Study on Land Use in Towns from the Perspective of Ecological Security: a case study of Zhongtai Town, China

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2366894/v1

Context

Maintaining regional ecological security is necessary to ensure sustainable human survival and development. Starting with the goal of ecological security, optimal strategies for land use zoning can be developed. Previous studies have mainly focused on identifying ecological sources and ecological corridors, but the importance of ecological security in optimizing urban land use is seldom explored. In this study, a novel strategy for optimizing ecological security patterns (ESP) was proposed.

Objectives

To examine how to realize the zoning control of land use based on ESP .

Methods

We used an ESP model based on an ecological sensitivity evaluation, rain and flood models, MCR (Minimal Cumulative Resistance) model, and gravity model. Using these tools. And we assessed the ecological restoration, development, and construction of Zhongtai and proposed an optimized land use zoning management strategy.

Results

The establishment of the ESP of Zhongtai allowed for the characterization of the circulation of ecological sources in the region. This revealed 10 ecological sources, 9 important corridors, and 12 ordinary corridors. Recently, the study area has undergone a significant population increase and a rapid increase in urban land. But these built-up lands are concentrated in flood prone areas. Therefore, the construction of disaster prevention infrastructure should be prioritized during urban planning. Notably, the ecological corridors were mainly composed of tea plantations, farm land, mining land, and forest land, accounting for 80.45% of the total area. Ecological recovery can be carried out by mixed planting, returning farmland to forest, and prohibiting mining. In total, 71 ecological patches for restoration were identified, these were mostly mine lands flagged for restoration, but some were tea plantation optimization and illegal construction demolition areas. 61 controlled construction blocks were identified where strategies for ecological protection and food security should be applied, with priority use given to wastelands.

Conclusions

The ultimate goal of the study was to propose an optimized plan for controlled zoning of land use. Based on the ecological security and ecological sensitivity of the study area, four control zones were established: core protection area, ecological control area, restricted construction area, and suitable construction area. This controlled zoning strategy puts forward a clear management plan that ensures ecological protection and ecological restoration with optimal configurations and controlled construction designed to improve human health and livelihoods.

ecological security pattern (ESP)

land use control

ecological protection

China

Good ecological environments are the foundations which support human survival and development. In China, rapid urbanization has led to deterioration of ecological environments and interfered with ecosystem function, and the health of these fragile natural ecological environments continues to decline (Azam and Khan 2016). These trends have brought about a series of problems, such as biodiversity loss, reduced forest area agglomeration, intensified soil erosion, and land desertification(Gashaw et al. 2018). Reductions in ecological elements not only lead to serious environmental problems such as reduced ecological carrying capacity(Fang et al. 2019) and the urban heat island (UHI) effect, but also affect the sustainable development of human societies. It is very important that urban development should be founded on ecological security principles. Ecological security is maintained by ensuring the sustainable development of resources, environments, and ecosystem services. An ecologically secure environment supplies humans with vital resources and a variety of human well-being functions. Many scholars have conducted studies on ecological security, mainly involving ecological security evaluations and the construction of ecological security patterns (ESP). Among them, the former is the foundation upon which ecological security is based, while the latter is an important method for maintaining ecological security. Importantly, regional ecological security can be maintained using tools such as Urban Growth Boundaries (UGB)(Cho et al. 2008), Green Infrastructure (GI)(Ma et al. 2021), and Ecological Control Lines (ECL)(Lin and Li 2019), among others.

At present, the theories and methods focused on ESP have become the most common approaches in research and practice. These methods can guide the protection and restoration of regional ecological security, and are important tools for ensuring regional ecological security and improving human well-being. The basic framework for studying ESP is follows as: identify ecological sources - build resistant surfaces - identify ecological corridors and ecological nodes - build ecological networks. Ecological sources are large habitat patches that are relatively robust toward disturbance and convey important ecological functions; these are the birthplaces and collecting points for ecosystem service supplies(Ding et al. 2022). Ecological sources are usually identified based on their ecological sensitivity(Hong et al. 2017), ecosystem service value(Fu et al. 2020), habitat quality(Li et al. 2021), morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), etc.

The resistance surface refers to obstructions and the degree of difficulty facing species’ spatial dispersal and potential flow(Ding et al. 2022). It is often quantified according to land cover type evaluations(Wang et al. 2020a), and corrected according to the Night Light Image(Annika T. H. Keeley et al. 2016). Ecological corridors are carriers of energy and material between ecological sources and are vital to maintaining the connectivity of ecological flow, ecological process, and ecological functions(Peng et al. 2017). Ecological corridors are usually identified using Minimal Cumulative Resistance (MCR) models(Dai et al. 2020), circuit theory(Carlos et al. 2017), graph theory(Jiansheng et al. 2018), gravity models(Huang et al. 2019), etc. Ecological nodes are key strategic nodes that occupy important locations on ecological corridors(Ding et al. 2022). Ecological security patterns are combinations of three elements, i.e., ecological sources, ecological corridors, and ecological nodes (“source-corridor-node"), and their corresponding spatial form is the “point-line-surface”. ESPs maintain ecological security by revealing important components and timelines for protecting the stability and integrity of ecosystem functions and enhancing the value of ecosystem services.

