Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.4
2.4
Journals
Forests
Special Issues
Assessing, Valuing, and Mapping Ecosystem Services
share announcement

Assessing, Valuing, and Mapping Ecosystem Services

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 2468

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Chao Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Labor Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China
Interests: land use/cover change; carbon emissions and carbon sequestration; ecosystem services
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Xueting Zeng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Labor Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China
Interests: energy and environment policy analysis; water resources planning and management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yuping Bai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: land use; ecosystem services; land use management; spatial analysis; sustainable development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Junlong Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China
Interests: water resources planning and management; ecological risk analysis; hydrological simulation
Prof. Dr. Davide M. Pettenella

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
Interests: forest economics; forest policy; governance; forest products marketing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ecosystem services (ESs) are the benefits that humans derive from nature, including nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, air and water filtration, and soil conservation. Many aspects, such as climate change, land use change, vegetational cover, and human activities, can have significant impacts on ESs. Forests play a dominant role in the global ecosystem. A wide range of ESs are provided by forests. Investigating land use patterns and vegetation cover (the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the leaf area index (LAI), net primary productivity (NPP), etc.) is crucial to analyzing the benefits of forest-related ecosystems to humans, especially for carbon neutrality and sustainable development. The assessment and valuation of ESs can help us to understand the dynamic changes in ecosystems, perceive ecological risks, and formulate appropriate ecological restoration and protection strategies.

This Special Issue welcomes new data, methods, and findings on the following topics: (i) impact of land use changes (vegetation cover, fragmentation, land restoration, etc.) on forest-related ecosystem service provision; (ii) the quantification and the economic assessment of forest ESs (provisioning, regulating, and cultural services) and their trade-offs, synergies, as well as supply–demand analyses; (iii) impacts of policies and projects on forest-related ecosystem service provision. Original research and reviews aimed at understanding the spatio-temporal characteristics of ecological components, processes, functions, and patterns, as well as case studies integrating vegetation cover and ESs into policy decisions, are particularly encouraged.

Dr. Chao Wang
Prof. Dr. Xueting Zeng
Dr. Yuping Bai
Dr. Junlong Zhang
Prof. Dr. Davide M. Pettenella
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ecosystem services (ESs)
  • land use change
  • the leaf area index
  • vegetation cover
  • ES assessment and valuation
  • ES trade-offs and synergies
  • ES supply, demand, and budgets
  • carbon sequestration
  • carbon neutrality
  • human wellbeing
  • scenario analysis
  • nature-based solutions

