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Habitat International 44 (2014) 536e544

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Habitat International

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Effects of land use transitions due to rapid urbanization on ecosystemservices: Implications for urban planning in the new developing areaof China

Hualou Long a, *, Yongqiang Liu a, b, Xuegang Hou a, c, *, Tingting Li a, b, Yurui Li a

a Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, Chinab University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, Chinac Tianjin Planning Bureau, Tianjin 300070, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Available online

Keywords:Land use transitionEcosystem services valueUrbanizationUrban planningTianjin Binhai New AreaChina

* Corresponding authors. Institute of Geographic ScResearch, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10010

E-mail addresses: longhl@igsnrr.ac.cn (H. Long), h

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2014.10.0110197-3975/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

a b s t r a c t

With the rapid development of Chinese economy, many negative effects of land use transitions under thepressure of rapid urbanization on local ecological system and environment have occurred. This paperexamines the dynamic patterns of land use in Tianjin Binhai New Area experienced rapid urbanization,using high-resolution Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) data in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2010, and socio-economic data from both research institutes and government departments, and assesses the changesof ecosystem services value (ESV) by drawing a connection between the observed land use dynamics andthe evaluation of ESV, based on the latest research of Costanza et al. (2014) and some revisions adapted tothe situation of China. The outcomes indicated that, during the period 1985e2010, ESV of the study areadecreased by 25.9%, from 12,194 to 9037 billion RMB¥, due to the losses of large quantities of ecologicalland (e.g., farmland and water body) to construction land. Then, some of the major implications forimproving the urban planning of Tianjin Binhai New Area were discussed. The authors argue that it isfundamental to meet the demand of construction land for socio-economic development, meanwhileprotect regional ecosystem services function and maintain its stability; only in this way can the newdeveloping area of China realize the sustainable use of ecological resources in the process of rapid ur-banization, as well as the integration of economic, social and ecological benefits.

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Since the Pudong New Area of Shanghai was set up in 1992,China has set up 7 state-level new areas as its urbanization strategicplanning to overall push forward its urbanization and accelerate itseconomic growth. Following in the footstep of the Pudong NewArea of Shanghai, Tianjin Binhai New Area was set up in 1994 todevelop industrial clusters with its distinct advantages and to builda comprehensive traffic network, which was expected to play animportant role in connecting China's various regions as well asproviding a platform to reach the outside world. In 2010, theLiangjiang New Area of Chongqing was authorized to drive thedevelopment of the country's vast underdeveloped western regionand to build a gateway for opening inland areas to the outside

iences and Natural Resources1, China.ou.914@163.com (X. Hou).

world and become a base for advanced manufacturing and modernservices transferred from the eastern part of China. To enhance thecountry's oceanic economy, expand its marine development strat-egy, and promote the ability to integrate global resources to securethe national economy, the Zhoushan Island New Area of Zhejiangwas set up in 2011. Two developing areas were set up in 2012, one isthe Lanzhou New Area of Gansu, aiming at promoting bilateraltrade with central and western Asian countries and tying togetherethnically concentrated zones in western China; another is theNansha New Area of Guangdong to lead the economic trans-formation and development of the Pearl River Delta and create aplatform for cooperationwith Hong Kong andMacao. The latest oneis the Zhengdong new area of Henan authorized in 2013, which wasexpected to build a main growth engine for central China. However,with the construction of these new developing areas, tremendousland use transitions have occurred.

Land use transitions refer to the changes in land usemorphology of a certain region over a certain period of time drivenby socio-economic change and innovation (Grainger, 1995; Lambin

H. Long et al. / Habitat International 44 (2014) 536e544 537

&Meyfroidt, 2010; Li& Zhao, 2011; Long, 2014a; Chen, Ye, Cai, Xing,& Chen, 2014). Usually, there are two kinds of land use morphol-ogies, i.e., dominant morphology and recessive morphology (Long& Li, 2012). The dominant land use morphology means the quan-tity, structure and spatial pattern of land use, which are similar tothe structure of landscape (Holzkaemper & Seppelt, 2007; Marull,Pino, Tello, & Cordobilla, 2010). However, the recessive land usemorphology includes land use features in terms of aspects ofquality, management mode and productive ability, which embodythe function of landscape (Burton, Samuelson, & Mackenzie, 2009;Flynn et al., 2009). As such, land use transitions are also a dynamicprocess of landscape evolution.

