial resolution of various
research data to 250 m.
2.2. Research framework
The research framework is shown in Fig. 3. This study first assessed
six key ESs between 2010 and 2020, including WY, FP, LB, SW, SL and
NPP, combined with residential areas and population density to quantify
demand for ESs and analysed supply–demand matching of ESs by using
models or remote sensing inversion methods. Second, alternative
ecological sources were selected on the basis of the comprehensive
supply capacity of ESs, the area threshold of ecological sources was
Fig. 2. Geographical location of the study area. (a) Elevation map; (b) land use and land cover map.
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Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124
defined on basis of quantity and area of patches, and ultimate ecological
sources were defined on basis of the distance between different alter­
native sources and areas with high demand for ESs. Then, by combining
land use types and night light data, ecological resistance surface was
constructed. Ecological corridor was extracted by circuit theory, and
threshold effect of ecological corridor extraction was revealed. Finally,
the ESPs were identified and analysed, the ecological compensation
scheme for ESPs construction based on the ESs flow was discussed, and
the management strategies of the ESPs were proposed from the
perspective of resources integration, regional priority, and regional
cooperation. In this study, the software such as ArcGIS, Origin, and
Office were mainly used for statistical analysis. To be specific, the dis­
tribution characteristics and matching of ESs supply–demand was ana­
lysed based on the spatial mapping, classification and statistical
functions of ArcGIS software. The threshold effect of ecological sources
was analysed by the data sorting and mapping functions of Office soft­
ware. And the threshold effect of ecological corridors was analysed by
the spatial mapping and statistical functions of ArcGIS software and the
mapping functions of Origin software.
2.3. Model and methodology
2.3.1. ESs assessment
According to the regional characteristics of the semiarid basin and
the farming pastoral ecotone in the study area, six key ESs were selected,
including WY, FP, LB, SW, SL, and NPP. Among them, WY, SW and SL
were evaluated by general models, and the specific model process and
parameter setting referred to existed research (Renard et al., 1991; Peter
Kareiva et al., 2011; Li et al., 2021b; Lyu et al., 2022; Sun et al., 2022).
NPP was based on MODIS product (MOD17A3HGF) data processing.
In an effort to simulate the spatial distribution of FP and LB, we
assumed that FP and LB correspond to cultivated land and grassland,
respectively, and NDVI had a good linear relationship with the pro­
ductivity of cultivated land and grassland, which was helpful to realise
spatial simulation of FP and LB on pixel scale (Kuri et al., 2014; Hu et al.,
2018). Specifically, FP and LB amount at the county level based on the
statistical data first obtained, then the cultivated land and grassland area
were extracted using land use data, and FP at county level to the pixel
level were allocated through following formula (Peng et al., 2019a; Lyu
et al., 2021a; Zhang et al., 2022a). Among them, cultivated land and
grassland areas were common areas extracted on basis of the land use
datasets of 2010, 2015 and 2020. The analysis of grassland area was
based on the composite image of the NDVI maximum in the peak
vegetation growth season (from July to August). For the cultivated land
X. Li et al. Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124

Table 1 difficulty of ESs that the ecosystem could provide to residents (Zhang
Data descriptions and sources. et al., 2017; Xu et al., 2022); that is, it was essential to comprehensively
Data Descriptions Resolution Type Sources and consider the population density of residents and the accessibility of ESs
access date (Zhai et al., 2020). In detail, there are two different situations for resi­
Remote sensing NPP 500 m Raster NASA website dents to access ESs: weekend travel (daily travel, short distance travel)
data (MOD17A3HGF (2022.09.14) and long distance travel on holidays (Zhang et al., 2017; Zhang et al.,
product, kg/m2) 2022b). With the increase in population density within the radius of the
NDVI (MOD13Q1 250 m Raster ecological spot, the scale of the beneficiary population will also increase,
product, N/A)
Meteorological Temperature 1 km Raster National Earth
that is, the demand for ESs at the ecological spot will increase. It is
data (℃), System Science assumed that the shorter the distance from residential area to ecological
precipitation Data Center point, the easier it is for residents to obtain ESs, the more frequently they
(mm) (NESSDC) are used, and the higher the demand for ESs. Based on these assump­
(2021.12.27)
tions, the following formula was used to quantify the demand for ESs at
Wind speed data N/A Else National
(m/s) (txt Meteorological the grid scale:
file) Data Center
PD1 i × PD2
(2)
i
(2021.05.10) ESdemand i =
Snow depth data N/A Else National Tibetan ED
(cm) (txt Plateau Data
file) Center where ESdemand i is the demand for ESs at grid point i. PD1 i and PD2 i are
(2022.04.13) the core density indices representing the population density of grid point
Soil data Soil physical and 1 km Raster NESSDC i within the circle with radii of 10 km and 100 km, indicating the de­
chemical (2022.03.04)
mand of residents for grid point i during weekend travel and holiday
property data
Social Grain output (t) N/A Else Local statistical
travel. ED is the distance from grid point i to the nearest residential area
economic and livestock (xlsx yearbook (Zhang et al., 2017).
