Economic valuation of grassland ecosystem services is important for protecting and restoring grassland ecosystems. This study aims to investigate Chinese netizens’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for protecting grassland ecosystem services in Inner Mongolia by using the contingent valuation method. The results indicate that 61.55% of respondents expressed a positive WTP. The mean WTP was estimated to be CNY 170.76 (USD 25.11) per person per year. We found that there is a significant spatial difference in respondent’s WTP. Factors such as respondent age, education, household income and concern about grassland protection significantly affected their WTP. Younger, more educated and wealthier respondents have a higher probability of willingness to pay, and those who are concerned about grassland protection present a higher WTP. The regression results also show that distance from the grassland negatively affects the probability and values of people’s WTP. Findings of this research provide useful policy implications for decision-makers involved in grassland protection and management.

With the rise of the strategy of Coordinated Development for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, it is necessary to evaluate the trade-offs/synergies of the survival environment and human well-being in Hebei, the capital region of China. However, existing methods cannot analyze and express trade-offs/synergies of two or more variables simultaneously. Therefore, this paper proposes a new framework to express the trade-offs/synergies among land-use intensity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. In this paper, we first identified the land-use intensity change and land-use transformation and evaluated ecosystem services and human well-being in Hebei from 2000–2015 under the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework. Then, the trade-offs/synergies of the three indicators were determined by GIS-based methods and MATLAB. The results show that land-use intensity and human well-being mainly present a synergistic relationship, while ecosystem services and land-use intensity mainly present a trade-off relationship, and ecosystem services and human well-being also present a trade-off relationship in Hebei during 2000–2015. In addition, some regional solutions to achieve sustainable development were proposed: region 1 needs to adjust land-use structure, region 2 needs to protect the ecological environment to improve the supply of ecosystem services, and region 3 needs to commit to improving the regional comprehensive human well-being. This study not only proposes a new framework for analyzing trade-offs/synergies of land use intensity, ecosystem services, and human well-being, but it also provides regional solutions for Hebei to achieve sustainable development.

The quality of social relationships is recognized as an important aspect of human well-being. Improving social relationships can help to promote other aspects of human well-being, such as health and income. The development of individual social relationships relies on regional social relationships. However, few studies have focused on social relationships evaluation at the regional level. Therefore, the study aims to construct a comprehensive evaluation index system and to evaluate regional social relationships by calculating the regional social relationships index (RSRI). The weights of the indicators were calculated by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy weight method. The social relationships of prefecture-level cities in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau were evaluated based on statistical data. The results showed that (1) the top three indicators of comprehensive weight were number of community service agencies, number of vehicles operated on highway, and telephone penetration; (2) the regional social relationships on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau showed an upward trend from 2010 to 2019; (3) the average RSRI scores of prefecture-level cities in Qinghai and Gansu were higher than other provinces; and (4) the number of community service agencies was the main obstacle factor for the development of regional social relationships in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. The finding of this study can provide further insights about social relationships research from a regional analysis perspective and cover the gap in the literature on regional social relationships.