sustainability Article Ecosystem Services Value Assessment and Uneven Development of the Qingjiang River Basin in China Zhengsong Lin 1,2 ID , Xinyue Ye 3,4,* ID , Qian Wei 2, Fan Xin 5, Zhang Lu 2, Sonali Kudva 6 ID and Qiwen Dai 4,* 1 School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China;
[email protected] 2 School of Arts Communication, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China;
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[email protected] (Z.L.) 3 Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA 4 School of Economics and Management, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China 5 School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China;
[email protected] 6 School of Information, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] (X.Y.);
[email protected] (Q.D.); Tel.: +1-419-494-7825 (X.Y.); +86-773-5816858 (Q.D.); Fax: +1-330-672-4034 (X.Y.); +86-773-5816858 (Q.D.) Received: 11 August 2017; Accepted: 8 December 2017; Published: 18 December 2017 Abstract: As an important ecological barrier in Southwest China, the Qingjiang river basin plays a vital role in shaping the mountainous terrain. This paper analyzes the Ecosystem Services Value (ESV) using a series of methods based on the data of changes in land use from 2000 to 2015 and the statistical yearbook. The changes in land use between 2000 and 2015 were dominated by forest land, which accounted for 60.63% of the total area, followed by arable landwhich accounted for about 22.26%, while grassland and other land use contribution rates were the lowest, accounting for only about 17.11%.