Due to ecological environmental fragility and soil erosion in Guangxi, studies of landscape patterns and associated ecological risks are needed to guide sustainable land development and ecologically sensitive land management. This study assesses dynamic spatial and temporal change patterns in land use and ecological risks based on 30 m land-use data, analyzes spatial correlations with ecological risks, and explores natural and socio-economic factor impacts on ecological risks. The results reveal: (1) A rapid and sizeable construction land increase in Guangxi from 2000 to 2018 associated mainly with loss of woodland and grassland. (2) Guangxi had the highest number of arable land patches from 2000 to 2018, and the distribution tended to be fragmented; moreover, the construction land gradually expanded outward from concentrated areas to form larger aggregates with increasing internal stability each year. (3) Guangxi ecological risk levels were low, low–medium, and medium, with significantly different spatial distributions observed for areas possessing different ecological risk levels. Regional ecological risk gradually decreased from the middle Guangxi regions to the surrounding areas and was positively correlated with spatial distribution. (4) Socio-economic factor impacts on ecological risk exceeded natural factor impacts. These results provide guidance toward achieving ecologically sensitive regional land-use management and ecological risk reduction and control, it can also provide a reference for ecological risk research in other similar regions in the world.

The ecological security pattern is an important way to coordinate the contradiction between regional economic development and ecological protection and is conducive to promoting regional sustainable development. This study examines Guangxi, a karst region in China. The ecosystem service function and ecological environment sensitivity were both selected to evaluate the ecological conservation importance, and based on the results of the ecological conservation importance evaluation, suitable patches were selected as ecological sources. Meanwhile, resistance factors were selected from both natural factors and human activities to construct a comprehensive resistance surface, circuit theory was used to identify ecological corridors, ecological pinch points, and ecological barrier points, and ecological protection suggestions were then proposed. The results show that there are 50 patches of ecological sources in Guangxi, with a total area of 60,556.99 km²; 115 ecological corridors, with the longest corridor reaching 194.97 km; 301 ecological pinch points, whose spatial distribution is fragmented; and 286 ecological barrier points, most of which are concentrated in the central part of Guangxi. The results of this study provide a reference for the construction of ecological security patterns and ecological conservation in developing countries and karst areas.

Analysis and prediction of urban ecological risk are crucial means for resolving the dichotomy between ecological preservation and economic development, thereby enhancing regional ecological security and fostering sustainable development. This study uses Nanning, a Chinese landscape garden city, as an example. Based on spatial granularity and extent perspectives, using 30 m land use data, the optimal scale for an ecological risk assessment (ERA) and prediction is confirmed. This study also explores the patterns of spatial and temporal changes in ecological risk in Nanning on the optimal scale. At the same time, the Patch-generating Land Use Simulation model is used to predict Nanning’s ecological risk in 2036 under two scenarios and to propose ecological conservation recommendations in light of the study results. The study results show that: a spatial granularity of 120 m and a spatial extent of 7 km are the best scales for ERA and prediction in Nanning. Although the spatial distribution of ecological risk levels is obviously different, the overall ecological risk is relatively low, and under the scenario of ecological protection in 2036, the area of high ecological risk in Nanning is small. The results can provide theoretical support for ERA and the prediction of landscape cities and ecological civilization construction.

The source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) is an important water conservation and farming area in China. Under the dual influence of the natural environment and external pressure, ecological patches in the region are becoming increasingly fragmented, and landscape connectivity is continuously declining, which directly affect the landscape patch pattern and SRYR sustainable development. In the SRYR, morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and landscape index methods were used to extract ecologically important sources. Based on the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR), Linkage Mapper was used to generate a potential corridor, and then potential stepped stone patches were identified and extracted by the gravity model and betweenness centrality to build an optimal SRYR ecological network. The distribution of patches in the core area of the SRYR was fragmented, accounting for 80.53% of the total grassland area. The 10 ecological sources based on the landscape connectivity index and 15 important corridors identified based on the MCR model were mainly distributed in the central and eastern regions of the SRYR. Through betweenness centrality, 10 stepped stone patches were added, and 45 planned ecological corridors were obtained to optimize the SRYR ecological network and enhance east and west connectivity. Our research results can provide an important reference for the protection of the SRYR ecosystem, and have important guiding significance and practical value for ecological network construction in ecologically fragmented areas.

The land use and ecological risk patterns in Guilin, which is the only innovation demonstration zone under the National Sustainable Development Agenda in China with a focus on the sustainable use of natural resources, have changed significantly as a result of the combined impact of climate change and human activities, thus presenting challenges to the sustainable development of the local area. This research employs an ecological risk assessment model and spatial analysis techniques in order to analyze the spatial correlation between land use and ecological risk, and to evaluate the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of ecological risk at the overall and county scales in Guilin. The results reveal the following: (1) A total of 1848.6 km² land types in Guilin have changed from 2000 to 2020, and construction land has gradually expanded from the central urban area to the suburbs with increasing internal stability each year. (2) The ecological risk level in Guilin showed a decreasing trend at the city scale, but some regions still showed an increasing trend at the county distribution scale. (3) The ecological risk value in Guilin has significant spatial correlation, and the spatial distribution showed a clustering effect, which was consistent with the spatial distribution of ecological risk class areas. The research results can provide a reference for ecological risk control and sustainable development of landscape resource cities.

Vegetation phenology changes are able to reveal climate-change-associated ecosystem feedback mechanisms. In this study, Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) alpine vegetation phenological information was extracted from the normalised difference vegetation index of the MOD13Q1 product collected from 2001 to 2020 using TIMESAT3.3 and S-G filtering and threshold dynamics methods. An analysis of data from the start of growth (SOG) and end of growth (EOG) seasons using a Theil–Sen median slope trend and partial correlation analyses revealed spatial and temporal variations in vegetation phenology related to climate change and topography, including: (1) significant spatial variation, gradually increasing southeast-to-northwest SOG delays and northeast-to-southwest EOG delays, with significant variations across vegetation types; (2) significant altitude-associated variations in the meadow, steppe, and shrub alpine vegetation types with high-altitude boundaries of 2400 m, 2800 m, and 2600 m, respectively, with delayed and earlier SOG and EOG below and above each boundary, respectively; and (3) spatial variations in relationships between vegetation phenology changes and climatic factors, where SOG negatively and EOG positively correlated with temperature and precipitation. The mean temperature in the 30 days before SOG and mean total precipitation in the 30 days before EOG were significantly correlated with SOG and EOG timing both negatively and positively, respectively. These results provide guidance for the monitoring of the alpine vegetation phenology on the QTP.