Exploring variations of ecosystem service value in Hangzhou Bay Wetland, Eastern China

Wetlands are important natural resources, and studying wetland ecosystem values is helpful to explore the sustainable development of resources and economy. Hangzhou Bay is located in economically developed coastal area of China, where wetland values have been changed rapidly in the past few decades. Based on three sets of remote sensing data (1990, 2000 and 2010), this study has made an exploration on spatio-temporal changes of wetland area, and also made an assessment on wetland ecosystem values of eight types of service in Hangzhou Bay based on related theories of ecological economics. Results showed that the ecosystem service value of Hangzhou Bay Wetland in 1990, 2000 and 2010 were 48.7 x 10(8) yuan, 41.6 x 10(8) yuan and 45.3 x 10(8) yuan, respectively. If divided by wetland types, rivers and lakes were two types of wetlands that have the greatest proportion of service value, followed by paddy field and shallow waters. In the perspective of service types, water conservation and material production accounted for over 70% of the total service value. In addition, the recreation value has been increased significantly in recent years. This study, therefore, recommends developing coastal wetland tourism and coastal aquaculture based on controlling pollution emissions to protect natural wetlands.