An essential part of urban natural systems, urban green spaces play a crucial role in mitigating the urban heat island effect (UHI). The UHI effect refers to the phenomenon where the temperature within a city is higher than that of the surrounding rural areas. The effects of the spatial composition and configuration of urban green spaces on urban land surface temperature (LST) have recently been documented. However, few studies have examined the effects of the directionality and distribution of green spaces on LST. In this study, we used a landscape index to describe the change in pattern of heat island intensity for the city of Baotou, China. We then used a semi-variable function and nearest neighbor algorithm to analyze the cooling effects of green spaces. We found that: (1) the cooling distance of an urban green space was not only influenced by its size, vegetation cover, and shape, but also showed anisotropy. In general, the larger the area of the urban green space and the higher the value of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI; a measure of plant photosynthetic activity), the larger the cooling distance within a certain threshold. Green spaces with more regular shapes displayed higher LST mitigation; however, the cooling distance was directional, and cooling effects depended on the semi-major axis and semi-minor axis of the green space. (2) The distribution of the urban green space within the landscape played a key role in mitigating the UHI effect. Within a certain area, the cooling effect of green spaces that are evenly distributed was greater than that which was associated with either green spaces that were large in area or where greens spaces were aggregated in the landscape. Therefore, within urban areas, where space is limited, urban planning should account for green spaces that are relatively scattered and evenly distributed to maximize cooling effects. The results of this study have key implications for sustainable urban planning and development; to mitigate urban heat island effects it is important to not only increase canopy cover or the size of urban green spaces, but also to optimize their spatial configuration.

Ecosystem services (ESs) and their transformations in northern China play a crucial role in regional sustainability. During the past several decades, grassland degradation has become one of the most important ecological and economic issues in this region. Therefore, understanding the impacts of grassland degradation and restoration on ESs is essential for maintaining ecological resilience and social security of Northern China. Our objective was to explore the relationship between ESs and grassland changes induced by vegetation succession in the Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, China. Using vegetation maps derived from remotely sensed imagery collected in 1983, 1989, 2000, and 2011, we calculated the degree of grassland degradation using the Grassland Degradation Index (GDI). Aboveground biomass (AGB), soil conservation (SC), and water retention (WR) were also estimated to assess ESs for each year. Our results show that: (1) GDI increased during 1983–2000 and decreased during 2000–2011 indicating that after experiencing two decades of severe degradation the grassland has been restored since 2000. (2) AGB and SC were significantly negatively correlated with GDI. Changes in grassland conditions significantly affected WR and SC with both declining during 1983–2000 and increasing afterwards. The increase of SC, however, was slow compared to AGB and WR, which is an indication of time lag in soil restoration. (3) Grasslands in the middle and lower reaches experienced worse degradation than in the upper reaches. (4) AGB and SC exhibited a synergy, while trade-offs existed between AGB and WR and SC and WR. In summary, significant changes in grassland ecosystems in the Xilin River Basin over the past three decades affected the dynamics of ESs among which SC and WR require special attention in the future.

Ecosystem services are fundamental in supporting human well-being which is a core component of sustainability. Understanding the relationship between ecosystem services (ESs) and human well-being (HWB) in a changing landscape is important to implement appropriate ecosystem management and policy development. Combining with demographic, economic, and cultural factors, their land use are the elements linking ESs and HWB at fine scale. Within this context, the purpose of this study is to evaluate household HWB changes in the past decade, and understand the relationship between demographic factors, land use, ESs, and HWB in the social-ecological landscapes of Uxin, in Inner Mongolia. Our results indicate that: the levels of HWB of local herder families were slightly improved from 2007 to 2016; changes in family demographic factors enhanced their land use intensity, resulting in an increased supply capacity of ecosystems and improved HWB; in addition, regulating services contributed more to HWB than provisioning services. The results of this study can help improve the understanding of the relationship between ESs and HWB, and provide valuable information to policy-makers to maintain particular ESs or to improve HWB.

Introduction: Under the combined pressures of global climate change and intensive land use, regional ecosystem services face escalating risks of degradation and spatial imbalance. Understanding the complex interactions among ecosystem services and identifying their spatial drivers are critical for developing adaptive land use strategies and improving ecological security, particularly in ecologically sensitive basins like the Liaohe River Basin (LRB).Methods: Therefore, this study proposed an integrated framework combining the InVEST model, Geographical Detector, and PLUS model to evaluate ecological service dynamics and optimize spatial governance in the LRB. Based on five key ecosystem services (carbon storage, food production, habitat quality, soil retention, and water yield) from 2000 to 2020 and their synergy–tradeoff relationships, we identified three levels of ecological security patterns (ESPs). These ESPs were further embedded as redline constraints in scenario-based land use simulations under four development pathways, forming a spatial structure that links ecological function with landscape connectivity and couples service assessments with spatial policy optimization.Results: The results showed that: (1) the Total Ecosystem Service (TES) exhibited a spatial gradient of high values in the east and west and low values in the central basin, with the strongest synergy with habitat quality, and the weakest with water yield; (2) ecosystem service bundle zoning revealed that the Comprehensive Service Function Zone and the Ecological Buffer Zone had the highest levels of diversity and connectivity, while the Agricultural Development Priority Zone exhibited a strong coupling between spatial structure and dominant function; (3) among different scenarios, the ecological-priority scenario (PEP) reduced net forest loss by 63.2% compared to the economic-priority scenario (PUD), significantly enhancing ecological spatial integrity.Discussion: This study proposed a scenario-based simulation framework to support ecological redline delineation and watershed-scale ecosystem governance for territorial ecological restoration.

Ecosystem services management should often expect to deal with non-linearities due to trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services (ES). Therefore, it is important to analyze long-term trends in ES development and utilization to understand their responses to climate change and intensification of human activities. In this paper, the region of Uxin in Inner Mongolia, China, was chosen as a case study area to describe the spatial distribution and trends of 5 ES indicators. Changes in relationships between ES and driving forces of dynamics of ES relationships were analyzed for the period 1979–2016 using a stepwise regression. We found that: the magnitude and directions in ES relationships changed during this extended period; those changes are influenced by climate factors, land use change, technological progress, and population growth.