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Understanding the factors driving the variation in urban green space and plant communities in heterogeneous urban landscapes is crucial for maintaining biodiversity and important ecosystem services. In this study, we used a combination of field surveys, remote sensing, census data and spatial analysis to investigate the interrelationships among geographical and social-economic variables across 328 different urban structural units (USUs) and how they may influence the distributions of urban forest cover, plant diversity and abundance, within the central urban area of Beijing, China. We found that the urban green space coverage varied substantially across different types of USUs, with higher in agricultural lands ( N = 15), parks ( N = 46) and lowest in utility zones ( N = 36). The amount of urban green space within USUs declines exponentially with the distance to urban center. Our study suggested that geographical, social and economic factors were closely related with each other in urban ecological systems, and have important impacts on urban forest coverage and abundance. The percentage of forest as well as high and low density urban areas were mainly responsible for variations in the data across all USUs and all land use/land cover types, and thus are important constituents and ecological indicators for understanding and modeling urban environment. Herb richness is more strongly correlated with tree and shrub density than with tree and shrub richness ( r = −0.472, p < 0.05). However, other geographic and socioeconomic factors showed no significant relationships with urban plant diversity or abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 52% of the world's population now lives in urban areas, and 41% of urban land in developed countries is used for residential areas. The amount and quality of residential green space, an important element in urban residential infrastructure, is closely correlated to city dwellers' quality of life. The quality of green spaces is not only closely correlated to the ecosystem services they provide, but also to their disservices. In order to (i) examine how plant diversity and plant traits vary in different residential areas, (ii) determine the main socio-economic factors driving plant trait variations across different residential areas, and (iii) provide an overview on selected ecosystem services and disservices related to plant diversity, we investigated the flora and socio-economic properties of 83 residential areas in Beijing, China. We found a total of 369 plant species belonging to 99 families and 150 genera. With respect to plant traits, there were 90 annual species, 174 alien species, 169 pollen allergenic species, and 133 species with edible or pharmaceutical value. The number of perennial, alien, ornamental and edible plant species was largest in residential areas completed in the 1990s. The number of allergenic species was highest in residential areas completed prior to 1980. The Simpson, Shannon and Pielou indices for trees and shrubs were highest in areas completed in the 1990s, while those same indices for herbs were highest in residential areas completed prior to 1980. General Linear Model analyses revealed that richness increased with increasing housing price across all groups of species. Principal Component Analysis indicated that housing price and floor-area ratio are the variables that positively correlate with species richness for all groups of species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Lexicon to effectively utilise social media data to assess ecosystem services. • All ecosystem services were perceivable to urban park users but frequencies vary. • Ecosystem services of urban parks bundle in four distinctive types. • Ecosystem service bundles across scale deserve further attention. • Educational programs to be enhanced for urban parks in Beijing. Urban green spaces provide a range of services to urban residents; however, how these distinct spaces provide different services, if any, to human wellbeing has been seldom addressed. Using large volumes of social media data considering broad user groups and publicly available content, we developed a method to transform unstructured online comments into a structured assessment of nine categories of ecosystem services. An 'ecosystem services lexicon' was created based on 6853 words under twenty-eight subcategories of parks' services to human wellbeing using the word2vec model. The application of the ecosystem service lexicon to urban parks in Beijing revealed that all ecosystem services were perceivable to urban park users; however, the perception frequency of the ecosystem services varied across different parks. Additionally, the perceived ecosystem services were bundled together; four types of bundles were identified with varied dominant services. Technically, this study offered a novel technical procedure that can transfer unstructured free comments into a structured assessment of urban parks' perceived services to human wellbeing. Theoretically, the study revealed small-scale ecosystem service bundles from users' opinions and called for a further cross-scale understanding of ecosystem service bundles. Practically, the study findings can help inform evidence-based park policies, planning, and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivating a deeper understanding of the response mechanism of cultural ecosystem services to urbanization is increasingly recognized as a critical component of sustainable governance and land-use decision making. However, except for a range of studies exploring changes in ecosystem services during urbanization that address cultural ecosystem services as merely one service type, few investigations reveal the changing mechanism of cultural ecosystem services in rapid urbanization. To fill this knowledge gap, this study selected Changyang Township, Fangshan District, Beijing as a case to understand the influence of intense urbanization on changes in cultural ecosystem services in the context of Chinese cities. Cultural ecosystem services were classified and mapped based upon a systematic and critical review of previous literature, field surveys, and kernel density analysis. The influence of urbanization on cultural ecosystem services' changes was examined through casual loop diagrams. Urbanization was found to contribute positively to cultural ecosystem services in general, although a reconstruction process revealed that these were initially diminished and then revamped during China's urbanization. The primary development of the land was the key factor contributing to the process by which conventional cultural ecosystem services deteriorated during urbanization, while spatial planning and design facilitated the reconstructions of cultural ecosystem services across larger core areas. Meanwhile, cultural ecosystem services were experienced differently by residents in areas with varied urbanization intensities. This study provides an in-depth analysis and suggestions for primary land development in the Chinese context to achieve sustainable urbanization concerning cultural ecosystem services. In addition, this study enriches the cultural ecosystem services literature from a dynamic lens while highlighting the complexity of recreation as both an experience and a component of cultural ecosystem services. • Urbanization is found to play both negative and positive roles in changing CESs. • There was a destruction and reconstruction process of CESs during urbanization. • Land preparation was the key factor in CESs destruction, and park design represented CESs reconstruction. • Recreation was found to be both a way of experiencing CESs and a component of CESs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]