Ecological Security Pattern Construction in Rural Settlements Based on Importance and Vulnerability of Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of the Southeast Region of Chongqing, China

Abstract

With the development of urbanization, a large number of village settlements have disappeared. As important carriers of ethnic and cultural heritage, village settlements are important for the continuation of folk culture and farming spirit. Building a regional ecological security pattern helps to protect the integrity of village settlements and promote the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. In this work, the importance of ecosystem services was first obtained by using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model (In-VEST) and the revised universal soil loss equation model (RUSLE) to evaluate the regional ecosystem services in the southeastern region of Chongqing (SRC). Then, the ecological importance evaluation results were combined with the sensory evaluation results to derive ecological conservation importance areas and identify ecological source points in their high-value areas. Finally, the ecological corridors were obtained by the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR). The regional ecological security pattern was constructed, i.e., the triangular protection area strategy of “one screen, one belt, and three cores”. The results show the following: the total area of ecological source sites larger than 20 km2 in SRC is 436.02 km2, accounting for 2.28% of the area of SRC. The largest ecological patch is 69.93 km2, accounting for 16.04% of the total area of ecological source sites. Thirteen ecological source sites were identified as follows: four in Youyang County, three in Shizhu County, three in Wulong County, and one in Pengshui County. There are 78 ecological corridors with a total length of 4832.82 km, including 32 important ecological corridors with a length of about 1544.53 km and 46 potential ecological corridors with a length of about 3288.29 km. Based on the minimum cumulative model constructed by eight resistance factors, the spatial variation of the ecological resistance surface was analyzed, showing a trend of being high in the west and central part and low in the surrounding area. There are one high-value area of the resistance surface of Wulong County Nature Reserve and one high-value area of ecological sensitivity that overlap to the extreme, and which should be given sufficient protection attention. The core protected areas consist of three mountains including the Qiyao Mountain Range, the Wuling Mountain Range, and the Wulong County Nature Reserve. The ecological security pattern in SRC based on the mode of “source–ecological corridor–ecological node” can identify important ecological function areas, providing scientific guidance for sustainable development and ecological security protection in the ethnic village settlements in China.

Construction of the Ecological Security Pattern in Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Based on Circuit Theory

“…Currently, research on ecological security patterns covers multiple fields and spatial scales, with a focus on aspects such as land use and biodiversity conservation [41]. Studies can span different scales, including landscapes [42], regions [43], and countries [44], involving urbanized areas (Yu et al, 2009;Wu Yingmei et al, 2023), agro-pastoral transitional zones [45,46], arid/semi-arid regions [47], and scenic areas [48] among various types of study areas, each exhibiting significant socio-ecosystem characteristic differences. Among these, urban areas, being the most densely populated and intensively altered by human activities, face pronounced ecological security challenges, drawing close attention to the construction of ecological security patterns.…”

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

“…where Y xj is the water yield (mm) of the grid x of the jth land use type, AET xj is the actual evapotranspiration (mm) of the grid x, and P x is the precipitation of the grid x (mm) [67,71].…”

“…, where C is carbon storage (t), and A i is the area of each land use type (km 2 ); four carbon pools refer to the carbon density of different parts of each land use type, which are aboveground biomass (C above , t/km 2 ), belowground biomass (C below , t/km 2 ), soil carbon density (C soil , t/km 2 ), and dead organic carbon density (C dead , t/km 2 ) [67]. The carbon density of the study area refers to the research results of adjacent areas with similar conditions [72].…”

“…The EV refers to the degree to which an ecosystem is vulnerable, i.e., the sensitivity and self-recovery ability in relation to the adverse effects of external disturbances [63,64]. EV is a comprehensive manifestation of many factors [65], including natural factors and human activities [64][65][66][67]; it not only ensures the rational implementation of ecological restoration measures but also establishes a solid scientific foundation for sustainable development [68].…”