The Xinjiang Zhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone, which contains the largest coalfield in China, is a mega energy base for west–east gas transmission and outbound electricity transmission in China; however, resource exploitation and the region’s arid climate have led to the region’s ecological environment being increasingly vulnerable. The morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) method and landscape connectivity were used in this study to identify the ecological sources and extract the ecological corridors and ecological nodes based on the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model, used to construct the landscape ecological security pattern in the Zhundong region from 2016 to 2021. The results show that (a) from 2016 to 2021, the area of ecological sources increased by 117.86 ha and the distribution density of which decreased from the southern-central region to the northern and northwestern regions. (b) From 2016 to 2021, the number of ecological corridors and ecological nodes decreased, and the ecological corridors with dense distributions in the south gradually moved to the north and west. The length of the ecological corridors in the south gradually became longer, and the number of ecological corridors connecting the east and west in the north increased. (c) The landscape ecological security pattern of the Zhundong region was constructed by “a network and multiple points” using the model of ecological sources–ecological corridors–ecological nodes. The findings of this study provide a scientific foundation for the construction of an ecological security development plan and the ecologically protective development of coal resources in Zhundong.

Basin ecosystems are vulnerable to natural resource depletion, ecological damage, and environmental pollution due to their fragile natural environment. Assessing the value of basin ecosystem services (ES) can facilitate informed decision making by policy makers and stakeholders in the context of competing resource use. The Konqi River Basin in China, an arid inland river basin, has suffered from degraded ecosystems due to overexploitation of soil and water resources. In response, the local government launched an ecological water conveyance (EWC) project in 2016 to enhance ecological restoration efforts. This paper analyzes and evaluates the value of ES in the Konqi River Basin based on land use and land cover (LULC) change characteristics before and after EWC in 2013 and 2020, respectively. Remote sensing data and related socioeconomic statistics data are used to assess a typical river basin from three unique locations in the Konqi River Basin, divided into upper and lower reaches. The results show that cropland and unused land are the most important land use types in the upper and lower reaches. The characteristics of ecosystem service value (ESV) changes in the study area are consistent with land use structure changes. The total ESV shows a decreasing trend in the upper reaches from 2013 to 2020, while the lower reaches show an increasing trend. The total ESV increases in the typical river reaches of the Konqi River Basin. Spatially, low-ESV areas are mainly located in ecologically fragile areas that are difficult to develop and use. The sensitivity indexes of the study area are all less than 1, making the results of this study credible. The Moran index shows a significant spatial correlation in the study area, indicating that the distribution characteristics of high-ESV areas are agglomerative. Hot spot areas in the upper reaches show an overall increasing trend, while in the lower reaches, former sub-hot spot areas transform into hot spot areas. Due to data limitations, this study is limited to demonstrating that the value of ES in the area changes due to a combination of EWC policies and other factors. Nevertheless, the analysis shows that EWC policies actively change the ESV of a typical river basin in Konqi. This study can provide a reference for evaluating ESV in inland river basins in the northwest arid region and a scientific basis for the rational development and utilization of water and soil resources in the study area, located in an arid and ecologically fragile area.

The Zhundong coalfield in Xinjiang, China, is rich in resources and has great significance to the development of the Xinjiang region, but its local ecological environment is fragile and its climate is particularly dry, so mining is very likely to introduce a series of ecological risks; there is an urgent need for us to provide scientific and feasible guidance for the conservation and development of coal resources in this region. Therefore, this paper is based on the land-use-type data concerning the Zhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone from 2000 to 2020, exploring the land use change characteristics in the Zhundong area during these 20 years and calculating the ecological risk index of each risky district according to an ecological risk index model. Afterward, this article uses kriging interpolation to carry out a risk classification analysis to explore changes in ecological risk in the Zhundong area during the last 20 years and to put forward ecological risk partition and control measures for areas of different levels of risk. Our research shows the following features: (1) The land use type in the Zhundong area changed obviously from 2000 to 2020, in which unused land has always occupied most of the area of the Zhundong coalfield. Grassland was the land use type with the greatest area transferred, 211,412.35 hm², accounting for 68.11% of the total transferred area, and it was mainly converted into unused and construction land. (2) In the last 20 years, the Zhundong coalfield has been dominated by higher-risk and high-risk areas, with obvious changes in the distribution of ecological risk levels. The low-risk, medium-risk, and higher-risk areas in the research zone have decreased and then increased; the lower-risk area has declined yearly, and the high-risk area has increased and then declined. Furthermore, overall, the ecological environment has transformed toward good condition. (3) High-risk and higher-risk areas still account for most of the research zone, and there is an urgent need for scientific and feasible programs to carry out ecological restoration in areas with different ecological risk levels to avoid further deterioration of the local environment.