The Supply-demand Relation Analysis and Improvements Based on Importance-Performance Analysis of Cultural Ecosystem Services in Waterfront Areas Along the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai

The focus of ecosystem services research has been shifted from explaining the internal mechanism of supply-demand balance to matching supply and demand of services. This paper points out four aspects of the supply and demand characteristics of cultural ecosystem services (CES), which are 1) the influence of served people, 2) the nonexcludability and potential competitiveness, 3) a clear integration between various types, and 4) a close relation with spatial elements. Since the literature has showed that there was a weak relation between supply and demand and insufficient provision of overall evaluation methods, this paper focuses on waterfront spaces at a site scale, proposing that the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) could serve as an effective approach to measure and analyze the supply and demand of CES. It selects four waterfront spaces along the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai for the case studies. Starting from the identification of the characteristic factors of landscape elements, it analyzes the supply and demand characteristics of cultural ecosystem services at waterfront spaces based on the importance-performance distribution. In response to demands, it clarifies the strategies for effectively improving the service supply, thus providing feasible and effective technical support and operable decision-making basis for the upgrading, planning and design of urban waterfront inventory spaces.