Identification of Priority Areas for Ecological Restoration Based on Human Disturbance and Ecological Security Patterns: A Case Study of Fuzhou City, China

Abstract

The rapid increase in urbanization has brought about a great deal of ecological problems, and thus the systematic protection of the environment is vital. Ecological security patterns are important for maintaining regional ecological stability and sustainable urban development. Human disturbance is a key factor affecting the stability and sustainable development of ecosystems. This paper constructs an ecological security pattern and evaluates the degree of human disturbance in Fuzhou City. Through a comprehensive analysis of both of these factors, the ecological priority restoration areas in Fuzhou were identified. The study shows that (1) there are 40 ecological source areas in Fuzhou, with a total area of 4556.48 km2; 83 ecological corridors, with a total distance of 179.33 km; and 30 ecological nodes. (2) The human disturbance degree score in the study area is between 0 and 0.8. The degree of human disturbance forms two larger major cores in Cangshan District, Gulou District, and Fuqing City. (3) The scores for the degree of human disturbance with ecological sources range from 0 to 0.42. The high-priority areas in the study area are distributed at the edges of ecological sources and form two high-scoring aggregation areas in Fuqing City and Jinan District. These corridors have a high degree of human disturbance with scores between 0 and 0.56. The Ⅰ and Ⅱ priority areas are mostly found in longer corridors in Fuqing City and Cangshan District near coastal or urban centers, and the Ⅲ priority areas are mainly distributed in ecological corridors near the inland. The human disturbance degree scores of the nodes range from 0.01 to 0.27, and the nodes with higher grades were mainly distributed in the northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest of the study area.

Spatio-Temporal Evolution of Key Areas of Territorial Ecological Restoration in Resource-Exhausted Cities: A Case Study of Jiawang District, China

“…The use of ecological sensitivity evaluation data to modify the basic resistance surface can reflect the ecological resistance status of resource-exhausted cities better than general studies [51]. Finally, the ecological source, ecological pinch point, ecological obstacle, and ecological fracture point were taken as the key areas of territorial ecological restoration, and effective ecological strategies were proposed in combination with land use types [50,78]. It was found that, unlike previous static studies, regional ecological restoration or protection activities can be better coordinated by analyzing the changes in ESP during different periods in resource-exhausted cities.…”

“…For the construction of ecological resistance surfaces, most studies directly assigned ecological resistance values to different types of land use, a method that ignores the internal spatial heterogeneity of the same land use type [46,47]. Some scholars have used nighttime light data, ecological sensitivity assessment results, and impervious surface area to further correct the basic resistance surface on the basis of land use types [48][49][50]. The exploitation of coal resources destroys the ecological environment and exacerbates the sensitivity of regional ecosystems.…”

Identification of Priority Areas for Ecological Restoration in Coal Mining Areas with a High Groundwater Table Based on Ecological Security Pattern and Ecological Vulnerability

“…Nevertheless, the ESP cannot determine the restoration order of these protected or restored areas, nor can it determine the priority areas for implementing restoration projects. Some scholars have combined the ESP with landscape elements [32], EV [33], and human disturbance [34] to identify priority areas for ecological restoration. In particular, EV takes into account both natural factors and human activities, being more fully able to reflect the ecological situation than landscape elements and human disturbance.…”