The escalating pace of urbanization and human activities presents formidable challenges to landuse patterns and ecological environments. Achieving a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature of high quality has emerged as a global imperative. Constructing an ecological security pattern has become an essential approach to mitigating the adverse ecological impacts of urban sprawl, safeguarding human well-being, and promoting the healthy development of ecosystems. Focusing on ecosystem sustainability, stability, and integrity, this study constructed the ecological security pattern in rapidly urbanizing areas, emphasizing achieving a well-balanced integration of urban expansion and ecological preservation. Ecological sources were identified by an evaluation system of “ecosystem service function–ecological sensitivity–landscape connectivity”. Resistance surfaces were constructed by integrating natural and human factors. Ecological corridors and nodes were extracted by methods such as the minimum cumulative resistance and gravity models. Taking Nanchang City as an example, the results show that there were 15 ecological sources, primarily woodland, displaying a distinct “island” phenomenon. Additionally, there were 41 ecological corridors with a combined length of 2170.54 km, exhibiting a dense distribution in the southwest and a sparse distribution in the northeast. The city was found to encompass 122 ecological nodes, predominantly situated along the corridors near the ecological sources, indicating a strong spatial aggregation pattern. An optimized ecological security pattern of “one ring, two belts, three zones, and multiple nodes” was proposed for synergizing ecological protection, restoration, and rapid urbanizing.

Global climate fluctuations pose challenges not only to natural environments but also to the conservation and transmission of human cultural and historical heritage. World Heritage Sites are pivotal regions for studying climate change impacts and devising adaptation strategies, with remote sensing technology showcasing significant utility in monitoring these impacts, especially in the Mediterranean region’s diverse and sensitive climate context. Although existing work has begun to explore the role of remote sensing in monitoring the effects of climate change, detailed analysis of the spatial distribution and temporal trends of landscape stability remains limited. Leveraging remote sensing data and its derived products, this study assessed climate change impacts on the Causses and Cévennes Heritage Site, a typical Mediterranean heritage landscape. Specifically, this study utilized remote sensing data to analyze the trends in various climatic factors from 1985 to 2020. The landscape stability model was developed utilizing land cover information and landscape indicators to explore the landscape stability and its distribution features within the study area. Finally, we adopted the Geographical Detector to quantify the extent to which climatic factors influence the landscape stability’s spatial distribution across different periods. The results demonstrated that (1) the climate showed a warming and drying pattern during the study period, with distinct climate characteristics in different zones. (2) The dominance of woodland decreased (area proportion dropped from 76% to 66.5%); transitions primarily occurred among woodland, cropland, shrubland, and grasslands; landscape fragmentation intensified; and development towards diversification and uniformity was observed. (3) Significant spatiotemporal differences in landscape stability within the heritage site were noted, with an overall downward trend. (4) Precipitation had a high contribution rate in factor detection, with the interactive enhancement effects between temperature and precipitation being the most prominent. The present study delivers a thorough examination of how climate change affects the Causses and Cévennes Heritage Landscape, reveals its vulnerabilities, and offers crucial information for sustainable conservation efforts. Moreover, the results offer guidance for the preservation of similar Mediterranean heritage sites and contribute to the advancement and deepening of global heritage conservation initiatives.

With global climate change and irrational human activities, regional water resource conflicts are becoming more and more pronounced. The availability of water resource in watersheds can be indicated by the water yield. Exploring the factors that influence the water yield is crucial in responding to climate change and protecting water resource. Previous research on the factors influencing the water yield has frequently adopted a macro-level perspective, which has failed to reflect the influencing mechanisms of changes at the local scale adequately. Therefore, this study proposes a novel framework for integrally evaluating the impacts of climate change and human activities on water yield services from both local and global perspectives. Taking Ganzhou City, the source of the Ganjiang River, as an example, the results show the following: (1) Ganzhou City had the largest water yield of 1307.29 mm in 2016, and the lowest was only 375.32 mm in 2011. The spatial distribution pattern was mainly affected by the surface environment, and the high-value water yield regions in the study area were predominantly located in urban areas with flat terrain. (2) At the local scale, regions where human activities contribute more than 80% accounted for 25% of the area. In comparison, the impact of climate change accounted for 0.95%. The contribution rate of human activities to the water yield in Ganzhou City was significantly greater than that of climate change. (3) At the global scale, the simulation results of four scenarios show that climate change contributed (>98%) to the water yield, which is significantly higher than human activities (<2%). This study puts forward pioneering views on the research of water yield driving forces and provides a valuable theoretical basis for water resource protection and ecological environment construction.