Many scholars have applied the ESP framework in ecological security research at various scales, including looking at provinces(Xiao et al. 2022), urban groups(Zhang et al. 2021), metropolitan areas(Peng et al. 2018), cities(Du et al. 2013), and counties(Fu et al. 2020). This research framework has been successfully used to construct source-corridor-node ESPs. In addition, studies have explored the ESPs of mining areas(Xu et al. 2021), sand prevention zones(Ding et al. 2022), arid areas(Wang and Pan), hilly areas(Ding et al. 2022), forest zones(Chen et al. 2020) watersheds(Zhang et al. 2010b), and other land areas, effectively optimizing and supplementing existing research methods for a wider range of applications. However, these studies still mainly focus on constructing ESPs, which lacks in-depth research specific practical applications of land use driving the ESPs of typical areas and does not involve the effective identification and delineation of ecological risks and restoration areas. For example, in the case of flat terrain of low-lying easily flooded areas, the land in China generally becomes built-up land or farm land, but this kind of land use can easily lead to property loss and increased risk to human safety during rainstorms. However, research looking at this land use type has not identified effective suggestions, and the theory and practice have not been fully unified. Therefore, we cannot determine which approach would be best for effective ecological restoration and ecological pattern optimization. Furthermore, there is no effective connection between macro and micro theoretical guidance, and no clear delineation of large-scale protection and local restoration. This leads to the absence of constrained boundaries for ecological security. The ESP is not a simple spatial structure within the point-line-surface range, but an integrated development pattern that coordinates ecological protection and social and economic development.

However, ecological security is not only a dynamic process, it also needs to be considered in terms of ecological risks and vulnerability. Ecological risk summarizes the probability and consequences of undesired events in a particular ecosystem (Hope 2006). Ecological vulnerability summarizes the vulnerability of ecosystems to environmental change and natural disasters under specific social, political, economic, and cultural scenarios (Wang et al. 2020b). Ecological security must be sufficient so that human survival and development can progress while not causing irreversible damage to the ecosystem. This depends on the balance and stability of the ecosystem, which may constrain the sustainable development of human beings. Ecological security is the state of the balance between human development and ecological protection, which can be maintained through the scientific, reasonable, efficient, and orderly allocation of land-resources. Therefore, it is vital to define ecological security functional zones based on the ESP, which not only reflects the regional ecological situation, but also provides data to support sustainable land-use practices.

Traditional planning of small towns is the optimization process for spatial land use patterns and prioritizes promoting social and economic development. This planning mode is unique, and therefore is of great significance for guiding urban land use planning. The government has implemented a series of policies meant to promote town development and construction, and Zhongtai is one of the key designated development zones in Hangzhou. Because its natural environment constitutes a rich and complete ecosystem, policies regarding the ecological environment must be comprehensively assessed so that the sustainable development of Zhongtai can be ensured. It is urgent to carry out ecological security assessments in small towns where there are direct conflicts between ecological protection and economic progress. Therefore, in this paper we used the ecological sensitivity evaluation, MCR model, gravity model, and non-source flooded model to identify ecological sources, ecological corridors, ecological nodes, and ecological risk areas, finally deconstructing the town ESP. The goal of this paper was to analyze the ecological protection and urban development characteristics, propose ecological protection and restoration plans, and then draft suitable urban development programs so as to provide a reference for the sustainable development of small towns (Fig. 1).

2.1 Study area

Zhongtai is located in the western edge of downtown Hangzhou, which belongs to the Hangzhou Future Technology City area (Fig. 2). Zhongtai occupies 12.26% of the total ecological function guarantee area of Yuhang District, which makes it important to Hangzhou city. Furthermore, the Nanhuparkasa flood-relief area in Zhongtai is responsible for flood regulation and water conservation. More importantly, Zhongtai is located in the area of the Tianmu Mountains and has a forest coverage rate of 66.3%. It will become an important ecological town with the responsibility of maintaining species diversity, which will contribute to maintaining the stability of the region’s ecosystems. However, warm and cold air flows often collide here in spring, so the weather is highly variable, and from July to September the area is affected by tropical storms. Therefore, the area often experiences heavy rain, sometimes in combination with other dangerous weather conditions, which can cause flash floods, rain waterlogging, and other natural disasters.

Zhongtai is located in the junction between the city and the village, which is currently undergoing rapid urbanization. In the early stages of urbanization in China, the urban boundaries were continually redrawn to accommodate the expansion and a large amount of farm land was converted into construction land, and the forest resources became fragmented(Zhang et al. 2021). This has meant that, for the last 20 years, the town has become increasingly prone to natural disasters due to drastic land changes and sustained damage to ecological security. Therefore, studying the ecological security of Zhongtai will help us further understand the relationship between town development and ecological protection in small towns.