data stock (heads) data) (2022.09.27)
Other data Residential area N/A Vector National 2.3.3. Ecological security patterns
data Geographic
The supply–demand of ESs is mainly reflected in ecological source
Information
Resource identification stage.
Directory Service
System (1) Identification of ecological sources
(2020.03.05)
Population 1 km Raster WorldPop
density data website
In order to obtain distribution of comprehensive ES supply, WY, FP,
(2022.06.23) LB, SW, SL, and NPP were normalised and spatially superimposed first.
Land use data 30 m Raster Resource and Then, the quantile method was used to classify the integrated ESs from
Environment high to low into 5 (0–20 %), 4 (20–40 %), 3 (40–60 %), 2 (60–80 %), and
Science and Data
1 (80–100 %). The third, fourth and fifth level regions were chosen as
Centre of the
Chinese Academy the alternative ecological sources, and then the regions that could better
of Sciences meet the demand–supply of ESs were chosen as final ecological sources
(RESDC) according to distance between different alternative areas and high-value
(2021.07.29) areas of ESs demand. Fragmented patches were removed when selecting
Night light data 1 km Raster RESDC
(2021.07.29)
the ecological sources. The study took 2 km2 as the initial area and 2 km2
Digital elevation 30 m Raster NESSDC as step size and combined the quantity and area of patches to make a
model (m) (2021.12.27) comprehensive judgement (Ran et al., 2022; Li et al., 2023).
Administrative N/A Vector National
boundary other Geomatics Center
(2) Correction of resistance surface
auxiliary data of China
(2023.03.10)
Initial resistance value was set according to land use types and
Note: N/A, not applicable.
modified in combination with the night light data to obtain the
ecological resistance surface (Lyu et al., 2022).
area in the study area, combined with growth period of the most widely
planted crop type (corn), the NDVI mean value from May to September (3) Extraction of ecological corridors
was taken as the basis for spatial analysis (Ling et al., 2016; Li et al.,
2018). Since the study area involved multiple administrative units, the The width of the ecological corridor will directly affect spatial scope
statistical indicators of some banners and counties did not meet the and cost of regional ecological security protection. The research ana­
calculation requirements of long time series, and the study carried out lysed the threshold effect and selected appropriate width of ecological
an average processing according to the actual situation. corridor extraction by adjusting cumulative resistance thresholds (CRTs)
NDVI ij of ecological corridor construction (Gou et al., 2022; Gao et al., 2022;
Gij = × Gj (1) Zhang et al., 2022b). Among them, the cumulative resistance threshold
NDVI mean,j
of ecological corridors was determined by taking 1 k (k is the abbrevi­
where Gij is the grain output (t) or livestock yield (heads) of pixel i in ation for both urban and the unit is m) as the initial resistance threshold,
county j, NDVIij is NDVI of pixel i in county j, NDVImean,j is regional 5 k as the step size, and combining the corridor areas between 1 k and
average NDVI of county j, and Gj is the average regional grain output (t) 50 k. The specific process was realised through Linkage Mapper software
or livestock (heads) of county j. based on circuit theory (Mcrae et al., 2008; Fan et al., 2021; Lu et al.,
2022).
2.3.2. Quantification of ESs demand
The demand for ESs was quantified according to the quantity and (4) Identification and optimization of ESPs

4
X. Li et al.
Fig. 3. The framework of this study. ESs, ecosystem services.
Ecological pinch points, ecological obstacles and other important
protection elements could be identified through circuit theory. Using the
“all to one” pattern recognition of the Pinchpoint Mapper tool, consid­
ering that the core position of ecological pinch points would not be
affected by the change in corridor width, the corridor cost weighted
distance was set to 10000 m. The Barrier Mapper module was used to
identify ecological obstacle points. We selected “Maximum” mode for
iterative calculation, set minimum search radius to 250 m and maximum
search radius to 1000 m, and searched and detected by the moving
window method in 250 m steps (Gao et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2022b).
