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Integrating Cultural Ecosystem Services into the Optimization of Ecological Space in the Northern Foot of the Qinling Mountains

Yuanyuan Qin
Vol.8, No.8, pp.35-52, 2026 DOI: 10.62051/ijnres.v8n8.05 September 30, 2026
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Abstract: Incorporating the assessment of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) into territorial spatial planning contributes to a comprehensive understanding of ecosystem service values and the optimization of ecological space layout. Due to the intangible nature of CES, objective evaluation and quantitative analysis face great challenges. Consequently, existing research on ecosystem services mostly focuses on tangible ecosystem services including provisioning, regulating and supporting services, while spatial assessment studies of CES remain scarce. How to quantify and spatially map CES, integrate it into the ecosystem service assessment framework and support spatial planning decision making has become a key topic in ecosystem service evaluation. Therefore, based on the general social ecological system framework, this study proposes an innovative approach to integrate cultural ecosystem services into the assessment of Biophysical Ecosystem Services (BES). Combining participatory questionnaire surveys with biophysical models, this study quantifies, optimizes and reorganizes four CES indicators and five BES indicators. It fully accounts for different scenarios of priority ranking of key ecological spaces before and after the inclusion of CES. The results show that: (1) Respondents reported the highest willingness to pay for mental health values; (2) CES presents an east high west low spatial distribution pattern; (3) Among BES, provisioning services are mainly distributed in the northern plains, whereas regulating and supporting services concentrate in the southern mountainous areas; (4) After incorporating CES, the priority levels of provisioning, regulating and supporting services change significantly. Some zones experience rank rises or declines caused by improved cultural functions or human disturbances. This research provides suggestions for ecological space optimization and sustainable land development in the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains.
Keywords: Cultural Ecosystem Services; Biophysical Ecosystem Services; Spatial Distribution
APA Citation: Yuanyuan Qin (2026). Integrating Cultural Ecosystem Services into the Optimization of Ecological Space in the Northern Foot of the Qinling Mountains. International Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, 8(8), 35-52. https://doi.org/10.62051/ijnres.v8n8.05

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