Construction of ecological security pattern based on the importance of ecosystem service functions and ecological sensitivity assessment: a case study in Fengxian County of Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

The construction of ecological security pattern is one of the important ways to alleviate the contradiction between economic development and ecological protection, as well as the important contents of ecological civilization construction. How to scientifically construct the ecological security pattern of small-scale counties, and achieve sustainable economic development based on ecological environment protection, it has become an important proposition in regulating the ecological process effectively. Taking Fengxian County of China as an example, this paper selected the importance of ecosystem service functions and ecological sensitivity to evaluate the ecological importance and identify ecological sources. Furthermore, we constructed the ecological resistance surface by various landscape assignments and nighttime lighting modifications. Through a minimum cumulative resistance model, we obtained ecological corridors and finally constructed the ecological security pattern comprehensively combining with ecological resistance surface construction. Accordingly, we further clarified the specific control measures for ecological security barriers and regional functional zoning. This case study shows that the ecological security pattern is composed of ecological sources and corridors, where the former plays an important security role, and the latter ensures the continuity of ecological functions. In terms of the spatial layout, the ecological security barriers built based on ecological security pattern and regional zoning functions are away from the urban core development area. As for the spatial distribution, ecological sources of Fengxian County are mainly located in the central and southwestern areas, which is highly coincident with the main rivers and underground drinking water source area. Moreover, key corridors and main corridors with length of approximately 115.71 km and 26.22 km, respectively, formed ecological corridors of Fengxian County. They are concentrated in the western and southwestern regions of the county which is far away from the built-up areas with strong human disturbance. The results will provide scientific evidence for important ecological land protection and ecological space control at a small scale in underdeveloped and plain counties. In addition, it will enrich the theoretical framework and methodological system of ecological security pattern construction. To some extent, it also makes a reference for improving the regional Xingxing Jin and Luyao Wei contributed equally to the work. Extended author information available on the last page of the article X. Jin et al. 1 3 ecological environment carrying capacities and optimizing the ecological spatial structure in such kinds of underdeveloped small-scale counties.

Research on Landscape Pattern Construction and Ecological Restoration of Jiuquan City Based on Ecological Security Evaluation

“…At the same time, the research on the ecological landscape pattern in Chinese academic circles is changing from the process of change and influencing factors to structural optimization and spatial configuration [16]. Based on the theory of landscape ecology, the ecological landscape pattern constructs a regional ecological security pattern through effective regulation of ecological processes and human intervention in the spatial configuration of various landscape elements to improve the health of the regional ecosystem [17,18]. The method of landscape ecological security pattern construction has been transformed from a conceptual model to a spatial model.…”

Construction and Optimization of Ecological Security Pattern Based on Spatial Syntax Classification—Taking Ningbo, China, as an Example

“…Green Infrastructure (GI) [62,63], EN [64,65], ESP [12,66], and other ecological protection planning methods take NbS as the guiding concept. Moreover, elements that are critical to regional ecological security (e.g., hubs or sources, links or corridors) are identified and protected to ensure the sustainable supply of regional ecosystem services.…”

“…The resistance surface reflects the resistance of information transfer and energy flow and has an important impact on species diversity and complexity [33]. Many index selection methods exist for constructing the resistance surface [12,[34][35][36]53]. This study referred to previous research methods [24,54] and selected man-made and natural interference factors as the impact factors to construct the resistance surface.…”

“…The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) was proposed to promote the protection and sustainable use of ecosystems [10]. Therefore, improving the quality of the ecological environment has become an important demand for balancing rapid urbanization and ecological protection [11][12][13].…”

Designing Ecological Security Patterns Based on the Framework of Ecological Quality and Ecological Sensitivity: A Case Study of Jianghan Plain, China

“…Researchers normally select evaluation frameworks and indicators according to regional characteristics. For example, according to the ecological problems in Fengxian County (e.g., aggravation of soil and water losses, land desertification and land salinization), Jin et al (2021) selected soil and water loss sensitivity, desertification sensitivity in plain areas, and salinization sensitivity as the indicators for evaluating ecological sensitivity [44].…”