ANN-Based Remote Sensing Estimation of Ecosystem Service Values in Meizhou Proper, China

Based on land use/cover extracting from artificial neural network (ANN) classification of Landsat TM/ETM+ data, the ecosystem service values (ESVs) of Meizhou proper in 2001 and 2007 were studied by using remote sensing and Xie et al.\´s method of ESV calculation. The annual total ESV in Meizhou proper was 582.3 million Yuan in 2001 and 581.1 million Yuan in 2007, with a slight decline of 1.2 million Yuan from 2001 to 2007 due to the reducing areas of garden plot, farmland and water body. The ESVs of soil formation & conservation and water conservation got the top two highest, and the ESV of food production the lowest one of all nine ecosystem functions. Land use/cover (LUC) changes were mainly responsible for the ESV variations in Meizhou proper. It is suggested that some measures such as a reasonable land use plan should be made to preserve the ecosystem services and promote "Green Rising" of Meizhou for sustainable development.