Spatial-Temporal Changes and Driving Factors of Land-Use Eco-Efficiency Incorporating Ecosystem Services in China

With rapid urbanization in China, the dramatic land-use changes are one of the most prominent features that have substantially affected the land ecosystems, thus seriously threatening sustainable development. However, current studies have focused more on evaluating the economic efficiency of land-use, while the loss and degradation of ecosystem services are barely considered. To address these issues, this study first proposed a land use-based input-output index system, incorporating the impact on ecosystem services value (ESV), and then by taking 30 provinces in China as a case study. We further employed the super-efficiency slacks-based model (Super-SBM) and the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model to explore the spatial-temporal changes and driving factors of the evaluated land-use eco-efficiency. We found that the evaluated ESV was 28.09 trillion yuan (at the price of 2000) in 2015, and that the total ESV experienced an inverted U-shaped trend during 2000-2015.The average land-use eco-efficiency exhibited a downward trend from 0.87 in 2000 to 0.68 in 2015 with distinct regional differences by taking into account the ESV. Our results revealed that northeastern region had the highest efficiency, followed by the eastern, western, and central region of China. Finally, we identified a U-shaped relationship between the eco-efficiency and land urbanization, and found that technological innovation made great contributions to the improvement of the eco-efficiency. These findings highlight the importance of the ESV in the evaluation of land-use eco-efficiency. Future land development and management should pay additional attention to the land ecosystems, especially the continuous supply of human well-being related ecosystem services.