With the rapid development of Chinese economy and urbani-zation, many negative effects of land use transitions on climate,ecological system and environment have occurred, and relatedresearches are receiving more and more attentions these years(Chen et al., 2014; Gong, Chen, Liu, & Wang, 2014; Herold,Goldstein, & Clarke, 2003; Lambin & Meyfroidt, 2010; Li, Long, &Liu, 2010; Long, 2014b; Long, Tang, Li, & Heilig, 2007; Long, Li,Liu, Woods, & Zou, 2012; Lu, Wu, Shen, & Wang, 2013; Nuiss,Haase, Lanzendorf, & Wittmer, 2009; Zhang, Wu, & Shen, 2011).Undoubtedly, land use transitions under the pressure of rapid ur-banization will result in local environmental change by affectingthe ecosystem services. The effects of regional land use transitionson ecological environment is one of the important contents ofglobal change research, and the value of ecosystem services hasattracted the interest of a wide variety of ecologists as well as ge-ographers (Ahern, Cilliers,& Niemel€a, 2014; Baral, Keenan, Sharma,Stork, & Kasel, 2014; Costanza et al., 1997, 2014; Estoque &Murayama, 2013; Hubacek & Kronenberg, 2013; Schmidt, Moore,& Alber, 2014; Wu, Lin, Chiang, & Huang, 2014; Xie, Lu, Leng,Zheng, & Li, 2003; Zong, Xu, Tang, & Chen, 1999).

Since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) waspublished, the concept of ecosystem services has gained broaderattentions in both the research and policy communities (Braat &de Groot, 2012; Costanza & Kubiszewski, 2012). Costanza et al.(1997) early presented the principle, methods and the results ofestimation for global ecosystem services value (ESV). Afterwards,Costanza et al. (1998) pointed out that the “global value ofecosystem services and natural capital” (Costanza et al., 1997) wasjust a preliminary attempt to estimate global ESV, and there werestill many problems unsolved: there was too much hypothesisabout natural capital form and the same economic background;evaluation was one-sided, static rather than balance and dynamic,etc. In view of this, Costanza et al. (2014) revised the values for 17ecosystem services in 16 ecosystems, both marine and terrestrial,according to the previous study and other related researches.Compared with the values in 1997, there are some obviouschanges: values per ha estimated are an average of 8 times higherthan the equivalent estimations; tidal marsh/mangrovesincreased from about 14,000 to around 194,000 $/ha/yr; coralreefs also increased tremendously in estimated value from around8000 to around 352,000 $/ha/yr due to additional studies ofstorm protection, erosion protection, and recreation (Costanzaet al., 1997, 2014). Cropland and urban system also increaseddramatically, largely because there were almost no studies ofthese systems before 1997 and recently there are several newstudies (Wratten, Sandhu, Cullen, & Costanza, 2013). Since thelate 1990s, researches concerning ESV have been carried out inChina (Feng, Li, & Zhu, 2009; He et al., 2005; Ouyang, Wang, &Zhao, 1999; Su, Li, Hu, Xiao, & Zhang, 2014; Xiao, Xie, An, & Lu,2012; Zong et al., 1999). But all these studies were almost basedon the theoretical achievements of Costanza et al. developed in1997, lacking of support of other new research findings orinnovations.

