Rapid urbanization has led to a significant expansion of urban space, causing ecological problems such as fragmentation, declining landscape connectivity, and decreasing biodiversity. There is an urgent need to mitigate the conflict between urban expansion and ecological environmental protection by constructing ecological networks to help promote sustainable regional development. This study selected the Funiu Mountain area as the study area. Morphological spatial pattern analysis, the minimal cumulative resistance model, and network index evaluation were used to construct an ecological network in the study area and conduct a comparative analysis with local nature reserves. The results showed: (1) nine ecological source sites were identified, concentrated in the central and northern regions, which had a high spatial overlap with local nature reserves; (2) 34 ecological corridors were extracted, which could effectively connect all ecological source sites as well as most nature reserves; (3) 32 ecological nodes were identified, of which 20 strategic points were scattered along ecological corridors, and 12 artificial environment points were scattered in low-lying areas around nature reserves; (4) the ecological network showed a structure of central concentration and peripheral dispersion. The structural evaluation of the network indicated that it had strong integrity.

The overcapacity and overdevelopment of cities have led to various environmental hazards and resource depletion, making it crucial to evaluate the suitability of urban development. This research field provides scientific evidence and policy recommendations to improve land use quality and distribution. However, contemporary studies solely focus on construction land versus non-construction land competition, ignoring potential constraints from agriculture and ecology on parcel development. Using the land use situation of Zhengzhou City, this study comprehensively evaluated urban development suitability through hierarchical analysis, Delphi method, and eight-direction analysis. A multi-attribute overlay was applied with spatial restrictions from ecological protection and agricultural production, combined with urban expansion and development conditions. The results indicated that: (1) Ecological protection was critical for sustainable urban development, and areas like the Yellow River coast, northwest wetland, and southwest woodland were significant for ecological protection. High suitability areas for agricultural production were primarily located within the existing cultivated land. (2) Regarding urban expansion, the southeast of the city center was identified as the most suitable area, mainly covered by dryland. (3) Overall, the unsuitable, basically unsuitable, medium, suitable, and highly suitable areas for urban development covered 244, 921, 3024, 2224, and 944 km², respectively. (4) The southeast-northwest direction showed prominent spatial characteristics for urban development suitability, while intensive development mode dominated the east-west direction of the city center. These findings provide significant guidance for land development and utilization, optimizing the spatial pattern, and formulating policies in Zhengzhou. Nevertheless, the weight calculation process presents a subjective factor that needs to be addressed in future research. More objective weight calculation results are necessary to achieve a more scientifically rigorous evaluation of urban development suitability.

Land economic density (LED) is vital for optimizing industrial structure and promoting intensive resource utilization. However, most existing studies have focused on city or county scales, with limited attention to township-level patterns. To address this research gap, we take 86 townships in Anyang City as research units and develop a four-dimensional evaluation system for LED. The study aims to reveal the spatial patterns and driving mechanisms of township-level LED evolution. This study is based on township-level land use, statistical, and socioeconomic data from 2005 to 2023. Using ArcGIS 10.5 for spatial analysis, spatial autocorrelation, standard deviation ellipse, and geographically weighted regression methods were applied to explore the spatiotemporal evolution and driving mechanisms of LED in Anyang City. The results indicate that (1) high-LED areas form a ring around the central city with dual cores in western Linzhou county and southeastern Huaxian county, while low-LED areas are concentrated at the northwestern and northeastern margins; (2) global spatial autocorrelation is weak, with low–low clusters shrinking from contiguous patches to only three townships by 2023, while high–high clusters expand from isolated points to multi-centered diffusion; (3) the ellipse consistently shows a northwest–southeast orientation, with the rotation angle increasing from 128.24° to 130.35°, the flatness ratio rising from 0.432 to 0.445, and the centroid shifting northwest then southeast; (4) The geographically weighted regression (GWR) results highlight economic foundation, industrial upgrading, and government support as the dominant drivers. Based on these findings, we propose a “One Core–Four Poles, Three Axes–Five Zones” spatial optimization framework to promote coordinated urban–rural development. This study provides a practical and multidimensional evaluation approach at the township level, offering methodological support for regional territorial spatial planning and sustainable development.

With habitat fragmentation causing the isolation of species populations, the construction of ecological security pattern (ESP) has become a vital approach to safeguarding biodiversity. While identifying ecological sources is considered a key step in ESP construction, existing studies often lack an integrated assessment of ecological sources and overlook the influence of vertical zonation on mountainous ESP. Therefore, this study aims to construct three types of ecological security patterns in the Funiu Mountain region: one based on connectivity, one based on ecological importance, and a third that integrates these with niche suitability, in order to examine how vertical zonation influences their spatial configuration and network performance. The results showed that the spatial distribution of ecological sources, corridors and nodes in ESP ₃ was superior to that in ESP ₁ and ESP ₂ . ESP ₃ contained 13 ecological sources (5932 km ² ), 53 corridors (3308 km) and 48 nodes. The area of ecological sources and the length of ecological corridors in EPS ₃ were distributed in unimodal peaks at 800–1200 m, with optimal network connectivity ( α = 0.6977, β = 2.2083, γ = 0.8030) and a slight improvement in cost ratio (0.9838). The findings provided a scientific basis for enhancing the conservation and sustainable development of mountain ecosystems from a vertical zonation perspective.

Land economic density (LED) is vital for optimizing industrial structure and promoting intensive resource utilization. However, most existing studies have focused on city or county scales, with limited attention to the township level patterns. To address this research gap, we take 86 townships in Anyang City as research units and develop a four-dimensional evaluation system for LED. Using spatial autocorrelation, standard deviation ellipse, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) methods, we analyze the spatiotemporal evolution and driving mechanisms of LED from 2005 to 2023. Results indicate that: (1) high LED areas form a ring around the central city with dual cores in western Linzhou county and southeastern Huaxian county, while low LED areas are concentrated at the northwestern and northeastern margins; (2) global spatial autocorrelation is weak, with low–low clusters shrinking from contiguous patches to only three townships by 2023, while high–high clusters expand from isolated points to multi-centered diffusion; (3) the ellipse consistently shows a northwest–southeast orientation, with the rotation angle increasing from 128.24° to 130.35°, the flatness ratio rising from 0.432 to 0.445, and the centroid shifting northwest then southeast; (4) GWR results highlight economic foundation, industrial upgrading, and government support as the dominant drivers. Based on these findings, we propose a “One Core–Four Poles, Three Axes–Five Zones” spatial optimization framework to promote coordinated urban–rural development. This study provides a practical and multidimensional evaluation approach at the township level, offering methodological support for regional territorial spatial planning and sustainable development.