Impacts of multi-scenario land use change on ecosystem services and ecological security pattern: A case study of the Yellow River Delta

The Yellow River Delta(YRD), a critical economic zone along China's eastern coast, also functions as a vital ecological reserve in the lower Yellow River. Amidst rapid industrialization and urbanization, the region has witnessed significant land use/cover changes(LUCC), impacting ecosystem services(ES) and ecological security patterns(ESP). Investigating LUCC's effects on ES and ESP in the YRD is crucial for ecological security and sustainable development. This study utilized the PLUS model to simulate 2030 land use scenarios, including natural development(NDS), economic development(EDS), and ecological protection scenarios(EPS). Subsequently, the InVEST model and circuit theory were applied to assess ES and ESP under varying LUCC scenarios from 2010 to 2030. Findings indicate:(1) Notable LUCC from 2010 to 2030, marked by decreasing cropland and increasing construction land and water bodies.(2) From 2010 to 2020, improvements were observed in carbon storage,water yield, soil retention, and habitat quality, whereas 2020–2030 saw increases in water yield and soil retention but declines in habitat quality and carbon storage. Among the scenarios, EPS showed superior performance in all four ES.(3) Between 2010 and 2030, ecological sources, corridors, and pinchpoints expanded, displaying significant spatial heterogeneity. The EPS scenario yielded the most substantial increases in ecological sources,corridors, and pinchpoints, totaling 582.89 km^(2), 645.03 km^(2),and 64.43 km^(2), respectively. This study highlights the importance of EPS, offering insightful scientific guidance for the YRD's sustainable development.

Optimization of Rural Settlement Distributions Based On the Ecological Security Pattern: A Case Study of Da’an City in Jilin Province of China

Following the trends of Chinese rural transformation development, and the sustainable development goals for resources and environment, reasonable arranging the potential development space and the ecological space, so as to optimize the distributions of rural settlement would be the key challenge for rural areas in ecologically fragile regions. From the perspective of maintaining regional ecological security, this paper takes Da’an City, a typical ecological fragile region in Jilin Province, as the case area, constructing the comprehensive ecological security pattern(ESP) on basis of landscape ecology, and applying the landscape pattern indexes to quantitative analysis the spatial distribution characteristics of rural settlements. Then, different optimization directions and management strategies are put forward for rural settlements in each secure zone under the comprehensive ESP. The experimental results showed that 1) the area of the low security zone, the general security zone, the moderate security zone and the extreme security zone was 1570.18 km^2, 1463.36 km^2, 1215.80 km^2 and 629.77 km^2, representing 32.18%, 29.99%, 24.92% and 12.91% of the total area of the target area, respectively. 2) The rural settlements in Da’an City were characterized by a high degree of fragmentation with a large number of small-scale patches. 3) The area of rural settlements in the ecological relocation zone, the in situ remediation zone, the limited development zone and the key development zone was 22.80 km^2, 42.31 km^2, 36.28 km^2 and 19.40 km^2, accounting for 18.88%, 35.03%, 30.04% and 16.06% of the total area of rural settlements, respectively. Then, different measures were proposed for settlements in different optimization zones in order to scientifically plan important ecological space, production space and living space in rural areas. This paper aims to provide fundamental support for rural settlements based on redistribution from the perspective of landscape ecology and provide insights for rural planning and rural habitat environmental improvement.

Ecological risk assessment and ecological security pattern optimization in the middle reaches of the Yellow River based on ERI+MCR model

The middle reaches of the Yellow River represent an important area for the protection and development of the Yellow River Basin.Most of the area of the river basin is within the Loess Plateau,which establishes it as a fragile ecological environment.Firstly,using high-resolution data of land use in the watershed from the past 30 years,landscape ecological risk(LER)sample units are defined and an ecological risk index(ERI)model is constructed.Kriging interpolation is used to display the LER spatial patterns,and the temporal and spatial evolution of risk is examined.Secondly,the spatial evolution of land use landscape change(LULC)is analyzed,and the correlation between land use landscape and ecological risk is discussed.Finally,Based on the LER model,a risk-based minimum cumulative resistance(MCR)model is established,and a comprehensive protection and management network system for the ecological source-corridor-node system designed.The results suggest that in the past 30 years,LER has a high spatial correlation and areas with extremely high ecological risks are concentrated in northwest and southeast areas of the region,of which the northwest area accounts for the highest proportion.Risk intensity is closely related to the spatial pattern of land use landscape.ERI values of forestland,grasslands,and unused land and farmland are low,medium,and high,respectively.The trend of risk evolution is“overall improvement and partial deterioration”.Man-made construction and exploitation is the most direct reason for the increase of local ecological risks.The high ecological-risk areas in the northwest are dominated by deserts which reduce excessive interference by human activities on the natural landscape.Recommendations are:high-quality farmland should be protected;forestland should be restored and rebuilt;repair and adjust the existing ecosystem to assist in landscape regeneration and reconstruction;utilize the overall planning vision of“mountain,water,forest,field,lake,grass,sand”to design a management project at the basin scale;adhere to problem-oriented and precise policy implementation.