The implementation of economic reform since 1978 has setTianjin on a new path of economic restructuring and urbandevelopment, because its coastal frontier location has turned into aunique advantage for the development of the city. Meanwhile, theintrusion of the new forces of globalization and marketization hassignificantly sped the expansion of its urban area. Since 1994, Chinahas made the comprehensive deployment on the development andopening up of Tianjin Binhai New Area, aiming at building a livableeco-city with economic prosperity and beautiful environment. Inrecent years, the Tianjin Binhai New Area has quickened itsdevelopment and is gradually becoming one of the hottest invest-ment areas and the third pole of Chinese economic growth. A lot ofstudies revealed that rapid urbanization promoted land use tran-sitions and brought about negative effects on ecological environ-ment (Deng, Wang, Hong,& Qi, 2009; Ng, Xie,& Yu, 2011; Shrestha,York, Boone,& Zhang, 2012; Su, Jiang, Zhang,& Zhang, 2011; Tan, Li,Xie, & Lu, 2005, Tan et al., 2014; Yu, Wu, Zheng, Zhang, & Shen,2014; Zhou & Wang, 2011). While there are numerous studiesanalyzing the effects of landscape pattern change on ecosystemservices values (Baral et al., 2014; Estoque & Murayama, 2013;Schmidt et al., 2014; Zorrilla-Miras et al., 2014), effects of landuse transitions on ecosystem services and its implications for urbanplanning in coastal China has found much less attention. The aimsof this paper are: (1) to examine the dynamic patterns of land use inTianjin Binhai New Area experienced rapid urbanization, usinghigh-resolution Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) data in 1985, 1995,2005 and 2010, and socio-economic data from both research in-stitutes and government departments; (2) to assess the changes ofESV by drawing a connection between the observed land use dy-namics and the evaluation of ESV, based on the latest research ofCostanza et al. (2014) and some revisions adapted to the situation ofChina; and (3) to discuss some of the major implications for theurban planning of Tianjin Binhai New Area, and for the constructionof other new developing areas of China.

Materials and methods

Study area

Tianjin Binhai New Area (38� 400e39� 000N,117� 200e118� 090E),the study area, is located in the northern part of the North ChinaPlain, and the intersection area of Shandong Peninsula and Liao-dong Peninsula. The study area is also situated at the lower reachesof the Haihe River in the eastern Tianjin City, close to the Bohai Sea(Fig. 1). The terrain is dominated by the plains and low-lying lands,and there are a large number of unused land and beach. TianjinBinhai New Area includes three functional areas (i.e., Tianjin Port,development zone, the bonded area), three administrative districts(Tanggu, Hangu, Dagang), and part of Dongli District and JinnanDistrict. It covers about 2410 km2 with average altitude of 3 mabove sea level (asl). Tianjin Binhai New Area has a population of2.7 million in 2013, and it is unique because of its high populationdensity. In 2013, the population density in this area was up to1120 persons/km2, which was much higher than the average pop-ulation density (142 persons/km2) of China at the same period(NBSC, 2014; TSB, 2014). In 2013, the GDP per capita of TianjinBinhai New Area amounted to 297,052 RMB¥, which was muchhigher than the GDP per capita of China (41,805 RMB¥) at the sameperiod (NBSC, 2014; TSB, 2014). In 2013, the primary industry onlyprovided 0.13% of the total GDP in Tianjin Binhai New Area; how-ever, 67.37% and 32.50% were provided by the secondary industryand tertiary industry, respectively (TSB, 2014). Tianjin Binhai NewArea is located in the intersection point of Bohai economic zone andBeijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (Xin et al., 2012),120 km away from the Beijing City. It is one of the starting points of

Fig. 1. Location and land use of the study area, Tianjin Binhai New Area.

H. Long et al. / Habitat International 44 (2014) 536e544538

the Eurasia Continental Bridge. The comprehensive port in TianjinBinhai New Area ranks fifth in theworld, and connects tomore than400 international harbors. The port is also one of important exits ofeastern and central Asian countries to the sea. The convenienttransportation and information network make it an important hubconnecting both home and abroad.

