Evaluating Spatial Patterns of Ecosystem Services based on a Comparative Approach on Spatial Statistics in the Central Part of Isfahan Province

Considering the spatial patterns of ecosystem services plays an important role in evaluating land capacity to provide some benefits. Accordingly, the spatial variation of three ecosystem services, aesthetics value, recreation value and noise pollution reduction in the central part of Isfahan province was investigated applying statistical approaches of Local Moran’s I, and Getis-Ord Gi analysis. Then, spatial accuracy of the investigated algorithms was evaluated and compared using the Receiving Operator Characteristic method. The findings reveal that the spatial variation of the ecosystem services under study have High-cluster pattern. Based on both used approaches and for all three ecosystem services, the central part of the study area has a positive spatial correlation pattern, whereas the southern part of the study area has a negative spatial correlation pattern. Areas representing the high cluster pattern involved have the highest supply of ecosystem services in the study area, while in areas with low cluster pattern, the provision of ecosystem services is very low. Spatial accuracy evaluating of ecosystem services spatial correlation patterns indicate that returned the largest area under ROC curve of recreational value and Getis-Ord Gi analysis (0.972), whereas the lowest rate is found for the noise pollution reduction service and Local Moran’s I, (0.833). Overall, according to the results, the Getis-Ord Gi indicates higher spatial accuracy than Local Moran’s I method for three ecosystem services, and the Receiving Operator Characteristic is an appropriate index to evaluate the accuracy of the analytical approaches used in This research. The findings of this study can be applied by decision makers and land planner to identify and management spatial correlation patterns of ecosystem services.