Farmland ecological compensation zoning and horizontal fiscal payment mechanism in Wuhan Agglomeration, China, from the perspective of ecological footprint

Abstract

This study proposes a farmland ecological compensation zoning index (FECZI) and a horizontal farmland ecological fiscal payment model to assess the amount of horizontal fiscal payment in the 48 districts of the Wuhan Agglomeration of China. The results indicate that: 14 districts of Wuhan Agglomeration are classified into farmland ecological payment areas and the remaining 34 districts are compensation ones. Moreover, the largest ecological payment area is Hongshan (109,901.05 × 104 Yuan), while the lowest is Tieshan (83.69 × 104 Yuan). The largest ecological compensation area is Tianmen (-84,076.11 × 104 Yuan), while the least is Hannan (-1340.58 × 104 Yuan). The findings can be used in the reform of farmland ecological compensation as well as innovation of fiscal payment mechanism in Wuhan Agglomeration, China.