Data

The vector data of land-use and land-cover (LULC) change wasobtained through detection analysis of historical Landsat TM(Thematic Mapper) satellite images in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2010

(acquired on 17 June 1985, 24 May 1995, 9 July 2005 and 16September 2010, respectively) from the Institute of GeographicSciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy ofSciences and China National Environmental Monitoring Center. Anefficient classification systemwas drafted and an effective researchteam was organized to work on remote sensed data throughhumanemachine interactive interpretation to guarantee classifi-cation consistency and accuracy. After geometrical image correc-tion and geo-referencing, the average location errors wereestimated at less than 50 m (about two pixels). An out-door surveyand random sample check verified that the average interpretationaccuracy for LULC was 91.2% (Liu, Kuang, et al., 2014). Based on

H. Long et al. / Habitat International 44 (2014) 536e544 539

these Landsat TM data, four land use maps in 1985, 1995, 2005 and2010 were classified into 6 LULC types: farmland, water body,forested land, grassland, unused land, and construction landmainlyfor industry, mining and transportation as well as urban and ruralsettlements (Fig. 1). Then, we measured the variations among the 6different LULC types using ESRI's ArcGIS spatial analyst module(Long et al., 2007). In addition, some socio-economic data on urbanplanning were collected from the local governments.

Ecosystem services value assessment

Referring to the ESV coefficients of Costanza et al. (2014) as wellas the related researches of Chinese scholars, we revised andestablished the value coefficients for the different ecosystem ser-vices in China (Table 1). This paper used the overall ESV coefficientsfor each proxy biome and not the specific ESV coefficients of theecosystem services. The ESV of Tianjin Binhai New Area for each ofthe four time periods (i.e., 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2010) was deter-mined using Equation (1).

ESV ¼X

ðAk � VCk�

(1)

where ESV denotes the total annual value of ecosystem services,and Ak and VCk represent the area and value coefficient for proxybiome (i.e., LULC) type ‘k’, respectively.

Results

Land use transitions in Tianjin Binhai New Area

In order to analyze the internal structural variability of LULC inthe study area, spatial overlay analysis was carried out based on thefour interpreted land use maps. Four maps of land use changes overthe period from 1985 to 2010 were obtained (Fig. 2).

Land use has changed significantly over the whole period from1985 to 2010 in Tianjin Binhai New Area, which was characterizedby the increase of construction land and the decrease of farmlandand water body. From the perspective of the changes of construc-tion land, the built-up area expanded very quickly, from 54,149 hain 1985 to 102,990 ha in 2010, with an increase of 48,841 ha and20.26% of the total land area, especially the expansion of TangguDistrict located in the core area of Binhai New Area was more sig-nificant (Fig. 2 and Table 2). On the contrary, during the period from1985 to 2010, the farmland decreased from 81,283 ha, 33.72% oftotal land area to 58,004 ha, 24.07% of that, respectively (Table 2).

During this period, water body and unused land decreased by27.02% and 66.46%, from 90,758 ha and 6759 ha in 1985 to66,234 ha and 2267 ha in 2010, respectively. Big change occurred inforested land, decreased by 96.12%; however, grassland increasedby 59.94% during the period from 1985 to 2010 (Table 1).

For exploring the internal conversion between different LULCtypes, which took place between the two compared periods of 1985and 2010, we treated the change (decrease or increase) of a LULCtype in 2010 relative to the compared year 1985 as a result of

Table 1Ecosystem services value (ESV) coefficients (RMB¥/ha/year).

LULC type Forested land Grassland Farmlan

Equivalent biome Forest Grass CroplanESV coefficientsa 40,365 31,245 41,753Revised 40,365 31,245 41,753

Note: US$ to RMB¥: 1e6.3.Source: a. Costanza et al. (2014); b. Wan, Chen, Tan, Guo, and Yang (2009); c. Duan, Hao

several ‘‘loss or gain’’ conversions (Long et al., 2007). Then, a changematrix of each compared LULC type in 1985 and 2010 was obtained(Table 3). The expansion of construction land was caused mainly bythe decrease of water body and farmland, with a shrink of 35,147 haand 16,794 ha, respectively (Table 3).