2.2 Data source and reprocessing

Landsat 8 OLI data (path 120, row 40) processed to L1T level were acquired from the United States Geological Survey (USGS; http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/), wherein each pixel was 30 meters. The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data were acquired from the USGS, with a 12.5 meter pixel size. The Google Earth data were obtained from 91 Weitu Assistant (http://www.91weitu.com/), with a 1 meter pixel size. The coordinate systems were unified to the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator Grid System), and all data were unified into a gris with a resolution of 30 m.

In the paper, we calculated the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)(Chen et al. 2020)[27] based on the OLI data. In order to improve the accuracy of the classifications, we conducted extensive field research on the current land use in the research area. Based on the visual interpretations, we obtained preliminary land use results, which were then corrected with the field survey to give the current status of the town land use (Fig. 2). According to land-use data, the study area was divided into 10 categories: forest land, farmland, buildable land, river, lakes, wetlands, transportation land, mining land, tea plantation, and unused land (Fig. 2). The kappa coefficients (K) of the land-use classification results were greater than 0.8. The DEM data was used to calculate the slope, elevation, and terrain relief in the ArcGIS software.

2.3 Methods

2.3.1 Ecological security pattern (ESP) construction

There is a close relationship between ecological sensitivity and ecological safety index(Shi et al. 2018). Ecological sensitivity reflects the strengths and weaknesses of regional ecosystems. Ecological sensitivity assessments help establish reasonable ecological zoning and land use plans(Dai et al. 2012). The ecological sources are determined through ecological sensitivity evaluation and ecosystem service value analysis(Jin et al. 2021). The ecological sensitivity evaluation model is expressed by Eq. (1):

$\begin{array}{c}ES=\sum _{i=1}^{n}{W}_{i}{X}_{i}\#（1）\end{array}$

where ES is ecological sensitivity; is the weight coefficient; is the sensitivity score of the evaluation factor; and n is the number of evaluation factors. Based on the results of the ecological sensitivity analysis(Cariboni et al. 2007; Chen and Li 2012; Tsou et al. 2017; Wiik et al. 2015; Zhang et al. 2010a) we chose six evaluation factors for according to the natural ecological environment characteristics of the study area. The six ecological sensitivity factors were elevation, slope, terrain fluctuation, land use type, normalized vegetation index (NDVI), and distance from rivers. For computational convenience, we assigned the ecological sensitivity factors to 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9, according to their respective impacts on ecological security. These six factors were then used to construct an ecological sensitivity index system (Table 1), and the factor weights were determined based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)(Yilmaz et al. 2020).

The MCR (Minimal Cumulative Resistance) model refers to the minimum resistance or the minimum cost to overcome different types of landscape obstacles from the source to the destination. It reflects a kind of accessibility/connectivity. The MCR model is expressed by Eq. (2) which was modified by Yu (Yu and Planning 1996) based on Knaapen(Knaapen et al. 1992) and others(A et al. 1992; Yu and Planning 1996). The MCR model calculates the minimum cumulative cost path between ecological sources as the basis for identifying potential ecological corridors according to the following equation:

$$\begin{array}{c}MCR=f\times \underset{}{\text{min}}\sum _{j=n}^{i=m}\left({D}_{ij}\times {R}_{i}\right)\#\left(2\right)\end{array}$$

where MCR is minimum cumulative resistance; is the spatial distance between source and landscape unit ; is the resistance coefficient of landscape unit to species movement; represents the positive correlation between the minimum cumulative resistance and the ecological process.

Table 1

Evaluation index system of ecological sensitivity.
Factors	Weight	Sensitivity score assignment
Factors	Weight	1	3	5	7	9
Elevation (m)	0.02899	[8,54]	(54,112]	(112,174]	(174,248]	(248,518]
Slope (º)	0.05495	[0,7]	(7,15]	(15,22]	(22,30]	(30,56]
Terrain relief (m)	0.1158	[0,4]	(4,10]	(10,16]	(16,22]	(22,50]
Land use type	0.42646	Buildable land, transportation land, mining land	Farmland, unused land	Tea plantation, wetland	River, lake	Forest land
NDVI	0.24752	[0,0.25]	(0.25,0.45]	(0.45,0.63]	(0.63,0.77]	(0.77,0.92]
Distance from river (m)	0.12628	(150,+∞)	(100,150]	(50,100]	(20,50]	[0,20]

The ecological resistance surface plays a large role in the MCR model. Therefore, constructing a scientific and reasonable ecological resistance factor index system is of great importance for accurately identifying potential ecological corridors using the MCR model. In this paper, the 8 resistance factors were elevation, slope, terrain relief, NDVI, land use type, and distance from water, roads, and residential areas. The distances were determined based on the relevant research results (Ding et al. 2022; Fu et al. 2020) and the National Ecological Function Zoning, which was jointly compiled by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Table 2).

