Variation of ecosystem services value in Kashgar: 1998 – 2009

Natural ecosystem is the base for city residents, especially for the city in oasis like Kashgar. Kashgar is now in the process of the construction of Special Economic Zone, which will bring tremendous pressure to the local ecosystem. Maintaining the sustainability of local ecosystem needs to investigate its service functions. This paper aims to calculating the ecosystem service values in Kashgar from 1998 to 2009. We identified five different urban natural ecosystems, and addressed four local and direct services: climate regulation, gas regulation, soil formation and environmental purification. Results show that the total ecosystem service values of Kashgar first ascend from 1998 to 2005 and then drop from 2005 to 2009, indicate that the ecosystem services function is great influenced by the size of orchard and forest land, illustrate that increasing the area orchard and forest land is the most effective way to raise the ecosystem service values in Kashgar.