With increasing urbanization in China, the traffic-induced urban environmental noise pollution problem is becoming more and more serious, and it has become a common urban malady that cannot be ignored. Traffic green belts are an important part of the urban ecosystem and play a role in traffic noise reduction, and simultaneously provide ecosystem services, such as creating a natural landscape and retaining dust. Therefore, they are a category of Nature-based Solutions (NbSs) that have multiple ecosystem service provisions. The relationship between NbSs and urban ecosystem services is one of the current research hot spots. However, regarding the assessment of ecosystem services on the urban scale, the role of vegetation in reducing noise pollution as a service has rarely been studied. Taking Shenzhen City as an example, through monitoring 217 sample plots in the city, this paper analyzes the relationship between vegetation coverage and the ability of green belts to reduce noise by using the IUEMS platform combined with the high-resolution spatial distribution data of green spaces. Then, we evaluated the product amount and the value of the roadside green belts in Shenzhen when acting as a noise reduction service. The work of this study, to a certain extent, improves the problems related to the inadequate consideration of vegetation characteristics in current urban-scale noise assessment models. The results show the following: (i) In the respective analysis buffer zones of the Grade I to Grade IV roads in Shenzhen, on average, for every 1% increase in the vegetation coverage of green belts, noise can be reduced by 0.4 dB, 1.0 dB, 0.2 dB, and 0.6 dB, respectively. (ii) The product value of the noise reduction service provided by roadside green belts is CNY 1.16 billion in Shenzhen. (iii) The road traffic noise greatly exceeds the standard in Shenzhen, but traffic noise can be decreased by increasing the vegetation coverage of green belts. This is not only beneficial to the scientific understanding of the ecological service value of green spaces by evaluating the noise reduction service of traffic green belts, as well as its influencing factors, but is also beneficial to making improvements in construction and management ideas for urban green spaces.

Ecosystem service assessments are crucial for sustainable water area management. Previous studies and actions on waterfront area management often emphasized merely the saving and use of water resources per se, ignoring the safeguarding of hydrological source ecosystems and assurance of sustainable provision capacity of water supplies. Using the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Green Integration Demonstration Zone (demonstration zone) as an example, this study integrated ecosystem service assessment into waterfront area management in an urbanizing region. We evaluated and mapped four ecosystem services—carbon sequestration, water purification, stormwater regulation and climate regulation—in the demonstration zone in 2020. We examined ecosystem service quantities, spatial distributions and economic values to inform policy balancing development and the environment. Our results show that ecosystem services provide significant benefits to waterfront areas: the zone furnished substantial ecosystem services, sequestering 544,900 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (USD 2.03 million), eliminating the total material quantities of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of 47,700 tons and 13,900 tons (USD 66.31 billion and USD 20.17 billion, respectively), and retaining over 467.48 million cubic meters of stormwater runoff (USD 1756.35 million) and total material quantity of climate regulation amounts to 65.13 billion kilowatt hours (USD 5.10 billion). However, these service provisions varied spatially. Wujiang District provided the most ecosystem services overall, while Qingpu District had the highest per-unit intensities in stormwater regulation. Policy, planning and action should consider ecosystems providing security and prosperity. Managing the trade-offs between development and environment, reducing risks and cultivating resilience necessitates safeguarding ecosystem service potential.

Urbanization, despite driving regional economic growth, has led to significant disparities in development levels among cities. Many studies have made valuable suggestions for ecological conservation in economically underdeveloped regions. However, for medium-level cities with large economic development needs, the question of how to strike a balance between development and conservation in land development patterns is a critical issue to be addressed. By integrating ecosystem services assessment models and land use prediction models, we proposed a framework for guiding future land-use strategies based on ecosystem service values, using Jiaxing City as a case study. Firstly, we assessed and mapped the current status of ecosystem services value. Then, we simulated the land use distribution pattern and ecosystem services value under three development strategies: inertial development, cropland protection, and ecological development. Eventually, we determined the optimal urban land development pattern. The results showed that the total ecosystem service value for Jiaxing is CNY 124.82 billion, with climate regulation, water conservation, and flood mitigation contributing the most. The ecological development strategy yields the highest service value, with a 0.81% increase compared to the current situation, while the cropland protection and inertial development strategies result in decreases of 0.73% and 10.93%, respectively. Furthermore, the ecological strategy expands high-value service areas, concentrated in the northern river network and southern hilly regions. These findings offer valuable insights for urban planners and policymakers in formulating sustainable strategies and integrating ecosystem service values into economic policies to promote urban development.

System-based approaches are critical for addressing the complex and interconnected nature of urban ecological development and restoration of ecosystem services. This study adopts a system perspective to investigate the spatiotemporal drivers of key ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, water conservation, sediment reduction, pollution mitigation, and stormwater regulation, within the Yangtze River Delta Eco-Green Integrated Development Demonstration Area (YRDDA) from 2000 to 2020. We propose a novel framework for defining enhanced-efficiency ecosystem service management regions (EESMR) to guide targeted restoration. Our analysis revealed the complex interplay of 11, 9, 6, 6, and 10 driving factors for selected ecosystem services, highlighting the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of these drivers. By overlaying these key factors, we identified high-efficiency restoration priority areas for EESMR that ensure high returns on investment and the efficient restoration of ecosystem functions. This system-oriented approach provided critical spatial guidance for integrated ecological restoration, green development, and eco-planning. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and planners in the Yangtze River Delta and other rapidly urbanizing regions, supporting the formulation of effective land-use policies that balance environmental sustainability and urban growth.

In the context of increasing urbanization and worsening environmental pollution, nonpoint source pollution during high-frequency rainfall has become a major ecological problem that endangers residents in cities. This study takes Shenzhen as an example. On the basis of a large number of soil sample test data, and combined with relevant environmental variables, it has drawn the high-resolution, high-precision spatial distribution maps of soil attributes within the city. In addition, this paper combines the revised universal soil loss equation and the GeoDetector model to evaluate the supply capacity of nonpoint source reduction services in the city’s ecological space and the main driving factors of spatial distribution characteristics for different types of land. The study found that increasing soil point density and combining environmental variables can help improve the accuracy of spatial mapping for soil attributes. The ME, MSE, ASE, RMSE, and RMSSE of spatial mapping all meet the accuracy evaluation criteria and are better than many existing studies; the spatial distribution characteristics of soil attributes and nonpoint source reduction services show significant differences among the whole city, secondary administrative regions, and different types of land; the GeoDetector results show that among the three main types of land use (forested land, industrial land, and street town residential land), topographic factors, habitat-quality factors, and ecosystem types have the greatest impact on the spatial differentiation characteristics of nonpoint source reduction services. Among climate factors, only precipitation factors have the greatest impact on the spatial differentiation characteristics of services. Facing the above factors, the q-values calculated by the GeoDetector are all higher than 10%. The results of this study can provide information for making better decisions on regional ecological system management and soil protection and on restoration work aimed at improving nonpoint source reduction services.