Temporal and spatial characteristics of carbon storage and its response to land-use change in Chengdu, China

Abstract

The accurate monitoring of the dynamic relationship between land use and carbon storage can provide a scientific basis for the government to formulate carbon emission reduction policies and promote the green development of cities, achieving a win–win situation for both ecology and the economy. As a national central city in southwest China, Chengdu has experienced rapid land-use changes in the past decade due to the implementation of development strategies such as urban-rural integration and the construction of a “Park City.” To explore the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of carbon storage in Chengdu during this period, three representative years (2010, 2015, and 2020) were selected to estimate the changes in carbon storage using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model. From 2010 to 2020, the land-use changes in Chengdu primarily manifested in the mutual transformation between cultivated land, forest land, and construction land. The conversion between the high-carbon-density-land-use type and the low-carbon-density-land-use type was an important driving factor for the change in carbon storage in Chengdu, and it was also the main reason for the overall reduction of carbon storage in the city. The carbon source areas of Chengdu demonstrated an aggregated spatial pattern, with the northern and southern parts of the city being the main carbon source areas. In contrast, the carbon sink areas were mainly distributed in the western and eastern parts, as well as the ecological park around the expressway in Chengdu. This distribution was mainly due to increased efforts to restore inefficiently used cultivated land back to forest and grassland. The proposal of the “Park City” strategy has promoted the construction of green infrastructure in Chengdu and has effectively increased urban carbon sinks.