The gravity model was used to calculate the interaction matrix between each pair of ecological sources. This quantitatively evaluated the interaction strength between the patches of each source and facilitated a scientific determination of the relative importances of different corridors in the region. The gravity model is expressed by formula (3) (Huang et al. 2019):

$$\begin{array}{c}{G}_{ab}=\frac{{N}_{a}{N}_{b}}{{{D}_{ab}}^{2}}=\frac{{{L}_{max}}^{2}\text{ln}{S}_{a}\text{ln}{S}_{b}}{{{L}_{ab}}^{2}{P}_{a}{P}_{b}}\#\left(3\right)\end{array}$$

where is the interaction between ecological patches a and b; and are the weight values of the two patches respectively; is the standardized value of potential corridor resistance between a and b; is the resistance value of patch a; is the area of patch a; is the resistance value of patch b; is the area of patch b; is the cumulative resistance value of the corridor between patch a and b; and is the maximum cumulative resistance among all corridors in the study area.

Table 2

Evaluation index system of ecological resistance.
Type	Factors	Weight	Resistance score assignment
Type	Factors	Weight	10	30	50	70	90
Natural attribute	Elevation (m)	0.01651	(248,518]	(174,248]	(112,174]	(54,112]	[8,54]
	Slope (º)	0.02528	(30,56]	(22,30]	(15,22]	(7,15]	[0,7]
	Terrain relief (m)	0.04007	(22,50]	(16,22]	(10,16]	(4,10]	[0,4]
	NDVI	0.1182	(0.77,0.92]	(0.63,0.77]	(0.45,0.63]	(0.25,0.45]	[0,0.25]
	Land use type	0.22243	Forest	River, lake	Tea plantation, wetland	Cultivate land, bare land	Construction land, road, mining land
Environmental attributes	Distance from water (m)	0.07667	[0,20]	(20,50]	(50,100]	(100,150]	(150,+∞]
Location attribute	Distance from road (m)	0.29170	(150,+∞]	(100,150]	(50,100]	(25,50]	[0,25]
Location attribute	Distance from residential area (m)	0.20915	(300,+∞]	(200,300]	(125,200]	(75,125]	[0,75]

2.3.2 Analysis of ecological risks

Ecological risk was assessed in terms of flood risk; there are two methods to simulate flooding. The first are hydrodynamics based flood evolution models, such as the HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Analysis System) model (Raeisi 2014), which simulate the potential submerged area of archaeological sites. The second are flood analyses based on DEM, such as when the flooded zone is simulated based on the seed spreading algorithm (Liu et al. 2001). In this simulation, it is necessary to distinguish whether the submerged area contains source land. The submerged model with source land is suitable for regions with high and uniform precipitation. Other submerged models without source lands are applicable to flood surge or local rainstorms caused by sudden floods spreading to surrounding areas. The terrain of the study area is gently sloping from west to east, and most of the area is mountainous (Fig. 1). The lowest elevation of Zhongtai town is Nanhu Lake, and most of the town is the southwest-northeast mountains. So, rain from the mountains drains into the Nanhu Lake in the north, which is the regional flooded area. This area is therefore characterized by flood surge and local rainstorms, therefore we chose the flooding model without source lands based on DEM.

The flood-inundated simulation without a source land means that every grid section below a given water level is calculated as part of the submerged area. The model disregards connectivity, only taking the amount of regional precipitation as an influencing factor. Rainfall is accompanied by rain water infiltration, so the SCS-CN (Soil Conservation Service Curve Number) model (Aghad et al. 2021) is used to obtain the surface runoff as the actual surface water volume of the area.

The SCS-CN model assumes that the ratio of the actual rainfall infiltration amount to the potential maximum infiltration amount equals the ratio of the surface runoff to the potential maximum runoff (Psomiadis et al. 2020). The SCS-CN model is expressed by formula (4):

$$\text{Q}=\frac{{\left(P-\phi S\right)}^{2}}{P+\left(1-\phi \right)S} (P\ge \phi S,or Q=0)$$

4

where is the surface runoff (unit: mm); is the runoff (unit: mm); is the maximum possible water storage (unit: mm); and is the dimensionless initial loss rate, generally defined as 0.2.

$$S=\frac{25400}{CN}-254$$

5

where CN is the number of runoff curves, which was determined by referencing Chap. 9 of the US National Engineering Manual and other studies(Dinka et al. 2020; Mockus 1964; Mohammad and Adamowski 2015; Shi and Wang 2020; Verma et al. 2017). The values for the CN are shown in Table 3.

Table 3

CN value.
Land use type	CN value
Forest land	70
Water	98
Buildable land	94
Unused land	94
Cultivated land	92

3.1 Ecological security pattern

In the paper, the ecological sensitivities were divided into five levels according to the natural breakpoint method(Ding et al. 2022). The five grades were defined as mild, low, general, high, and extremely severe sensitivity areas (Fig. 3(a)). Referring to the National Ecological Function Zoning and existing research(Ding et al. 2022; Xiao et al. 2022), the high and extremely severe sensitivity areas were classified as potential ecological sources. Then we distinguished effective ecological sources from potential ecological sources by looking for concentrated areas greater than 25 ha. Finally, we identified 10 sources, covering an area of 3226.45 ha, of which woodland made up 3179.40 ha. The source lands were the main component of the ecological source, accounting for 98.54% (Table 4). The results showed that the ecological sources were mainly concentrated in the southwest mountains. The ecological environments of the sources were well protected and formed a relatively large area. The whole ecological source constituted a relatively stable ecological barrier (Fig. 3(b)). However, the southeast is an area of serious conflict between ecological protection and social development and the area is highly vulnerable to human activities and ecological persecution, which has fragmented the ecological source.