Construction of ecological security patterns and ecological restoration zones in the city of Ningbo,China

Studying an ecological restoration zoning process under the background of ecological security patterns is of great significance to the rapid adjustment and optimization of a landscape pattern.In this study,a remote sensing ecological index and a morphological spatial pattern analysis method were used to assess the quality of habitats and identify ecological sources in the city of Ningbo;ecological corridors,ecological pinch points,and ecological barrier points were extracted by using a circuit theory to construct ecological security patterns and ecological restoration zones.The results indicate:(1)There were 47 ecological sources,and 83 key ecological corridors in Ningbo,and the ecological land area was about 1898.39 km^(2),accounting for 19.89%of the total study area.(2)The ecological source areas were distributed in“one patch and three belts”,and the low-resistance ecological corridors were concentrated in southern Yuyao city,western Haishu district,and central and western Fenghua district;the ecological network in the western and southern regions was dense.(3)There were four types of ecological restoration zones that need to be established,which were prioritized restoration zones,prioritized protection zones,key conservation zones,and general conservation zones distributed hierarchically from inner part towards outside.(4)Ninghai county,Yuyao city,and Fenghua district had large ecological land areas,however,prioritized restoration and protection zones in Ninghai and Fenghua were also large.The analysis results are expected to provide a reference for optimizing a territorial ecological space in a city.

Ecological security pattern-based simulation for land use structure change:a case study in Ezhou City,China

The ecological environment quality is an important constraint and an optimization objective for land resource allocation.Integrating ecological service value(ESV)accounting and ecological security pattern(ESP)delineation,and combining with the land use structure of 2004/2010/2016 in Ezhou City,this research laid out the urban ESP based on ESV with Net Primary Productivity(NPP),and made it as the main influence factor to simulate land use structure in 2022.The results indicated that:1)The water body has the biggest contribution to ESV,while the construction land has the minimum;2)91 ecological corridors are extracted,of which 28 were important ecological corridors;there were 36 ecological nodes extracted,including 17 important nodes;3)According to ESV,Ezhou City was divided into four security zones.The area of ecological restoration zone was the largest,and human activity core zone area was the smallest;4)In the no ESP protection scenarios and ESP protection scenarios separately,the net increase area of construction land is from 868.5 hm^(2) to 52.74 hm^(2) in the ecological core protection area;the construction land in the human activity core area has been increased by 2342.31 hm^(2) in protected scene,766.23 hm^(2) more than that of the unprotected scene.The results show that the division of security zones promoted the relocation of construction land from ecological protection core zone to human activity core zone,which can protect the ecological environment effectively,and the ESP-based simulation can provide the decision-making reference to coordinate the relationship of regional land resource allocation and the ecological environment protection.

Using ecosystem service supply and ecosystem sensitivity to identify landscape ecology security patterns in the Lanzhou-Xining urban agglomeration, China

The construction of an ecological security pattern(ESP)is an important way to ensure regional ecological security and to achieve sustainable regional development.It is also one of the hotspot topics of landscape ecology research.This paper identifies the ecological source through the evaluation of the ecosystem service and ecosystem sensitivity of the Lanzhou-Xining(Lan-Xi)urban agglomeration.The minimum cumulative resistance(MCR)model modified by night light data NPP/VIIRS(National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project/Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite)was used to measure the relative resistance of the materials and energy circulation between the source areas,and to establish the resistance surface of the ecological source area expansion.Then ecological corridors were identified based on ecological sources and resistance surface.The ecological strategic node is the ecological fragile point in the ecological corridors.The ecological strategic node is identified with hydrological module by superimposing the"ridge line"of cumulative ecological resistance with the ecological corridor.Combined with ecological sources,corridors and strategic nodes,the ESP of the Lan-Xi urban agglomeration can be constructed.The ecological source of the Lan-Xi urban agglomeration accounts for 28.42%of the total area,most of which is distributed within Qinghai Province.The nature reserves in the area are all located within the ecological source area.A total of 41 potential ecological corridors have been identified in the study area.The total length of the potential corridors is 1201.03 km,comprising 23 source corridors and 18 radiation corridors.There are 30 strategic nodes identified in the Lan-Xi urban agglomeration.These locations are the most vulnerable areas of the ecological corridors.Ecological engineering should be applied in the construction of corridors.Affected by the ecological source,the potential ecological corridor extends from the northwest to the southeast,which is basically consistent with the direction trend of the mountains in the region.

GIS-based Ecological Control Line Planning of Landscape City

Against the background of accelerated urbanization in China, the expansion of urban land uses, especially the construction of development zones have incorporated urban development land uses, and more ecological spaces have been invaded by construction activities. However, the maintenance of urban ecological security, scientificity, integrality and continuity of ecosystem, as well as scientificity of the defining methods and the effective supervision of the basic ecological control line have become bones of contention. This paper, from the perspective of "anti-planning", synthesized the theories and methods such as urban-rural planning, ecology and GIS, coupled ecological sensitivity assessment and ecological security pattern to define the basic ecological control lines of the planning area in Anqing City. The basic ecological control line area includes ecological baseline area and ecological development area. Management and control strategies of basic ecological control line were elaborated from the following aspects: implementation of the basic ecological control line, protection and utilization of ecological resources within the lines, solutions to existing construction land within the lines, adjustment mechanism and implementation guarantee mechanism of basic ecological control line.