Abstract:

The Yangtze River basin of Hubei Province is one of the most seriously floodthreatened areas. Soil and water conservation and flood storage are two kinds of ecological service functions that are directly related to the flood control capacity . From the perspective of ecosystem service value (ESV), the flood control capacity can be measured quantitatively. Land use/cover change (LUCC) is one of the main driving forces of the change of ecosystem services value. Based on the land use data of the Yangtze River Basin of Hubei Province in 1996 and 2009，this paper estimates ecosystem service value in each subdivision according to “equivalent value per unit area of ecosystem services in China” and explores the association between the ESV evolution and the land use changes. The results showed: (1) During the period 1996-2009, the flood control capacity of the study area had been enhanced, the values of these two kinds of ecosystem service values including soil and water conservation and flood storage function have been increased. (2) Due to the substantial growth of the woodlands, the soil and water conservation service value of The Three Gorges region and East Hubei plain along the Yangtze River increased during the study period. It is worth noticing that the growth of the soil and water conservation service value in East Hubei plain along the Yangtze River is mainly due to the surge of the ecological service value in Huangshi at the southern bank, whose range is greater than the decrease of the ecological service value in Huanggang at the north bank of the area. (3) Due to the shrinkage of the wetlands, the flood storage service value of the Jianghan plain and East Hubei plain along the Yangtze River decreased during the study period. It reveals that it is in lack of Sustainability for Returning farmland to forest. As important agricultural regions, the cultivated lands of these two areas has been effectively guaranteed, at the price of wetland encroachment in some areas, which destroyed flood control capacity of the region. However, there are positive aspects in other regions, such as Honghu and Wuhan. The wetlands have been effectively protected thanks to some ecological restoration policies. The flood storage service value of these regions increased during the study period. From the perspective of land use planning, these results suggest that: more attention should be paid to ecological lands, such as wetlands and woodlands. Only in this way, the ecological service function of various land use can be protected effectively