Construction of Ecological Security Patterns Based on Circuit Theory under the Resistance Distance Principle

Jinzhao Chen, Zhixiong Mei, Bin Wang and Junchao Wei
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Jinzhao Chen: School of Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
Zhixiong Mei: School of Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
Bin Wang: School of Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
Junchao Wei: School of Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: Against the background of China’s advocating ecological civilisation construction, an urgent task and a major challenge are to identify key places for ecological protection and restoration and then propose optimisation strategies for future land use, especially in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), one of the regions in China that has the highest urbanisation level. In this study, we find the key places by constructing ecological security patterns and proposing optimisation strategies for future land use by analysing land-use status. We also propose a source identification method based on the resistance distance principle. Results show that forty-six sources were mainly distributed in the mountainous areas surrounding PRD but were less distributed along both sides of the Pearl River estuary. The difference in the spatial distribution of sources is remarkable. Eighty-four corridors generally had spider-like shapes. In the central plain of PRD, corridors were relatively long and narrow. Ninety pinch points were concentrated on existing rivers. Three barriers were located in the corridors between adjacent sources. Two artificial corridors were proposed to be established, which can improve the ecological network connectivity. The method for extracting sources based on the resistance distance principle is proven to be advantageous for improving the integrity of source extraction results and making ecological security patterns more reasonable.

Keywords: ecological security patterns; circuit theory; resistance distance; Pearl River Delta (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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