Assessment of cultural ecosystem services (CESs) is a key component in advancing the sustainable development of urban ecosystems. Mapping the spatial distribution of CESs provides spatially explicit insights for urban landscape planning. However, most assessments lack regional adaptability, particularly in cities with pronounced environmental and cultural heterogeneity. To address this gap, this study focused on the central urban area of Lhasa, using communities as units to develop a tailored CES assessment framework. The framework integrated the MaxEnt model with multi-source indicators to analyze the spatial distribution of five CES categories and their relationships with environmental variables. Spatial statistics and classification at community level informed the CES spatial optimization strategies. Results indicated that high-value CES areas were predominantly concentrated in the old city cluster, typified by Barkhor and Jibenggang subdistricts, following an east–west spatial pattern along the Lhasa River. Distance to tourist spot contributed 78.3% to cultural heritage, 86.1% to spirit and religion, and 42.2% to ecotourism and aesthetic services, making it the most influential environmental variable. At the community level, CESs exhibited a distinct spatial gradient, with higher values in the central area and lower values in the eastern and western peripheries. For the ecotourism and aesthetic category, 61.47% of the community area was classified as low service, whereas only 1.48% and 7.33% were identified as excellent and high. Moreover, communities within subdistricts such as Barkhor and Zhaxi demonstrated excellent service across four CES categories, with notably lower performance in the health category. This study presents a quantitative and adaptable framework and planning guidance to support the sustainable development of CESs in cities with similar characteristics.

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) in urban parks, as a vital component of urban ecosystem services (ES), are increasingly recognized as an important tool for advancing urban sustainability and implementing nature-based solutions (NbS). The supply–demand relationship of CES in urban parks is strongly shaped by sociocultural and spatial geographic factors, playing a crucial role in optimizing urban landscape structures and enhancing residents’ well-being. However, current research generally lacks adaptive evaluation frameworks and quantitative methods, particularly for cities with significant spatial and cultural diversity. To address this gap, this study examines the central district of Lhasa as a case study to develop a CES supply–demand evaluation framework suitable for plateau river valley cities. The study adopts the spatial integration analysis method to establish an indicator system centered on “recreational potential–recreational opportunities” and “social needs–material needs,” mapping the spatial distribution and matching characteristics of supply and demand at the community scale. The results reveal that: (1) in terms of supply–demand balance, 25.67% of communities experience undersupply, predominantly in the old city cluster, while 16.22% experience oversupply, mainly in key development zones, indicating a notable supply–demand imbalance; (2) in terms of supply–demand coupling coordination, 55.11% and 38.14% of communities are in declining and transitional stages, respectively. These communities are primarily distributed in near-mountainous and peripheral urban areas. Based on these findings, four urban landscape optimization strategies are proposed: culturally driven urban park development, demand-oriented park planning, expanding countryside parks along mountain ridges, and revitalizing existing parks. These results provide theoretical support and decision-making guidance for optimizing urban park green space systems in plateau river valley cities.

Plateau valley cities are increasingly exposed to flood risk because topographic constraints, ecological fragility, and rapid urbanization jointly intensify runoff sensitivity. Although dynamic and process-based assessments of flood regulation service (FRS) have advanced, limited attention has been given to how changes in urban green space (UGS) components are associated with marginal runoff-retention responses in a plateau valley setting. Taking central Lhasa as a case, this study combined Sentinel-2-based UGS mapping, intPLUS land-use scenario simulation, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) runoff modeling, XGBoost, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), and accumulated local effects (ALE) to evaluate the FRS responses under multiple scenarios. A pressure–response overlay was further used to diagnose spatial mismatches between runoff pressure and modeled regulation response. Results showed that UGS expanded by 5212.66 ha from 2017 to 2025, indicating a marked greening trend, but the natural development scenario projected a 1403.80 ha decline by 2033. In contrast, the ecological protection scenario projected a 915.98 ha increase and produced a stronger modeled runoff-retention response, although the improvement remained spatially uneven across subbasins. Model-based interpretation identified forest land as the most influential predictor of runoff-depth-based FRS response, while grassland, park green space, and waterfront green space were generally associated with runoff-depth reduction and showed distinct nonlinear response patterns. Specifically, forest land and grassland showed diminishing marginal effects after higher increment ranges, park green space exhibited delayed effectiveness before clearer regulation benefits emerged, and waterfront green space reached effective response ranges at relatively low proportional increments. Spatial diagnosis further showed that 19 subbasins, accounting for 18.88% of the study area, remained response-lagged, mainly along urban expansion fringes where runoff pressure was not matched by sufficient modeled regulation response. The integrated framework provides a transferable, spatially explainable basis for plateau valley FRS assessment, whereas the identified thresholds and zoning implications remain case-specific and require local validation.

Against the backdrop of climate change and rapid urbanization, the urban thermal environment (UTE) in urban agglomerations continues to deteriorate, posing a growing challenge to regional sustainability. Network-based approaches have increasingly been applied to UTE studies, but most studies have focused on a single spatial scale, with limited attention to thermal connectivity at different scales. Therefore, this study used land surface temperature (LST) data from 2000, 2010, and 2020 together with the Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (PLUS) model and circuit theory to construct a multiscale UTE network framework for the Hangzhou Bay urban agglomeration. A cooling network was constructed at the urban-agglomeration scale and a heat network within the national-level urbanized zone, and temporal changes in each scale-specific network were examined across the three study periods. The results showed that: (1) Low-temperature areas remained concentrated in the southwestern mountains and major water bodies but continued to shrink, whereas high-temperature areas expanded and gradually coalesced across areas surrounding Hangzhou Bay, with more pronounced clustering within the national-level urbanized zone. The total area of cold sources decreased from 3249.76 to 2411.50 km², whereas that of heat sources increased from 1061.32 to 2896.28 km². (2) At the urban-agglomeration scale, the mean corridor length of the cooling network increased from 12.23 to 17.41 km, while the α, β, and γ indices declined continuously; within the national-level urbanized zone, the mean corridor length of the heat network decreased from 17.85 to 10.30 km, with all three indices reaching their highest values in 2020. (3) Cooling-network barriers spread from cold-source clusters into transitional areas linking cold sources with urbanized areas, whereas heat-network pinch points shifted from established heat-source clusters to emerging ones. This study provides a multiscale network perspective on thermal connectivity in urban agglomerations and offers spatial evidence for cross-regional thermal-environment management and climate-adaptation planning.