Identifying ecological restoration zones based on ecological security patterns in a resource transitioning district

Area of Science:

• Urban Ecology
• Environmental Management
• Spatial Planning

Background:

• Resource-based cities face significant ecological challenges like fragmentation and degradation.
• Existing restoration approaches often lack integration, focusing on single factors or isolated ecological security patterns (ESP).
• There's a need for comprehensive frameworks coupling spatial analysis with restoration zoning, especially in mining-affected urban areas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and apply an integrated
• assessment-pattern-zoning
• framework for ecological restoration in a typical resource-transitioning city.
• To analyze ecosystem service trends and construct an ecological security pattern (ESP).
• To delineate ecological zones for targeted restoration and conservation strategies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model to assess ecosystem services from 2005 to 2022.
• Constructed the ecological security pattern (ESP) based on the "source-resistance-corridor" paradigm.
• Developed a zoning index to delineate ecological restoration, warning, buffer, and conservation zones.

Main Results:

• Ecosystem services showed spatial heterogeneity with an "N"-shaped trend and a decline in 2010.
• The ESP included significant ecological sources, corridors, pinch points, barrier points, and breakpoints, concentrated in specific regions.
• Tongshan District was zoned into four types, with buffer zones being the largest and conservation zones overlapping with ecological protection red lines; warning and restoration zones were in subsidence areas.

Conclusions:

• The integrated framework effectively addresses ecological challenges in resource-transitioning cities.
• Spatial planning and targeted restoration zoning are crucial for mitigating environmental degradation and enhancing ecosystem services.
• Findings provide practical guidance for sustainable urban development in similar industrial transformation contexts.