Table 4

Areas of the 10 identified ecological sources
NO	Type of land use	Area (ha)	Total area	NO	Type of land use	Area (ha)	Total area
1	Forest land	29.629	29.629	7	Forest land	76.3703	77.6373
2	Forest land	29.5129	29.5144		Tea plantation	0.9991
	Tea plantation	0.0015			River	0.2679
3	Forest land	25.2077	26.2587	8	Forest land	224.6711	230.5463
	Tea plantation	0.9148			Tea plantation	5.8752
	Lakes	0.1362		9	Forest land	691.9222	707.3728
4	Forest land	36.2715	36.9745		Tea plantation	15.042
	Farmland	0.0001			River	0.1461
	River	0.6989			Lakes	0.2625
	Wetlands	0.004		10	Tea plantation	14.8592	2010.578
5	Forest land	30.9218	30.9576		Farmland	0.0001
	Tea plantation	0.0358			River	5.819
6	Forest land	45.3406	47.219		Lakes	0.3668
	Tea plantation	1.3164			Forest land	1989.532
	Farmland	0.015			Wetlands	0.0014
	River	0.5361
	Buildable land	0.0025
	Unused land	0.0001
	Transportation land	0.0083

The ecological resistance surfaces are obtained based on formula (2) (Fig. 4). The results showed that, the larger the urban construction and traffic area, the greater the resistance value. The ecological sources were located in areas with the lowest resistance values, and their ecological environments were better than other areas. Notably, the southeast mountain area was identified as an ecological source based on its resistance values, but the calculated resistance values showed both high and low levels of adjacent fragmentation. This indicated that the mutual circulation resistance among ecological sources was large in this region, which would not benefit biological connectivity.

We calculated the potential ecological corridors connecting each ecological source on the MCR model (Fig. 5(a)). However, ecological corridors are not simple passages between sources, they maintain material circulation throughout the whole ecological system. Ecological corridors are not repeated in space and cannot pass through ecological sources. After checking these conditions, we built the necessary ecological corridors until they could meet the material exchange requirements of the source (Fig. 5(b)). A comparison of the results in Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(b) showed that not every potential ecological corridor is of high value and a necessary ecological corridor. The necessary ecological corridors are those required to connect all ecological sources and maintain the integrity of the ecosystem, and only necessary ecological corridors are needed. Because necessary ecological corridors focus on ecological restoration, it is a necessary that ecological corridors connect similar ecological sources.

We evaluated the interaction forces of ecological corridors using the gravity model, and then determined the priority of the necessary ecological corridors by focusing on ecological restoration, thus clarifying the minimum requirements for ensuring ecological security. We identified the necessary ecological corridors based on the gravity model of formula (3). According to the literature (Mei et al. 2021), we then designated the necessary ecological corridors with gravity values greater than 1 as important ecological corridors, while the rest were ordinary ecological corridors. In total, 9 important corridors and 11 ordinary corridors with a total length of 10.65 km were identified (Table 5).

Table 5

Gravity model results
Source code	Source code	Gravity value	Length (km²)	Source code	Source code	Gravity value	Length (km²)
1	5	0.03	0.83	4	10	2.30	0.14
1	8	0.07	0.97	5	8	519.36	0.01
2	1	1.33	0.07	6	1	0.06	0.79
2	5	0.04	0.46	6	5	0.02	1.10
2	6	0.02	1.17	6	7	4.56	0.06
2	7	0.01	1.49	6	8	0.22	0.37
2	8	0.07	0.74	7	8	18.47	0.04
2	10	0.02	1.60	8	9	1459.71	0.01
3	8	7.17	0.08	8	10	0.22	0.65
3	9	3.38	0.09	9	10	3056.33	0.01

According to the calculated ecological corridor results, we identified 8 necessary ecological nodes and constructed a systemic ESP together with ecological corridor and ecological sources. Key corridors are the safeguard to essential circulation between ecological sources, while ordinary ecological corridors supplement the ecological security structure and improve the stability of the ecosystem. However, this did not completely reveal how material exchange and biological transfer occur between ecological sources, only how they depend on the necessary ecological corridors, ecological nodes, and ecological sources. Therefore, we identified the ecological corridors based on the contact points between the necessary corridors and ecological sources. The ESP was improved by potential ecological corridors within the sources, which further enhanced the material and energy flow between the ecological sources (Fig. 6). Figure 5 shows that there were 42 internal ecological corridors with a total length of 43.93 km and 42 internal ecological nodes. These ecological corridors contribute primarily to protecting ecological security. The ESP comprehensively reflects the best paths of mutual circulation between ecological sources, as well as the ecological corridors and ecological nodes that are needed to ensure protection and restoration.