Ecosystem services values change assessment

According to equation (1), we estimated the ESV of differentLULC type and detected the changes (Table 4). We can see that thetotal annual ESV of Tianjin Binhai New Area in 1985,1995, 2005 and2010 are 12,194, 9352, 9623 and 9037 billion RMB¥, respectively.Water body contributes the most among all the LULC types to thetotal ESV, which is between 62% and 70%. Unused land offers theleast, no more than 0.08%. The results show a decreasing trend inESV on thewhole, resulting in a total decrease of 3157 billion RMB¥,or about 26%, in 25 years; of that occurred during the periods of1985e1995 and 2005e2010 (Table 4). However, there was a littleincrease during the period of 1995e2005.

During the first period of 1985e1995, the total ESV reduced from12,194 to 9352 billion RMB¥, decreased by 23.3%. There was over-whelming negative decreases in the ESV of water body and farm-land, which brought about net ESV loss of 2730 and 188 billionRMB¥, respectively (Table 4). During this period, water body andfarmland decreased 29,088 and 4505 ha, respectively, most ofwhich were changed to construction land with little net ESV gain(Tables 2 and 4). Tianjin Binhai New Area was in its initial stage ofreform and opening up, during which urban constructionencroached a great deal of water body and farmland.

During the second period of 1995e2005, the ESV increased alittle from 9352 billion RMB¥ in 1995 to 9623 billion RMB¥ in 2005.Although farmland and forested land reduced 6592 ha and 1187 ha,respectively, but water body increased 4941 ha mainly due to theloss of some unused land in Dagang District (Fig. 2). The net ESVgains of water body and grassland were higher than the net ESVlosses of farmland and forested land during the second period. Thisexplains why the increase in ESV occurred during the period1995e2005.

During the period 2005e2010, the ESV kept a decreasing trend,with a net decrease of 586 billion RMB¥. This change was causedmainly because a large number of farmland was transformed toconstruction land. During the 5 years, farmland decreased12,182 ha, amounted to half more the total decreased farmlandduring 1985e2010.

During the period 1985e2010, ESV of Tianjin Binhai New Areadecreased by 25.9%, from 12,194 to 9037 billion RMB¥. During thewhole period, the farmland and water body decreased 23,279 and24,524 ha, respectively, while construction land increased48,841 ha, but the improvement of ESV caused by the increase ofconstruction land could not compensate the losses caused by thedecrease of farmland and water body, which resulted in thedecrease of total annual ESV of the study area. With the develop-ment of urbanization, more and more ecological land was trans-formed to construction land. That is the major reason for the loss of3157 billion RMB¥ total annual ESV of Tianjin Binhai New Area.

d Water body Construction land Unused land

d Lakes/rivers Urban Desert93,840 49,958 e

93,840 377b 371c

, and Zhang (2006).

Fig. 2. Change pattern of land use in Tianjin Binhai New Area during 1985e2010. Note: FL, farmland; CL, construction land; FR, forested land; WB, water body; GL, grassland; UL,unused land.

Table 2Changes of LULC types during 1985e2010 (ha).

LULC type Farmland Forested land Grassland Water body Construction land Unused land

1985 81,283 890 7191 90,758 54,149 67591995 76,778 2170 7557 61,670 74,780 18,0752005 70,186 983 11,787 66,611 87,765 36982010 58,004 34 11,501 66,234 102,990 2267Changes during 1985e1995 �4505 1280 366 �29,088 20,631 11,316Changes during 1995e2005 �6592 �1187 4230 4941 12,985 �14,377Changes during 2005e2010 �12,182 �949 �286 �377 15,225 �1431Changes during 1985e2010 �23,279 �856 4310 �24,524 48,841 �4492

H. Long et al. / Habitat International 44 (2014) 536e544540

Table 3Change matrix of each compared LULC type in 1985 and 2010 (ha).

