West African coastal areas including the Beninese coastal zones have undergone an intensification of socio-economic activity in the last few decades that has been strongly driven by the effects of rapid urbanization. This has led to land-use and land cover changes that represent threats to the sustainability of various ecosystem functions. Such dynamics of land use and land cover changes pose challenges to coastal zone management. Correct assessment is vital for policymakers and planners to ensure efficient and sustainable use of the coastal ecosystem services, and it remains crucial to achieving sustainable coastal zone management. This study examines changes in land-use and land cover (LULC) and their impacts on ecosystem services value (ESV) fluctuations in the tropical coastal region of Benin, West Africa. We employed Globe Land 30 image data for the years 2010 and 2020, and the ESV fluctuations during the study period were evaluated using the benefit transfer approach (BTA) with corresponding local coefficients values and the GIS techniques. The results reveal that (1) in the current urbanizing coastal area, the LULC types have changed significantly, with obvious reductions in forest land and waterbodies and a considerable increase in artificial surfaces; (2) the total ESV decreased by 8.51% from USD 7.1557 million in 2010 to USD 6.5941 million in 2020; (3) the intensity of LULC in the coastal region has increased over the last 10 years; (4) regions with high land-use intensity have a high rate of ESV change; and (5) provisioning services are the greatest contributors of ESV (51% in 2010; 41% in 2020), followed by supporting services (37% in 2010; 35% in 2020) and regulating services (25% in 2010; 30% in 2020). Uncontrolled changes in LULC from forest land and waterbodies are the main causes of the loss in total ESV, necessitating urgent measures to improve the coastal ecosystem sustainability through effective planning and policies.

The quantitative and spatial–temporal variations in the characteristics of ecosystem value can be helpful to improve environmental protection and climate adaptation measures and adjust the balance between economic development and the ecological environment. The arid and semi-arid regions of China are undergoing the effects of climate change across the entire northern hemisphere. Their ecological environments are fragile and in conflict with anthropogenic activities, which significantly altered more ecosystems services in these regions. Therefore, estimating the effects of anthropogenic activities on ecosystem services is important for formulating ecological policy and regional environmental mitigation plans of these regions. This study employed the model of ecosystem service value (ESV) assessment and the bivariate spatial autocorrelation method to reveal the spatiotemporal variations in the characteristics of ecosystem value in the arid and semi-arid ecological regions of China and its interaction with human activities. Results showed that (1) the total value of ES of the study area increased from USD 487,807 billion in 2000 to USD 67,831,150 billion 2020; (2) the ES value provided by forest land first increased by 5.60% from 2000 to 2020; (3) the ESV provided by grassland showed an overall decline over the 20 years. Food and raw material production showed the lowest ES value, and climate regulation and soil conservation decreased from 2000 to 2020; (4) the index of human footprint patches decreased from 45.80% in 2000 to 17.63% in 2020, while the high and very high human footprint index areas increased significantly, mainly due to the rapid urbanization and improvement of railway networks in these areas. Spatially, the regions with high human footprint were mostly dispersed in the northeastern of China such as Shanxi and Gansu, whereas the regions with a low human footprint remained mainly located in the central and southwestern parts of China; (5) significant spatial dependencies between changes in ESV and the human footprint index were recorded. Our study could provide a scientific basis for ecosystem functions regulation and land development security in arid and semi-arid ecological regions.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the economic development of Tibet has been accelerating. The Yarlung Zangbo River and its two tributaries, as the region with the largest population concentration and the fastest economic development in Tibet, has been under the dual influence of global climate warming and the intensification of human social and economic activities, where a high number of land types, such as woodland, grassland, and water areas, have been transformed into other land types, and the residential area has expanded in a disorderly manner. The ability to maintain sustainable regional development has been severely damaged. To meet the requirements of different stages of social and economic development and regional social development goals, in this study, we use the Yarlung Zangbo River and its two tributaries of Tibet as an example. Based on the Markov–PLUS model and considering the natural, social, and cultural conditions of the basin, combined with the multi-landscape simulation of land use, we predict the land use situation of the Yarlung Zangbo River and its two tributaries of Tibet in 2038. We observed the following: (i) the Markov–PLUS model has a high simulation accuracy for different land types in the study area, and can sufficiently simulate the changes in different land types in the Yarlung Zangbo River and its two tributaries of Tibet; and (ii) the simulation settings of the three landscapes basically meet the different development modes and paths of the basin in the future. There were obvious differences in the structure of land use in the basin, among which there were obvious differences, especially agricultural land and water areas. Use of the Markov–PLUS model can provide data support and references for the implementation in terms of ecological scrutiny, landscape planning, and early warnings for food production consumption security and unreasonable land use, in order to achieve the sustainable development of the basin.

As a transitional zone between urban and rural areas, the peri-urban areas are the areas with the most intense urban expansion and the most frequent spatial reconfiguration, and in this context, it is particularly important to reveal the evolution pattern of rural settlements in the peri-urban areas to provide reference for the rearrangement of rural settlements. The study takes five townships in the urban suburbs, and explores the scale, shape, spatial layout, and spatial characteristics of the urban suburbs of Hefei from 1980 to 2030 under the influence of urban-lake symbiosis based on spatial mathematical analysis and geographical simulation software. The study shows that: (1) the overall layout of rural settlements in the study area is randomly distributed due to the hilly terrain, but in small areas there is a high and low clustering phenomenon, and the spatial density shows the distribution characteristics of “high in the east and low in the west”; (2) since the reform and opening up, there are large spatial differences in the scale of rural settlements in the study area. (3) Different development scenarios have a strong impact on the future spatial pattern of rural settlement land use within the study area, which is a strong reflection of policy.