Spatiotemporal analysis of ecological benefits coupling remote sensing ecological index and ecosystem services index

The quality of the ecological environment directly affects the generation of ecological benefits, and the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) provides rapid monitoring of regional aboveground ecological environment quality using satellite data. However, it relies on aboveground indicators and cannot fully capture its evolutionary trend. Ecosystem services (ES) indicate the well-being and capacity of ecosystems to benefit humans, and ES directly reflect ecological benefits. They provide a qualitative or quantitative assessment of ecosystem status, but with a delay relative to aboveground environmental changes. In order to quantitatively evaluate ES, ecosystem service index (ESI) was proposed in this paper. The coupling of RSEI and ESI was achieved through the four-quadrant model and the coupling degree model, which compensated for the dependence of RSEI evaluation on aboveground indicators, and the delayed effect of ESI, and provided a more objective spatiotemporal analysis of regional ecological benefits. The example is provided from Fushun City, Liaoning Province, China. Results showed: that ESI could effectively reflect the impact of land use and land cover (LULC) changes on ecosystem quality. The RSEI and ESI showed an overall upward trend in the study area, with the exception of a notable decrease in the central Wanghua District, the southern Dongzhou District, and the northern Fushun County. The quadrant I of the study area showed a continuous decrease, while the rest of the quadrants show a continuous increase. The coupling index significantly decreased in areas impacted by building site expansion and ecological restoration measures implementation. The four-quadrant model and coupling index can reflect the spatiotemporal changes and synergy level of RSEI and ESI, and can provide a more objective spatiotemporal analysis of ecological benefits. Therefore, coupling RSEI and ESI can quickly and comprehensively analyze the ecological environment quality and ecosystem service capacity in time and space, and reflect its evolution trend, which is of great significance for the management, prevention and planning of the regional ecological environment.