LULC type in 1985 LULC type in 2010

Farmland Forested land Grassland Water body Construction land Unused land Total

Farmland 48,096 0 3978 10,408 16,794 2007 81,283Forested land 452 0 115 78 168 77 890Grassland 1235 0 941 2207 2808 0 7191Water body 4371 8 3259 47,951 35,147 22 90,758Construction land 3428 26 2028 3657 44,849 161 54,149Unused land 422 0 1180 1933 3224 0 6759Total 58,004 34 11,501 66,234 102,990 2267 241,030

H. Long et al. / Habitat International 44 (2014) 536e544 541

Implications for urban planning in Tianjin Binhai New Area

In 2005, the development of Tianjin Binhai New Area wasincorporated into the national overall development strategy ofChina. In 2011, its built-up area was about 303.07 km2, andextended to 322.64 km2 quickly in 2012, with an increase of19.59 km2. With the progress of marine economy scientificdemonstration area construction of Tianjin since May 2014, BinhaiNew Areawill face a great-leap-forward development in the future.The analysis results of the ESV changes caused by land use transi-tions in Binhai New Area show that the total annual ESV of this areapresented an overall downward trend due to large areas ofecological land with high ESV coefficient, such as water body,farmland, forested land and grassland, transformed to other LULCtypes. Therefore, it is urgent to draw up reasonable urban planningthat can play the role of guidance and restriction in determining thescale and spatial layout of all land use types, especially the con-struction land and ecological land, so as to ensure the neededconstruction land for socio-economic development with minimumloss of the ESV.

Implementing ecological urban planning and highlighting ecologicalenvironment protection

Although harmony between human and nature is an importantobjective of urban planning, but in the urban planning of TianjinBinhai New Area, ecological environment protection is just simplytreated as a special rather than a comprehensive planning, so it isdifficult to reflect the whole ecological process of planning. Thecurrent urban planning is mainly based on the social and economicfactors such as the rationality of the industrial layout, trans-portation convenience and the carrier of urban construction, butthe requirements of some natural components and their spatialcombinations with important ecological functions are not paidenough attention, which resulted in the regional ecological func-tion degradation and the decline of the quality of urban ecologicalenvironment. In addition, ecological planning has not been mergedvery well into current planning system, impeding the practicality

Table 4Changes of ESV in Tianjin Binhai New Area (billion RMB¥/year).

LULC type ESV

1985 1995 2005 2010

Farmland 3394 3206 2930 2422Forested land 36 88 40 1Grassland 225 236 368 359Water body 8517 5787 6251 6215Construction land 20 28 33 39Unused land 2 7 1 1Total 12,194 9352 9623 9037

and feasibility of ecological planning and affecting the effect ofecological planning implementation. Therefore, ecological urbanplanning must set up the harmonious viewpoint between urbanand the natural environment, pay attention to the seamless inte-gration of city layout and the natural mountains and rivers, andmake maximum protection and use of the existing natural factorssuch as hills, rivers, lakes, vegetation, forest, topography, etc., tofinally strengthen the effective protection of the natural environ-ment and create a more pleasant living environment. Based on thedouble restriction of planning environmental impact assessmentand ecological planning, it is helpful to realize the overall coordi-nation of social-economic-natural compound urban ecologicalsystem, and build an ecological city according to the ecologicalurban planning.

Integrating advantageous regional ecological resources andconstructing ecological security pattern

The urban planning of Tianjin Binhai New Area needs tostrengthen the integration of regional ecological resources, toprovide robust ecological support for building ecological BinhaiNew Area. On the one hand, based on present layout of ecologicalland, constructing two ecological environment areas in the southand north sides of Binhai New Area (Tianjin People's Government,2005): connecting with Qilihai wetland in the north side, andconstructing wetland ecological environment of Dongli lake,Yingcheng lake, Huanggang reservoir, Beitang reservoir and Ning-chegu reservoir etc., with a total area of 170 km2; connecting withTuanbowa reservoir in the south side, and constructing wetlandecological environment of Dagang reservoir, Qianquan reservoir,Shajingzi reservoir, Guangang reservoir, etc., with a total area of330 km2. On the other hand, building ecological green routeway,and forming ecological network layout with the characteristics ofBinhai New Area. To build ecological green corridor within a certainrange from the rivers, e.g., 300e1000 m, such as Haihe ecologicalcorridor, Yongding new river (Jiyun River) ecological protectioncorridor, etc., connecting urban green space with scenic spots, andforming a landscape ecological zone between Tianjin port and city

Changes

1985e1995 1995e2005 2005e2010 1985e2010

�188 �276 �508 �97252 �48 �39 �3511 132 �9 134

�2730 464 �36 �23028 5 6 195 �6 0 �1

�2842 271 �586 �3157

H. Long et al. / Habitat International 44 (2014) 536e544542

center. In addition, it is better to take the distribution of basicfarmland into account in planning the ecological corridors, so as toimplement more effective protection of basic farmland.