2.3.4. ESs flow and ecological compensation
Since management measures are often implemented in administra­
tive units, ESs flow and ecological compensation were analyzed at the
county level. Ecological source areas and high-demand areas were
assigned to county-level administrative units, and the main distributed
counties of ecological sources were taken as supply areas, and the main
distributed counties of high-demand areas were taken as demand areas.
Finally, 17 supply areas and 10 demand areas were selected to further
quantify ESs flow and explore ecological compensation schemes. It
should be pointed out that the study quantified the relative ESs sup­
ply–demand. Supply-demand of ESs were divided into 5 categories from
high to low by quantile method and the values were assigned as 0.1, 0.3,
0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 so as to calculate the difference between ESs sup­
ply–demand and ratio of ESs supply–demand.
Due to proportional relationship between the comparative ecological
radiation force (CERF) and ecosystem service flow, the CERF was used to
reflect ecosystem service flow. The formula was as follows (Chen et al.,
2014; Zhai et al., 2021; Wei et al., 2023):
e− Dij /H
CERF = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ (3)
1 + (Ni /H)/Nj
Where Dij was the distance between demand area i and supply area j,
H was maximum distance between demand areas and supply areas,
Ni andNj were difference between ESs supply and demand of demand
area i and supply area j, respectively.
On this basis, supply areas were taken as the areas receiving
ecological compensation funds, and the demand areas were taken as the
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Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124
areas paying ecological compensation funds. By calculating the ratio of
net ESs flow in areas paying ecological compensation funds, the paying
proportion of ecological compensation funds for demand counties could
be reasonably quantified. In the same way, by calculating the ratio of net
ESs flow in areas receiving ecological compensation funds, the receiving
proportion of ecological compensation funds for supply counties could
be reasonably quantified.
3. Results
3.1. Distribution characteristics of ESs supply–demand
Fig. 4 showed the distribution characteristics of ESs supply–demand.
The ESs supply was generally characterised by a spatial distribution of
“low in the middle and high around”. Supply capacity of ESs in the
northwest, southwest and east regions was strong, while that in the
middle region was low. The supply area of different grades of ESs was
relatively uniform, approximately 20 %. The ESs demand was relatively
dispersed in space, forming a circular distribution around residential
areas. Areas with different levels of ESs demand had a significant dif­
ference. The area of high demand areas accounted for less than 1 %,
while the area of low demand areas accounted for more than 60 %.
Fig. 4c illustrated the supply–demand matching of ESs. The areas with
oversupply accounted for 72.49 %, mainly distributed around the study
area. Areas with supply exceeding demand accounted for 5.83 %, mainly
distributed in central area. Overall, the ESs supply–demand was poorly
matched. Areas with high supply capacity for ESs were separated from
the main demand areas for ESs. Areas with high ESs demand typically
had lower supply capacity, resulting in a more prominent sup­
ply–demand contradiction for ESs.
3.2. Identification and optimization of ESPs
The high supply areas of ESs accounted for more than 40 %, but the
high demand areas of ESs was very concentrated (less than 1 %), and
more than 99 % of the areas were in a “low demand” state (Fig. 5a).
Overall, the supply–demand matching of ESs was poor, and “high supply
and high demand” areas that could be selected were very limited.
X. Li et al. Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124

Fig. 4. Distribution characteristics of the supply and demand of ESs. (a) ESs Supply; (b) ESs Demand; (c) Supply-demand matching of ESs. The supply and demand of
ESs were divided into five levels: extremely low, low, medium, high and extremely high. The extremely low and low were areas with low supply/demand, while the
high and extremely high were areas with high supply/demand.

Fig. 5. Supply and demand matching and ecological source identification. (a) Proportion of matching area between supply and demand; (b) area threshold and
distribution of different ecological sources.

6
X. Li et al.
Therefore, it is necessary to identify areas with lower supply capacity
that can more easily meet the demand for ESs while protecting areas
with a high supply of ESs. In this study, the regions with 0–20 %, 20–40
% and 40–60 % of the comprehensive supply capacity of ESs were
extracted as alternative ecological sources, and threshold of ecological
sources was comprehensively determined according to quantity and
area of patches. The results showed that when the patch area increased
to approximately 40 km2, area and quantity of ecological patches
reached a relatively stable state (Fig. 5b). 40 km2 was used as the area
threshold to extract three types of ecological sources. If only the high-
supply areas with the top 40 % of the ESs supply capacity were
considered, the demand for ESs could not be well met. However, the
areas with 40–60 % of the supply capacity of ESs could basically cover
the high demand areas, making it easier to directly provide ESs for
human society.
