Production-living-ecological space (PLES) constitutes territorial space, and how to scientifically optimize PLES has become the core issue of territorial spatial planning in China. This paper constructs a spatial classification system for PLES based on merge classification. Taking Longli County, Guizhou Province, China, as an example, this paper studies the spatial patterns in 2015 and 2019, the driving factors of the changes in the spatial patterns, and the interrelationships of production space (PS), living space (LS) and ecological space (ES) and proposes a new scheme for dominant functional zoning. The results show that: (1) The high-scoring areas of PS and LS in Longli County are mainly located near the center of each town, with obvious consistency in the spatial distribution. The high-scoring areas of ES are located in the suburbs far from the towns, conflicting with PS and LS; (2) In the five-year period, PS and LS in Longli County continuously expanded. Specifically, LS expanded the most from the perspective of the rate of change, and ES shrunk continuously; (3) Socioeconomic factors are the dominant factor affecting the changes in PLES, among which the distance to town has the greatest influence; (4) Based on the correlation coefficient, PS and LS have a significant positive correlation, but they have a significant negative correlation with ES. In terms of spatial relationships, PS and LS mainly have synergistic relationships, but their relationships with ES mainly involve tradeoffs; (5) In the spatial functional areas of PLES in Longli County, the single dominant functional area is the main area, among which the ecological-dominant functional area is the largest. The results of this study provide a reference for territorial spatial planning and sustainable regional development.

Protecting ecological security has become the backbone of social and economic development since declines in ecological quality due to an increase in human dominance over the natural environment. The establishment of ecological networks is an effective, comprehensive spatial regulation means to ensure regional ecological security. Panzhou city, as a case study, is a typical karst county and has been confronted with the pressure of ecological degradation in recent decades. In this study, an integrated approach combining ecological quality (EQ), ecosystem function importance (EFI), and morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) was developed to determine the ecological sources. Ecological corridors, ecological pinch areas, and ecological barriers were extracted using circuit theory to identify the restored and conserved priority areas of ecological security patterns. The results showed that (1) the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and EFI exhibited typical geographical distributions, with the highest values concentrated in the northern and southern parts of the study area and the lowest values scattered in the middle part; (2) 26 patches with forestland, grassland, and waterbodies as the main land cover types were selected as the ecological sources; (3) 63 ecological corridors, composed of 45 key ecological corridors and 18 inactive ecological corridors, were extracted, accounting for 203.12 km and 163.31 km, respectively; (4) 82.76 km² of pinch areas and 320.29 km² of barriers were identified, both of which were distributed on key ecological corridors and played different roles in ecological security; and (5) 4 types of ecological security zones were established according to ecological sources, corridors, pinch areas, and barriers. This integrated approach provides a scientific method for the identification and implementation of ecological networks that can contribute to protecting regional ecological security. Our findings can serve as applicable and reasonable guidance to land administrators and policy-makers for adopting suitable territorial spatial planning, urban planning, green cities, etc.

In recent years, regional habitat quality (HQ) has significantly degenerated, mainly attributed to human activities. Evaluating the spatio-temporal effects of human activities on HQ is crucial for maintaining regional ecosystem and conservation of landscapes. In this paper, taking Guiyang city as a case study, the spatio-temporal patterns of HQ and human footprint (HF) in 2000, 2010 and 2020 were respectively calculated by the HQ model and human footprint index (HFI). Then, the bivariate local Moran’s I was applied to measure the spatial relationship between them. Urban development zoning was conducted on the basis of the spatio-temporal relationship. The results showed that (1) in the past 20 years, HQ in Guiyang city was mainly dominated by relatively high value areas (moderately high and high), accounting for more than 60% of the total area. The proportion of low HQ area increased from 12.5% in 2000 to 18.5% in 2020, indicating that urban development has caused the continuous degradation of HQ. (2) The human activities in Guiyang city undergone apparent changes. The area of low HF decreased from 51.5% in 2000 to 46.7% in 2020, while the area with high-value increased from 2% to 5.8%. (3) There was a significantly negative correlation between HQ and HF in Guiyang city. The increasing correlation coefficient indicated that the impact of human activities on HQ has been strengthening. (4) Based on the spatial zoning scheme, the territorial space of Guiyang city was divided into four types, that is, the core development zone, the moderate development zone, the habitat conservation zone and the prohibited development zone. A series of corresponding strategies were proposed for the characteristics of each zone. Our findings can serve as guidance to urban managers and policy-makers for adopting suitable urban development plans and appropriate management of natural environment.