Forming rational scale of urban and rural land use and raising theintensive level of land utilization

Urban planning needs to adhere to the principle of intensiveutilization of land resources. About 40e50% of the constructionland needed in the process of urban expansion during the planningperiod should be resolved by using the method of integratingconstruction land resource such as intensive management and landreplacement (Tianjin People's Government, 2005), and theremaining can be resolved by obtaining new construction land. Thisrequires to taking a new road of industrialization, which is char-acterized by high technology, low resources consumption, littleenvironmental pollution and full playing the human resourcessuperiority, and vigorously developing the circular economy at thesame time. Intensive and economical use of land in Tianjin BinhaiNew Area may be implemented through three channels. Firstly,actively developing modern service industry and cultural industrywith high benefit, high intensive level and high developing density,based on the urban function adjustment of Hangu, Tanggu andDagang three districts; meanwhile optimizing the land use struc-ture and moving out the workshops and warehouses of traditionalold heavy industry. Secondly, adjusting the quantity and layout ofthe present villages and towns, carrying out community-basedrural residential land consolidation (Li, Liu, Long, & Cui, 2014; Tan& Li, 2013), restructuring rural production, living and ecologicalspace (Long, 2014c), and realizing the goal of promoting moreintensive utilization of land resources and improving the efficiencyof land use, based on favorable land use policies such as increasingvs. decreasing balance of urbanerural built land, reserved landsystem within land requisition, rural land consolidation andeconomical and intensive land use (Liu, Fang,& Li, 2014; Long et al.,2012). Thirdly, through establishing the construction land quotaand intensive land use evaluation index, improving indicator con-trol system such as the unit land area investment intensity, theintensity of land use and the land inputeoutput ratio, etc., andenhancing the level of industrial land intensive utilization.

Strengthening the green space system planning and improving theurban ecosystem services value

For a long time, green space planning has been a relativelyloopholes in China's urban planning work. Although some in-dicators were taken into account in the planning maps such as percapita public green areas and urban greening coverage, it is hard tofulfill in the process of urban construction because the green land isrelocated on edges or fragmented belt, resulting in its isolationwithoriginal green land. As a result, the ecosystem services it playedwere reduced, to a great extent. From the perspective of urbanecology, lacking of quantitative analysis and researches of the areaof urban green space and its layout caused the urban green spacesystem not scientifically planned. According to the latest researchof Costanza et al. (2014) e the unit value of urban green land is ashigh as $6661/ha/year, reflecting the big services the green landplays. Considering the small size and fragmentation of China'sgreen land in urban area, it can hardly play enough ecosystemservices. Therefore, ecological city planning in Tianjin Binhai NewArea should plan more urban green land such as suburban forestpark, water source conservation forests, wide urban forest belt,large lawn and introducing farmland into the city, and so on. Inaddition, it needs to construct a multivariate green space systemwith point-line-surface “three-dimensional space” and tree-shrub-

flower-grass collocation to meet the needs of ecological cityconstruction.