In alternative ecological sources, the distance between high-supply
areas with 0–20 % and 20–40 % comprehensive supply capacity of
ESs and high-demand areas was more than 50 km as a whole, while the
distance between middle-supply areas with 40–60 % comprehensive ESs
supply capacity and high-demand areas was less than 50 km as a whole
(Fig. 6a). Therefore, the ecological sources were obtained by screening
the alternative sources at a distance of 50 km (Fig. 6b) to build the ESPs
in the study area. 99 ecological sources (including 35 A, 42B and 22C)
were finally selected, with a total area of approximately 1.81 × 104 km2.
These ecological sources accounted for 14.37 % of the total area of the
study area.
On this basis, ESPs in the study area was identified, and the threshold
effect analysis of ecological corridors extraction referred to the appendix
A. In summary, 5 k was a more appropriate cumulative resistance
threshold. At this time, the area proportion of the grassland and forest
was relatively high (6904.63 km2, 79.07 %), and the occupied con­
struction land area was relatively small (37.13 km2, 0.43 %), and the
area of ecological corridors was about 8732.31 km2. The overall ESPs
showed the spatial distribution characteristics of “four zones, three belts
and multiple branches” (Fig. 6c). Ecological pinch points and ecological
Fig. 6. Ecological security pattern. (a) The distance between different ecological sources and high demand areas; (b) distribution of ecological sources; (c) distri­
bution of ecological security pattern; (d) distribution of ecological pinch points and ecological obstacle points; k, thousand; CRT, cumulative resistance thresh­
olds (m).
7
Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124
obstacle points were widely distributed and need to be protected to
ensure a smooth ecological flow channel (Fig. 6d). In the central and
eastern parts of the region, there were many ecological obstacle points
distributed, and ecological restoration needed to be focused on (Fig. 6d).
3.3. Ecological compensation scheme for ESPs construction based on ESs
flow
The study quantified the ESs flow between the supply–demand areas
and explored the compensation scheme between the counties. The net
ESs flow between supply counties and demand counties was shown in
Fig. 7b (specific value referred to the appendix B). The flow direction of
ESs between supply and demand counties was complex and has signif­
icant differences. One of the most significant ecosystem service flows is
from 17 supply counties to Hongshan District (D2 in Fig. 7b) in Chifeng
City. The study analyzed proportion of ecological compensation funds
for supply counties and demand counties based on ESs flow (Fig. 7c&d).
There is a significant difference between receiving proportion of
ecological compensation funds for supply counties and paying propor­
tion of ecological compensation funds for demand counties. Specifically,
receiving proportion of ecological compensation funds was more than
10 % for Aohan Banner, Naiman Banner, Keshketeng Banner, Bahrain
Left Banner and Alukhorqin Banner. The receiving proportion of
ecological compensation funds for Zarut Banner, Horqin Left-wing Back
Banner and Horqin Left-wing Central Banner is close to 10 %. The
paying proportion of ecological compensation funds was more than 20
% for Hongshan District, which in the other 9 counties is about 10 %.
4. Discussion
4.1. Importance and necessity of incorporating ESs demands into ESPs
management
So far, numerous studies have adopted the practice of identifying
ecological sources and constructing ESPs based on ESs (Wang and Pan,
X. Li et al.
Fig. 7. Ecosystem services (ESs) flow and ecological compensation. (a) Supply and demand counties; (b) net ESs flow between supply and demand counties; (c)
receiving proportion of ecological compensation funds for supply counties; (d) paying proportion of ecological compensation funds for demand counties.
2019). Most of the existing studies superimposed multiple ESs to identify
ecological sources to ensure that important ecological patches were fully
protected (Chen et al., 2022). Nevertheless, in fact, scope of human
activities was often concentrated, and many services, such as soil con­
servation, wind prevention and sand fixation, and climate regulation,
also had a certain scope of supply. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to
build ESPs from viewpoint of the supply–demand of ESs and improve the
degree to which ESs meet human needs. This study has carried out a
more in-depth exploration around this theme.
