Classifying ecosystem disservices and comparing their effects with ecosystem services in Beijing, China

TL;DR

This study classifies and compares ecosystem disservices and services in Beijing, revealing that despite financial losses from disservices, ecosystem services offer greater economic benefits, emphasizing the need for their joint consideration in urban planning.

Contribution

It introduces a functional classification of ecosystem disservices and compares their effects with services in an urban context, highlighting the importance of considering both for sustainable development.

Findings

Ecosystem disservices cause significant financial loss.

Ecosystem services' economic benefits outweigh disservices.

Valuation of EDS should be integrated into ecosystem assessments.

Abstract

To completely understand the effects of urban ecosystems, the effects of ecosystem disservices should be considered along with the ecosystem services and require more research attention. In this study, we tried to better understand its formation through the use of cascade flowchart and classification systems and compare their effects with ecosystem services. It is vitally important to differentiate final and intermediate ecosystem disservices for understanding the negative effects of the ecosystem on human well-being. The proposed functional classification of EDS (i.e. provisioning, regulating and cultural EDS) should also help better bridging EDS and ES studies. In addition, we used Beijing as a case study area to value the EDS caused by urban ecosystems and compare the findings with ES values. The results suggested that although EDS caused great financial loss the potential economic gain from ecosystem services still significantly outweigh the loss. Our study only sheds light on valuating the net effects of urban ecosystems. In the future, we believe that EDS valuation should be at least equally considered in ecosystem valuation studies to create more comprehensive and sustainable development policies, land use proposals and management plans.