Evaluation the Forest Products and Water Retention at a County Level: A Case Study in Benxi County of China

Forest products and water retention produced by forest are essential for the wellbeing of humans. Taking the subcompartment as the basic evaluation unit, based on geographic information system (GIS), we estimated the economic value of water retention by forest ecosystems in Benxi County of Liaoning province of china, and attempted to integrate evaluation and practical forestry management activity. The economic value of water retention by forest in Benxi County is estimated to be 146.57 million RMB which is about two times of the timber economic value. In addition, we analyzed the spatial distribution of evaluation results. Our work can effectively make the evaluation results into decision making in forest ecosystem management (for example, the division of forest for water retention).