Changes in land use or land cover and ecosystem service values in Wuhan city, China, from 1996 to 2018

Despite rapid development in response research of land use to ecosystem service values (ESV), there is little attention to the influence of ecological construction at a local scale with an empirical study. Based on land use data from two Chinese land surveys, this study attempted to assess ESV from the dual perspectives of urbanization and ecological protection with the primary data-based approach from 1996 to 2018 in Wuhan, central China. We found that the ESV increased from 119.32 billion yuan to 220.29 billion yuan during 1996 – 2018, with an average annual growth rate of 1.27%, 3.86%, 3.49%, 2.97%, and 1.87% during the periods 1996 – 2000, 2000 – 2005, 2005 – 2010, 2010 – 2015, and 2015 – 2018, respectively. The conversion of other land use types to forest and water bodies was the main reason for the increase in ESV. The analysis results could be helpful to provide a new way to create policies pertaining to city development and ecological environment protection in typical rapid urbanization regions.