The results also showed that the ecological corridors themselves could be considered very stable ecosystems, but only for the simpler corridors to large sources. In contrast, the small and concentrated ecological sources did not represent stable ecosystems on their own, so they must rely on the overall network to maintain their stabilities. Therefore, an ecosystem composed for sustainable development needs more and longer ecological corridors for circulation among the ecological sources to form a more robust ecosystem. The complexity of the ecological corridors in areas where small ecological sources are concentrated was far greater than those between large ecological sources. In this area, there was a large amount of artificial vegetation around the small ecological sources, which showed a patchy spatial structure. In these cases, it is extremely important to restore damaged and divided ecological sources. Through these efforts we can gradually restore the ecological sources by strengthening the ecological corridor network.

3.2 Ecological safety analysis

The most effective method for optimizing and adjusting an ecological corridor is to determine the best ecological corridor width, which is directly related to the function of the ecological corridor. In this study we reviewed existing research results on optimizing ecological corridor widths for birds (Smith and Hellmund 1993; Stauffer and Best), invertebrates (Newbold et al. 1980), reptiles (Large 1994), herbs (Brown and Planning 1997), trees (Peterjohn and Correll 1984), and small mammals (Geier and Best 1980; Pardini et al. 2005; Sinclair et al. 2005). Based on the biodiversity characteristics of Zhongtai, the width of the ecological corridors was determined to be 200 m, allowing for a 100 m buffer zone on both sides. We calculated the 24-hour surface precipitation based on the rainfall at a monitoring station near the town using the SCS-CN model, which was m³. Next, we determined the rain submerged areas without source model in the study area (Fig. 7). Figure 6 shows that the rain flooded area was concentrated to the north, which has a low and flat topography. The ecological corridors mostly surrounded the concentrated small ecological source areas, which constituted a relatively large ecological source with a high restoration value.

We overlayed the ecological security pattern (Fig. 7) and land use pattern (Fig. 2) to calculate the area of ecological corridors and the rain flood inundation of various land use types (Table 5). The results showed that there was 278.19 ha of buildable land in the rainwater flooded area, accounting for 35.39% of the total area, the highest proportion. That is to say, human settlements in Zhongtai were concentrated within the flood disaster area. Due to this arrangement, assessments of the abilities of existing disaster prevention infrastructure to withstand once- in- 50year disasters must be conducted. We need to strengthen future disaster prevention and mitigation plans to ensure that new urban lands are protected against such disasters.

The results showed that it will be of great ecological value for the different land use types that form the ecological corridor in Table 6. The ecological corridors in this region were mainly composed of tea plantation, farm land, mining land, and forest land, accounting for 19.27%, 16.35%, 13.17%, and 31.66% of the total area, respectively, making up 80.45% of the total. Ecological restoration of these four land use types can greatly expand the ecological source area and enhance the quality of the ecological environment. Furthermore, we can act through a mixed planting, returning farmland to forests, reducing vegetation, and prohibiting mining to promote ecological safety.

Table 6

Land use types in the rain flood inundation area
Land type	Rain flood inundation area (ha)	Proportion	Ecological corridor (ha)	Proportion
Tea plantation	0.00	0.00%	47.56	19.27%
Transportation land	71.55	9.10%	10.92	4.43%
Farm land	94.99	12.08%	40.35	16.35%
Mining land	0.00	0.00%	32.49	13.17%
River	10.19	1.30%	3.48	1.41%
Lake	21.26	2.70%	0.49	0.20%
Buildable land	278.19	35.39%	23.22	9.41%
Forest land	203.53	25.89%	78.12	31.66%
Unused land	50.43	6.42%	0.98	0.40%
Wetland	55.98	7.12%	9.16	3.71%

