Early warning of regional land‐use ecological security issues: A case‐study of Xingguo County, China

• Published in: Land degradation & development 2022-08, Vol.33 (14), p.2528-2542
• Main Authors: He, Yafen, Cheng, Hao, Xie, Hualin, He, Qing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Construction; defensive strategy; early warning land‐use ecological security; ecological red line zone; Environmental security; Geography; Infrastructure; Land use; land‐use pattern simulation; Prevention; Regional development; Regional planning; Security; Xingguo County
• ISSN: 1085-3278; 1099-145X
• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.4329

Poor land use remains a major threat to ecological security. Land ecological security early warning and simulation of land‐use patterns based on the ‘anti‐planning’ theory provide many research bases for maintaining land ecological security. However, their utility with respect to illegal development and construction is limited. This study defines the concept of early warning based regional land‐use ecological security and builds a framework system for it. A case‐study investigation was carried out using land use, natural geography and social and economic basic data in Xingguo County, Jiangxi Province, China. The ecological red line zone (a sustainable ecological infrastructure for regional development similar to the municipal infrastructure) of the case area was 1816.16 km2, accounting for 56.49% of the total area; the core zone was 138.23 km2, accounting for 4.30% of the total area. For the natural development scenario, regional construction land pattern changes spread from the centre to the surroundings. In early warning land‐use ecological security, serious alerts were more concentrated in Lianjiang Town, Changgang Township, and Butou Township; moderate alerts were less concentrated and distributed in Longping Township and light alerts were more scattered and distributed in many townships. We propose corresponding prevention strategies for different levels of alerts. The construction of an early warning mechanism for regional land‐use ecological security can assist land spatial planning in regional development. More importantly, it can formulate land‐use ecological risk prevention strategies in advance.