Linking Demographic Factors, Land Use, Ecosystem Services, and Human Well-Being: Insights from an Sandy Landscape, Uxin in Inner Mongolia, China

• Main Authors: Jing Zhang, Xueming Li, Tongliga Bao, Zhenghai Li, Chong Liu, Yuan Xu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: ecosystem services; human well-being; structural equation model; sand land; Uxin
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/4847

Ecosystem services are fundamental in supporting human well-being which is a core component of sustainability. Understanding the relationship between ecosystem services (ESs) and human well-being (HWB) in a changing landscape is important to implement appropriate ecosystem management and policy development. Combining with demographic, economic, and cultural factors, their land use are the elements linking ESs and HWB at fine scale. Within this context, the purpose of this study is to evaluate household HWB changes in the past decade, and understand the relationship between demographic factors, land use, ESs, and HWB in the social-ecological landscapes of Uxin, in Inner Mongolia. Our results indicate that: the levels of HWB of local herder families were slightly improved from 2007 to 2016; changes in family demographic factors enhanced their land use intensity, resulting in an increased supply capacity of ecosystems and improved HWB; in addition, regulating services contributed more to HWB than provisioning services. The results of this study can help improve the understanding of the relationship between ESs and HWB, and provide valuable information to policy-makers to maintain particular ESs or to improve HWB.