3.3 Delimitation of the ecological security functional area

One of the main purposes of building an ESP is to maintain biodiversity. The building of the ESP is based partly on the “core zone-buffer zone-transition zone” model of biosphere reserves proposed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) (1984), the “core zone, buffer zone and experimental zone” model proposed by the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Nature Reserves, and proposals from the relevant guidance documents of the Ministry of Natural Resources of China. With the goal of protecting a completely integrated natural ecosystem, this paper adopted the “core protection zone-general control zone” mode for the research area to focus on ecological security (Fig. 8). Ecological sources should be preserved as core protection areas, and obvious ecological protection boundaries should be demarcated. Human activities should be strictly prohibited in these areas, as in only scientific research and practical activities such as natural resources exploration for ecological protection should be allowed. We included extremely severe, high, and general sensitivity areas as potential ecological control areas in this paper. We delimited small patches within ecological sources as ecological control areas. Ecological control areas are key to effective regional ecological restoration work. Their main purpose is to identify key ecological restoration areas that will improve regional ecological environment quality and expand ecological source areas. In principle, development and construction activities are prohibited in ecological control areas, although experimental areas for scientific research activities can be provided. Here, both the core protection areas and ecological control areas were required for the ecological protection and restoration in a completely integrated natural ecosystem. However, suitable built-up areas and restricted construction areas must be designated to meet human survival and development requirements. Therefore, we divided the construction land and road land into suitable construction areas. In China, boundaries for built-up land controls disordered development and construction, improves the effective utilization rate of spatial resources, and rationally distributes functional lands. The core purpose of delimiting development boundaries is to optimize the available resources and use the land as intensively as possible. The remaining area is delimited as restricted build-up areas, which are core areas for agricultural production. These areas primarily ensure the stable production of agricultural products, which is necessary to ensure the security of food production. These areas also serve the role of land functional conversion. Conversions function in two ways, one converts land for ecological restoration and protection, and the other scientifically allocates land for development and construction. In the management of land use, it is vital to reasonably spread out the restricted construction areas. This action has an obvious impact on optimizing ecological environments, but is directly required for sustainable human survival and development.

3.4 Ecological restoration and controlled development

The main purpose of ecological restoration is to improve the ecological environment, eliminate ecological risks, and enhance the stability of ecosystems. We identified the damaged patches inside ecological sources as the primary restoration objects, the restoration of which will help to improve the integrity of the ecological source and the stability of the ecosystem. A total of 271 ecological restoration patches, covering a total area of 141.58 ha, were identified in the study area (Fig. 9). With the downtown location set as the center, we identified the lands in restricted construction areas around the existing built-up land as the controlled development area. The controlled development area is the primary target of urban expansion as it borders existing construction land. There were 61 controlled development blocks, covering an area of 322.43 ha (Fig. 8). This kind of regulation not only helps clarify where construction land can expand to in the future, but also transforms the disorderly development of towns into orderly expansion.

To optimize the land use structure, different control areas can adopt different optimization strategies (Table 7). In the ecological restoration area, the land use restoration strategy was mostly mine restoration, followed by tea plantation optimization, and illegal construction demolition. In the study area, the area of industrial and mining land was 16.13 ha, the tea plantation area was 71.48 ha, and the buildable land was 20 ha, which together represented a high ecological restoration value. In the controlled development region, we mapped out a series of strategies with the primary goal of ecological protection and food security, and the secondary goal of efficient use of wasteland. There were 145.92 ha of forest land, 58.05 ha of cultivated land, and 61.48 ha of bare land. The region has a strong ecological foundation, makes an important contribution to food security, has a large amount of space for urban development, and does not have a shortage of construction land.

Table 7

Land use structure of Zhongtai
Land use type	Ecological restoration area (ha)	Controlled development area (ha)
Tea plantation	71.48	4.91
Road	0.73	0.00
Cultivated land	14.85	58.05
Industrial and Mining land	16.13	0.00
River	0.02	11.75
Lake	0.67	21.24
Construction land	20	0
Forest	8.93	145.92
Bare land	5.46	61.48
Wetland	3.31	19.08

Based on the theory of ESP, we constructed the ESP for Zhongtai according to an ecological sensitivity evaluation and the MCR and gravity models. We further analyzed the results to guide ecological restoration and the development of construction land, and proposed an appropriate land use strategy. The results were as follows:

(1) This research method is well suited for small mountain range regions, because it not only effectively identifies ecological sources, corridors, and nodes, but also proposes effective optimization strategies for land use based on the ESP. In this study, 10 ecological sources were found in Zhongtai, covering an area of 3226.45 ha. Among them, forest land made up 3179.40 ha, accounting for 98.54% of the ecological source area, which constituted an E-type spatial structure. The E-type of spatial structure formed an important ecological barrier to Zhongtai Town. The necessary ecological corridors consisted of 9 important corridors, 12 ordinary corridors, and 8 necessary ecological nodes, with a total length of 10.65 km, covering an area of 179.56 ha. From the perspective of the spatial distribution, the corridors were located in the small ecological source agglomeration areas in the east, in areas with poor ecological environments. Therefore, ecological restoration of the corridors is essential for ensuring connectivity and strengthening communication among ecological sources, with the ultimate goal of improving ecosystem stability. In addition, there were 42 internal ecological corridors with a total length of 43.93 km, and 42 internal ecological nodes. These internal corridors not only improved the ESP of the research area, but also revealed how ecological sources can carry out material exchange and biological transfer to other ecological sources through ecological corridors.

(2) The flood-inundated model can help define appropriate built-up land areas, and is an important supplement to the construction of ESP. The flood-inundated area was 787.1 ha, of which construction land made up 278.19 ha, accounting for 35.39% of the flood prone area in Zhongtai. These areas are the main disaster-affected lands. Therefore, the construction of disaster prevention infrastructure should be emphasized in the planning of built-up land. The ecological corridors were mainly composed of tea plantation, farm land, mining land, and forest land, accounting for 80.45% of the total area. Furthermore, ecological recovery depends on complex processes related to mixed planting, returning farmland to forest land, restoring vegetation, and strictly prohibiting mining.

