Urban areas play a vital role in supporting the multidimensional well-being of the residents. However, the expansion of urban areas often brings a paradox: rapid economic growth alongside the decline of vital ecosystem services. A key challenge lies in enhancing natural ecosystem services without compromising socio-economic benefits.

In a study published in Sustainable Cities and Society, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators proposed a new framework that integrates biophysical processes with the "source-flow-sink" theory, which enables the tracking of spatial flows of both economic benefits and ecosystem services across regional, district, and grid scales during urban expansion.

The Ordos region was chosen as the study area because of its pivotal role in ensuring China’s ecological security and economic growth. Through remote sensing imagery, geographic information systems, and ecological modeling, researchers analyzed the spatial changes in economic benefits and ecosystem services resulting from urban expansion. They also explored how these changes affect the residents' multidimensional well-being.

The results showed that as the city expanded, economic benefits consistently increased, and certain ecological services such as soil retention and water supply improved. However, other vital services including water purification and carbon storage experienced significant declines.

Although both economic and ecological benefits showed an overall increase at the regional level in Ordos, there were clear spatial imbalances at the district level. Some western areas achieved a "win-win" outcome, but the others exhibited a distinct trade-off, where economic progress came at the cost of ecological degradation, highlighting the risks associated with unmanaged urban expansion.

To address these imbalances, researchers recommend prioritizing urban green infrastructure restoration and multifunctional community construction in the eastern districts. In the ecologically fragile western districts, they suggest implementing revegetation with native plant species.

"Our framework provides a transferable tool to support more equitable and efficient land-use decisions that balance economic growth with ecosystem integrity and promote multidimensional human well-being in the Ordos and other regions," said BAI Yang from XTBG.