Watershed ecosystems are crucial to the overall sustainable development of a region, and a scientific and effective grasp of the characteristics of land-use change in a watershed, and the factors affecting land change, is an important prerequisite for the high-quality construction of watershed ecology, which needs to be emphasized. As the second largest inland river in the arid zone of Western China, the Heihe River Basin (HRB) has been affected by human and natural factors in recent years, and the ecological environment is relatively fragile, and there is an urgent need to analyze the ecological characteristics of the basin and to explore the relevant influencing factors in order to provide a basis for subsequent ecological management. Therefore, this article applies the landscape index, the landscape ecological risk index (ERI) model and the geodetector tools to analyze the land-use data from 2000 to 2020 in the Zhangye area of the HRB to study the characteristics of the ecological risk evolution and the driving forces affecting the ecological risk differentiation. The results show the following: (1) the area of the regional land-use change accounts for 4.99% of the total area, and the landscape pattern as a whole shows an increasing degree of fragmentation and a decreasing trend of aggregation; (2) the distribution of the ERI in the region shows a trend of being low in the center and high in the periphery, with an increase of 2.11% in the area of the lowest and lower risk and a decrease of 1.77% in the highest and higher, and the temporal change shows an increase followed by a significant decrease; (3) the human interference degree is the dominant factor influencing the spatial differentiation of the ERI in the basin area. There are significant differences between social factors, climate factors and land factors.

As a primary concern in the ecosystem, understanding the impact of spatial heterogeneity of ecological networks on the development of environmental sustainability has overarching significance. The Tibetan Plateau’s edge is a vital contribution to the study of the plateau’s ecological network. However, there are few studies and explorations on the county-level ecological network in the arid region. This study aimed to evaluate ecological network spatial patterns in Tianzhu County and establish an ecological security evaluation index system. We used the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model and built an ecological resistance surface model from the exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) method. Then, by identifying ecological corridors and ecological nodes from the gravity model, we analyzed the ecological security pattern and proposed specific plans for optimizing the situation. The results showed that 1) county ecological security overall has been lower, and its values showed spatial heterogeneity in each direction, and 2) the Z-Score of the ecological security evaluation index was 70.1893, which shows ecological vulnerability in the arid region has significant spatial autocorrelation. The study identified 156 ecological corridors and 112 ecological nodes, which formed an ecological spatial pattern of “one belt and three zones.” Our analytical framework offers a valuable tool for constructing ecological security patterns in Tianzhu County and selecting “sources” at the regional scale, which can be applied to landscapes and geographical contexts for sustainable development in arid regions.

The combined pressures of climate change and human activities have exacerbated ecological risks in fragile and sensitive areas. Assessing the ecological restoration status of key nature reserves and developing a new conservation and development framework are fundamental for achieving ecological civilization and enhancing sustainability. As an ecological security barrier in the northwestern alpine region, Qilian Mountain National Park (QMNP), is of great significance for maintaining the sustainable ecological environment of western China. By measuring changes in ecological land use and monitoring key vegetation indicator trends in QMNP, we constructed the Regional Ecological Resilience Indicator (RERI) and proposed a new restoration and restoration framework. The results show that: (1) the ecological land restoration in QMNP was remarkable, with a total of 721.76 km² of non-ecological land converted to ecological land, representing a 1.44% increase. Forest restoration covered 110 km², primarily made up of previously unused land from 2000 to 2020. (2) The average NDVI value increased by 0.025. Regions showing productivity growth (NPP) accounted for 51.82% of the total area from 2000 to 2020. The four typical eco-migration zones reduced the building profile area by 47.72% between 2015 and 2019. The distribution of high Composite Vegetation Index (CFI) values overlapped with concentrated forest restoration areas, revealing two main restoration models: forest conservation and population relocation. (3) RERI calculations divided the park into three ecological zones, Priority Conservation Area (PCA), Optimization and Enhancement Area (OEA), and Concerted Development Area (CDA), leading to the proposal of an ecological restoration and development framework for QMNP, characterized by “three zones, two horizontal axes, and one vertical axis”. Our findings contribute to strengthening the ecological security barrier in northwestern China; they offer new insights for the long-term, stable improvement of the ecological environment in QMNP and in other critical protected area systems globally.