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 3782 KiB  
Article
Determination of Fractional Vegetation Cover Threshold Based on the Integrated Synergy–Supply Capacity of Ecosystem Services
by Zehui Liu, Huaxing Bi, Danyang Zhao, Ning Guan, Ning Wang and Yilin Song
Forests 2025, 16(4), 587; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16040587 - 27 Mar 2025
Viewed by 181
Abstract
Determining the optimal vegetation cover threshold in a region for facilitating both high levels of ecosystem services (ESs) supply and synergistic sustainable development among different ESs is crucial. This study delineated the nonlinear relationship between the fractional vegetation cover (FVC) and the integrated [...] Read more.
Determining the optimal vegetation cover threshold in a region for facilitating both high levels of ecosystem services (ESs) supply and synergistic sustainable development among different ESs is crucial. This study delineated the nonlinear relationship between the fractional vegetation cover (FVC) and the integrated synergy–supply capacity of ESs in Ji County, on China’s Loess Plateau (2000–2023). The FVC was quantified using Landsat remote sensing data. Assessments of carbon storage, soil conservation, water conservation, and habitat quality were conducted based on multi-source remote sensing datasets and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model, which subsequently informed the evaluation of the integrated synergy–supply capacity of ESs. Spatial–temporal distribution characteristics were assessed via trend analysis methods and the spatial correlation relationship was assessed via bivariate local spatial autocorrelation analysis. The constraint line analysis and the restricted cubic spline method were combined to analyze the nonlinear relationship between the two and to quantify the FVC threshold. The results revealed that the spatial distribution of both the FVC and the integrated synergy–supply capacity of ESs was higher in the north, with a growth trend observed respectively. A highly significant positive spatial correlation existed between the two (Moran’s I > 0.6520, p < 0.01), dominated by the High–High agglomeration type (55.71%). The relationship between the regional FVC and the ISSC of ESs, the forest land FVC and the ISSC of ESs, and the grassland FVC and the ISSC of ESs all exhibited a positive convex function constraint line. The regional FVC threshold was 0.5, the forest land FVC threshold was 0.28, and the grassland FVC threshold was 0.77. When the FVC value was above the threshold, its facilitating effect on the ISSC of ESs diminished. This study advances vegetation threshold research by integrating the supply levels and synergy degrees of multiple ESs, providing a scientific foundation for formulating strategies for regional ecological restoration and adaptive management, and offering a reference for high-quality vegetation restoration in global arid, semi-arid, and erosion-prone regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessing, Valuing, and Mapping Ecosystem Services)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 3376 KiB  
Article
Forest Carbon Sinks in Chinese Provinces and Their Impact on Sustainable Development Goals
by Chenchen Li, Jianwei Wu, Fan Zhang and Xindong Huang
Forests 2025, 16(1), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16010083 - 6 Jan 2025
Viewed by 825
Abstract
Dealing with the challenge of climate change has become a consensus in the international community, and the carbon sequestration and absorption function of forest ecosystems has significant potential in addressing climate change. This study, based on China’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and forestry [...] Read more.
Dealing with the challenge of climate change has become a consensus in the international community, and the carbon sequestration and absorption function of forest ecosystems has significant potential in addressing climate change. This study, based on China’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) and forestry basic data, evaluates the progress of SDGs and forest carbon stocks in provinces and cities from 2000 to 2022 and reveals their changing trends. It uses fixed-effects models to quantify the impact of forest carbon sequestration on regional SDG6, SDG11, and SDG15, and clarify the mechanism of forest carbon sequestration in promoting regional SDGs. The research findings show the following: (1) The progress of SDG6, SDG11, and SDG15 in Chinese provinces and cities is not consistent. Most provinces have improved their SDG scores by more than 10 points, with the most notable progress in East China and Northeast China, while the progress in North China and Northwest China is relatively slow. (2) The forest carbon stock has increased by 93.2% from 2000 to 2022. The increase is most obvious in Northeast and Southeast China, while the forest carbon stock in North China and Northwest China is less than that of other regions. (3) The regression results show that forest carbon sequestration can significantly promote the development of SDG6, SDG11, and SDG15 at the 1% significance level. The heterogeneity test shows that forest carbon sequestration can significantly improve the progress of three sustainable development goals in eastern provinces, promote the achievement of SDG11 and SDG15 in central regions, and have a significant impact on only SDG15 in western regions. These research results are helpful for evaluating the contribution of forest carbon sequestration to SDGs and carbon neutrality goals and provide theoretical reference for China to address climate change and reduce climate change risks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessing, Valuing, and Mapping Ecosystem Services)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

30 pages, 33512 KiB  
Article
Ecological Management Zoning Based on the Supply–Demand Relationship and Synergies of Urban Forest Ecosystem Services: A Case Study from Fuzhou, China
by Mingzhe Li, Nuo Xu, Fan Liu, Huanran Tong, Nayun Ding, Jianwen Dong and Minhua Wang
Forests 2025, 16(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16010017 - 25 Dec 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 782
Abstract
Urban forests, as vital components of green infrastructure, provide essential ecosystem services (ESs) that support urban sustainability. However, rapid urban expansion and increased density threaten these forests, creating significant imbalances between the supply and demand for these services. Understanding the characteristics of ecosystem [...] Read more.
Urban forests, as vital components of green infrastructure, provide essential ecosystem services (ESs) that support urban sustainability. However, rapid urban expansion and increased density threaten these forests, creating significant imbalances between the supply and demand for these services. Understanding the characteristics of ecosystem services and reasonably dividing ecological management zones are crucial for promoting sustainable urban development. This study introduces an innovative ecological management zoning framework based on the matching degree and synergies relationships of ESs. Focusing on Fuzhou’s fourth ring road area in China, data from 1038 urban forest sample plots were collected using mobile LIDAR. By integrating the i-Tree Eco model and Kriging interpolation, we assessed the spatial distribution of four key ESs—carbon sequestration, avoided runoff, air purification, and heat mitigation—and analyzed their supply–demand relationships and synergies. Based on these ecological characteristics, we employed unsupervised machine learning classification to identify eight distinct ecological management zones, each accompanied by targeted recommendations. Key findings include the following: (1) ecosystem services of urban forests in Fuzhou exhibit pronounced spatial heterogeneity, with clearly identifiable high-value and low-value areas of significant statistical relevance; (2) heat mitigation, avoided runoff, and air purification services all exhibit synergistic effects, while carbon sequestration shows trade-offs with the other three services in high-value areas, necessitating targeted optimization; (3) eight ecological management zones were identified, each with unique ecological characteristics. This study offers precise spatial insights into Fuzhou’s urban forests, providing a foundation for sustainable ecological management strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessing, Valuing, and Mapping Ecosystem Services)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop