Roads are the link between geographic space and human socio-economic activities, promoting local economic development, and simultaneously causing various negative effects, such as segmentation, interference, destruction, degradation, and pollution. In China, the construction of roads is rapid, which might affect wildlife movement, landscape pattern, and land use change, thereby, affecting the conservation of heritage sites. In the present study, the minimum cumulative resistance model, along with geographic information system technology, was adopted to compute the ecological corridor for wildlife movement between the source patches and to analyze ecological corridor changes under two conditions (road presence/absence) at two time points in Kanas, nominated as a World Natural Heritage site. The relationships between the ecological corridor changes and various factors, including the cutting index of the ‘road-effect zones’, terrain, and road geometric characteristics, were examined using the geographical detector model to identify the influencing factors and mechanisms of the corridor changes, in order to rationally simulate the potential ecological corridors. In addition, the detached and fragmented ecological patches can be connected to effectively protect the biodiversity, biological habitats, and species, which are important means to achieve regional sustainable development and ecological construction.

Ecological vulnerability assessment increases the knowledge of ecological status and contributes to formulating local plans of sustainable development. A methodology based on remote sensing data and spatial principal component analysis was introduced to discuss ecological vulnerability in the Toutun River Basin (TRB). Exploratory spatial data analysis and a geo-detector were employed to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of ecological vulnerability and detect the driving factors. Four results were presented: (1) During 2003 and 2017, the average values of humidity, greenness, and heat in TRB increased by 49.71%, 11.63%, and 6.51% respectively, and the average values of dryness decreased by 165.24%. However, the extreme differences in greenness, dryness, and heat tended to be obvious. (2) The study area was mainly dominated by a high and extreme vulnerability grade, and the ecological vulnerability grades showed the distribution pattern that the northern desert area was more vulnerable than the central artificial oasis, and the central artificial oasis was more vulnerable than the southern mountainous area. (3) Ecological vulnerability in TRB showed significant spatial autocorrelation characteristics, and the trend was enhanced. The spatial distribution of hot/cold spots presented the characteristics of “hot spot—cold spot—secondary hot spot—cold spot” from north to south. (4) The explanatory power of each factor of ecological vulnerability was temperature (0.5955) > land use (0.5701) > precipitation (0.5289) > elevation (0.4879) > slope (0.3660) > administrative division (0.1541). The interactions of any two factors showed a non-linear strengthening effect, among which, land use type ∩ elevation (0.7899), land use type ∩ precipitation (0.7867), and land use type ∩ temperature (0.7791) were the significant interaction for ecological vulnerability. Overall, remote sensing data contribute to realizing a quick and objective evaluation of ecological vulnerability and provide valuable information for decision making concerning ecology management and region development.

The protection of World Natural Heritage Sites (WNHSs) has become a global undertaking, wherein Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) is an important aspect of heritage protection. Focusing on the protection of the aesthetic and bioecological values of Bogda (one component of Xinjiang Tianshan WNHS), 17 indicators are selected to construct a Heritage Value Protection Significance Index (HVPSI) and a related Heritage Value Protection Index (HVI). From these, the level of OUV conservation is obtained according to the five aspects of integrity, vulnerability, sensitivity, degree of human impact and environmental factors. The spatial autocorrelation analysis method was applied to the OUV conservation indices to comprehensively reflect the spatial-pattern characteristics of the heritage value in the study area. According to the spatial-division of the HVPSI, the plant community composition and diversity characteristics of different HVPSI zones are analyzed by a field survey (July 2018 and 2019). To verify the rationality of space partition and identify the OUV elements in each HVPSI district, a spatial-econometric model is then used to explore the relationship among HVPSI, HVI and community diversity. This study provides a scientific basis for management of heritage sites and a theoretical basis for further investigation into heritage site indicators.

The assessment of ecological vulnerability plays an important role in the protection and management of scenic tourism sites. In this study, using remote sensing image data in the same month of 2000 and 2017, ecological vulnerability in the Tianchi Scenic Area (TSA) was analyzed by calculating the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI), and the influencing factors of ecological vulnerability were detected using the geographical detector model. From 2000 to 2017, the values of wetness, dryness, and temperature in the study area increased, and the value of greenness and RSEI decreased. Spatial correlations of the RSEI were significant, showing strong spatial agglomeration and alternating cold spots-hot spots-cold spots-hot spots from north to south. The impact factors of land use type, temperature, and precipitation showed greater contribution to ecological vulnerability. In addition, the local government implemented policies such as prohibition of mining, grazing prohibition, and landscape protection, which decreased ecological vulnerability in the study area. This study provides a reference for the formulation of ecological vulnerability protection measures in the TSA and theoretical basis for defining the monitoring indicators for heritage sites around the world.

Although it promotes national economic development, urbanization causes regional ecosystems to suffer from disturbances and impacts that cannot be completely avoided. Ecosystems urgently need to improve their resilience; however, existing studies lack an analysis of the interaction between urbanization and ecological resilience. In this study, the interaction between urbanization and ecological resilience is investigated, taking the urban agglomeration on the north slope of Tianshan Mountain (UANST) as a study area and using the entropy value method to construct an urbanization evaluation system. Based on land use change data, an ecological resilience evaluation model is constructed using the InVSET model, the landscape pattern index, and the unit area value equivalent factor method. The degree of coupling and coordination of the interaction coupling between urbanization and ecological resilience are measured for the years 1990–2020, and their internal action mechanisms are analyzed. The results show that (1) with the development of urbanization, ecological resilience shows a decreasing and then increasing double “U”-shaped change characteristic. (2) The coupling degree of urbanization and ecological resilience in the UANST increased from 0.6888 to 0.9485, and the coordination degree increased from 0.3367 to 0.4410. (3) There are three types of coupling coordination: basic coordination, basic dysfunction, and serious dysfunction. Basic coordination is mainly distributed in the central part of the urban agglomeration, and basic dysfunction and serious dysfunction are mainly concentrated on the east and west sides; the overall trend is to shift from dysfunction to coordination. (4) Economic urbanization plays a driving role, and population urbanization, spatial urbanization, and social urbanization have an inhibitory role in the degree of coupling coordination; base quality and structural stability have a driving role in the degree of coupling coordination, while ecological services have an inhibitory role; and the population density, the proportion of built-up area to the total land area of the city, and the value of ecosystem services have a stronger influence on the level of coupling coordination.

Biodiversity in arid river basins is highly climate-sensitive, yet the multi-pathway relations among the environment, landscape structure, connectivity, and plant diversity remain unclear. Framed by a scale–place–space sustainability perspective, we evaluated, in the Hotan River Basin (NW China), how the environmental factors affect plant diversity directly and indirectly via the landscape configuration and functional connectivity. We integrated Landsat images (2000, 2012, and 2023), 57 vegetation plots, topographic and meteorological data; computed the landscape indices and Conefor connectivity metrics (PC, IIC); and fitted a partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM). From 2000 to 2023, the bare land declined, converted mainly into shrubland and cropland; the construction land is projected to expand under SSP1-2.6/SSP2-4.5/SSP5-8.5 by 2035 and 2050. The landscape metrics showed a rising PD, DIVISION, and SHDI/SHEI, and a declining AI and CONTAG, indicating finer, more heterogeneous mosaics. Plant diversity peaked on low–moderate slopes and with ~32–36 mm annual precipitation. The PLS-SEM revealed significant direct effects on diversity from environmental factors (positive), landscape structure (negative), and connectivity (positive). The dominant chained mediation (environment → structure → connectivity → diversity) indicated that environmental constraints first reconfigure the spatial structure and then propagate to community responses via connectivity, highlighting connectivity’s role in buffering climatic stress and stabilizing communities. The findings provide a quantitative framework to inform biodiversity conservation and sustainable landscape planning in arid basins.