Highlighting ecological environment protection goals and fulfillingenvironmental protection measures

Urban development is a comprehensive development systemincluding economy, society, culture and environment. However,China's urbanization emphasizes more on the expansion of thescale. As a result, large scale of farmland and water body has beenencroached by construction land since reform and opening up. Thelacking of enough protection of ecological environment leads totremendous decreases of the land with high ESV, which is also themain reason why the ESV of Tianjin Binhai New Area has beendecreasing. It also has a direct relation with the lacking of specifictargets and measures in its urban planning. The future develop-ment of Tianjin Binhai New Area, except for focusing on its eco-nomic development by using comparative advantages, should paymore attention to its ecological environment protection at the sametime. Ecological city planning should adhere to the principle ofecological priority, and properly handle the relationship betweenthe urban construction and ecological environment protection,strengthen the protection of rivers, wetlands, tidal flats and seaareas, and effectively protect the ecological sensitive areas, such aslakes, wetlands and plantation. To improve the quality of ecologicalenvironment, feasible measures are aggressively constructing for-est park, landscape ecological corridors, and urban public greenspace. Anyway, more attentions should be paid to increasing thetotal ESV in implementing the urban planning, to build TianjinBinhai New Area as an ecological livable new district full of har-mony between human and nature, with a coordinated symbiosissystem of river, sea, lake, forest and field.

Conclusions and discussion

This paper analyzes the land use transitions in Tianjin BinhaiNew Area during the period of 1985e2010 and assesses the sub-sequent changes of ESV by using remote sensing (RS) andgeographic information system (GIS) technology, based on thelatest research results by Costanza et al. (2014) on the changes inglobal ESV. The results indicated that, during the research period,ESV of the study area decreased by 25.9%, from 12,194 to 9037billion RMB¥, due to the losses of large quantities of ecological land(e.g., farmland and water body) to construction land. From theperspective of formulation and effective implementation of urbanplanning, and ensuring the construction land needed for rapid ur-banization with minimum loss of regional ecosystem servicesfunction, this paper puts forward some suggestions for buildingTianjin Binhai New Area as an ecological livable new district full ofharmony between human and nature.

Many ecosystem services are public goods or the product ofcommon assets that cannot be replaced for the development of thecity (Wood, 2014). The construction of ecological city is a complexsystematic engineering, which needs to incorporate the idea ofecology in every link of urban planning, such as technology andmethods, implementation evaluation, feedback and revision, and soon (Wood, 2014; Yu, 2014). Tianjin Binhai New Area is regarded asone of the major strategic deployments of coordinating China'sregional development. Besides Tianjin Binhai New Area, the othersix state-level new areas more or less faced the similar problemsdue to rapid urbanization. For example, the ESV of Liangjiang NewArea of Chongqing also showed an overall declining trend during1995e2007 (Fu, Zhou, & Liang, 2012). During the period1990e2001, the farmland and water body in Pudong New Area ofShanghai decreased sharply by 58.16% and 17.4%, respectively, and

H. Long et al. / Habitat International 44 (2014) 536e544 543

55% of urban expansion was from farmland and 35.26% was fromwater body; the decrease of water body, the pollution of waterresources and air, and heat island effects were the major conse-quences of rapid urbanization (Yin & Xu, 2007). The research ofQuan et al. (2010) showed that the change of land use structure andpattern increased the surface runoff depth and the risk of water-logging in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai, rapid urbanization ofwhich has resulted in the drastic increase of the impermeable landsurface area, and the depth of surface runoff increased evidently.However, the drainage capacity of rain drainage system cannotaccommodate the demand of Pudong New Area development. Thepractice of urban development and construction of Tianjin BinhaiNew Area shows that the construction of China's new areas needsto focus on the collaborative planning and construction of urbanecological system, by integrating urban and rural ecological system.Land use and management of these new areas in the future shouldabide by the rules of ecology, and formulate the development andutilization scheme according to individual physical and socio-economic conditions. It is fundamental to meet the demand ofconstruction land for socio-economic development, meanwhileprotecting regional ecosystem services function andmaintaining itsstability; only in this way can the new developing area of Chinarealize the sustainable use of ecological resources in the process ofrapid urbanization, as well as the integration of economic, socialand ecological benefits.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural ScienceFoundation of China (Grant Nos. 41171149 and 41130748) and theNational Key Technology R&D Program of China (Grant No.2014BAL01B05). The insightful and constructive comments of twoanonymous reviewers are greatly appreciated.

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