Study on Identification of Key Areas for Ecological Protection and Restoration in Resource-exhausted Region: Take Dayu County, Jiangxi as an Example

Following the research route of "ecological security pattern-key area-protection and restoration strategy", Dayu County, one of the resource-exhausted counties in China, was taken as the study area. The purposes of the study were to recognize the number and spatial position of several types of key points and areas for ecological protection and restoration, such as ecological source areas, ecological pinch points, barrier points, break points and fragmented ecological spaces, so as to classify the key areas and points and provide corresponding proposals for ecological protection and restoration. The results show that there are 147.36 km² of ecological source areas, covered by forest, water and pasture, 69 ecological corridors with spatial feature of "two horizontal and five vertical", 12 ecological pinch points, 13 ecological barrier points, 23 ecological break points and 57.46 km² of fragmented ecological spaces. The key areas could be divided into 5 types of districts, followed with their respective ecological protection and restoration proposals: For the mine restoration district, afforestation should be implemented; For the mountain and water source managing district, the ruined mountains should be restored and the water pollution should be controlled; For the farmland district, consolidation programs and pollution prevention measures should be carried out; For the rural settlement regulation district, some of the settlements should be integrated and the unused rural roads should be reclaimed; For the traffic land optimization district, wildlife corridors should be established and the vegetation should be restored along the traffic roads. The key areas for ecological protection and restoration could be exposed entirely from the view of the establishment of ecological security pattern. The land use type of key areas is a significant factor for classification and strategy development of the protection and restoration districts. It is beneficial for the transition from specific restoration project to systematic restoration in resource-exhausted counties based on study from the integral view of regional ecological security pattern.