Study found that overall, the supply capacity of ESs in high demand
areas was weak, so the common practice of selecting ecological sources
based on high supply areas of ESs would lead to the failure to effectively
satisfy the needs of human society (Fig. 3&4), which can be confirmed
by existing studies (Zhang et al., 2022b; Jia et al., 2023). The study
pointed out that the ecological sources should have two basic charac­
teristics: (1) the supply ability of ESs was higher than that of non­
ecological sources; and (2) ESs were reasonably distributed in areas that
could widely meet the needs of human society. This study fully
considered the matching of supply–demand, and on this basis, high-
supply areas with comprehensive supply capacity of 0–20 %, 20–40 %
and 40–60 % of the ESs were extracted as alternative ecological sources.
Based on the distance between sources and high-demand areas,
ecological sources were screened to build ESPs (Fig. 6). According to the
calculation, compared with ecological sources under the perspective of
ESs supply (spatial distribution referred to the appendix A), the average
supply–demand ratio (the ratio of supply and demand) of ecological
sources based on the perspective of ESs supply–demand decreases from
3.97 to 3.59 (Wu et al., 2023). Therefore, the ESPs constructed based on
this principle better considered spatial matching of the ESs sup­
ply–demand, which was helpful to improve the conversion rate of po­
tential ESs to final ESs and improve the level of human well-being
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Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124
(Watson et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2022b).
At present, many researches have focused on the nexus of social-
ecological systems (Feng et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2023), which pro­
vides an important reference for balancing ecological protection and
economic development. Different from previous studies, this study dis­
cussed the social-ecological systems management through ESPs from the
perspective of ESs supply-flow-demand. Based on the study results and
existing research (Wang et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2022b), we attempted
to establish a conceptual framework for linking social-ecological sys­
tems according to the relationship between ESs and ESPs (Fig. 8). The
ESs assessed based on the model represent the potential service supply
capacity of the ecosystem (Jiang et al., 2018). Only the ESs available to
human society can effectively meet the needs of the social system. The
ESPs affect the transformation of potential ESs into effective ESs.
Therefore, to identify and optimize the ESPs from the viewpoint of ESs
supply–demand is a necessary way to adjust the socio-ecological
coupling system and enormously improve the level of human well-
being (Robinson et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2022b). This study was a
further enrichment of the mainstream research paradigm of ESPs, a
scientific practice that effectively links the ecological and social systems,
and could provide ideas and methods for relevant research. Based on this
framework, the study believes that in the future, while enriching the
types of ESs, the supply-flow-demand situation of each ES should be
quantitatively described, which will provide more scientific and
decision-making basis for the study of ESs and ESPs. In addition,
quantitative research should be strengthened to explore the relationship
between ESPs and human well-being, which is an important basis for the
implementation of scientific research to regional applications.
X. Li et al.
Fig. 8. Conceptual framework. ESs, ecosystem services.
4.2. Suggestions for ecological conservation based on ESPs
This study provides spatial decision-making information for the
ecological protection of the West Liaohe River Basin. Overall, spatial
distribution characteristics of ESPs were “four zones, three belts and
multiple branches” (Fig. 6c). The main types of land use for ecological
sources were forest and grassland. Cultivated land was the main type of
land use in the east, with high grain production capacity. This showed
that the identified ecological sources better met the bottom line thinking
of ecological security management and helped to coordinate relation­
ship between economic development and ecological protection.
Ecological corridors were characterised by “three belts and multiple
branches”. The wide distribution of ecological corridors provides a
strong guarantee for the ecological flow between the sources, but at the
same time, it would increase the construction cost and difficulty.
Therefore, the optimization of ESPs should not only identify priority
areas for protection, but also fully rely on the existing resources (Fan
et al., 2022). Then, distribution of ecological sources and corridors in­
volves several county-level administrative units, so it is not only
Fig. 9. Framework of ecological security management.
9
Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124
necessary to carry out ecological management zoning, but also to
strengthen regional government cooperation. This is consistent with the
conclusions of previous studies (Wei et al., 2023; Zeng et al., 2023). In
addition, the funding for ESPs construction was a necessary foundation
for regional ecological protection, which has been ignored by many
existing studies. Therefore, we incorporated the ESs flow into the con­
struction of ESPs and discussed ecological compensation scheme, which
could help reasonably quantified the paying proportion of ecological
compensation funds for demand counties, and receiving proportion of
ecological compensation funds for supply counties (Fig. 7). We believe
that this will promote the transformation from ESPs scientific research
to regional practical management.