(3) Based on the ecological security and ecological sensitivity models, we divided the development priority of regional lands, which is important to the timing of regional development and resource protection. In this paper, we divided the study area into core protection areas, ecological control areas, restricted build-up areas, and suitable build-up areas, with the areas accounting for 46.04%, 19.10%, 18.06%, and 16.80%, respectively. In China, this division is very important as it determines the type of land development and utilization for the future. These four areas play important roles in ecological protection, ecological recovery, optimized allocations and control of construction, respectively, providing an important reference for the zoning control of land use.

(4) The goal of this study was to divide the control zones to optimize the spatial pattern of land use and propose refined measures for ecological recovery and controlled development. The research method is highly important to specific ecosystem regions, such as Zhongtai. Based on the ESP, we can effectively implement the land use control measures and guide the specific urban land use plans on the fine grid scale. We identified 271 ecological recovery patches with a total area of 141.58 ha. Then we proposed a strategy involving mine land restoration, supplemented by tea garden optimization and illegal construction demolition. Secondly we identified 61 patches for controlled construction, with a total area of 322.43 ha, in which the goals for land use are ecological protection and food security, with priority use given to wastelands.

In this study we investigated a method of land use zoning based on the ESP theory. This method can provide the planning guidance while prioritizing ecological protection, development, and construction in small towns. We established a leading function and strategy for each functional area for functional zoning. Vitally, this study has established a reasonable model that can refine strategic deployment plans and practical applications of ecological restoration according to four specific functional areas.

(1) The first division is the core protection area, which is the ecological source of the whole region. The main function of the core area is to protect rare and endangered animals, plants, and various typical ecosystems. In core regions, human activities are generally prohibited to protect ecological function, especially developmental and construction activities, although exceptions can be made for major strategic arrangements.

(2) The second division is the ecological control areas, which are key areas designated for ecological recovery. The main function of the second region is to restore damaged natural ecosystems, and prevent damage from spreading to core protected areas. In the second division educational, scientific research, and other eco-friendly human activities are allowed. At the same time, the damaged lands are concentrated in regions of core protection areas to maximize the benefit of repairing the damaged ecological sources and improve the stability of the ecosystem.

(3) The third division is the restricted construction areas, which are the most severely affected by human activity. Regions in this division are very closely influenced by human activity, and these are the most important areas for development and construction. The main function of these areas is to ensure the safety of food production and protect the ecological environment. That is to say, these regions prioritize establishing clear areas for farm land, monitoring ecological environmental damage, and mapping out reasonable strategies and directions for development and construction. Based on the identification of ecological space and the current land use structure, we can reasonably determine land use boundaries for various functions, which will help to alleviate food insecurity and disorderly urban expansion.

(4) The fourth division is built-up areas, which are the existing construction land areas. The main function of this division is to control the disordered spread of urban boundaries, and to optimize the existing space resources. In these districts, we can identify the land structure and inefficient land usage, allowing us to optimize its utilization, which will not only alleviate the problems of land shortage and inefficiency, but also improve the quality of human settlements.

This study has shown that the composition of land use is key to the specific functions of each division, and the refined data from the model helps to form precise measures and optimization schemes. Based on ecological security, we can effectively avoid the loss of property and resources caused by ecological degradation. This is an important supplement to China’s theoretical system for territory security. These protocols and measures can be used like targeted drugs prescribed to treat specific urban diseases throughout China.

Acknowledgments: The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the funding.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, L.X., D. X. and Y.W.; Funding acquisition, X.C., L.X., Q.M. and Y.S.; Investigation, L. M.; Methodology, L.X. and D.X. and Y.W., ; Supervision, D.X., Y. W. and L. M.; Visualization, Z.G.; Writing—original draft, L. X. and Z.G.; Writing—review and editing, L. X., D. X. and Y.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding: This research was funded by the Key Program of Zhejiang Province Philosophy and Social Science Planning Interdisciplinary (No. 22JCXK06Z), General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 41871216).

Data Availability Statement: All data used in this study are issued by US Geological Survey. This data can be found here: (http://glovis.Usgs.gov/, accessed on 10 November 2021).

Conflicts of Interest: None.

Ethical approval: N/A.

Consent to participateN/A.

Consent to publicationN/A.

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No competing interests reported.

Study on Land Use in Towns from the Perspective of Ecological Security: a case study of Zhongtai Town, China

Status:

Version 1

Abstract

Context

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Figures

1. Introduction

2. Materials And Methods

2.1 Study area

2.2 Data source and reprocessing

2.3 Methods

2.3.1 Ecological security pattern (ESP) construction

2.3.2 Analysis of ecological risks

3. Results

3.1 Ecological security pattern

3.2 Ecological safety analysis

3.3 Delimitation of the ecological security functional area

3.4 Ecological restoration and controlled development

4. Discussion

5. Conclusion

Declarations

References

Additional Declarations

Status:

Version 1