Resumen de Multi-dimensional eco-land classification and management for implementing the ecological redline policy in China
Xudong Guo, Qing Chang, Xiao Liu, Huimin Bao, Yuepeng Zhang, Xueying Tu, Chunxia Zhu, Chunyan Lv, Yanyu Zhang
The ecological civilization characterized by the ecological redline policy (ERP) has been a new long-term national development strategy in China. The ERP emphasizes the need to define ecological baseline areas to provide ecosystem services and guarantee the national ecological safety. Eco-land units delineated by the individual spatial boundaries of ecosystems may facilitate an understanding of ecosystem patterns and the associated ecological processes at the landscape level. An eco-land classification system may help to identify and manage ecological baseline areas. In this study, a multi-dimensional eco-land classification system was designed to show how eco-land types could provide a reliable work platform for implementing the ERP and land management. Based on previous studies of eco-land types, we extracted three characteristics comprising the scale dependence, functional dominance, and adaptability of management. These three features were then integrated with the existing land use classification to develop a hierarchical eco-land classification system with four primary classes (fundamental eco-land, auxiliary eco-land, productive eco-land, and daily-life eco-land), 11 secondary classes, and 21 sub-secondary classes. Using a performance index based on spatial overlay analysis, we found that the fundamental eco-land covered up to 65% of the ecological redlining areas at the national scale, but not in some physical geographical regions. Thus, productive eco-land, auxiliary eco-land, and daily-life eco-land were also classified to fill the national level gaps among fundamental eco-lands, where the percentage cover of eco-land types at both the regional and urban scales could exceed 65% of the ecological redlining areas at the corresponding scale. Therefore, the disconnected fundamental eco-lands within ecological redlining areas at the national scale might be linked together as a conterminous green infrastructure if productive, auxiliary, and daily-life eco-land types located in strategic gap sites can be identified and protected at regional and urban scales. The eco-land classification system developed in this study may provide a useful land management framework for implementing the new ERP in China.