Based on the above analysis, there are three suggestions (Fig. 9): (1)
Resource integration and utilisation. The ecological sources protection
can relies on existing reserves. The construction of ecological corridors
makes full use of roads and river networks, thus reducing the cost of
ESPs optimization (Lyu et al., 2022). (2) Clarify the priority of regional
protection. Circuit theory was used to identify the areas where the
connectivity of the ecosystem was highly restricted and blocked. These
X. Li et al.
areas should be taken as strategic protection areas (ecological pinch
points and ecological obstacle points) that prioritise restoring connec­
tivity, namely, stepping stones (Shen et al., 2022). It was crucial to focus
on strengthening ecological protection and restoration of ecological
pinch points and ecological obstacle points to ensure ecological
smoothness between key areas. (3) Regional government cooperation.
Since ecological sources and corridors were scattered in multiple
administrative units, cooperation of various departments among regions
should be strengthened, and the optimization of regional ESPs should be
carried out in coordination (Lyu et al., 2021b). It is suggested to use
ecological compensation funds to protect the ESPs, which are mainly
concentrated in the main distribution counties of ecological sources
(Keshketeng Banner, Ningcheng County, Alukhorqin Banner, etc.) and
the main distribution counties of ecological pinchpoints and barriers
(Alukhorqin Banner, Kailu County, Naiman Banner, etc.). It should be
pointed out that some counties (such as Ningcheng County) had a large
area of ecological sources, but the net ESs flow was not high, so the
ecological compensation funds might not be enough to construct the
ESPs, and it is suggested that relevant departments provide financial
support.
4.3. Limitations and prospects
The research quantified demand for ESs in combination with popu­
lation density and residential area distribution. On this basis, the iden­
tification and optimization of ESPs were discussed from the viewpoint of
ESs supply–demand. In fact, ESs demand is often abstract and subjective.
Quantifying the demand for ESs only through population density may
have an impact on ecological sources and increase the uncertainty of
research results (Zhou et al., 2022). It is necessary to continuously
strengthen field research, introduce more indicators to quantify the
demand for ESs, and improve the scientific and accurate identification of
ESPs. In addition, we could not quantified all-important ESs, and the ESs
flow may affect the supply–demand relationship, thereby having a
certain impact on location of ecological sources and corridors (Cui et al.,
2022; Wang et al., 2022a; Xu and Zhang, 2022). Therefore, in future, the
relationship between ESs and ESPs should be examined from more
perspectives, the accuracy of ESPs identification further improved, and a
more scientific decision-making basis for regional ecological security
management provided. Last but not the least, categorization based on
quantile varies with data, the quantile range might be different between
two sets of data. Although quantile method has been widely used in the
relevant studies of ESs and ESPs (Zhang et al., 2017; Li et al., 2022; Lyu
et al., 2022), it may still increase the uncertainty of the results in this
study. In the future, it is necessary to test the generalization of the
quantile method to classify the integrated ESs.
5. Conclusions
Our study linked social-ecological systems from the viewpoint of ESs
supply-flow-demand, and discussed identification and construction of
ESPs. This research realized the spatial visualization of the sup­
ply–demand matching of ESs, clarified relationship between the sup­
ply–demand of ESs and ESPs, revealed threshold effect of ESPs,
discussed ecological compensation scheme for ESPs construction based
on the ESs flow, and put forwards suggestions for optimization of ESPs.
The study found that expanding the range of alternative ecological
sources and considering distance between sources and high demand
areas will help to improve the rationality and scientificity of the iden­
tification of the ESPs. On this basis, combined with the distribution of
ecological sources and ecological corridors, suggestions were put for­
wards from aspects of pattern optimization. These results will not only
enrich the research paradigm of ESPs, but also promote the trans­
formation of scientific research on ESs into regional practical decision-
making. In future studies, more ESs should be introduced, supply and
demand relationship and flow path of ESs should be more accurately
10
Ecological Indicators 156 (2023) 111124
quantified, further optimize the identification and construction para­
digm of ESPs and promote regional management decision-making.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Xiaobing Li: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft, Writing –
review & editing, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Re­
sources, Supervision. Xiang Li: Conceptualization, Writing – original
draft, Visualization, Data curation, Formal analysis. Xin Lyu: Concep­
tualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Meth­
odology, Formal analysis, Project administration, Funding acquisition,
Resources. Dongliang Dang: Writing – original draft, Writing – review
& editing, Methodology, Visualization, Data curation. Kai Wang:
Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Methodology.
Chenhao Zhang: Writing – original draft, Methodology, Formal anal­
ysis. Wanyu Cao: Data curation, Formal analysis.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Key Science and Technology Special
Program of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (grant no.
2021ZD0015), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant
nos. 42271291 and 32201345).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.111124.
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