Optimizing urban ecological space based on the scenario of ecological security patterns: The case of central Wuhan, China

Abstract The continued sprawl of modern cities can often threaten urban ecological space, and sustainable landscape patterns should be considered in urban landscape planning. The construction of ecological security patterns (ESPs) is regarded as an effective way to integrate landscape patterns and ecosystem services in an ecological connectivity perspective. Based on the content of ecological sources, pattern structures and barrier points from circuit theory, we aimed to improve the urban ecological space of central Wuhan City through ESP scenarios. Three ESP scenarios were developed to optimize the urban ecological spaces: the 1st, involved increasing the ecological sources; the 2nd, increasing the circle structures; and the 3rd, repairing the barrier points. The results showed that the current ESPs identified 17 ecological sources, which were primarily situated on the periphery of the city and included 760.152 km of ecological corridors (38 paths) and 39 barrier points. The 2nd scenario that was regarded as the best approach for Wuhan enhanced the resistance to outside interference and stability, with 17 ecological sources and 681.244 km ecological corridors (37 paths), and had the lowest cost of protection compared with the other two scenarios, as well as the current pattern in central Wuhan. This work methodologically contributed to the different methods including increasing the ecological sources, increasing the circle structure and repairing the barrier points for urban ecological space planning, and practically provided the best scenario to enhancing the urban ecological for landscape management.