Abstract
The loss and fragmentation of natural space has placed tremendous pressure on green infrastructure (GI), especially in urban agglomeration areas. It is of great importance to identify key sites of GI, which are used to economically and efficiently restore urban ecological network. However, in the existing research, few scholars have explored the identification and application of GI key sites. Taking the Southern Jiangsu Urban Agglomeration as an example, based on the ecosystem service assessment and landscape connectivity analysis, we identified the multi-class key sites of GI in the study area by MSPA, InVEST model, MCR model, and Linkage mapper. The results showed that: (1) a total of 60 GI sources and 130 GI corridors were extracted. The ecological resources of the study area were densely distributed in the north and south and sparsely in the middle. (2) Three-hundred eighty GI key sites were identified, including 53 water ecological points, 251 ecological fracture points, and 76 ecological pinch points. The GI key sites we identified were large in number and widely distributed, yet were hardly included in the existing ecological protection policies. These key sites should be prioritized in GI planning and differentiated for management strategies, ensuring that limited land resources and public funds can be directed to where restoration is really needed. The present study provides land managers and urban planners with additional tools to better understand how to effectively restore and develop the ecosystems of urban agglomerations in the context of scarce land resources.
Highlights
Green infrastructure (GI) can be interpreted as a strategically planned network of natural and near-natural areas with other environmental features designed and it can contribute to ecosystem resilience and human benefits through ecosystem services [1,2,3].starting from the 1980s, the neoliberal-oriented urban renewal policies have changed the process of urban development in Western countries [4]
In order to alleviate the contradiction between natural space and construction land in the urban agglomeration, a strict ecological protection planning was formulated in Jiangsu
Referring to our evaluation map of ecosystem service and landscape connectivity, the current ecological space distribution was very unfriendly to the structural stability and ecological connectivity of the regional ecological network [63,64]
Summary
Green infrastructure (GI) can be interpreted as a strategically planned network of natural and near-natural areas with other environmental features designed and it can contribute to ecosystem resilience and human benefits through ecosystem services [1,2,3].starting from the 1980s, the neoliberal-oriented urban renewal policies have changed the process of urban development in Western countries [4]. The privatization of public space has gradually transformed GI that was once open to the public into controlled spaces to attract businesses and investors [5,6]. China has begun to use urban natural space to capture land appreciation gains [7]. The loss of ecological space in recent years places tremendous pressure on urban GI, and leads to series of environmental risks [8,9,10]. In rapidly urbanizing areas, urban GI is facing habitat fragmentation, water pollution, and biodiversity loss [11]. The pandemic outbreak of 2020 highlights the necessity to deal with the dark side of the global city and the necessity to guarantee open and healthy GI [12,13,14]
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