A new perspective for enhancing social and ecological systems coordination in ecological restoration
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
Ecosystem services (ESs) are fundamental to ensuring human well-being and sustainable development. However, the complex nonlinear relationships between ESs and social systems are still not fully recognized at present. Here, we used a comprehensive indicator framework, a coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, and a GeoDetector model to measure the CCD and development level of ESs and social systems in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, China from 2000 to 2020, analyze the spatial patterns and temporal variations of their development, and quantify the influence of 15 factors on the spatial heterogeneity of their CCD.
Results
We observed that the increase of social system development level in Sanmenxia City was higher than that of ESs’ provisioning capacity. From 2000 to 2020, the ecosystem service index value of Sanmenxia City increased by about 25%, while the level of social system development increased by 118.9%. The coordination between ESs and social systems improved by 25%, indicating that their relationships were shifting from trade-offs to synergies. Lushi County (one of the six administrative regions of Sanmenxia City) had the highest level of CCD, but the overall coordination remained relatively weak in Sanmenxia City, and none of the six administrative regions achieved a high level of coordination. CCD was influenced by multiple interacting factors, with topography and land use patterns being the primary drivers.
Conclusions
Optimizing the spatial layout of ecological space, agricultural space, and urban space based on natural geographic patterns can be an effective way to improve CCD. Accordingly, we identified the impacts of potential barriers on sustainable development and provided multiple possible effective actions. Our findings deepen the knowledge and understanding of the “human-nature relationships”, which are of great significance in promoting the synergistic development of social and ecological systems.
Ecosystem services (ESs) are fundamental to ensuring human well-being and sustainable development. However, the complex nonlinear relationships between ESs and social systems are still not fully recognized at present. Here, we used a comprehensive indicator framework, a coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, and a GeoDetector model to measure the CCD and development level of ESs and social systems in Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, China from 2000 to 2020, analyze the spatial patterns and temporal variations of their development, and quantify the influence of 15 factors on the spatial heterogeneity of their CCD.
Results
We observed that the increase of social system development level in Sanmenxia City was higher than that of ESs’ provisioning capacity. From 2000 to 2020, the ecosystem service index value of Sanmenxia City increased by about 25%, while the level of social system development increased by 118.9%. The coordination between ESs and social systems improved by 25%, indicating that their relationships were shifting from trade-offs to synergies. Lushi County (one of the six administrative regions of Sanmenxia City) had the highest level of CCD, but the overall coordination remained relatively weak in Sanmenxia City, and none of the six administrative regions achieved a high level of coordination. CCD was influenced by multiple interacting factors, with topography and land use patterns being the primary drivers.
Conclusions
Optimizing the spatial layout of ecological space, agricultural space, and urban space based on natural geographic patterns can be an effective way to improve CCD. Accordingly, we identified the impacts of potential barriers on sustainable development and provided multiple possible effective actions. Our findings deepen the knowledge and understanding of the “human-nature relationships”, which are of great significance in promoting the synergistic development of social and ecological systems.
Date Issued
2025-02-21
Date Acceptance
2025-02-10
Citation
Ecological Processes, 2025, 14
ISSN
2192-1709
Publisher
SpringerOpen
Journal / Book Title
Ecological Processes
Volume
14
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
20
Date Publish Online
2025-02-21