ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Land Use Dynamics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1672389
Evaluation of ecosystem service value based on land use change and analysis of driving forces in Ningxiang City, a representative county in the metropolitan hinterland in Hunan Province, China
Provisionally accepted
- Changsha Natural Resources Comprehensive Survey Center, China Geological Survey,, Changsha, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The counties in the metropolitan hinterland, due to their unique locational advantages and pivotal functions, have emerged as crucial strategic pivots for economic development of cities. However, the rapid pace of urbanization has exerted considerable pressure on the ecosystems of these counties. Against this backdrop, assessing the ecosystem services value (ESV) and its driving factors in these regions is of significant decision-making importance for promoting the coordinated development of urban economy and ecological conservation. Therefore, this study used the revised equivalent factor method to evaluate the spatial-temporal variation of regional ESV by the perspective of land use transformation in Ningxiang City during the years 2010, 2016 and 2022. The driving mechanism of ESV spatial differentiation was explored by combining geographic detectors and geographic weighted regression (GWR) model. The results revealed that: (1) From 2010 to 2022, the area of construction land expanded the most, while the areas of ecological land such as forest land, water body and grassland decreased continuously. Accordingly, the total ESV declined consistently, dropping from 121.03×108 yuan to 113.93×108 yuan, with notable decreases of ESV in hydrological regulation services, forest land and water body. (2) At the grid unit and township (street) spatial scales, ESV demonstrated a northwest-high-northeast-low distribution pattern with significant spatial clustering effects, revealing persistent ecological degradation risks in the northeast. (3) Geographic detector revealed that synergistic effects of multiple natural and socio-economic driving factors shaped the spatial differentiation of the regional ESV. The main driving factors identified were the normalized vegetation index (NDVI), human impact index (HAI), and population density (POP). The influence of NDVI on ESV was generally higher in the west than east, while the negative influence intensity of HAI and POP on ESV gradually weakened from east to west. Based on the perspective of high-precision ESV assessment in small areas, this study provided scientific support for ecological policy formulation and sustainable land-use planning in Ningxiang City as well as similar counties.
Keywords: Ecosystem service value (ESV), Spatial-temporal variation, Driving factors, Geographical detector, GWR model
Received: 28 Jul 2025; Accepted: 09 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Song, Chen, Zhou, Xiao, Wang and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yuexin Xiao, Changsha Natural Resources Comprehensive Survey Center, China Geological Survey,, Changsha, China
Zhao Shi, Changsha Natural Resources Comprehensive Survey Center, China Geological Survey,, Changsha, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.