Most resource-depleted cities face the problems of environmental degradation, landscape fragmentation, and blocked ecological mobility, in which their broken ecosystems are in urgent need for restoration. Meanwhile, resource-depleted cities are also typically shrinking cities. Under the impacts of population outflow, economic recession, and physical decay, there appeared a large quantity of abandoned lands and vacant houses, with inefficient sites in urgent need for restructuring. At the same time, these fragmented patches and corridors in the ecological system also provide opportunities for the restoration of ecological security patterns. This paper explores a GeoDesign method that combines the processes of ecological restoration and spatial governance in a shrinking city, using the case of Xikuangshan district in Lengshuijiang city. First of all, following the standard process of ecological restoration, i.e. "identifying ecological sources, constructing resistance surfaces, extracting corridors, acquiring key nodes, and constructing ecological networks", the research constructs conductance surfaces based on the InVEST model, and uses the circuit theory modeling to simulate natural ecological landscape patches. The key ecological flow paths are identified according to the strength of the current. Secondly, based on the spatial distribution of important ecological corridors and patches identified, the key obstacle points in the ecological network that need restoration are selected. Finally, a zonal phased plan is developed with reference to the existing land use, the effect of ecological restoration is tested using the afore-mentioned model, and eventually, the urban design strategy is considered for the regeneration and reuse of the abandoned lands and vacant houses on the key obstacle nodes. This research aims to bridge the analytical method of ecological restoration with the demands for spatial shrinkage of the resource-depleted city, in order to formulate a step-by-step GeoDesign method by integrating 'ecological analysis-policy study-planning design', from which the shrinking resource-depleted city is able to achieve smart shrinkage and ecological restoration.