Linking ecosystem services and landscape patterns to assess urban ecosystem health: A case study in Shenzhen City, China

Ecosystem health assessment is always one of the key topics of ecosystem management. However, few studies has focused on assessing ecosystem health of landscapes, which are geo-spatial units composed of different kinds of ecosystem mosaics. Healthy ecosystems should sustainably provide a range of ecosystem services to meet human needs, and such a concept often cannot be expressed using the traditional ecosystem health assessment. Using Shenzhen City in China as a case study area, this research aims to assess the ecosystem health of urban landscapes based on ecosystem services. Results showed a distinct deterioration of urban ecosystem health for all of the 30 units assessed in Shenzhen City during 1978–2005. Five levels were classified with respect to health using fixed thresholds. There were 12 towns appearing with the worst level and 4 towns disappearing with the best level in 2005 compared with the status in 1978. Although there was no significant decrease in the level of health during 1978–2000, by 2005 more than 70% of towns belonged to the top two levels, classifying them as unhealthy. Among all the assessing indicators, the indicators of ecosystem organization contributed least to ecosystem health, except in 1986, and ecosystem services were found to be the most contributive indicator during 1978–2005. It was also suggested that land use patterns provided an integrating bridge among regional ecosystem health, economic development, and environmental performances.