An Improved Ecological Services Valuation Model in Land Use Project.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Economics
• Ecological Valuation
• Land Use Management

Background:

• Natural ecosystems provide essential services, but their free provision leads to undervaluation and exploitation.
• Unchecked land exploitation results in significant ecological degradation and economic losses.
• Existing models often fail to adequately capture the full cost of environmental degradation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present the Ecological Services Valuation Model (ESVM) for quantifying environmental degradation costs.
• To establish a framework for evaluating the economic consequences of land use practices.
• To provide a tool for more accurate assessment of land use project impacts.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Ecological Services Valuation Model (ESVM) incorporating effective land area.
• Introduced the concept of effective land area based on osmotic systems, considering scale and environmental impacts.
• Modified the Cobb-Douglas production function to establish the core of the ESVM.
• Proposed a calculation formula for the economic cost of land use projects.

Main Results:

• The ESVM effectively measures environmental degradation costs, including opportunity and damage costs.
• The model integrates land area with scale and external environmental factors through effective land area.
• The modified Cobb-Douglas function provides a robust basis for economic cost calculation.
• Effectiveness and sensitivity analyses confirmed the ESVM as a stable and reliable model.

Conclusions:

• The ESVM offers a valuable tool for assessing the economic costs of environmental degradation linked to land use.
• The model's stability and sensitivity analyses support its application in environmental economics and policy.
• Accurate valuation of ecological services is crucial for preventing unsustainable land exploitation and promoting conservation.